Today, as required by law, the start of the Moscow City Duma election campaign is to be officially announced.
They marked the occasion in an original way: by bringing charges against Zyuzino district council deputy Konstantin Yankauskas and the head of the Moscow branch of the Progress Party, Nikolai Lyaskin.
Lyaskin has been placed under a travel restriction order. Yankauskas is being taken to court to be placed under house arrest.
They are being charged in exactly the same insane, fabricated case I wrote about yesterday: violations in financing Navalny’s election campaign.
There is no doubt that this is Sobyanin’s personal initiative. Yankauskas is the strongest candidate in his district, and if he is allowed to run, he will win. Kostya is a real grassroots politician there—he genuinely works hard all day alongside his campaign team.
It was no accident that I held my first campaign meetings in Zyuzino during the election—Kostya helped gather people while the notification system was still not very well organized.
On Monday, Yankauskas is supposed to file his nomination papers. Obviously, if he is under arrest, he will not be able to do that.