On December 24, 2017, Alexei Navalny submitted his documents to the Central Election Commission after being nominated by initiative groups in various Russian cities. The next day, the commission refused to register him, citing his conviction in the Kirovles case—despite a ruling by the ECHR (European Court of Human Rights) and the clearly political nature of the prosecution. After that, Navalny announced a “Voters’ Strike”: if the authorities do not allow real competition, such elections cannot be considered genuine. This gallery captures the moment when a major presidential campaign ran into the regime’s main administrative barrier.
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