In December 2017, Navalny’s team was preparing for Alexei’s formal presidential nomination and gathering documents to submit to the Central Election Commission (CEC). Verifying signatures was an important part of this process: they needed to check the details of the members of the initiative groups and prepare everything so that the commission would have no technical grounds to find fault. This gallery shows the legal and organizational side of the campaign—the work that usually remains out of sight behind rallies, trips, and public appearances. A few days later, the documents were submitted to the CEC, but Navalny was still denied registration.
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