A Primorsky communist was removed from the elections for downloading a picture from the Internet

The Primorsky Regional Court on Thursday removed communist Alexander Hamadullin from the by-elections to the Vladivostok City Duma following a claim by his competitor United Russia member Stanislav Primachenko. The reason was a picture downloaded from the Internet with a call to go to a debate, which the court considered to be propaganda in violation of copyright. The defendant intends to challenge this decision, although the cassation court most likely will not have time to consider his complaint before election day, December 24.

On December 21, the Primorsky Regional Court overturned the decision taken two days earlier by the Leninsky District Court of Vladivostok, which satisfied the claim of the candidate for City Duma deputy in district No. 20 Stanislav Primachenko to remove his competitor Alexander Khamadullin (Communist Party of the Russian Federation) from the elections. The grounds for cancellation were procedural violations in the court of first instance. However, the regional court immediately issued a new decision, which satisfied the same claims. Thus, the registration of candidate Khamadullin for the City Duma elections has been cancelled.

The reason for the lawsuit was the production of propaganda material in the form of a banner with a QR code, which, according to the plaintiff, led to the defendant’s Telegram channel.

There was found a picture with an invitation to a debate, which United Russia considered to be propaganda in violation of copyright, which is grounds for canceling the registration. The district court examined the picture, but it was not possible to navigate through the QR code: it led to some other channel with two or three subscribers, which did not belong to a communist. A representative of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation stated that the channel is unknown, the post under investigation is not propaganda, but an invitation to debate without calls or evaluations, and the controversial drawing found on the Internet is free and available for public use. However, the court did not heed these arguments and granted the claim.

However, this decision was immediately appealed, and the prosecutor’s office and the plaintiff himself appealed to the regional court. The first insisted on the cancellation of the district court’s decision and a new trial of the case in the first instance due to the late notification of the defendant before the first trial. And Stanislav Primachenko asked to declare the decision illegal, since it was made too late (after 0:00 on December 19, and not before the end of December 18, as required by law), and reduced what was stipulated in paragraph 4 of Art. 241 of the Code of Administrative Procedure five days before voting day and, therefore, could not come into force. At the same time, United Russia asked the regional court to satisfy the same claim and cancel the registration of the competitor, so that the new decision would immediately come into force. As a result, the court agreed with him.

The prosecutor’s office did not evaluate the regional court’s refusal to send the case for review. Mr. Primachenko, according to him, was not present at the consideration of the appeal and refused to comment on the situation to Kommersant.

Alexander Khamadullin told Kommersant that “everything was done here in order to circumvent the law and not give time for an appeal.” “Once again we understood how the administrative system works, how the courts work. While the political situation in the country is like this, it’s probably not worth even running for office,” the communist noted.

Second Secretary of the Primorsky Regional Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Evgeny Lyashenko admitted that party members will not have time to appeal this decision before voting day. However, according to the withdrawn candidate, a cassation appeal will be sent, although the court will apparently consider it after the elections.

By-elections to the Vladivostok City Duma in district No. 20 are scheduled for Sunday, December 24. Initially, there were four candidates for the deputy mandate. “United Russia” is represented by Stanislav Primachenko, a former City Duma deputy and director of the entertainment LLC Altair. The Communist Party of the Russian Federation nominated the owner of the management company Upravdom LLC and assistant to the regional deputy Natalya Kochugova, Alexander Hamadullin (in 2018–2020 he was a deputy of the Pogranichny District of Primorye, joined the Communist Party of the Russian Federation in December 2021). Danil Litvinenko, a student of the Faculty of Political Science of the Far Eastern Federal University, was nominated from the LDPR, and Sergei Kovrizhnykh, a lawyer and entrepreneur in the construction industry, was nominated from A Just Russia – For Truth.

Ernest Filippovsky, Khabarovsk