Nikolai Kasyan, an activist and former spokeswoman for opposition politician and founder of the Soft Power movement, Yulia Galyamina, has been registered for municipal elections in Moscow. He announced this on Facebook.
“I am registered as a candidate for the second Khamovnikov constituency,” writes Kasyan. – The electoral account is open, the first circulations of campaigning have already been printed and are now being registered with the election commission. We'll start distribution in a few days."
“We see this all over Moscow, they decided not to be rude and not attract too much attention, they relied on remote electronic voting <DEG>,” Kasyan told The Insider. – The brightest and most active candidates are removed, but this is not massive, there are many admissions. They rely on low turnout and administrative resources with DEG. Due to circumstances and a state of shock <because of the war>. Many candidates dropped out, some remained.”
In January 2021, searches were carried out at Kasyan’s, his lawyer Mikhail Biryukov stated that the purpose of the search was to intimidate activists, nothing was seized from the apartment. The searches took place after mass protests in support of Alexei Navalny.
Yulia Galyamina herself, who previously worked for Kasyan, received a warning in July about a possible replacement of her probation with a real one under a criminal article on repeated violations of the procedure for organizing rallies and participation in them. The prosecutor's office asked to send her to a colony for 3 years. The court also deprived Galyamin of the municipal mandate.