In Moscow, a candidate for municipal deputies Nikolai Kasyan was detained in the case of the demonstration of extremist symbols. He himself told The Insider from the Khamovniki police department about this. Persons involved in cases under this article are deprived of the opportunity to be elected in any elections during the year. Earlier, similar charges were brought against Marina Litvinovich, Mikhail Menshikov , Vadim Korovin , who were going to participate in the elections.
According to Kasyan, before his arrest, he was summoned to the TEC (territorial election commission) for a far-fetched reason: allegedly, the photo of his leaflet was crookedly placed on an advertising stand, and he was asked to write an explanation. At the exit from the TEC, Kasyan was detained by the police, he was taken to the Khamovniki police station.
In mid-August, the Network Freedoms project calculated : before the elections to be held in Russia in September, 9 criminal and 51 administrative cases were filed against independent candidates.
On July 30, it became known that Kasyan, an activist and former spokeswoman for opposition politician and founder of the Soft Power movement, Yulia Galyamina, had been registered for municipal elections in Moscow. In January 2021, Kasyan was searched, his lawyer Mikhail Biryukov said that the purpose of the search was to intimidate activists, nothing was seized from the apartment.
