Calls for election boycott draw Kremlin response
MOSCOW — The Kremlin hinted Tuesday at possible legal repercussions for Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny over his calls for a boycott of the March presidential election.
President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, wouldn’t comment on the Election Commission’s decision to bar Navalny from running but said the “calls for boycott ought to be carefully studied to see if they are breaking the law.”
As expected, Russia’s top election body on Monday formally barred Navalny from a presidential run. Navalny, an anti-corruption campaigner and Putin’s most-prominent rival, promptly put out a video statement saying the ban shows “Putin is terribly scared and is afraid of running against me.” He called on supporters to stay away from the March 18 vote in protest.
Meanwhile, Putin’s backers convened Tuesday afternoon to formally nominate him for the presidency after he announced that he will run as an independent candidate.
Prominent lawmakers, film actors, musicians and athletes gathered at a Sovietera exhibition hall to endorse him. Putin did not attend because of other engagements, Peskov said.
Putin, who has been in power for 18 years and is expected to easily win another six-year term, has so far refrained from campaigning. Navalny, meanwhile, has been aggressively seeking votes all year, reaching out to the most-remote parts of the country.
Peskov rejected suggestions that Navalny’s absence from the ballot could dent the legitimacy of Putin’s possible re-election.
Russian law doesn’t specifically prohibit someone from calling for an election boycott, but authorities last year blocked access to several websites that did so.
The European Union said in a statement Tuesday that the decision to keep Navalny off the ballot “casts a serious doubt on political pluralism in Russia and the prospect of democratic elections next year.”
The EU’s spokeswoman for foreign affairs, Maja Kocijancic, pointed to a European Court of Human Rights ruling that Navalny was denied the right to a fair trial when he was convicted in 2013.
“Politically motivated charges shouldn’t be used against political participation,” Kocijancic said.