» 01/26/2012 11:23 RUSSIA Russia's presidential elections, increasing pressure on opposition and NGOs by Nina Achmatova Opposition leader Yavlinski excluded from the race for the Kremlin. February 4 protest yet to receive authorisation. Organizers: "Ready to manifest without permission."
Moscow (AsiaNews) - Two weeks before the next big anti-government demonstration in Moscow, the central government shows clear signs of nervousness. With the exclusion of two rivals from the race for the presidency on March 4, the strong candidate Vladimir Putin seems to have the road clear for re-election in the first round, but pressure is still on the protest movement and independent observers.
The Central Election Commission has considered the founder of the opposition party Yabloko (Apple in Italian), Grigori Yavlinski, ineligible to vote because 26% of the signatures collected for his candidacy have been deemed invalid. Along with him the independent governor of the Irkutsk Region, Dmitry Mezentsev was also excluded.
"It is a decision made by Putin and not the Election Commission", the leader of Yabloko, Sergei Mitrokhin has denounced. According to the politician, it was decided that the role of the Democratic candidate should be given to the oligarch Prokhorov, manipulated by the Kremlin, and so Yavlinsky (useful to give a semblance of pluralism to the vote) has been made redundant.
For others, the Kremlin was bothered by the many observers at polling stations, which Yabloko would have been entitled to with Iavlinski as a candidate. The "apple" party however, has not given up and has promised to join the NGO Golos to oversee the proper conduct of the vote. This was the first to expose cases of irregularities and fraud in favour of Putin’s United Russia party, which won the last general election of 4 December, sparking the largest anti-government protests in 15 years.
Precisely because of its commitment, the organization is the victim of a campaign to stop their activities ahead of the presidential election. After death threats and pressures of all kinds, its director, Liliana Shibanova, has denounced the latest intimidation: the NGO was asked to leave the premises of its headquarters, because of urgent work, incidentally, from 25 January to March 6th.
"It an obvious signs of the Kremlin’s nervousness - Denis Bilunov, a member of Solidarnost and among the first promoters of the December protests tells AsiaNews - as well as the fact that initially it did not want to allow the demonstration on 4 February in Moscow ". The city administration has been trying for days to change the protests path and to move the demonstration outside the city center, but the determination of the organizers seem to have led to a compromise. The march will go from Oktjabraskaja subway to Balotnaja square, already the scene of the great event of 10 December.
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