Candidate Kaplin wants to be removed from the elections because of the actions
In the Ulyanovsk region, the candidate’s political career was hampered by protests.
This week, the Ulyanovsk Regional Court satisfied the claims and deprived Alexander Kaplin of the status of a candidate for deputies of the regional Legislative Assembly.
And the thing is that he has foreign financial instruments (shares).
Alexander Kaplin is a well-known ecologist, lawyer and public activist in Ulyanovsk, in the past he was even a deputy of the Ulyanovsk City Duma. He is running for the Legislative Assembly from the New People party according to the lists and in the single-mandate constituency No. 16.
The author of the lawsuit to deprive the politician of registration is the district election commission. And then there was also a statement about the regional election committee.
Before, the commission received a letter from the CEC with data from the Central Bank of the Russian Federation that at the time of registration, two candidates (notes by Alexander Kaplin and Mikhail Vuiko) had shares in foreign companies that appeared as a result of playing on the stock exchange.
As a result, they were offered to withdraw their candidacies from the elections. Mikhail Vuiko gave the go-ahead for this. But Alexander Kaplin did not go for it. He said that he could not get rid of the assets, because due to restrictions, these shares were blocked, that is, they cannot be sold, transferred, or otherwise disposed of.
Ivan Gusev, a representative of the regional electoral committee, explained that the representatives of the election commissions asked to deregister the candidate, as this is a direct requirement of the law. Moreover, according to him, Alexander Kaplin, when submitting documents to the election commission, did not even declare the presence of these shares and wrote a statement that he did not own such shares.
“And whether he had the opportunity to get rid of them – this is exactly what the court assesses,” Ivan Gusev emphasized.
Kaplin intends to appeal the court’s decision. By the way, it has not yet entered into force.
The politician himself has already commented on the situation. Alexander Kaplin confirmed that he had shares in 11 foreign companies, but he got rid of two of them. He managed to sell them on the over-the-counter market before registration, but the rest have been blocked since March 1 last year. With this, the problems began.
“In connection with the restrictions imposed, I cannot alienate the remaining foreign securities for reasons beyond my control,” he explained.
And the chairman of the electoral committee, Yuri Andrienko, said that this was not the first time such a situation had occurred. In the past, candidates have been withdrawn from elections for this reason.
Alexander Kaplin does not argue with the fact that civil servants, elected officials and deputies should be limited in terms of ownership of foreign assets, especially real estate, and especially in hostile states.
“However, when there are objective reasons beyond the control of a citizen that prevent him from freely getting rid of his foreign assets, this should be taken into account when making a decision. The law provides for such a possibility, taking into account the sanctions / anti-sanctions in which the country has been living for several years, but the election commission decided not to delve into it and send the materials to the court. So, I will prove in court that I am right. In any case, I’m not used to giving up and stopping halfway,” he stressed.
Well, we will continue to monitor the situation.
