The Communist Party's presidential candidate says he's being framed for having foreign bank accounts

Pavel Grudinin, the Communist Party’s president candidate, says the Central Election Committee is trying to frame him for allegedly having 13 undisclosed foreign bank accounts. On Monday, election officials announced that it had discovered roughly a dozen accounts belonging to Grudinin at a Swiss bank, supposedly containing more than a million dollars and five pounds of gold.

According to Russian election laws, candidates are forbidden from having foreign bank accounts, and the Swiss accounts are grounds for removing Grudinin from the race. The Central Election Commission has not asked the Supreme Court to revoke his candidacy, however, and says it merely plans to add information about the bank accounts to his presidential banners.

When he registered his candidacy, Pavel Grudinin disclosed that he previously had two foreign bank accounts that he used to pay for relatives’ medical treatment abroad. He denies election officials’ claims that he has another 11 bank accounts in Switzerland, saying he’s never hidden any information from the Central Election Commission.