Russia's Supreme Court rejects final appeals from three independent Moscow City Duma candidates

Russia’s Supreme Court has rejected appeals from Ilya Yashin, Elena Rusakova, and Konstantin Jankauskas. All three had asked the court to allow them to register as candidates for the Moscow City Duma.

Since mid-July, weekly or even daily protests in Moscow have called for opposition candidates to be permitted to register in the race, but local election commissions have consistently claimed that those candidates faked constituent signatures on their registration petitions. Candidates ordered independent inspections of their petitions and asked constituents to affirm the authenticity of their signatures in person to little effect.

For several weeks, candidates like Yashin, Rusakova, and Jankauskas have appealed to higher-ranked election commissions and then to Russian courts in hopes of having their rejections from local commissions overturned. Only one candidate, Sergey Mitrokhin, has been granted the right to register so far: He won an appeal before the Moscow City Court. Yashin, Rusakova, and Jankauskas have now exhausted the appellate system available to rejected candidates in Russia.