Municipal candidate in Moscow suffers spinal fracture in attack outside local election board

In the latest of a series of incidents targeting political candidates nonaligned with the Kremlin, Communist Party Moscow municipal council candidate Sergey Burtsev was attacked outside a local election board on Wednesday, August 24. Doctors later concluded that he suffered a spinal fracture as well as numerous cuts and bruises. Burtsev told the news outlet Holod Media that a man allegedly pretending to be intoxicated assaulted him after he refused to call a taxi for him.

The election board’s security guard reportedly declined at first to help before eventually telephoning paramedics and the police.

Burtsev says he believes the attack is linked to his political candidacy, pointing out that Moscow police recently arrested two other Communist Party politicians on charges of “displaying extremist symbols” — an infraction that allows election officials to revoke an offender’s political candidacy.

Election monitors at the Net Freedoms Project recently reported that police have opened at least nine felony cases and 51 misdemeanor investigations against independent candidates hoping to compete next month in Russia’s local and regional elections.