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Russian region bars Communist Party from using Lenin in campaign materials because he’s dead

Source: Kommersant

Russia’s Communist Party (KPRF) has reprinted 20,000 campaign newspapers in the Tyumen region after officials objected to a photograph of Vladimir Lenin.

The objection centered on a section of the newspaper reporting on a Lenin monument erected in Tobolsk in 2024 with KPRF funding. The item was illustrated with a photograph of the monument.

Campaign materials have been barred from depicting images of deceased people since May 2026, and this appears to be the first case in which the ban has been enforced in practice, according to the Russian business daily Kommersant.

Nikolai Shadrin, a member of the regional election commission, notified the communists of the objection, and KPRF reprinted the newspaper without the photograph of the monument.

The Tyumen regional election commission stated that it had not officially received any KPRF newspapers featuring an image of the Lenin monument, but confirmed that publishing the material would have violated new requirements under the law on campaigning. “The image of deceased people in any form, whether a monument or a painting, cannot legally be placed on campaign materials,” the commission added.

Russia will hold elections at various levels on September 20, 2026, including elections for State Duma deputies. United Russia secured the first slot on the ballot for State Duma elections, as well as in ballots in 21 of 39 regions for regional parliamentary elections (a near statistical impossibility under random drawing). The Yabloko party had held the second slot on the State Duma ballot, but the Supreme Court removed the party from the race.

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