In Sochi, Court refuses to grant second lawsuit to withdraw current Mayor from election

The Central District Court of Sochi has pronounced the decision to dismiss the second lawsuit filed by Igor Vasiliev, a candidate for the position of Sochi Mayor from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF), to revoke the registration of Anatoly Pakhomov, a candidate from the "Edinaya Rossiya" (United Russia) Party.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on September 2, Igor Vasiliev filed the first lawsuit to cancel the Anatoly Pakhomov's registration. The member of the CPRF believes that Anatoly Pakhomov abused power during the pre-election campaign. On September 5, the Court dismissed the complainant's lawsuit. On the same day, Igor Vasiliev filed to the Court the second claim to withdraw Anatoly Pakhomov from the election. In his claim, Igor Vasiliev has alleged that the candidate from the "Edinaya Rossiya" Party had violated the copyright of persons, who did not given their consent for the use of their intellectual property for publication of pre-election printed products.

According to Igor Vasiliev, the Mayor of Sochi ordered 300,000 copies of nine issues of pre-election printed materials, in which he "used photos of significant architectural sites of the city of Sochi without mentioning their authors."

In Sochi, the voting in the mayoral election is to be held on a single day of voting of September 14. The candidates who will run for the position of Mayor are: Igor Vasiliev, the leader of the local branch of the CPRF, Alexei Bochkaryov, a candidate nominated by the Liberal-Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR), Anatoly Pakhomov, the current Mayor, nominated by the "Edinaya Rossiya" Party, Evgeny Verbitsky, a candidate of the "Party for Justice", and Alexander Zaichenko, a candidate from the "Communists of Russia" Party.