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Court orders CEC to confirm triple naturalization of Transdniestrian leader daughter-in-law

Neither Smirnov nor her representative appeared in court

MOSCOW, November 18 (Itar-Tass) —— The Russian Supreme Court started hearing merits of the Central Elections Commission’s appeal for cancelling the registration of Transdniestrian leader daughter-in-law Marina Smirnov as a Just Russia candidate to the State Duma. The Commission said Smirnov was a citizen of three states – Russia, Moldova and Ukraine.

The hearing lasted for nearly three hours but neither side justified its position. The Central Elections Commission claimed that Smirnov had passports of Moldova and Ukraine but could not prove its statement.

Presiding Judge Nikolai Tolcheyev asked the Commission to present the set of documents with which Smirnov applied for registration as a State Duma candidate. Those documents did not cause any questions.

Neither Smirnov nor her representative appeared in court. A Just Russia representative Andrei Fedorov told the court he did not know the whereabouts of the candidate and reasons for her absence. He also said he did not know Smirnov personally but either she or her representative was supposed to present documents confirming her sole naturalization in Russia to the court.

The documents will be presented at the next court session, he said.

Fedorov said that Smirnov really was a citizen of other states in the past but she abolished her naturalizations in favor of Russia.

Marina Smirnov was the head of the Transdniestrian Patriotic Party and Gazprombank Tiraspol. She is No2 candidate of A Just Russia regional group No 35 (Vologda, Novgorod and Tver regions) as the President of the Russian Charity Fund Children’s Planet.