MOSCOW, September 12. /TASS/. Head of Russia’s Central Elections Commission Vladimir Churov says "outer forces" are interested in failing democratic elections in Russia’s Kostroma region.
On Friday, a coordinator of the Open Russia oppositionist movement was detained in the city of Kostroma on the Volga River with 2 million roubles in cash, which he was supposed to spend for paying up unlawful actions on September 13, when numerous regional and local elections are to be held in 83 regions of Russia, including Kostroma.
"Operatives of the Kostroma regional Interior department tapped a channel by which large amounts of cash money were supplied to the region," the department said in a press release. "The money was to be paid out to the activists of radical youth groups who were planning unlawful actions during the elections of the governor and deputies of the regional Duma."
A Volkswagen Passat car was stopped on Friday night at the entrance to the city. Policemen confiscated about 2 million roubles from its driver, a 49-year-old coordinator of the Open Russia movement. The bank notes were sent for an expert study to verify their genuineness.
"I have just received information from the interior authorities that outer forces are trying not to allow us have free, democratic elections," he said on Sunday during a meeting with heads of African diplomatic missions. "In Kostroma yesterday was detained a vehicle with a big sum of money from an organisation financed from abroad."
He said "foreign interference with sovereign elections is banned in Russia."
Open Russia is a movement organised at the initiative of YUKOS former CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
On Sunday, on the day of elections throughout Russia, people living in the Kostroma region will be electing the governor, local legislators, heads of the districts.