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Navalny to run in Moscow mayoral race

Head of Navalny’s election staff Leonid Volkov confirmed the participation of the oppositionist in Moscow mayoral campaign

Photo ITAR-TASS

Photo ITAR-TASS

MOSCOW, July 19 (Itar-Tass) - Alexei Navalny will run in the Moscow mayoral elections, head of Navalny’s election staff Leonid Volkov told Itar-Tass on Friday.

“The election campaign continues in full. Alexei Navalny will participate in the elections,” he said. “The election campaign will continue in full,” Volkov added.

The head of Navalny’s election staff also noted that no rallies in support of Navalny are planned on Friday. “The election staff did not file any bids for rallies today,” Volkov noted.

Meanwhile, Navalny, who is released from custody in the courtroom on Friday before the court verdict takes effect, put it clearly that he is still undecided over his running in the elections. “I will return in Moscow and we will take a decision after the consultations with the election staff,” he stated. In the words of the oppositionist, he will continue his election campaign, but “we will decide in what form to do it - in the way of boycott or running in the elections.”

On Thursday, the court in Kirov sentenced Navalny to five years in prison in the Kirovles criminal case, he was taken in custody in the courtroom. On Wednesday, the Moscow City Election Commission registered officially Navalny as a candidate for the post of the Moscow mayor that will be elected on September 8. On Friday, the Kirov Regional Court satisfied an appeal from the regional prosecutor’s office and released from custody Navalny and the second defendant in the Kirovles criminal case, the former director of the Vyatka Forest Company Pyotr Ofitserov on recognizance not to leave the city. “Satisfy the appeal from the prosecutor’s office, change the measure of restraint to defendants Navalny and Ofitserov before the verdict of the Leninsky District Court of Kirov takes effect from the keeping in custody to a recognizance not to leave the city,” the regional court said in the ruling.

The Moscow City Election Committee noted that before the verdict takes effect Navalny will remain a candidate for the post of the Moscow mayor. “Unless the verdict takes effect, the Moscow City Election Committee will not take any actions to annul the registration of candidate for Moscow mayor Alexei Navalny,” the press service of the city election committee explained.

However, Navalny’s election staff stated that he can withdraw from the election race if he is put in custody. “All is simple as that, if he is released from custody he will run in the election race, if he is not released from custody, he will not run in it,” Volkov explained on Thursday.

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