All news

Pokemon catchers at polling stations in Sverdlovsk region could be fined

"Catching Pokemons is qualified as violation of public order and hindering the work of the election commission", the chairman of the regional election commission said

YEKATERINBURG, September 18. /TASS/. People catching Pokemons at polling station in Russia’s Urals Sverdlovsk region will face administrative liability, Valery Chainikov, the chairman of the regional election commission, told TASS on Sunday.

"Catching Pokemons is qualified as violation of public order and hindering the work of the election commission. It is punishable under article 5.69 of the Code of Administrative Offenses. Police are aware of that. We had a man who tried to do that - he was detained," he said obviously referring to blogger Ruslan Sokolovsky who was detained while catching a Pokemon at a church in Yekaterinburg. He is currently under home arrest.

Elections to the State Duma, Russia’s lower house of Parliament, are being on September 18 in a split system: 225 members of parliament will be elected by party tickets, while the other 225 are going to be elected in one-seat constituencies. Apart from that, 39 Russian regions go to the polls to elect their legislative assemblies, direct elections of top officials are taking place in seven regions. Besides that, around 5,000 municipal elections are also held.