Russia: Continued Scandals Plague the Registration of Opposition Candidates · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

Earlier today, blogger Maksim Kononenko highlighted [ru] the Coordinating Council candidacy of convicted terrorist and neonazi Nikolai Korolev, who was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of 15 people in 2006. On the election's official website, Korolev is listed as a “political prisoner” in the General Civil (not Nationalist) category. In an angry response on Kononenko's blog, Leonid Volkov, the election's Commissioner, wrote [ru], “You suck dicks [sic] at knowing what you're talking about.” Volkov also characterized [ru] the convicted terrorist as a “conscientious dude,” arguing that Korolev requested the removal of a swastika from his original candidacy photo, in order to protect the election's web portal from extremism charges.