Election officials in Russia’s Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad have barred nationalist leader Dmitry Dyomushkin from running for the city’s mayor.
Officials claimed irregularities in 224 of some 1,800 signatures of support that the leader of the outlawed Slavyansky Soyuz nationalist movement submitted as part of his application.
“I can officially state, this is a mockery of the election commission,” said Kaliningrad election commission spokesman Valery Gorbunov.
But Dyomushkin denied the charge and told RIA Novosti election officials were “afraid” to let him run in the October 14 vote.
He also said that the commission violated election law in not notifying him of the impending decision.
Dyomushkin calls for strict curbs on immigration and alcohol sales and is an unlikely admirer of Chechnya’s Kremlin-backed leader Ramzan Kadyrov.
He said he would decide whether to lodge an appeal against the ban when he received official confirmation.