Russia’s ruling United Russia party denied on Monday accusations of violating electoral laws in the ongoing parliamentary election campaign.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev heads the party’s 600 candidate list that has been formally presented to the Central Electoral Commission ahead of the December 4 parliamentary poll. Several members of the Kremlin staff have been reportedly assigned to United Russia headquarters to “coordinate” the president’s activities.
In response, Russia’s For Human Rights movement has filed a complaint with Prosecutor General Yury Chaika saying that the work of officials from the presidential staff in the United Russia election campaign headquarters is a violation of election laws.
“These accusations are ungrounded…The [Kremlin] administration will be involved purely for coordination purposes. They will coordinate the president’s schedule in accordance with his workload,” Deputy Secretary of the United Russia General Council’s Presidium Yury Shuvalov said on Monday.
The official stressed that the president will take part in the election campaign only when he is not busy with the state affairs.
“He [Medvedev] will hold [election-related] meetings in his free time. Coordination between United Russia and the presidential administration is necessary to avoid any conflict with the president’s work schedule,” Shuvalov said.