By RIA Novasti
Moscow : Russian authorities Tuesday filed a criminal case against the sole opposition presidential candidate Mikhail Kasyanov for allegedly collecting false signatures to support his nomination.
The prosecutor-general’s office said Kasyanov had collected 15,500 forged signatures mainly from Rybinsk in central Russia and from the Republic of Mari-El in Russia’s Volga area.
Kasyanov’s support team described the prosecutors’ statements as political pressure.
“We know about the Mari-El story, which has lasted for a week already. We consider it as political pressure,” Kasyanov’s spokesperson Yelena Dikun said.
Kasyanov, who served as prime minister during the first term of President Vladimir Putin from 2000-2004, is the sole liberal opposition president candidate after the Union of Rights Forces of Russia (SPS) nominee Boris Nemtsov stepped down in December.
Kasyanov provided 2.067 million signatures, just above the two million required for independent candidates, by the Jan 16 deadline for submitting applications for the March 2 presidential elections.
Nikolai Konkin, the CEC’s secretary, Monday pointed out that the problems related to insufficient information about those who collected the signatures on Kasyanov’s behalf in some regions. He said the serious violation could result in all signatures in support of his candidature being declared invalid.
Under the law, an independent candidate cannot be registered if more than five percent of the total signatures collected are declared fraudulent.