Russia’s presidential election is due in
March 2018.
MOSCOW,
October 25. /TASS/. The leader of Russia’s Liberal Democratic party, Vladimir
Zhirinovsky, has urged criminal proceedings against TV host Ksenia Sobchak, who
just recently declared her presidential ambitions, for stating that from the
standpoint of international law Crimea belonged to Ukraine.
"How
come that at a semi-official level there appears a lady eager to participate in
the presidential election who says that Crimea is Ukrainian? That’s a
crime," Zhirinovsky told the media on Wednesday.
He argues that such a statement alone is a reason enough for launching criminal proceedings.
"Isn’t
there an article in the Criminal Code? The Prosecutor-General must open a
criminal case, the Investigative Committee must do the same and take it to
court to have her jailed for five years or so… Imagine what people in Crimea
may feel like today. That’s nonsense, but nobody seems to be able to muzzle
her," Zhirinovsky said.
Zhirinovsky
said that Sobchak was not a registered presidential candidate yet so he would
be able to lodge a complaint at the Central Election Commission.
"We
will send a protest to the CEC. She has no right to conduct a campaign yet. The
election will be announced in the middle of December. Only after all have been
registered it will be possible to conduct an election campaign," he said.
Earlier,
Sobchak said that in her opinion Crimea belonged to Ukraine "from the
standpoint of international law" and that Moscow and Kiev should try to
mend relations at any cost. Also, she argues that by its consent to incorporate
Crimea Russia violated the Budapest memorandum of 1994.
Russia’s
presidential election is due in March 2018. The election campaign will begin
between December 7 and 17. Several potential candidates have already declared
their intention to participate - LDPR leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky, founder of
the Yabloko party and chief of its political committee Grigory Yavlinsky,
political scientist, chief of the Center for Social Technologies Andrey
Bogdanov, who plans to run from the Communist Party of Social Justice, and TV
host Ksenia Sobchak.
Source: ITAR-TASS 25-10-2017
