The United States said Friday it is "disappointed" that Russia has disqualified the sole liberal challenger to Vladimir Putin from the March 4 presidential ballot. "The United States is disappointed by the refusal of the Russian Central Election Commission to register the candidacy of Grigory Yavlinsky to compete in the Russian presidential elections," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.
"Open political competition requires that electoral laws be applied fairly to all parties and candidates," Nuland said. "Russians, like Americans and people everywhere, seek free, fair, transparent elections and a genuine choice when they go to the ballot box," Nuland added.
Russia's election commission said it could not accept about a quarter of the registration signatures gathered by Yabloko (Apple) party founder Grigory Yavlinsky because they were either photocopies of originals or fakes. Russia's presidential election rules have grown progressively stricter since 1996 and now require all independent candidates to collect two million signatures to win registration. The restriction has been heavily criticised by the candidates as well as the growing protest movement against Putin, who will be standing for a third Kremlin term in the polls after his four-year stint as prime minister.
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