The Samara Regional Court on [date] annulled the registration of incumbent Communist Party MP Mikhail Matveyev for the State Duma election. The lawsuit was filed by his rival in single-mandate district No. 163, Anna Sarantseva, from the Party of Pensioners.
Sarantseva alleged copyright violations: she claimed that Matveyev's campaign website used, without the rights holders' consent, a chart belonging to one of the media outlets, photographs including those of the politician himself, and Microsoft fonts whose licenses the company restricted for Russia after the start of the war. Communist Party member Dmitry Aseyev clarified that one of the complaints concerned the use of fonts without their official purchase.
The regional election commission supported the lawsuit. Matveyev called the claims absurd and said he intends to appeal the decision. According to him, being removed from the ballot could set a precedent for other candidates: he noted that on social media everyone forwards photos to each other without raising copyright questions.
The politician links the lawsuit to an attempt to help United Russia representative Alexander Zhivaikin get elected to the State Duma in the same district. Matveyev noted that Sarantseva is the sister of Ilya Sarantsev, executive director of the Samara Region Wrestling Federation, and that the president of the sports organization is United Russia member Zhivaikin.
Matveyev is popular among Z-bloggers and pro-war activists due to his calls for tightening migration policy, so the lawsuit to remove him sparked heated discussion in the Z-community. In February 2022, the MP spoke out against the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, writing that he voted for recognition of the DNR/LNR for the sake of peace, not war; the post was later deleted.
Copyright claims during the current campaign have also been used to remove other opposition candidates. The Supreme Court on August 12 annulled the registration of the federal list of the Yabloko party following a lawsuit by the Rodina party; among the violations, the court cited the unauthorized use of quotes “May there always be sunshine” and “If only there were no war,” results of Levada Center polls, and an image from ChatGPT. The party filed an appeal, which will be considered on August 17.