In Russia, a candidate was disqualified from the State Duma election for using stolen Microsoft fonts
On Friday, August 14, the Samara Regional Court ruled to disqualify Mikhail Matveev, a deputy from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF), from the upcoming elections to the State Duma of the Russian Federation. The formal grounds for the decision were allegations of violations during the election campaign, specifically the use of photographs, graphics, and fonts without the appropriate permissions.
The lawsuit against Matveev was filed by his rival in the election for single-member district No. 163 in the Samara Region, Anna Sarantseva, who is running for the Pensioners’ Party. According to Radio Liberty, she filed the lawsuit on August 11.
In her complaint, Sarantseva alleged that Matveev published photographs on his website without the copyright holders’ permission and also used a graphic borrowed from a media outlet. A separate complaint concerned the use in campaign materials of fonts developed by the American corporation Microsoft—which ceased operations in the Russian market after the start of the full-scale invasion—without obtaining the appropriate license.
Matveev is known for his statements criticizing the Russian invasion of Ukraine. On February 26, 2022, he called on the Kremlin to “immediately stop” the war.
“By voting to recognize the DPR/LPR, I voted for peace, not for war. I voted for Russia to serve as a shield so that Donbas would not be bombed, not for Kyiv to be bombed,” the deputy stated.
Matveev is the deputy chairman of the Russian State Duma’s Committee on Regional Policy and Local Self-Government. He had planned to run for the new convocation of the Russian parliament, but following the court’s decision, his participation in the elections was barred.
Thus, the formal reason for the candidate’s disqualification was violations in his election campaign, while Matveev himself had previously publicly advocated for the need to end the war against Ukraine.
Earlier, a Moscow court banned the Yabloko party from participating in the parliamentary elections.
Yabloko could have garnered up to 20% of the vote in the State Duma elections.
