U.S. Diplomats Won't Be Allowed To Monitor Russian Election

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov says U.S. diplomats won't be allowed to observe voting during the presidential election. The reason? Ryabkov says Russian diplomats weren't accorded the same right during the 2016 presidential election in the United States.

Novaya Gazeta says the U.S. Embassy in Moscow has already been informed of the decision.

This story by Current Time TV lists the several detentions of key Navalny people over the past month. They include -- in addition to Navalny himself and Volkov -- Roman Romanov, Kira Yarmysh and Ruslan Shaveddinov, and Moscow coordinator Sergei Boyko along with Nikolai Lyaskin.

Navalny Freed, Says Case Launched

Navalny has been released after detention, he tweets, was served a protocol indicating a case against him has been launched. So a hearing to come, at some point. Says he declined their offer of a ride and "went to work." Also wonders why it took seven people to detain him.

Here is barred candidate Navalny's tweet from minutes earlier, saying authorities had detained his senior aide, Leonid Volkov. He says Volkov was detained at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport before a planned trip to Bashkortostan, which Navalny calls "one of the most important regions in terms of organizing election observation."

Volkov confirms his intended destination was Ufa:

Navalny's tweet announcing his detention.

"My tooth hurt, went to the dentist. Came out of the dentist's office - Hello, Second Operational Regiment, you're detained. Driving somewhere."

Here's what we know so far about the Navalny detention, via our newsroom. The story will be updated as more information comes in, so click on headline to see the latest.

Russian Opposition Leader Navalny Detained

By RFE/RL

Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny says he has been detained by police in Moscow.

Navalny wrote on Twitter on February 22 that police approached him as he was leaving a dentist's office and told him, "You're detained."

He said he was being taken "somewhere" but did not know where.

Navalny, a foe of President Vladimir Putin who has organized protests and published reports alleging corruption in Russia's ruling elite, has been barred from the country's March 18 presidential election due to a conviction on charges he contends were fabricated.

He has been detained numerous times and served short jail terms for organizing unauthorized protests and other alleged infractions.

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Navalny, Aide Detained

Both noncandidate Navalny and his senior aide, Leonid Volkov, have been detained today.

Here's Navalny's Instagram post from custody.

Youths For Putin? On The Public Dime?

The Golos independent election monitor has issued a new report documenting how state-organized and -supported youth groups -- particularly, the Volunteers Of Victory -- are acting to support incumbent President Putin in violation of election laws.

Volunteers of Victory gathered many of the signatures required to register Putin's candidacy despite getting "significant financial and other material state support," seemingly a violation of election law.

"In the regions, the Volunteers of Victory are made up primarily on the basis of state organizations, including public schools and other organizations getting state support, where their coordinators receive salaries," the report says. "De facto, the necessary infrastructure for the functioning of these organizations, including salaries and office space, is being provided at state expense."

Golos documented the activity of Volunteers of Victory in at least 40 Russian regions, noting that in many cases the official coordinators of this organization are regional or local officials or managers of state enterprises.

There are many other conclusions and revelations in the report (in Russian).

State Duma Taking A Break Until Election

The Russian business daily Vedomosti is reporting that the State Duma will be taking a break from February 23 to March 18, the day of the presidential election.

Members of the State Duma, Vedomosti explains, are expected to use the time not to campaign for a candidate but to urge voters to turn out for the poll.

Numerous reports suggest the Kremlin wants a high turnout to make Putin's highly expected win all the more impressive. Sources also told Vedomosti that the pause was designed to not "interrupt," or distract from, the presidential campaign.

Crime And Punishment

The Golos independent election-monitoring group noticed a sharp decline in state television's coverage of Ksenia Sobcak in the week after she filed an unsuccessful suit asking the Supreme Court to annul the candidacy of incumbent President Vladimir Putin. In the course of a week, her coverage fell by 11 percentage points during the week from February 12 to 18.

Strangely, coverage of Communist Party candidate Pavel Grudinin shot up massively, surpassing even that of Putin. However, Golos noted, 75 percent of that coverage was negative, the highest level of negative coverage yet recorded in the campaign.

Also curious, overall coverage of the election is on the decline, even though less than one month remains before the vote. Almost all the state-controlled and Kremlin-friendly channels showed a measurable reduction in coverage compared to the previous week. Only REN-TV showed an increase, a change that was almost entirely accounted for by a spike in negative coverage of Grudinin.

A lot of charts and analysis to be found in this report for election/media junkies.