‘Golos’: Donations transferred to electronic wallet are legitimate

By Natalya Tikhonova

The transfer of donations to electronic wallet comply with the requirements of election law. Such statement was made by the movement advocating for voters’ rights ‘Golos’ after ‘Yandex.Dengi’ refused L. M. Volkov to further operate the account which was opened to raise funds for the Presidential campaign of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

The day before, Navalny posted on his blog that the company ‘Yandex.Dengi’ had informed him that it must terminate the contract as ‘under the current regulatory framework, the use of funds for the purposes indicated by L. M. Volkov could be considered as non-compliant with the election law’.

The ‘Golos’ movement would like to emphasize that election funds could be raised just after the Election Day was announced. Respectively, the election law cannot be applied to the funds transferred to electronic wallet as contribution to the upcoming presidential campaign, as it was said in the statement:

Any citizen for any purpose, in compliance with laws, has a right to fundraise before the Election Day is announced. Such voluntary donations transferred to the electronic wallet, created to raise funds for upcoming election campaigns, before the Election Day is announced, could contribute to the evolvement of Russian electoral system, increase electoral competitiveness, as well as citizen interest in elections.

Full text of the statement of ‘Golos’ Movement Board advocating for voters’ rights