Yulia Kuznetsova, a State Duma candidate from Russian Ecological Party “The Greens” who was campaigning under the slogan “For Peace,” stopped responding to calls and messages on the evening of Sept. 17, one day before the start of the three-day vote.
Before she disappeared, Kuznetsova denied that she had withdrawn her election observers from polling stations and said that a document purporting to show that she had done so was forged. Nevertheless, when the voting began on the morning of Sept. 18, her observers were removed from Moscow precinct election commissions Nos. 1263, 1273, and 514, based on statements allegedly signed by Kuznetsova, the legal aid project Slovo Zashchite (lit. “A Word for the Defense”) reported. Kuznetsova herself still could not be reached.
The Telegram channel of Slovo Zashchite subsequently published a recording of a conversation with Kuznetsova’s mother, who explained that her daughter had called her and said she had run into problems and had to leave urgently for three days without her phone. Kuznetsova did not say where she had gone. Her mother said she was worried.
Later, a source in Kuznetsova’s campaign team told Slovo Zashchite that she was being held at a police station in Moscow’s Central Administrative District. According to the source, Kuznetsova had relayed to relatives that she was safe and had “gone away for three days so as not to frighten the family.” There has been no direct confirmation of that account from Kuznetsova or her husband.
Nikolai Toropov, head of the Moscow branch of Rassvet (lit. “Dawn”), an unregistered anti-war political movement founded by former presidential hopeful Yekaterina Duntsova, had earlier said that Kuznetsova and her husband were safe. He later withdrew that statement. “There is still no concrete information about their whereabouts,” he wrote, adding that he would publish further updates only after receiving confirmation directly from Kuznetsova or her husband.
An initiative group supporting Duntsova reported that it had drafted an appeal to state prosecutors, encouraging its followers to contact the authorities and demand an investigation into Kuznetsova and her husband’s disappearance.
“We prepared a complaint to the prosecutor’s office asking it to investigate the circumstances of Yulia and her husband Vadim’s disappearance, determine their whereabouts and, if they have been detained, verify that their procedural rights are being respected,” the group wrote on Telegram.
On the evening of Sept. 17, Kuznetsova held a meeting focused on internet freedom with voters in Moscow’s Sokolniki District. Afterward, she told her acquaintances that she was taking a taxi home and was about 15 minutes away, according to the independent channel SotaVision. At about 9 p.m., the phones of Kuznetsova and her husband, Vadim, were switched off. Neither was found at home.
Kuznetsova is running for the State Duma from “The Greens” in Moscow’s Babushkinsky single-member district No. 195. She previously worked on campaigns for opposition politician Boris Nadezhdin, who recently left Russia after suspending his bid to run in the elections amid mounting pressure from the authorities. Alexei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation and the team of opposition politician Maxim Katz both included her on their lists of recommended candidates for Russian voters to support.
