"The CPRF submitted about 70 legally justified complaints to the Central Election Commission. But none of them were substantially considered … There is even no sign of equal competition. A real war was declared on Pavel Grudinin, an outrageous campaign of falsehood and defamation. Over 90 percent of media coverage is dirty, provocative. That is an open witchhunt," Zyuganov said in an address to voters.
The CPRF leader called reports about Grudinin’s bank accounts an example of defamation and falsehood.
Earlier this month, the Central Election Commission said that Grudinin had 13 accounts in Swiss banks when he submitted documents to run for president. According to Russian legislation, presidential candidates must close their foreign bank accounts.
The Russian presidential election is scheduled for March 18, while the campaign kicked off on December 18.
READ MORE: Russian Civic Chamber Starts Accepting Applications for Election Monitoring
There are eight candidates running in this year's election: Sergey Baburin from the All-People's Union party, Grudinin, incumbent Russian President Vladimir Putin, Civil Initiative party candidate Ksenia Sobchak, Communists of Russia party chairman Maxim Suraykin, Presidential Commissioner for Entrepreneurs’ Rights Boris Titov, co-founder of the Yabloko party Grigory Yavlinsky and head of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia Vladimir Zhirinovsky.
