Russian media refuses to distribute Ivan Rybkin's campaign ads

Russian media has refused to distribute Ivan Rybkin's pre-election campaign ads, according to Rybkin's presidential campaign director Kseniya Ponomareva. She said campaign material was sent to Channel One, Rossiya, TVTs and NTV as well as print media late last week. 'On Friday evening about five minutes before the end of the work week several media representatives requested that we send them documents confirming our right to use materials including the agreement of President Vladimir Putin who is shown during one of the campaign ads. And several media representatives have not yet given us an answer,' she said.

Rybkin's lawyer Yelena Lukyanova said that all of the distributed material contained the necessary information documenting and confirming their right to be used. 'We show the president's image not as an individual but as a government servant and correspondingly do not need his approval,' she said.