{
  "id": 3549607,
  "title": "A Microsoft font got a Communist candidate thrown off Russia’s ballot. An appeals court just put him back on it.",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/26/a-microsoft-font-got-a-communist-candidate-thrown-off-russias-ballot",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-08-26T16:51:43.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Meduza (English)",
    "slug": "meduza-english",
    "url": "https://meduza.io/en/news/2026/08/26/a-microsoft-font-got-a-communist-candidate-thrown-off-russia-s-ballot-an-appeals-court-just-put-him-back-on-it"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "The Fourth Appeals Court in Nizhny Novgorod has overturned a lower court's decision that removed Mikhail Matveyev, a Communist Party candidate and current State Duma deputy, from the Russian parliamentary elections ballot. The Samara Regional Court had previously ruled against Matveyev, citing copyright violations related to a Microsoft font and old photographs on his website. However, both the prosecutor's office and Matveyev's own KPRF party supported the appeal to reverse the Samara court's decision. As a result, Matveyev remains officially registered as a candidate for the KPRF, one of the strongest single-mandate candidates within the party. The Samara court's initial ruling was based on allegations of copyright infringement, highlighting how copyright claims have been increasingly utilized to remove opposition candidates from electoral ballots, including those from parties other than the KPRF. Such legal tactics have been employed in previous cases, such as when Russia's Supreme Court invalidated the federal Yabloko party list on August 12, following a lawsuit by the Rodina party. Meduza, the news outlet reporting on this story, adheres to strict editorial standards and employs AI tools for translation and fact-checking to ensure accurate and timely reporting.",
  "summary": "The Fourth Appeals Court in Nizhny Novgorod has overturned a Samara Regional Court ruling that removed Mikhail Matveyev, a Communist Party (KPRF) candidate and sitting State Duma deputy, from the ballot in Russia’s parliamentary elections.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}