Alexander Veshnyakov

Who is Alexander Veshnyakov?

Alexander Albertovich Veshnyakov is a Russian official. Between March 21, 1995 and March 24, 1999, he was the Secretary of the Central Election Commission of Russia. He was the Chairman of the Central Election Commission between March 24, 1999 and March 26, 2007.

Veshnyakov lost his post heading the elections commission after he balked at putting into effect an election law revision that removed a minimum 20% turnout requirement, without which an election was invalid, and introduced new reasons for refusing registration to would-be candidates, saying it could be a pretext for refusing registration to candidates who were “undesirable”.

President Vladimir Putin simply had simply not put forward Veshnyakov’s name for renewed membership of the election commission.