Russian state watchdog Roskomnadzor said on Friday it asked Facebook and Google to ban the publication of political advertising during elections on Sunday and on the preceding day, in line with Russian law.

Russia will hold several regional elections on Sunday, including in Moscow. Non-compliance would be viewed as meddling in Russia's sovereign affairs, the watchdog said.

Meanwhile, a masked man broke into the home of the head of Russia's Central Election Commission, Ella Pamfilova, and repeatedly tried to Taser her two days before an election that has triggered street protests, the Interior Ministry says.



Russian investigators said they would look into the possibility that Friday's attack was connected to her work.

Pamfilova and her colleagues, citing a technicality, refused to register a slew of opposition-minded candidates for the Moscow city election, a denial that has triggered the biggest sustained protest movement in Russia since 2011-13.

"The masked intruder broke in through a window and got onto the house's terrace and repeatedly Tasered the homeowner and then fled," the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

The incident occurred in the Moscow region, which adjoins the Russian capital, it said.

An unnamed law enforcement source told the Interfax news agency that the intruder had struck Pamfilova several times but that the Taser device appeared not to have worked.

Pamfilova, who took part in a conference in Moscow on Friday, told Russian news agencies she was fine and would get over what had happened.

A prominent opposition figure, Alexei Navalny, said on social media he thought the authorities had invented the attack on Pamfilova to distract attention from what he said was electoral fraud preparations in Moscow and other places where elections to local legislatures will be held.

Pamfilova, 65, has been a focus for protesters' anger after barring opposition-minded candidates from Sunday's election for Moscow's parliament.

She said they had not collected enough genuine signatures to take part, an allegation the excluded candidates said was a lie designed to stop them winning seats.

The vote is seen as a dry run for a national parliamentary election in 2021 and allies of Navalny saw it as a chance to make inroads in the Russian capital, albeit at a local level.

Reuters