MOSCOW, November 2 - RAPSI. The Central Election Commission (CEC) has launched an investigation into whether France-based news agency Euronews’ coverage of Russia’s October 14 Election Day violated Russian law.

October 14 was referred to as a “unified Election Day,” during which more than 4,800 local elections were held.

A CEC source told journalists that Euronews broadcasted reports on the candidates running for office on Election Day, particularly those running Moscow suburb Khimki’s mayoral elections.

The elections in Khimki – a town of about 200,000 just north of Moscow – gained a great deal of international media attention due to the fact that it pitted Yevgeniya Chirikova, one of the best-known members of Moscow’s opposition movement, against the incumbent ruling-party backed Oleg Shakhov.

"We have already asked our lawyers to study the materials broadcast by Euronews on October 14," CEC chairman Vladimir Churov said on Friday at a roundtable meeting with the commission and the Public Committee For Honest Elections. He continued, "In our mind, there were signs that Russian law was violated."

Russian law mandates a so-called ‘day of silence,’ prior to elections, wherein any form of election propaganda is prohibited. The ‘day of silence’ aims to give voters an opportunity to clearly consider his electoral choice free from external pressure and propaganda.

Sergei Dubin, head of the Euronews Russian service in Lyon, France, told RIA Novosti that no official complaints have yet been filed by the Central Election Commission.

Euronews is a daily information channel based in Lyon. It was opened in January 1993 upon the initiative of the European Broadcasting Union. Euronews runs broadcasts in 11 languages and reaches 294 million households in 150 countries in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Central Asia, and North and Latin America.