Russia bars Yabloko from parliamentary elections after Supreme Court ruling
Russia's Supreme Court has barred Yabloko, the country's only registered anti-war party, from contesting next month's parliamentary elections. The ruling removes the party from the ballot for the September vote and comes after a case brought by Rodina, a pro-Kremlin nationalist party. Supporters gathered outside the Moscow courthouse as the hearing ended, and many chanted "Shame!" when the verdict was announced.
Sponsored
Judge Vyacheslav Kirillov said the court had granted claims seeking to annul the registration of Yabloko's federal list of candidates for the State Duma. The case accused the party of publicly supporting an extremist organisation through material on its website linked to the "international LGBT movement", which Russia's Supreme Court designated extremist in 2023. Rodina also alleged copyright infringement over a quotation from the Soviet-era song "Let there always be sunshine", while Russia's financial monitoring service said Yabloko had received money through third parties from foreign countries, including Germany and the United States.
Yabloko leader Nikolay Rybakov said the party would appeal the decision. Speaking after the hearing, he said the party had "a long way ahead" and a "big and important task" to stop deaths and bring peace back. The hearing lasted about eight hours, and the crowd outside the courthouse included mostly young supporters who sang, waved flags and carried apples, a reference to the party's name.
The party has campaigned under the slogan "For peace and freedom! For a life without fear!" and has called for a ceasefire, diplomacy and an end to political repression. The ruling matters because Yabloko was the only registered party openly opposing Russia's war in Ukraine.
Sponsored
It also means voters who wanted to back an anti-war platform will not have that option on the ballot in the September parliamentary elections. With most of President Vladimir Putin's opponents jailed, exiled or dead, the party has remained the only liberal force still operating inside the country. Its exclusion narrows the range of choices available to voters and further reduces the visibility of organised anti-war politics in Russia.
The decision also fits a broader pattern of tightening control over elections and public dissent since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Independent opposition activity has been increasingly constrained, while legal and administrative pressure has intensified against figures and groups seen as critical of the Kremlin. Yabloko has not won seats in the State Duma since 2003, and every parliamentary election since then has been won by United Russia, the ruling party that backs Mr Putin.
The case was heard after the Kremlin-controlled Central Electoral Commission had already approved Yabloko's candidate list in late July. By that point, several party members had already been barred from running, including two deputy chairmen and deputy leader Maxim Kruglov. Kruglov was sentenced in June to seven years in prison over social media posts about civilian casualties in Bucha, Mariupol and other Ukrainian cities, adding to the pressure on the party before the court ruling.
Yabloko has also faced practical disruption during the campaign period, including a cyberattack soon after launching a donations appeal for its election fund. The party has received public backing from some exiled opposition figures, including Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Alexei Navalny, both of whom are listed as extremists in Russia. A poll earlier this year put Yabloko at about three percent support, below the five-percent threshold needed to enter the lower house.
Sponsored
What remains unclear is whether Yabloko's appeal will change the outcome before the vote, and how the party's supporters will respond if the ban stands. The immediate next step is the legal challenge announced by Mr Rybakov, while the broader test will be whether the September election proceeds with any meaningful anti-war opposition on the ballot. The ruling is likely to be watched closely as another sign of how far Russia's electoral field has narrowed.
Russia's Supreme Court has barred Yabloko, the country's only registered anti-war party, from contesting next month's parliamentary elections. The ruling removes the party from the ballot for the September vote and comes after a case brought by Rodina, a pro-Kremlin nationalist party. Supporters gathered outside the Moscow courthouse as the hearing ended, and many chanted "Shame!" when the verdict was announced.
Judge Vyacheslav Kirillov said the court had granted claims seeking to annul the registration of Yabloko's federal list of candidates for the State Duma. The case accused the party of publicly supporting an extremist organisation through material on its website linked to the "international LGBT movement", which Russia's Supreme Court designated extremist in 2023. Rodina also alleged copyright infringement over a quotation from the Soviet-era song "Let there always be sunshine", while Russia's financial monitoring service said Yabloko had received money through third parties from foreign countries, including Germany and the United States.
Yabloko leader Nikolay Rybakov said the party would appeal the decision. Speaking after the hearing, he said the party had "a long way ahead" and a "big and important task" to stop deaths and bring peace back. The hearing lasted about eight hours, and the crowd outside the courthouse included mostly young supporters who sang, waved flags and carried apples, a reference to the party's name.
The party has campaigned under the slogan "For peace and freedom! For a life without fear!" and has called for a ceasefire, diplomacy and an end to political repression. The ruling matters because Yabloko was the only registered party openly opposing Russia's war in Ukraine.
With most of President Vladimir Putin's opponents jailed, exiled or dead, the party has remained the only liberal force still operating inside the country. Its exclusion narrows the range of choices available to voters in the September parliamentary elections and further reduces the visibility of organised anti-war politics in Russia. The decision also fits a broader pattern of tightening control over elections and public dissent since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Independent opposition activity has been increasingly constrained, while legal and administrative pressure has intensified against figures and groups seen as critical of the Kremlin. Yabloko has not won seats in the State Duma since 2003, and every parliamentary election since then has been won by United Russia, the ruling party that backs Mr Putin. The case was heard after the Kremlin-controlled Central Electoral Commission had already approved Yabloko's candidate list in late July.
By that point, several party members had already been barred from running, including two deputy chairmen and deputy leader Maxim Kruglov. Kruglov was sentenced in June to seven years in prison over social media posts about civilian casualties in Bucha, Mariupol and other Ukrainian cities, adding to the pressure on the party before the court ruling. Yabloko has also faced practical disruption during the campaign period.
Last week, the party said it suffered a cyberattack soon after launching a donations appeal for its election fund. The party has received public backing from some exiled opposition figures, including Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Alexei Navalny, both of whom are listed as extremists in Russia. A poll earlier this year put Yabloko at about three percent support, below the five-percent threshold needed to enter the lower house.
What remains unclear is whether Yabloko's appeal will change the outcome before the vote, and how the party's supporters will respond if the ban stands. The immediate next step is the legal challenge announced by Mr Rybakov, while the broader test will be whether the September election proceeds with any meaningful anti-war opposition on the ballot. The ruling is likely to be watched closely as another sign of how far Russia's electoral field has narrowed.
#Russia #Yabloko #SupremeCourt #parliamentaryelections #antiwaropposition
Sponsored
