Russia's Court Bars Anti-War Yabloko From Election
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- Russia's Supreme Court barred Yabloko from the September 18-20 parliamentary ballot after the Motherland Party appealed, reversing the Central Election Commission's decision last month to allow the party to run alongside 10 others.
- Yabloko was the only registered opposition party opposing the Ukraine conflict, running on slogans including "For a ceasefire agreement, diplomacy and peace!" and "Our goal is to prevent nuclear war!"
- Kremlin-aligned parties assailed Yabloko ahead of the ruling — A Just Russia's Sergei Mironov urged prosecutors to investigate it, while Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov attacked the party for refusing to back President Putin's policies.
- Several Yabloko members faced escalating Kremlin repression: deputy chairman Maxim Kruglov was sentenced to 7 years in June for spreading false information about the Russian army; Lev Shlosberg faces up to 10 years in his third criminal case in two years; Boris Vishnevsky was designated a "foreign agent" in 2024.
- Yulia Navalnaya called support for Yabloko "morally and politically right" in an Aug. 6 Telegram statement, joining exiled opposition figures Ilya Yashin and Vladimir Kara-Murza in urging Russians to back the party.
- Social media saw an organic wave of videos showing young people holding apples — the party's symbol — which chairman Nikolai Rybakov told the court the party wasn't paying for, calling it spontaneous support from people who "want to live in Russia and don't want to get killed."
Why it matters: By removing Yabloko from the September 18-20 ballot, Russia's Supreme Court leaves voters no legal party opposing the Ukraine conflict — a move NEST Centre analyst Nikolay Petrov said demonstrates the Kremlin is "afraid of what Yabloko stands for" after its anti-war platform drew unexpected grassroots momentum.
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