Russia's Supreme Court has barred Yabloko, one of the country's oldest liberal parties and its only officially registered party to openly oppose the war in Ukraine, from September's parliamentary elections.
The ruling was issued on Monday, August 10, weeks before elections for the new State Duma. The court accepted an appeal from the nationalist Rodina party, seen as close to the Kremlin, which had asked that Yabloko be excluded from the vote. Rodina argued that Yabloko had received undeclared support for its campaign, including help from Western sources. Yabloko's leadership rejects the accusations and said it would challenge the decision in court.
Who is Yabloko
Yabloko is not a new party. Its roots go back to Russia's first post-Soviet parliamentary elections in 1993, when Grigory Yavlinsky, Yuri Boldyrev and Vladimir Lukin formed the electoral coalition. The name Yabloko, Russian for "apple," originally came from the founders' surnames. The party was one of Russia's most prominent liberal and democratic forces in the 1990s, holding seats in the first three convocations of the State Duma until 2003. It won about 7.9% of the vote in 1993 and remained a parliamentary force in 1995 and 1999.
Opposition to the war
Yabloko has publicly called for an end to hostilities and a ceasefire agreement between Russia and Ukraine, a stance that sets it apart from parties currently in the State Duma, which either directly back Kremlin war policy or avoid challenging it. Reuters describes Yabloko as the only officially registered Russian party that openly opposes the war.
'We will appeal'
Yabloko chairman Nikolai Rybakov rejected the accusations in court and said no evidence of illegal financing had been presented. After the ruling, the party said it would appeal and urged supporters not to lose heart. Several hundred supporters, many of them young, gathered outside the courthouse, some holding apples in a symbolic reference to the party's name.
