Russia's Supreme Court Removes Opposition Yabloko Party from Parliamentary Ballot

Moscow – On Monday the Russian Supreme Court ordered the deregistration of Yabloko, the only party that has publicly opposed the Kremlin’s military operation in Ukraine, removing it from the ballot for the September 18-20 parliamentary election. The decision followed a lawsuit filed by the Motherland Party, which accused Yabloko of copyright infringement, exceeding campaign-spending limits and violating Russian law with its anti-war stance.

Yabloko’s co-founder and political committee chair Grigory Yavlinsky said the ruling would be appealed, adding that barring the party “means a refusal to engage in dialogue with those who ask questions that make the authorities uncomfortable.”

The party’s campaign, which called for a cease-fire and an end to political repression, had attracted support from exiled opposition figures, including Yulia Navalnaya, who described backing Yabloko as “morally and politically right.” Yabloko chairman Nikolai Rybakov told the court that recent social-media videos featuring apples were generated by ordinary citizens who “simply want to live in Russia and don’t want to get killed.”

Kremlin-aligned parties criticized Yabloko, with Sergei Mironov of A Just Russia urging the Prosecutor General’s Office to investigate the party and Gennady Zyuganov of the Communist Party stating that Yabloko does not support President Vladimir Putin’s policies.

Analysts noted that the initial inclusion of Yabloko on the ballot may have been intended to provide a controlled outlet for dissent, but the party’s peace-focused platform appears to have challenged Kremlin calculations, prompting the current legal action.

Yabloko members have faced increasing pressure in recent years, including criminal convictions and “foreign agent” designations for senior figures such as Maxim Kruglov, Lev Shlosberg and Boris Vishnevsky.