Russia’s Supreme Court upholds ruling barring anti-war Yabloko party from State Duma election
Russia’s Supreme Court has rejected an appeal from Yabloko’s lawyers challenging the ruling that struck the party’s federal list from the State Duma election.
The Supreme Court barred Yabloko from the State Duma race on August 10, ruling on a lawsuit filed by the Rodina party, which accused the party of violating copyright law in its campaign materials and receiving foreign funding.
Police detained more than 85 people outside the Supreme Court building on August 17, during Yabloko’s appeal hearing.
The State Duma will hold elections on September 20, 2026. Yabloko is the only party in Russia campaigning on an antiwar platform, using the slogan “For Peace and Freedom!”
Sources close to Russia’s Presidential Administration told Meduza in the fall of 2025 that Yabloko was unlikely to be allowed onto a federal ballot while using that slogan. The Presidential Administration’s political bloc had initially planned to run the State Duma campaign under a “conservative scenario,” with controlled participants. Yabloko was registered for the election, but after the party’s ratings began to rise, the political bloc removed it to “manage the risks,” sources told Meduza.
According to sources cited by journalist Mikhail Zygar, Vladimir Putin personally decided to remove Yabloko from the ballot.
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