Russian court fines former parliamentary candidate over T-shirt bearing Alexey Navalny’s ‘party of crooks and thieves’ slogan against ruling United Russia

The Sverdlovsky District Court in Kostroma fined Andrey Tarasov, a former State Duma candidate for the Yabloko Party, 1,000 rubles for “displaying extremist symbols” under Article 20.3, Part 1, of Russia’s Code of Administrative Offenses.

Tarasov said on his VKontakte page that he was cited for an administrative offense over a photo of him wearing a T-shirt with the slogan “I’m against the party of crooks and thieves” and a drawing of a person kicking a bear.

An expert assessment commissioned for the proceedings says that “Alexey Navalny is considered the creator of the ‘party of crooks and thieves’ meme” and that the slogan was later used “in the context of the Anti-Corruption Foundation’s (FBK) activities.” Tarasov published excerpts of the assessment.

By calling United Russia the party of crooks, “the FBK was not simply criticizing it — it was delegitimizing the ruling party in voters’ eyes,” said the expert enlisted by the Interior Ministry. She said the slogan on the T-shirt “identifies the person wearing it as an opposition supporter.”

Tarasov plans to appeal the court’s ruling.

Ahead of the September elections, Sergey Shpotin, secretary of the Communist Party’s Kostroma regional committee, complained on his Telegram channel about Tarasov’s T-shirt with the slogan “I’m against the party of crooks and thieves.” He said: “Rank-and-file Communist Party members get dragged into court, fined, have their doors broken down, and face persecution for telling the truth about the ‘party of crooks and thieves.’ But this ‘new liberal’ gets away with absolutely everything!”

Tarasov previously headed the regional Communist Party branch’s public liaison office and ran several times as its candidate for a single-member district seat in the regional legislature. But in 2026, he had a public falling-out with his Communist Party colleagues. He went on to run for Yabloko in that year’s parliamentary elections, finishing third in his single-member district.

In the summer of 2021, the Moscow City Court declared the FBK an “extremist organization.” Authorities regularly open criminal investigations over donations to the FBK, and defendants in these cases receive lengthy prison sentences.