Russian antiwar party Yabloko says police are targeting its supporters at home, days after releasing them without charge

Yabloko party chairman Nikolai Rybakov has demanded that Russian Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev end the persecution of citizens who turned out to support the party outside the Supreme Court on August 10 and 17.

In a statement on its Telegram channel, Yabloko said most of those detained were released without being cited, which “confirms the absence of the elements of an offense.”

But the pressure on the party’s supporters continued: police officers began showing up at their homes and opening administrative cases against them for violating rules on holding rallies.

“This practice is clearly intimidating in nature and must be stopped immediately,” Rybakov said.

Yabloko said that no marches or pickets took place outside the Supreme Court. Citizens, the party said, “came to the court to exercise their right of access to justice” and did not violate public order.

Russia’s Supreme Court barred Yabloko from the State Duma election — the lower house of Russia’s parliament — on August 10 and upheld that ruling on appeal on August 17. Both times, supporters turned out at the courthouse to back the party, and on August 17, several dozen people were detained outside the Supreme Court.

The independent Russian news outlet Mediazona said on August 19 that at least three Yabloko supporters who had come to the Supreme Court on August 10 were sentenced to administrative arrest under statutes covering participation in unauthorized rallies. They were not detained outside the courthouse itself, but several days later.