8,000 people apply to join anti-war Yabloko amid its removal from Russia’s State Duma race. That’s twice the party’s current membership.
Yabloko has received 8,000 applications to join the party over the past two weeks, Kirill Goncharov, head of the party’s Moscow branch, said in an interview with the independent journalist cooperative Bereg.
The party currently has about 4,000 members in total, Goncharov said, meaning it could potentially triple in size. The surge in applications came amid Yabloko’s exclusion from the State Duma election. Goncharov said:
We feel that many people are demotivated and disappointed by our removal right now. One thing that can support people is continuing to stay among like-minded people. That will have not just a political effect, but a psychotherapeutic one as well.
Goncharov added that the total number of applications could still grow, since the election campaign is ongoing. Yabloko candidates are still running in regional parliament elections.
Russia’s Supreme Court removed Yabloko’s federal party list from the State Duma election, the lower house of Russia’s parliament, on August 10. The court’s formal pretext was a lawsuit filed by the Rodina party, which accused Yabloko of violating copyright in its campaign materials and using “extremist” slogans. A week later, the court rejected an appeal by Yabloko’s lawyers against that ruling.
Hundreds of Yabloko supporters gathered outside the Supreme Court building ahead of the first hearing, and police later sent written warnings to some of them against taking part in unauthorized rallies.
At least 50 people were detained outside the courthouse on August 17, as the court heard the appeal. Police released most of them without filing an official report, though at least three received administrative arrests.
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