Rodina already got Yabloko thrown off Russia’s Duma ballot. Now it’s suing to remove the antiwar party from the one region where it still holds seats in the legislature.
The Rodina party has filed a lawsuit with the Pskov Regional Court seeking to remove Yabloko’s candidate list from the election to the Pskov regional parliament, Yabloko’s press service said.
“They’re fighting us with no rules and no law,” said Artur Gaiduk, chairman of Yabloko’s Pskov branch. “There are no legal grounds to deprive residents of the Pskov region of the chance to vote for peace, freedom, and a life without fear. There are no such grounds … including in the Supreme Court proceedings over the registration of the party’s federal list.”
Yabloko’s lawyers are reviewing Rodina’s lawsuit. The Pskov Regional Court will hear the case on August 25.
On August 10, Russia’s Supreme Court removed the federal candidate list of the liberal Yabloko party from the September elections to the State Duma, the lower house of the country’s parliament. The ruling stemmed from a lawsuit in which Rodina accused Yabloko of violating copyright law and making illegal payments for campaign advertising.
Yabloko has been cleared to run in regional parliamentary elections in five regions — Kaliningrad, Novgorod, Sverdlovsk, Tomsk, and Pskov. Pskov is the only region where the party currently holds seats in the regional parliament and has been cleared to run in the upcoming elections.
The Pskov region is also the home region of Yabloko’s deputy chairman, Lev Shlosberg, who was sentenced on August 17 to 11 years in prison for repeatedly “discrediting” the Russian military and spreading “fake news” about it. Shlosberg was convicted for publicly opposing the war.
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