Russian platform VK Video pulls the plug on antiwar party Yabloko’s fundraising livestream mid-broadcast
VK Video cut off a livestream by the Yabloko party, called Peaceful Stream.
The broadcast, featuring Yabloko chairman Nikolai Rybakov, was interrupted one hour and 51 minutes after it began. Why the stream cut out remains unknown. Yabloko continued streaming on YouTube.
The stream’s description said the broadcast’s main purpose was to raise money for Yabloko’s election campaign. During the broadcast, Rybakov answered viewers’ questions and discussed the campaign’s progress and the party’s ongoing fight to participate in the elections.
When the broadcast was cut, a donation counter showed Yabloko had raised almost 542,000 rubles toward a goal of 2 million rubles. Yabloko said more than 600,000 rubles had actually been raised by that point.
Yabloko’s candidate lists have now been removed from ballots in four regions, following lawsuits from other parties, and election commissions in two more — including St. Petersburg — have refused to register them. The party’s federal list was invalidated on August 10 by Russia’s Supreme Court following a lawsuit from the Rodina party, which alleged a copyright violation in campaign materials and claimed to have found donations to Yabloko from people who had previously received transfers from abroad.
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