The only political party in Russia opposed to the war in Ukraine has been blocked from running in next month’s parliamentary elections as dictator Vladimir Putin tries to keep a lid on public anger about the conflict.
The Russian Supreme Court upheld a lawsuit on Monday to keep Yabloko off the September ballots over allegations of undeclared campaign support and breaches of campaigning rules, just as the anti-war party was gaining momentum.
For years, Yabloko, meaning Apple, was considered a fringe party that frequently failed to garner enough support to win seats in Russia’s Duma, the lower house of the country’s parliament. However, its support has grown as more and more Russians become disillusioned with the stalled invasion of Ukraine, which has stretched into its fifth year.
Ukraine has also been bombarding Russia with wave after wave of drone strikes targeting the country’s oil refineries, which have resulted in fuel shortages and damaged Moscow’s economy. Ukraine has also been hitting warehouses and facilities operated by Wildberries, the Russian equivalent of Amazon, in order to bring Putin’s invasion home to the Russian people.
Yabloko has not managed to reach the 5-percent vote threshold to win seats in the Duma since 2003, reported The Washington Post. But as Putin’s battleground humiliation grows, polls suggest the anti-war party, which is demanding a ceasefire in Ukraine, could capture 9 percent of the vote.
Kirill Goncharov, head of Yabloko’s Moscow chapter, said the party had been expecting the decision from Russia’s Supreme Court.
“We were aware that the more popular we were getting, the more trouble we’re creating for the Kremlin,” Goncharov told The New York Times. “People want peace, freedom and a life without fear—people want what this party represents.”
Hundreds of Yabloko supporters gathered outside the Supreme Court to chant “Russia Without Putin!” following Monday’s ruling.
Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of opposition leader and vocal Putin critic Alexei Navalny, who died in prison in 2024, said the court’s decision is proof that the Kremlin is “scared.”
“They’ve seen what they really didn’t want to see: people are starting to unite. And it’s not even so much about support for Yabloko. It’s about the fact that millions of Russians now have a chance to say what they truly think about Putin and the war,” Navalnaya posted on X.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a former oligarch-turned-Putin critic who is now living in exile in London, said Monday’s ruling proves that the Kremlin only “tolerates opposition parties when it can control the outcome.”
“Hundreds of people showing up at the courthouse today made sure Yabloko was not one of those cases,” Khodorkovsky told the Post. “Too risky. That is why Putin’s rubber-stamp court just removed them from the ballot.”
