Russia's Supreme Court upholds Yabloko's exclusion from elections, deputy chair jailed for over 11 years

Russia's Supreme Court on Monday upheld a lower court's decision to strike Yabloko from the ballot for September's State Duma elections. Yabloko is Russia's only parliamentary-tradition party to openly oppose the war in Ukraine. Dozens of supporters gathered outside the courthouse, along with others nearby, were detained by police.

The legal challenge to remove Yabloko was filed on 7 August by the ultranationalist Rodina party, whose leader, State Duma deputy Aleksey Zhuravlyov, claimed lawyers had found numerous violations in Yabloko's campaign. Party chair Nikolai Rybakov called the hearing a mockery, saying the party was being removed because it stands for peace and freedom while its opponents stand for the opposite. Yabloko's 43-word election manifesto calls for a ceasefire agreement, diplomacy and the achievement of peace.

Hours later, a court in Pskov sentenced Yabloko's deputy chair Lev Shlosberg to 11 years and one month in a general-regime penal colony, plus a six-year ban on administering websites. He was convicted under Russia's law on "false information about the army" over a Telegram repost from February 2022, and separately for "discrediting" the armed forces after remarks in a YouTube debate calling for the earliest possible ceasefire. Closing arguments took place last Friday without any of his three lawyers present, after the court refused to postpone the hearing and appointed a state lawyer against his explicit objection.

This marks the third criminal case brought against Shlosberg and his second trial since the invasion began. He was designated a "foreign agent" in June 2023 and added to Russia's register of "extremists" in December 2025. He rejected all charges as baseless. After the verdict, he told those present that they would have to live with the outcome.

Amnesty International condemned the sentence as retaliation for exercising the right to free expression by calling for peace, urging Russian authorities to release Shlosberg immediately.

Yabloko's history

Founded in 1993, Yabloko is Russia's oldest continuously operating liberal opposition party, having cleared the 5% parliamentary threshold only once, in 1999. From 2006 to 2025 it belonged to the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe. Analysts say the Kremlin had long tolerated Yabloko as a way to attract liberal and disaffected voters and project an appearance of political plurality to international observers. Its increasingly open anti-war stance appears to have exhausted that tolerance.