There is new scandal in Russia: the court barred Russian anti-war political party «Yabloko» [Apple] from participating in elections of State Duma. Kremlin reminded its people who was the master of their lives. Opposition is wondering now – to bring green apples to polling stations or vote for the Communists and Liberal Democratic Party of Russia?
The exclusion of the «Yabloko» party from the State Duma elections had been expected ever since it was initially allowed to participate. The party ran on a brief platform titled «For Peace and Freedom.» It calls for an immediate ceasefire and the start of a diplomatic settlement of the Russian-Ukrainian war, condemns the upcoming mobilization, and advocates for civil liberties.
Nikolai Rybakov. Photo: Yevhenii Razumny \ Kommersant
«For the first time in five years, Russian citizens have had the opportunity to vote peacefully, legally, and safely for the future, for peace, for freedom, for a ceasefire agreement, and for a life in Russia free from fear,» says optimistically Nikolai Rybakov, chairman of the «Yabloko» party.
These ideas have resonated with a segment of Russian youth who, despite the all-out militaristic and chauvinistic propaganda, do not want to die for Putin’s glory on the «fields of Russian death» in Donetsk or Kharkiv regions. There has been a sort of rediscovery of «Yabloko»- young people who will be voting for the first time view the party as a new phenomenon in Russian politics.
Supporters of political party «Yabloko». Photo: Iryna Buzhor \ Kommersant
Meanwhile, «Yabloko» has existed since 1993. It had its own faction in the Russian State Duma three times, with 27, 46 and 21 seats, respectively. The party has been against the war and for democracy in times when Russia conducted a war in Chechnya.
In 1999, its leader Grigorii Yavlinsky on behalf of its faction refused to support Vladimir Putin as the head of the Russian government.
«Significant number of deputies of «Yabloko» faction will not vote for Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. First, we are against the way the President of Russia appoints him. We believe that these decisions are derogatory towards people, country and the government», as said Yavlinsky in the State Duma.
Leader of party «Yabloko» Grigorii Yavlinsky and Russian President Vladimir Putin, 2002. Photo: kremlin.ru
Putin, who was present at the vote, smiled, but he remembered and took his revenge in his own KGB-style way. Ever since he took the power in Russia, «Yabloko» has never once cleared the electoral threshold in State Duma elections. At first, the general enthusiasm for the new president’s «firm hand» played a role, and then that hand ruthlessly purged the media and political landscape. «Yabloko», however, was kept in the game by being allowed to participate in elections – but not to win. Moreover, the party’s stance was toothless and soft – in favor of everything good, opposed to everything bad. This did little to win over voters.
And we do not support it either – because even though «Yabloko» does not consider the annexation of Crimea to be legitimate, instead of returning what was stolen to Ukraine, it proposes holding an international conference to schedule a new referendum in Crimea.
«I personally believe that we need to give the people living in Crimea the opportunity to determine their own fate, to give them the chance to hold a new referendum—one that all interested parties will trust,» Yavlinsky explains.
That is just how they are—whether it is naivety or cynicism.
Public protests to support party «Yabloko». Photo: Iryna Buzhor \ Kommersant
However, when hundreds of thousands of Russians have died in a war of aggression, and the country is suffocating under the weight of imperial grandeur, repression, and censorship, the simple and unpretentious slogan «For Peace and Freedom» has proven to be a bit more relevant to voters than the Kremlin had anticipated.
As a result, «Yabloko» immediately came under attack from pro-Kremlin parties. The leader of one of them – the caricature-like chauvinist party «Rodina» [Motherland] – Alexei Zhuravlev filed a lawsuit against «Yabloko,» having first launched into a patriotic tirade directed at «Yabloko» chairman Nikolai Rybakov:
Zhuravlev: «You are telling bullshit about ceasefire. Do you understand what are you saying?»
Rybakov: «I’ve got a proposal for you to move to the front!»
Zhuravlev: «Shut up! I did not interrupt you. Did you get it?! Shut his mouth and get him out of here!»
Aleksei Zhuravlyov, head of party «Rodina». Photo: Dmitrii Dukhanin \ Kommersant
Zhuravlev cited ridiculous grounds for banning «Yabloko.» First, there was a donation of 16,900 rubles – that is, $ 200- to the party’s fund by several people who had previously received money from abroad.
Second, there were absurd accusations of copyright infringement. Allegedly, the party’s logo – a stylized image of an apple – was stolen from a famous Soviet poster century ago, «Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge!» by renowned Suprematist artist El Lissitzky.
Furthermore, according to Zhuravlev, the party’s founder, Yavlinsky, infringed on the copyright to the slogan «As Long as There Is No War» and to a quote from the Soviet song «May the Sun Always Shine» – even though the son of composer Ostrovsky personally authorized the use of this quote in «Yabloko»’s election campaign. Zhuravlev also mentioned calls for peace that infringe upon the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation.
Logo of party «Yabloko» and poster of El Lissitzky «Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge!» Collage: investigator.org.ua
The court did not uphold all charges, but even a few were enough for Putin’s justice system to remove the only opposition party from the election. The court ruled to revoke the registration of the federal list of candidates for the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation of the 9th convocation, nominated by the political party «Russian United Democratic Party ‘Yabloko’.»
Russian youth, who – facing the immediate threat of war – began taking an interest in politics for the first time in many years, saw this as a «sign that something is wrong in Russia»- much like that leader, ‘Falcon Eye’, who, in his third week of imprisonment, noticed that one wall was missing from his prison cell. In other words, now there is not even a pretense of a choice. The kids gathered outside the courthouse to protest and even drew on the asphalt with colored chalk, demanding that the party – which had promised not to draft them into the Russian army – be allowed to participate in the election.
Paintings on the pavement near the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation. Photo: Anastasia Tsytsynova \ «Novaya gazeta»
People with more common sense and life experience know that there has been no real choice in Russia for a long time, and any electoral, civic, or informational threat to the regime is neutralized even before the Election Day. Those who are too vocal are silenced with the label of «foreign agent,» while those who are too active are tried and imprisoned by «police» and «officials» for discrediting the army, extremism, or inciting hostility toward social groups. In particular, Lev Shlosberg, Deputy Chairman of «Yabloko» party and a human rights activist, was sentenced by a Russian court to 11 years and 1 month in a penal colony for reposting «Daily Mirror» article and calling for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine during YouTube debate. And some critics of Putin’s regime are simply killed.
The Kremlin had previously allowed «Yabloko» party to participate in elections solely because, according to all public and non-public polls, it had no chance of entering parliament, and its platform did not enjoy broad support among the population. As soon as voters gave the party a chance, the state reacted as usual—by banning it.
All other parliamentary parties – ruling «United Russia», the Communists, Liberal Democratic Party, «Fair Russia» and «New People» – are puppets of the Kremlin as they unanimously demonstrate support of Putin’s aggressive regime. It seemed it is clear as all previous parodies of elections have proved it. But Russian politicians have kept repeating meaningless mantra of Russian parliamentary elections.
Yulia Navalnaya. Photo: Mikhail Pochuev \ TASS
Yulia Navalny, the widow of Alexei Navalny – the Russian opposition politician and anti-corruption activist who was killed in a Russian prison- and the dubious face of the Russian opposition, called from abroad on Russians not to despair and to vote for any party other than Putin’s «United Russia»: «Keep campaigning against «United Russia». Turn out to vote. Vote in single-member districts according to the recommendations of ‘Smart Voting,’ and on party lists – for any party except «United Russia».
Ilya Yashyn, who has been imprisoned for more than two years for «discrediting the army,» is calling on all opposition-minded Russians to go to the polling stations at 12:00 p.m. on the Election Day to create lines and «show their strength.» He also suggests voting for anyone other than «United Russia» – which, he says, will demonstrate an anti-war stance:
«If there is no anti-war party, and the ballot only features ghouls, then you have to vote against the main ghoul. This is called the protest vote tactic. Our goal is very simple: to minimize the «United Russia» party’s share of the vote as much as possible.»
Ilya Yashyn. Photo: Ilja Yashyn / Telegram
What?! Yulia, Ilya, please explain how voting for the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Liberal Democrats or «Fair Russia» – parties that, year after year, demonstrate complete loyalty to Russian aggression, support the annexation of Ukrainian territories, and, if they are dissatisfied with anything at all, it is only with Putin’s lack of bloodthirstiness? Is this hopeless intellectual incompetence or a deliberate attempt to channel the anti-war sentiments of some Russians to the Kremlin’s advantage? Let us recall the positions of those whom Navalny and her associates are calling on people to vote for as the lesser evil:
«It is our brotherly Ukraine that today finds itself at the crossroads of all the winds of war. They are using our deceived brotherly people to turn them against Russia, against Russian lands, against the Russian language, and against our great culture. We will definitely prevail. Today I salute the young men fighting on the front lines!»- Gennadii Zuganov, leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation.
«We – the LDPR party, we – the Russian World – demand a swift and decisive victory in the special military operation. Now is the time to deliver decisive strikes against military infrastructure, military logistics, and decision-making centers in Ukraine, as well as against the bridges across the Dnieper, thereby destroying Ukraine’s railway infrastructure!» – Leonid Slutsky, Head of the Liberal Democratic Party
Head of Liberal Democratic Party of Russia Leonid Slutsky, Head of party «Fair Russia» Sergei Mironov and Head of Communist Party of the Russian Federation Gennadii Zuganov. Photo: spravedlivo.ru
«The misanthropic Bandera regime must be uprooted. We simply have no other choice if we want to win. The special military operation can only be ended by force and only through the victory of our weapons. There is no other option,» said Sergei Mironov, the Head of «Fair Russia.»
«There’s only one thing to regret – that we did not start this (the invasion of Ukraine – ed.) sooner. That’s all. And I can say this: in my opinion, we should have started as early as 2014. That’s all; I have no other option, only this one. We just should have started earlier – that’s the only thing to regret – and as for whether we started on the right track – well, in my opinion, that’s already obvious,» said Alexei Zhuravlev, the Head of the «Rodina» party.
It’s actually interesting: which of these ghouls and lackeys of Putin’s bloody regime will Yulia Navalnaya and Ilya Yashin vote for? We are waiting for campaign videos from the Russian opposition in exile.
What makes this situation particularly noteworthy is that the supporters of Navalny who live in the free world at the expense of international donors, are in fact calling on people to vote for parties whose leaders – every single one of them – are on the sanctions lists of the EU, the U.S., the U.K., and others.
Nikolai Rybakov, the leader of «Yabloko» party, promised to appeal the court’s decision and participate in the elections. He said he had a Plan B and that the party would definitely be in the September elections. But on August 17, the court rejected «Yabloko»’s appeal and definitively barred it from participating in the elections.
Public protest in support of party «Yabloko». Photo: Nikolay Sukhinskiy
Meanwhile, as «Yabloko» wages a hopeless struggle for the right to be a token parliamentary opposition, the émigré opposition continues to do what it has done in all previous years – legitimizing Putin’s sham elections by calling for foolish – excuse me – «smart» voting for any of Putin’s puppets, except for «United Russia.» This blatant disgrace repeats itself from election to election, but it seems this is the path the Russian opposition has chosen – to bring shame upon itself until the very end.
And Russian idealistic, anti-war youth who put their trust in these professional protest manipulators will get their share of disillusionment.
But no matter what the Russian government or the Russian opposition may try to stir up, the only force that is truly bringing an end to Putin’s dictatorship is the Armed Forces of Ukraine. And for them to do this more effectively, we need to support them – whether through personal involvement or donations.
So take care of yourselves, subscribe to our YouTube channel, Facebook, X, and Telegram, and support the Armed Forces. All the best.
Tags: Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, elections to Russian State Duma, ban, Yabloko party, Russian Federation, participation in elections
