This material is available in other languages:
ru
21 Aug 2026
On the Removal of Yabloko from the Election and the Conviction of Lev Shlosberg
Memorial Human Rights Defence Centre strongly protests the removal of the Yabloko party from the elections to the State Duma and the conviction of the party’s Deputy Chairman, Lev Shlosberg.
Yabloko stood in the election on a platform calling for an immediate ceasefire and peace negotiations with Ukraine, which received widespread support from Russians. On 10 August 2026, Judge Vyacheslav Kirillov, who had previously declared Memorial an extremist organisation, upheld a claim brought by the Rodina party and cancelled the registration of Yabloko’s federal candidate list. On 17 August, the Supreme Court’s Appeals Chamber rejected Yabloko’s appeal against the decision.
Hundreds of the party’s supporters gathered outside the Supreme Court each time hearings were held. Subsequently, several dozen of them were detained, some were issued warnings, and at least three received administrative detention for violating rules governing public assemblies.
The formal grounds for removing Yabloko from the election were foreign donations totalling 16,900 roubles and intellectual property issues. However, the real purpose was clearly to exclude from the ballot the last legal political force openly opposed to the war.
On the same day, 17 August, Judge Viktoria Malyamova sentenced Lev Shlosberg to 11 years and one month in a general-regime penal colony under “anti-war” provisions of the Criminal Code: Article 280.3, Part 1 (repeatedly “discrediting” the Russian Armed Forces), and Article 207.3, Part 2(d) (disseminating information about the Russian Armed Forces that the authorities deem knowingly false).
This is far from the first case of persecution of Yabloko members. Earlier, Yabloko Deputy Chairman Maxim Kruglov was sentenced to seven years in prison. Journalist and party member Mikhail Afanasyev is already serving a five-and-a-half-year sentence. Criminal proceedings against Konstantin Smirnov and other activists are ongoing.
The grounds for criminal prosecution include taking part in debates, reposting content and publicly expressing one’s views, in other words, exercising the constitutional right to freedom of expression.
Long prison sentences are an instrument of political repression.
The removal of Yabloko from the election and the persecution of the party’s members and supporters are yet another example of the state’s policy of dismantling electoral rights and civil society in the country.
Memorial Human Rights Defence Centre expresses its support for Yabloko and personally for Lev Shlosberg, and calls for:
- the immediate and unconditional release of Yabloko activists Lev Shlosberg, Maxim Kruglov, Konstantin Smirnov, Mikhail Afanasyev, Vladimir Yefimov, Vasily Neustroyev, Elena Peripelitsa and Vladimir Sorokin;
- an end to the persecution of party supporters who expressed their support outside the Supreme Court during the hearings;
- the review of the sentences handed down and the termination of politically motivated criminal prosecutions;
- the restoration of Yabloko on the election ballot.
Memorial Human Rights Defence Centre Council
21 August 2026
