Yabloko election ban upheld as supporters detained

Russia's Supreme Court on Monday upheld the exclusion of Yabloko, the country's only anti-war party, from September legislative elections, as dozens of supporters were detained outside the court.

Yabloko said the Appeals Chamber upheld the decision to revoke registration of its federal list of candidates for State Duma elections. The party said it would seek a supervisory review.

The court removed Yabloko from the ballot last week after a suit brought by a nationalist party, which criticised Yabloko's peace stance and accused it of receiving foreign funding and copyright violations.

Outside the hearing, police pushed supporters away from the building along with journalists. Kirill Goncharov, head of Yabloko's Moscow branch, told Novaya Gazeta that many people had been detained and earlier estimated that more than 60 supporters had been taken to nearby police stations. He said some teenage detainees had already been released.

In court, party leader Nikolay Rybakov called the detentions “intimidation”.

The ban removes the last ballot option for voters opposed to Russia's four-and-a-half-year war in Ukraine. With most of President Vladimir Putin's opponents jailed, in exile or dead, Yabloko is the only liberal party still operating in Russia.

In a separate case, Yabloko deputy chairman Lev Shlosberg was sentenced Monday to 11 years and one month in prison over comments criticising Moscow's offensive in Ukraine.