Yabloko Party Appeals Ruling to Cancel Registration in Russian Elections

The liberal Yabloko party filed an appeal with Russia’s Supreme Court on Friday, challenging a ruling to cancel the registration of the party’s federal slate of candidates for next month’s State Duma elections. The Supreme Court accepted the appeal and scheduled a hearing for Monday, Aug. 17, at 10 a.m. Moscow time. “We’ll prove that the truth is on our side and on the side of the people who support us,” Yabloko chairman Nikolai Rybakov told reporters outside the courthouse after he and his party submitted the appeal. Last week, the Supreme Court disqualified Yabloko from parliamentary elections in September for copyright violations during campaign activity and for breaking campaign finance laws by allegedly accepting funding from abroad. That ruling removes Russia’s oldest liberal party — and what was the only registered party campaigning on a pro-peace platform — from the nationwide party-list ballot. Yabloko was given five days to appeal the decision. “Our lawyers proved beyond any doubt that there was not the slightest basis for any claim to remove Yabloko,” Rybakov said Friday, vowing that “Yabloko will be on the ballot.” Rybakov also confirmed Yabloko’s plans to sue Rodina, the small nationalist party that filed the lawsuit against Yabloko in the Supreme Court, for defamation. In its suit, Rodina had accused Yabloko of “extremism” and receiving foreign funding, in addition to copyright infringement. Rodina filed its own appeal on Friday, arguing that the Supreme Court erred by failing to uphold all of its claims against Yabloko in full. The court will consider both appeals concurrently on Monday. There was a heavy police presence outside the courthouse on Friday. At least 10 Yabloko supporters were taken into police vans, with at least three being formally detained, according to the RusNews outlet. Plainclothes anti-extremism officers were also seen following Yabloko party leaders on the Moscow metro after the filing, Sotavision reported.