The Supreme Court of Russia is considering a lawsuit filed by the Rodina party to annul the registration of Yabloko's federal list for the State Duma elections. A prosecutor's representative backed the plaintiffs' demands, while a Central Election Commission (CEC) representative said that Rosfinmonitoring, Russia's financial intelligence agency, had confirmed 'foreign financing' of Yabloko before the campaign and in summer 2026.
The CEC representative also agreed with Rodina's arguments about copyright infringement, calling the use of a quote from Grigory Yavlinsky in campaign materials a violation, even though the politician himself is not running for the Duma. According to the CEC official, the publication of photographs, including an image of Dmitry Medvedev, and the use of an image generated by ChatGPT also constituted violations.
In its lawsuit, Rodina also accuses Yabloko of distributing campaign materials on social media without paying through its election fund, and of 'extremism,' including due to materials supporting LGBT rights on the party's website. Rodina interpreted Yabloko's calls for a ceasefire as a 'refusal to liberate the territory of the Russian Federation,' referring to Ukrainian territories that Russia has declared annexed.
Yabloko representatives rejected the plaintiffs' arguments. 'In fact, the administrative plaintiff is demanding that the Supreme Court reject the Constitution of Russia,' the party's representative said at the hearing. He also noted that the Russian Volunteer Corps and the Forum of Free Russia, both banned in Russia, had spoken out against Yabloko.
A queue of hundreds of party supporters formed outside the courthouse, with the courtroom seating 150 people. Earlier, opposition politicians living abroad voiced support for Yabloko, and bloggers, including Dani Milokhin, who moved to Dubai, recorded videos with allegorical calls to support the party. Over several weeks, Yabloko's Telegram channel became the most popular among parties, surpassing United Russia.
Political scientist Ivan Preobrazhensky, in a comment to Current Time, linked the party's admission to the election and the subsequent lawsuit to infighting within the Kremlin: in his view, the elections were previously overseen by Sergei Kiriyenko, first deputy head of the presidential administration, but since the start of the war, the so-called second department of the FSB has taken over this function.
Sources differ: independent outlets report that in recent days, representatives of pro-government parties have also spoken out against Yabloko, calling for criminal cases against party members; Yabloko itself says that support from abroad has nothing to do with the party.