Leonid Slutsky, leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR), called on Tuesday for the Yabloko party to be declared an 'undesirable organization'. He said 'the time has come', recalling that Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the late LDPR founder, had predicted in 2021 that Yabloko would be designated as undesirable for its ideas.
Slutsky argued that signing a peace agreement would mean 'handing over Russian people living there and in Crimea to be torn apart by Ukrainian militants'. He called such a decision 'treason' and compared it to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, signed in 1918.
The previous day, Sergei Mironov, leader of A Just Russia, accused Yabloko representatives of repeatedly showing themselves to be 'hidden and direct traitors to the Motherland'. He urged the Justice Ministry and the Prosecutor General's Office to 'take a close look' at the party and its leaders and give a legal assessment of their actions. Mironov also said the party 'openly opposes the special military operation' and demanded that its election campaigning not be used 'for anti-Russian purposes'.
Gennady Zyuganov, head of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, said Yabloko does not support 'the policy of strengthening statehood in conditions of military confrontation'. Alexei Zhuravlev, leader of the Rodina party, said Yabloko representatives want to 'discredit the elections' and should be 'chased with a dirty broom from the election campaign'.
Nikolai Rybakov, chairman of Yabloko, responded to the statements by leaders of pro-government parties. 'I feel sorry for these people. Because over the years in politics they have lost both their soul and their heart. Unfortunately, their actions and their position lead and will lead to even greater casualties,' he said.
Earlier, Russian political emigrants called for voting for Yabloko in the upcoming State Duma elections. Opposition politicians, human rights activists and journalists launched a campaign in support of the party, noting that Yabloko itself has no connection to it. The Central Election Commission allowed Yabloko to participate in the elections last week.