Russia's Supreme Court on [date] ordered the removal of the liberal Yabloko party from the State Duma election ballot, siding with a lawsuit filed by the pro-Kremlin Rodina party. The hearing, which lasted more than seven hours, was presided over by Judge Vyacheslav Kirillov, who previously ruled to designate the human rights organization Memorial as extremist and liquidated the Civil Initiative party, which had nominated Boris Nadezhdin for president.
Rodina accused Yabloko of copyright violations, citing the use of photographs of Dmitry Medvedev and blogger Victoria Boni, frames from the film 'War and Peace', an image of the atomic explosion in Hiroshima, and images generated by ChatGPT. A separate claim concerned the song 'May There Always Be Sunshine', with the son of composer Arkady Ostrovsky stating he had no objection to its use by the party.
Rodina also argued that Yabloko's anti-war stance constituted extremism. Yabloko chairman Nikolai Rybakov told the court that the plaintiff was asking the Supreme Court to 'reject the Constitution of Russia'. He said the party advocates a ceasefire agreement in Ukraine, a position he said does not contradict statements by President Vladimir Putin.
A Central Election Commission representative said during the hearing that Rosfinmonitoring, Russia's financial watchdog, had identified foreign-source funds received by individuals on Yabloko's list and its counterparties. Party lawyers countered that the funds were received by Russian citizens from abroad, with only 16,900 rubles transferred as donations.
Hundreds of Yabloko supporters gathered outside the court building, with the party's press service estimating around 500 people. After the ruling was announced, the crowd chanted 'Shame!'. According to media reports, two women distributing campaign leaflets were detained by riot police.
Yabloko was the only one of the 11 registered parties running on an anti-war platform under the slogan 'For Peace and Freedom'. Earlier, several party candidates were refused registration for elections to the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly and the Petrozavodsk city council. Following the party's removal, opposition politicians and activists, including Yulia Navalnaya, called for support for Yabloko, though the party itself distanced itself from such backing.