Police in Kaliningrad detained Anton Gendrikson, a Yabloko candidate for the State Duma and the Kaliningrad regional legislature, and drew up a protocol under Article 20.3 of the Administrative Code, which bans the display of extremist symbols. The specific reason for the charge was not immediately known, the party said.
Gendrikson was taken to a police station in the Leningradsky district of Kaliningrad. He previously served as a municipal deputy in the resort town of Pionersky, elected as a member of the ruling United Russia party before leaving it.
On the same day, police in Novgorod issued a similar protocol against Anna Cherepanova, deputy chair of Yabloko. The charge stemmed from a YouTube video that included an image of Alexei Navalny, the late opposition leader whose organizations are designated as extremist in Russia. Cherepanova said the video was not hers and she had nothing to do with it, according to the party.
Cherepanova has already been registered as a candidate for the Novgorod regional legislature. If found guilty, she would be barred from running in elections for one year.
Yabloko said that, not counting Gendrikson and Cherepanova, 12 other party members have already been prosecuted under the same article. Earlier, party leader Nikolai Rybakov was stripped of the right to run in elections, and deputy chairs Boris Vishnevsky, Vladimir Dorokhov, and Lev Shlosberg were added to the register of 'foreign agents.'