Judge Yulia Lobanova presided over the hearing. Kudelkin arrived in court without a lawyer: he was told about the hearing an hour and a half before it began, had no time to find a defense attorney, and the judge refused to give him time to look for one, a Mediazona correspondent reported from the courtroom.
Before the ruling was announced, Kudelkin said he had once already witnessed "the collapse of the country." According to him, the country fell apart because people stopped trusting the state — the parliament, the courts and law enforcement agencies. The politician added that as a patriot he remains in the country and intends to do everything possible to prevent a repeat collapse.
Kudelkin was detained on September 7 as he went out for a run. The same day, five other Yabloko parliamentary candidates were detained in the Sverdlovsk Region — administrative protocols were drawn up against all of them under an article that provides grounds to bar them from the elections.
Kudelkin's protocol listed three Facebook posts. The first, dated November 15, 2023, has the author writing that he believes in the possibility of a scenario in which "trolls turn into elves," referring to the "technological" mode of action of "the bosses of the Anti-Corruption Foundation who remain at liberty." A picture with the Anti-Corruption Foundation logo is attached to the post. The second, dated May 13, 2024, contains the words "In no way do I compare Belousov to Speer" and a photograph of Hitler and Speer showing the flag of Nazi Germany. The third, dated August 11, 2025, concerns the 1938 conspiracy and includes a photograph of Hitler wearing a Nazi armband.
Kudelkin is a sitting candidate for the Legislative Assembly of the Sverdlovsk Region, running in the Verkh-Isetsky district. A court ruling that has entered into force holding him liable under the article on banned symbols will prevent him from taking part in the elections.
The same day, Judge Olga Panfilova of the Oktyabrsky District Court of Yekaterinburg fined Shana Ognei, a Yabloko member, 2,000 rubles under the same article — for Twitter posts with pentagram images and symbols of the Vesna movement. Ognei did not attend the hearing; her defense lawyer argued that her client has a small child and illnesses that preclude arrest, and that Ognei is not a Satanist. Ognei is running for the regional Legislative Assembly in the Krasnoufimsky district.