Nikolai Rybakov, the leader of Russia’s only registered anti-war party Yabloko, said he will remain in Russia and push for change despite mounting pressure from pro-Kremlin authorities that led to his party’s exclusion from upcoming parliamentary elections.
Russia’s Supreme Court ruled on Monday, Aug. 10, to bar Yabloko from participating in parliamentary elections scheduled for Sept. 18-19.
Rybakov told Reuters at his Moscow headquarters on Thursday, Aug 13, that the decision reflects the authorities’ growing concern that the party’s call to end the war has been resonating with voters.
“For us, the support of the people that exists now, which is completely obvious and impossible to hide, is far more important than the court’s decision,” Rybakov said.
“I am in Russia and will remain in Russia”
Despite tight censorship laws and wartime legislation that have driven many opposition figures to leave the country or risk prosecution, Rybakov told Reuters that he has no plans to leave Russia.
“I am in Russia and will remain in Russia,” he said, adding that “it is only possible to change what is happening in Russia, to change the political situation in Russia, by being inside the country.”
Yablokov currently holds only a handful of regional seats and no representation in the State Duma, which is dominated by the Kremlin-backed United Russia party.
Rybakov said Yabloko would be a stronger-than-expected contender in the 450-seat lower house vote if the party were allowed to run. The party is currently appealing the Supreme Court’s ruling.
Despite being pro-peace, it is worth noting that Yabloko is not pro-Ukrainian; the party is pushing for an immediate ceasefire that would leave the current front line largely intact.
However, Yabloko managed to unite not only past traditional liberal voters, but also families of servicemen, men worried about being drafted, and ordinary citizens tired of economic and civilian losses with one shared desire – for Russia’s war to end.
“You may keep Yabloko out of certain places, you may use various coercive methods against members of our party and against our party leaders, but there is nothing you can do about these millions of people who think the same way we do,” Rybakov said.
According to the Levada Center, a non-governmental pollster designated by Moscow as a foreign agent, public support for war and Russia’s armed forces fell to 66% in July.
The numbers mark the lowest level it has been since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.
Rodina’s lawsuit leading to the ban
The ruling to bar Yabloko from the upcoming elections came after Judge Vyacheslav Kirillov granted a lawsuit filed by lawyers for the nationalist Rodina party, which accused Yabloko of promoting “extremism” and receiving foreign funding.
Rodina leader Alexei Zhuravlyov, who also serves in the State Duma as a member of the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party, said his party had uncovered various violations committed by Yabloko, though he did not provide any specific evidence for his remarks.
Hundreds of Yabloko supporters gathered outside the courthouse chanting “Shame! Shame!”
A pattern of suppression
Yabloko is the only party in Russia that campaigns for peace and freedom. Many nationalist parties had previously accused Yabloko of “betraying the motherland” because of this.
For years, the Kremlin has spread propaganda to convince Russians that the invasion of Ukraine was not a choice but a necessity, and that refusing to fight would amount to accepting national defeat.
However, Yabloko offered a different version of Russia’s future, the one that does not center around war.
“The Yabloko party is full of traitors. These are people who work for the West and hold Western values,” Rodina leader Zhuravlyov told reporters outside the Supreme Court building on Aug. 7.
Yabloko’s removal from the upcoming elections, therefore, does not come as a surprise – rather, it fits Russia’s broader pattern of systematically suppressing progressive and liberal voices it associates with Western values.
Similarly, Moscow has previously promoted residency programs for foreigners who explicitly reject Western values and progressive social norms by issuing a “traditional values” visa scheme, framing itself as a refuge for those “under pressure” in liberal democracies.
The same reasoning Rodina used to brand Yabloko as “extremist” mirrors Moscow’s designation of the LGBTIQ+ movement as “extremist.” In both cases, openly liberal views are treated as a threat waiting to be legally erased.