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The Oktyabrsky District Court in Yekaterinburg has sentenced Vladimir Sevostyanov, Yabloko’s candidate for the State Duma, to 12 days of administrative arrest under the charge of “displaying extremist symbols” (Part 1, Article 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses). The announcement was made by the press service of the party’s city branch.
The reason was a repost made by Sevostyanov in 2020 of someone else’s publication. The contents of the post are unknown.
Sevostyanov – a deputy of the Duma of Sukhoy Log in Sverdlovsk Region, will be released from the detention centre only after the State Duma elections, which are scheduled for 18 to 20 September. It is unlikely that there will be time to remove Sevostyanov from the ballot. Yabloko’s press service explained that the ruling comes into force only after the appeal period expires.
During the current campaign, Yabloko candidates across the country have been removed from elections and subjected to administrative penalties. For example, in Kaliningrad, a Russian region on the Baltic Sea, State Duma and regional assembly candidate Anton Gendrikson was arrested for ten days for posts featuring the Instagram and Facebook logos without mentioning that they belong to Meta, which is designated an “extremist” company. For this violation, Gendrikson is now barred from running in both the State Duma and the regional assembly elections.
In Nizhny Novgorod Region, musician Dmitry Smirnov was removed from the elections. The grounds were a 2015 photo he posted of the late Motörhead frontman Lemmy Kilmister, who was wearing a pendant in the shape of a German cross. An expert concluded that the symbol “resembles a Nazi award to a confusing degree,” even though there was no swastika.
Yaroslav Shcherbakov, head of Yabloko’s Chelyabinsk branch, was excluded from the list of candidates following complaints about a campaign video shot against a reproduction of Banksy’s “Girl with Balloon” and a portrait of academician Andrei Sakharov. In the video, Shcherbakov quoted Soviet foreign minister Andrei Gromyko: “Better ten years of negotiations than one day of war.” The candidate from the Green Party who filed the complaint argued that this was a breach of copyright.
In Moscow Region, a court cancelled the registration of candidate Aleksandr Muravyov. One of the complaints against him concerned a TV ad featuring the slogan “For a free internet without blockings.” Muravyov’s rival from the “Party of the Elderly” claimed that this phrase creates a negative attitude among voters towards other candidates and parties. In addition, Muravyov was accused of using an unlicensed font and airing a segment containing someone else’s TV ident.
Previously, the Supreme Court annulled the registration of Yabloko’s federal list following a suit from the Rodina Party. Among the reasons cited by the court were copyright violations for the use of the phrases “Let there always be sunshine” and “As long as there is no war,” publishing materials on foreign online platforms, and donations from people who had previously received foreign transfers. As a result, Yabloko can now participate in the State Duma elections only through single-member constituencies.
As of 14 September, the party’s website lists 117 single-member candidates. According to party data cited by Agency, this number includes 14 candidates who are appealing court decisions cancelling their registration. If the appeals courts uphold these rulings, Yabloko will be left with 103 single-member candidates across 43 regions.
In the regional parliamentary elections, Yabloko’s list has been preserved only in Novgorod Region. In St Petersburg and Leningrad Region, it was not registered, while in Karelia, Pskov, Kaliningrad, Sverdlovsk and Tomsk regions, the courts cancelled the registration.
Nonetheless, the party’s candidates continue to run in regional elections in single-member constituencies. There are now 74 left in seven regions: 18 in Sverdlovsk Region (a major industrial centre in the Urals), 13 in St Petersburg, 12 in Karelia (a region on the Finnish border), 12 in Novgorod Region (northwestern Russia), 10 in Pskov Region (near the Baltic states), seven in Tomsk Region (in western Siberia), and two in Kaliningrad Region (on the Baltic Sea).