Russia Kicks the Last Anti-War Party Off the Ballot
Russia's top court has banned the country's only registered political party that opposed the war in Ukraine from running in September's parliamentary elections. On August 10, 2026, the Supreme Court canceled Yabloko's official registration, meaning the liberal party cannot put forward any candidates for the State Duma, Russia's parliament (Reuters).
The decision was not a surprise. Three days earlier, on August 7, the court had announced it would consider a lawsuit to block Yabloko from the ballot (Reuters). The August 10 ruling made that ban official (http://www.supcourt.ru).
Before the court stepped in, Russia's Central Election Commission, the agency that runs elections, had already started the process. It issued two formal decisions: one refusing to register Yabloko's official representatives, and another related to the party's candidate list (http://www.cikrf.ru). These steps handled the paperwork before the court delivered the final legal ruling.
Yabloko's removal came after months of pressure on the party's leaders. In October 2025, deputy leader Maxim Kruglov was charged with spreading what the government called false information about the Russian army. His offense? He had publicly called for a ceasefire in Ukraine. He faced up to ten years in prison (Reuters). In June 2026, he was convicted and sentenced to seven years (Reuters). Eight days after that sentence, Elena Perepelitsa, a 60-year-old figure in the party, was detained in Moscow (Reuters). On July 17, authorities detained a blogger who had criticized President Vladimir Putin and the war (Reuters).
The Supreme Court was busy with other cases around the same time. On August 7, the same day it announced it would consider barring Yabloko, it also upheld the sentence of a Ukrainian fighter convicted of a terrorist attack in Russia's Kursk region, and ruled that modifying an aircraft could require customs payments (http://www.supcourt.ru). Earlier in the summer, the court issued several other rulings: it set standards for real estate disputes on July 1, following guidance from Prosecutor General Igor Krasnov; it defined reasons to fire officials for loss of trust on July 2; it told courts to check whether buildings labeled as illegal constructions were properly classified on July 3; and that same day, it published rules on anti-corruption cases (http://www.supcourt.ru). Krasnov said on July 16 that a judge's job is to find a balance of interests, making law a real instrument of protection (http://www.supcourt.ru).
The broader context here matters. The court was doing two things at once: building rules on practical matters like property and corruption, while also delivering rulings with clear political consequences, like barring Yabloko and upholding the Kursk fighter's sentence.
Taken together, these actions interlock in a telling way. Banning Yabloko removes the last party voice against the war from the ballot. Jailing Kruglov removed the party's most visible leader. Detaining Perepelitsa and the blogger shows that the space for speaking out is shrinking beyond party politics. And the court's other rulings suggest the judiciary is building tools that reach into the economy and government administration, guided by a prosecutor who says law should be a real instrument of protection.
Whether that instrument protects the state, ordinary citizens, or both is the question September's elections will help answer. With Yabloko gone, no registered party opposing the war in Ukraine remains in the race.
