In Yekaterinburg, a major city in the Urals, security forces visited the head of the local branch of the Yabloko party and another party member.

Searches were carried out in Yekaterinburg, a major city in the Urals, at the homes of Maxim Petlin, head of the regional branch of Yabloko, and party member Yegor Tkachenko, reports the Yabloko press service.

Operational and investigative actions are being carried out with Petlin and Tkachenko. Neither of them is currently in contact.

The party noted that so far there is no information on any charges brought against Petlin and Tkachenko.

Earlier, the head of the Yabloko branch in Moscow, Kirill Goncharov, reported that Tkachenko’s phone and laptop were seized, after which he was taken away to an unknown location.

According to Yabloko, the detention of their members is linked to the upcoming elections to the Legislative Assembly of Sverdlovsk region. The regional branch was planning to participate in the elections and had put together a list of 48 candidates for the local parliament.

18:24 For several hours now, lawyers have not been allowed access to the detainees, reports the Yabloko party press service.

They are presumed to be at Police Station No. 1. Despite the lawyer having provided all necessary documents, they are not being let in.

Yabloko has also learned of another detained person—party supporter Elizaveta Kabak.

30 April Maxim Petlin, Yegor Tkachenko and Elizaveta Kabak were released from the police station yesterday evening without any charges being filed, reported Yabloko’s press service.

“The so-called ‘operational and investigative measures,’ which today included searches and the detention of Yabloko members, were linked to last year’s searches at the Yekaterinburg Yabloko office,” the press service clarified.

This refers to a visit by security forces to a letter-writing event for political prisoners at Yabloko’s local office in May 2025. Mediazona writes that those detained yesterday were questioned about this event.

None of the detainees was allowed access to a lawyer.

• Last week, two Yabloko members planning to run again for regional parliaments this year were fined under the law on displaying banned symbols (part 1, article 20.3 of the Administrative Code). Being convicted under this article bars a person from running for election for a year.
• For instance, the head of Karelia’s Yabloko, Emilia Slabunova, was fined 1,000 roubles (about US$11) for a 2020 post with a photo of Alexei Navalny, and the leader of Yabloko’s caucus in Saint Petersburg’s Legislative Assembly, Alexander Shishlov, was fined 1,500 roubles (about US$17) over a video interview with Grigory Yavlinsky in which Navalny’s surname was mentioned.
• If these decisions take effect, Slabunova and Shishlov will not be able to run again for the legislative assemblies in their regions this year. Shishlov resigned his current mandate so that a party colleague could take his seat.