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The Oktyabrsky District Court of Yekaterinburg has sentenced Vladimir Sevastyanov, a State Duma candidate from Yabloko, to 12 days of administrative arrest under the charge of “displaying extremist symbols” (Part 1, Article 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offences). This was reported by the local branch of the party.
The grounds for the case were Sevastyanov’s reposting of another person’s publication in 2020. The content of the post is unknown.
Sevastyanov is a deputy in the council of Sukhoy Log, Sverdlovsk Oblast. He will leave the detention facility after the State Duma elections, which are scheduled from 18 to 20 September. However, it is unlikely that Sevastyanov will be officially removed from the ballot before the vote. The Yabloko press service explained that the court ruling will only come into force after the appeal period ends.
Throughout the current campaign, Yabloko candidates have been removed from elections and faced administrative penalties across the country. In Kaliningrad, State Duma and regional assembly candidate Anton Gendrikson was arrested for ten days over posts displaying the Instagram and Facebook logos without a disclaimer that these platforms belong to Meta, which Russia has recognised as an “extremist” company. Due to this conviction, Gendrikson will be barred from standing in both the State Duma and the regional assembly elections.
In Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, musician Dmitry Smirnov was removed from the election race. The reason: he had posted a photo in 2015 of the late Motörhead frontman Lemmy Kilmister, who was wearing a pendant shaped like a German cross. An expert concluded that the symbol “closely resembled a Nazi award,” even though there was no swastika on it.
The head of Yabloko’s Chelyabinsk branch, Yaroslav Shcherbakov, was excluded from the list of candidates after complaints about an election video recorded with a reproduction of Banksy’s “Girl with Balloon” graffiti and a portrait of academic Andrei Sakharov in the background. In the video, Shcherbakov quoted Soviet foreign minister Andrei Gromyko: “Better ten years of negotiations than one day of war.” A candidate from the Green Party who filed the suit claimed this violated copyright.
In the Moscow region a court cancelled the registration of candidate Aleksandr Muravyev. One of the complaints against him concerned a TV ad with the slogan “For a free internet without blockages.” Muravyev’s rival from the Party of the Elderly claimed the phrase led voters to form a negative impression of other candidates and parties. Muravyev was also accused of using an unlicensed font and airing a TV clip containing someone else’s graphics.
Earlier, the Supreme Court cancelled Yabloko’s federal party list registration following a lawsuit from the Rodina party. The court cited, among the grounds for its decision: copyright infringements related to the use of the phrases “Let there always be sunshine” and “If only there were no war,” posting material to foreign websites, and receiving donations from people who had previously received funds from abroad. As a result, Yabloko can now compete in the Duma elections only in single-mandate constituencies.
As of 14 September, the party’s website lists 117 single-mandate candidates. According to figures provided by Yabloko to the Agentstvo news outlet, this number includes 14 candidates who are appealing court rulings cancelling their registrations. If the appellate courts uphold these decisions, Yabloko will be left with 103 single-mandate candidates in 43 regions.
In regional parliamentary elections, Yabloko’s list remains only in Novgorod Oblast. In St Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast, the list was not registered, while in Karelia, Pskov, Kaliningrad, Sverdlovsk, and Tomsk oblasts the courts cancelled registration.
Nevertheless, the party still has candidates standing in regional elections in single-mandate districts. There are 74 remaining such candidates across seven administrative regions: 18 in Sverdlovsk Oblast, 13 each in St Petersburg, 12 each in Karelia and Novgorod Oblast, ten in Pskov Oblast, seven in Tomsk Oblast, and two in Kaliningrad Oblast.