Press Release, 10.10.2025

Photo: Maxim Kruglov / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

Arrested Yabloko Deputy Chairman of Yabloko Maxim Kruglov, via the FSIN-letter service, asked one of his colleagues to convey words of gratitude to all who support him:

“Dear friends,

Hello to everyone! I would like to convey my heartfelt gratitude to you for your support and warm words — they warm my heart and give me strength. Everything is well with me — as far as is possible under the circumstances. I receive many letters and kind words — thank you! I am sorry that I haven’t yet succeeded to reply to everyone, but I will definitely do so!

As, I think, the brothers Arkady and Boris Strugatsky [popular science fiction authors in the USSR and Russia] said (and Boris, by the way, was a Yabloko supporter), let us look into the future with inexhaustible optimism! This era will pass, and people in uniform will be replaced by people with books.

Please take care of yourselves!

Yours,

Maxim”

It should be noted, incidentally, that Boris Strugatsky in a letter to fellow Yabloko supporters wrote the lines back in 2009 that are relevant today:

“Now, evidently, we must be patient, grit our teeth and not yield. Confidence and firmness win. Wishing confidence and firmness to you. And victory!”

It should be recalled that Maxim Kruglov was detained on 1 October by Investigative Committee officers, and then charged with disseminating “fakes about the army” (Article 207.3, Part 2, point “d” of the Criminal Code). The next day, Zamoskvoretsky District Court in Moscow sent Kruglov to a remand centre until 29 November, imposing a preventive measure in the form of detention. The court ignored the personal guarantees of party leaders Nikolai Rybakov, Grigory Yavlinsky and Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexei Arbatov, as well as letters of reference from Kruglov’s workplaces and the fact that he had no criminal record or any previous problems with the law. The court nevertheless agreed with the public prosecutor’s untenable arguments that Kruglov could supposedly leave the country, despite the fact that his passport for travels abroad was confiscated.

On 6 October it was reported that the defence appealed Kruglov’s arrest. The court had no grounds whatsoever for imposing a preventive measure on Kruglov at all, let alone one as severe as detention, lawyer Natalia Tikhonova said.

At present, Maxim Kruglov is being held in remand centre No. 7 (Kapotnya, Moscow). Yabloko asks its members to write letters of support to Maxim.