Press Release, 4.03.2026

Photo: Boris Vishnevsky / Photo by Konstantin Lenkov

On 4 March, the Second Court of Appeals upheld the decision of the St. Petersburg City Court, which last November deemed a collection of articles by Yabloko Deputy Chairman Boris Vishnevsky “extremist material”. The book “Chronicles of the Reborn Arkanar” was published eleven years ago.

“The book was written by a true patriot of Russia,” Oleg Basilashvili, famous Russian actor and Honorary Citizen of St. Petersburg, noted in his review upon its publication.

It should be noted that the St. Petersburg Public Prosecutor’s Office demanded that the book be declared “extremist,” citing an expert analysis, the substantive part of which is less than two pages long, the document itself represents a subjective and biased interpretation of the book’s contents. The authors of the “study” — a Master of Religious Studies and a practicing psychologist in the public education system — citing the 2024 version of the Criminal Code, assess the presence of unlawful actions in their “analysis” and reflect on the constitutional order, before concluding that the proposal to “return to the civilised world” contains calls for violence. They also assessed Vishnevsky’s “invectives” that the church may have “earthly goals” as offensive.

The St. Petersburg City Court’s decision adopted the findings of the “analysis” almost verbatim. In November 2025, the court deemed alternative expert opinions, which completely refute the findings of the “analysis” commissioned by the public prosecutor’s office, to be “private opinions”. Yabloko Party Chairman Nikolai Rybakov called the city court’s decision “not based on Russian law”.

On 4 March, Vishnevsky’s lawyer, Andrei Chertkov, argued that the St. Petersburg City Court’s decision was unlawful, defining extremism as the author’s expression of opposition political views critical of the current government, individual officials, or institutions.

This position of the city court, the lawyer emphasised, directly contradicts the legal position set forth in Paragraph 7 of Resolution No. 11 of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of Russia dated June 28, 2011: “Criticism of political organisations, ideological and religious associations, political or public figures in connection with the exercise of their powers or the performance of other actions determined by their status, as well as political, ideological, or religious beliefs, or national or religious customs, should not in itself be considered an action aimed at inciting hatred or enmity.”

However, the appellate court ignored all the defence’s arguments and upheld the decision to add Boris Vishnevsky’s book to the list of “extremist materials”.

The appellate court’s decision will be appealed.