Press Release, 17.03.2026

Photo: Sofya Fyodorova, lawyer and applicant for the Kazan rally / Photo by the Tatarstan branch of Yabloko

Representatives of Yabloko submitted a notification to the Kazan Executive Committee regarding a planned rally in defence of a free Internet, the Tatarstan branch of the party has announced. The stated aim of the event is to “draw the attention of the public, the media, and state authorities” to the protection of citizens’ right to freedom of information, including the freedom to seek, receive, and disseminate it. In addition to opposing the blocking and slow down of messaging across the Russian Federation, Yabloko members intend to speak out against the imposition of the state messenger MAX.

Tatarstan Yabloko is awaiting approval for the rally scheduled on 28 March and has proposed three possible venues to the Executive Committee, all of which are located in the centre of Kazan, accessible to both pedestrians and vehicles, and well known to residents of Tatarstan. The declared number of participants is 100.

To date, the Russian authorities have blocked the YouTube platform and several messaging applications, and are preparing for a total block on Telegram, while simultaneously pushing increased use of the state messenger MAX in universities, schools, and workplaces. Yabloko considers this a violation of Article 29 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, which guarantees freedom of thought and expression as well as the right to freely seek, receive, and disseminate information, activists of the Tatarstan branch stated.

The applicant for the rally in defence of Internet freedom in Kazan is Sofya Fyodorova, a lawyer, activist, and Yabloko associate; the co-organiser is Ruslan Zinatullin, the leader of the Yabloko branch in Tatarstan. He has highlighted that certain districts of the city have gone for extended periods without mobile coverage or mobile Internet, while wi-fi operates intermittently. Residents — potentially thousands of Kazan inhabitants — are forced to rely on landline telephones to contact one another and make basic emergency calls to ambulance or police services.

“I should note that, under new laws, telecommunications operators are exempt from liability for failing to provide services when public safety is cited as the reason, and it is precisely safety that is invoked to justify the constant blocking,” Ruslan Zinatullin observed. “In other words, people continue to pay for mobile services and meet their subscription fees in full, yet receive no service in return, remaining cut off from their relatives and from access to information altogether. And there is nowhere to lodge a complaint.”

It should be noted that in February – March Yabloko representatives sought approval for similar rallies in defence of Telegram and for a free Internet in Moscow and Irkutsk. In Moscow, the applicants included party Chairman Nikolai Rybakov in a personal capacity. The authorities refused to give their permission for the events on different grounds.

In Moscow, the Moscow Mayor’s Office cited Covid-era restrictions and a blanket ban on public gathering, notwithstanding the fact that large-scale municipal cultural and sporting events have continued to take place regularly. In Irkutsk, the first rally was initially approved, then rejected on the grounds that citizens had shown excessive interest in the event and in the defence of Internet freedom. A second application in Irkutsk was likewise refused, this time on the basis that demands for freedom of expression and access to information, as guaranteed by the Russian Constitution, were deemed unlawful. The leader of Irkutsk Yabloko, Grigory Gribenko, is already pursuing legal action against the Irkutsk administration over the first refusal and intends to challenge the lawfulness of the second refusal in court as well.