Press Release, 28.04.2026

Photo: Artur Gaiduk / Photo by Pskov Yabloko

The Pskov Regional Court has upheld a fine of 1,000 roubles imposed on the leader of the Pskov branch of Yabloko and deputy of the regional Legislative Assembly, Artur Gaiduk, over a photograph on Odnoklassniki social media. A witness in the case stated that it was he, not the deputy, who had posted the photograph. The Pskov Regional Court’s ruling may prevent the politician from standing in elections. The decision will be contested in cassation.

On 27 April, a judge of the Pskov Regional Court upheld the ruling of the Pskov City Court of 1 April, by which regional Assembly deputy Artur Gaiduk had been fined under Article 20.3 of the Russian Code of Administrative Offences for “displaying extremist symbols”. The “extremist symbols” in question were deemed to be a photograph of Alexei Navalny saved on the day of his death to an album on his Odnoklassniki page (it should be noted that Navalny was entered on the list of terrorists and extremists and has not been removed from it posthumously).

The court disregarded all arguments put forward by the defence in the appeal. These included, for instance, the fact that none of the official federal registers maintained by the Ministry of Justice and Rosfinmonitoring contained any indication that a photograph of the deceased politician constituted “paraphernalia” of extremist organisations or was prohibited from publication. Nor does the photograph appear in the Federal List of Extremist Materials.

The defence further pointed out that the photograph for which Gaiduk had been fined had been published by state and state-affiliated Russian media outlets — including RIA Novosti, TASS, Parlamentskaya Gazeta, and Rossiyskaya Gazeta — which gave every reasonable ground to assume that its publication did not contravene any law.

It should be noted that, in addition to Artur Gaiduk, six other Yabloko members have been fined under Article 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offences: Yabloko party Chairman Nikolai Rybakov, leader of the Yabloko faction in the Legislative Assembly deputy of St.Petersburg Alexander Shishlov, deputy of Legislative Assembly deputy of St.Petersburg Olga Shtannikova, leader of Karelian Yabloko and Honoured Teacher of Russia Emilia Slabunova, Yelena Ivanova, Deputy Chair of the Novgorod branch of Yabloko, and Yabloko member from the Novgorod region Anton Kostryukov.

The practices of barring opposition candidates from elections through even small fines for the alleged display of “extremist symbols” has been widespread since 2021. Several days before the most recent State Duma elections were called, amendments were adopted to the federal law on the fundamental guarantees of electoral rights, stripping individuals deemed to have been involved in the activities of extremist organisations of their passive suffrage. The courts have interpreted “involvement” in the broadest possible terms.