Press Release, 4 June 2026

Photo: Yegor Tkachenko / Photo by the Yabloko branch in the Sverdlovsk Region

This was reported on the agency’s website. The party is not aware whether any criminal case has been opened against Tkachenko, though a number of media outlets have already published information to that effect.

It should be noted that in April, searches were carried out at the homes of Maxim Petlin, Chairman of the Yabloko regional branch in Sverdlovsk Oblast, and Yegor Tkachenko, a former activist of Yabloko Youth in Yekaterinburg. The politicians were subsequently questioned by the Investigative Committee but were afterwards released without records being drawn up.

“People who are about as far removed from extremism as it is possible to be are now being labelled extremists. This normalises extreme methods and violence, rendering them permissible and even welcomed by the authorities,” emphasises Yabloko Chairman Nikolai Rybakov. “Moreover, current legislation permits the rights of people who have not been found guilty to be curtailed. They are in effect sentenced to financial and civic death. This is wholly inadmissible, and the legal provisions that allow it must be repealed.”

Ivan Bolshakov, head of Yabloko’s Analytical Centre, notes that young people are entering lawful politics and civic activism only to face immediate pressure from the security services:

“They are intimidated and labelled ‘terrorists and extremists’. In this way, young people are being pushed away from legitimate forms of political participation and, conversely, towards radical groups. Law enforcement agencies must recognise that they are creating a vicious circle: the greater the pressure on peaceful, lawful, open opposition, the more arguments genuine radicals have for recruiting disaffected Russians.”

It should also be recalled that the April “operational and investigative measures”, which included searches and detentions of Yabloko members, were connected to last year’s searches at the Yekaterinburg Yabloko office. On 25 May 2025, an evening of writing letters to political prisoners was being held at the party office when security service officers arrived and detained the participants and branch leadership.