Press Release, 5.08.2026

Photo: St. Petersburg Yabloko delegation before submitting documents for Legislative Assembly candidates to the Electoral Commission on 9 July 2026 / Photo by the St. Petersburg branch of the party

The Yabloko party has filed a claim with the St. Petersburg City Court seeking to overturn the decision of the St. Petersburg Electoral Commission refusing to register the party’s list for the Legislative Assembly election.

The claim runs that on 11 July the St. Petersburg Electoral Commission had certified Yabloko’s list of candidates for the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly election and had registered its authorised financial representatives. On 15 July the party had submitted all the documents required for registration in good time, including the first financial report. On 18 July the deadline for the nomination of candidates expired, and on 20 July the St. Petersburg Electoral Commission sent Yabloko a notice of alleged deficiencies — although these could only have been rectified by 18 July. Although, in the view of Yabloko’s lawyers, there had been no deficiencies in the original package of documents, the St. Petersburg Electoral Commission had deliberately delayed sending the notice.

It should be noted that the day before Yabloko’s complaint against the decision of the St. Petersburg Electoral Commission was heard by the Central Electoral Commission (CEC), Ella Pamfilova, CEC Chair, met with St. Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov and praised him for the way the election had been organised. The following day, members of the Central Electoral Commission disregarded Yabloko’s well-founded arguments and rejected the complaint, with Ella Pamfilova absent from the meeting altogether.

Yabloko is now asking the court to overturn the decisions of the St. Petersburg and Central Electoral Commissions and to order the St. Petersburg Electoral Commission to register the party’s list of candidates. Yabloko will be represented in court by lawyer Alexander Kobrinsky, deputy head of the party’s St. Petersburg branch.

“I haven’t met a single person who would deny that Yabloko’s removal from the St. Petersburg election yet again is an act by the city authorities. We know that Governor Beglov and United Russia have a long history of fighting Yabloko using unworthy methods. But governors come and go, while Yabloko and St. Petersburg remain,” said Yabloko Chairman Nikolai Rybakov.

The refusal to allow Yabloko to take part in the forthcoming Legislative Assembly election on spurious grounds, together with the Central Electoral Commission’s refusal to overturn that decision, are unlawful and politically motivated, says Dmitry Anisimov, the leader of the party’s list in St. Petersburg:

“As a result of this politically ordered decision, hundreds of thousands of St. Petersburg residents are being denied the chance to vote for the party they have supported for generations. A significant part of society that stands for peace and freedom is being artificially silenced. This undermines the legitimacy of the election and, as a result, public stability. That is why we will seek to have our list reinstated by every lawful means available.”

It should be noted that in 2026 Yabloko is standing in legislative assembly elections in nine Russian regions: St. Petersburg, the Republic of Karelia, and the Pskov, Sverdlovsk, Novgorod, Kaliningrad, Leningrad, Moscow and Tomsk regions. In addition, the party has put forward candidates in single-mandate constituencies in the Lipetsk region and the Altai Territory.