Press Release, 20.08.2026

Photo: Olga Tsepilova, Anton Kostik / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

St. Petersburg’s Territorial Electoral Commissions (TECs) have registered Olga Tsepilova and Anton Kostik as Yabloko candidates in the single-mandate constituency elections for the Legislative Assembly. The TECs had earlier refused to register Tsepilova and Kostik on spurious grounds. The St. Petersburg City Court subsequently ruled the refusals lawful. However, on 17 August, the Second Court of Appeal of General Jurisdiction ordered the TECs to reconsider the registration of the Yabloko candidates.

As a result, following the registration of Olga Tsepilova and Anton Kostik, St. Petersburg Yabloko now has 13 registered single-mandate candidates in the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly election.

Olga Tsepilova is Chair of St. Petersburg Yabloko, a member of the party’s Federal Bureau, and the author of 70 academic papers. In 2007, Time magazine named her one of its “Heroes of the Environment”.

Anton Kostik is a lawyer who personally defended his right to stand for election in court, taking his case all the way to the Second Court of Appeal.

The other 11 Yabloko candidates in single-mandate constituencies in St. Petersburg are continuing their election campaigns.

It should also be noted that, on 19 August, the Second Court of Appeal dismissed Yabloko’s appeal against the St. Petersburg City Court’s ruling barring the party’s citywide list from the Legislative Assembly election. The ruling will be appealed to the Supreme Court of Russia.

Yabloko’s candidate lists for regional parliaments have already been registered in the Kaliningrad, Novgorod, Pskov, Sverdlovsk and Tomsk Regions.