Press Release, 8.09.2026

Photo: Central Electoral Commission Chair Ella Pamfilova presents Yaroslav Shcherbakov with his certificate as a State Duma candidate, 29 July 2026 / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

The Chelyabinsk Region Court has granted a claim filed by Artyom Kungurtsev, a candidate from the Greens party, and has revoked the registration of Yabloko candidate Yaroslav Shcherbakov in the State Duma elections for the Chelyabinsk single-mandate constituency.

The claim was based on allegedly unlawful campaigning and copyright infringements. Among the objections cited were the appearance in Shcherbakov’s video of Banksy’s famous work “Girl with Balloon”, an image of human rights defender and Nobel laureate Andrei Sakharov with the quote “The disunity of mankind threatens it with destruction”, and the use of words spoken by Soviet diplomat Andrei Gromyko: “Ten years of negotiations are better than one day of war”.

The claim also cited a video of Shcherbakov’s speech at the Yabloko Congress, in which the candidate spoke about repression in Russia and the party’s demand for an immediate ceasefire agreement.

The prosecutor supported the claim and found it possible to grant the Greens candidate’s demands. The representative of the Traktorozavodsky District Territorial Electoral Commission, acting as the defendant, left the decision to the court’s discretion.

In his closing statement, Yaroslav Shcherbakov said he had not infringed anyone’s copyright and presented the court with the necessary evidence. In his view, the claimant’s arguments could not serve as lawful grounds for revoking a candidate’s registration.

However, the court granted Artyom Kungurtsev’s claim and removed Yaroslav Shcherbakov from the elections.

The court’s ruling has not entered into legal force and will be appealed within five days.

After the hearing, Yaroslav Shcherbakov commented on the ruling, saying he considered it to have been expected.

“As expected, the Chelyabinsk Region Court has removed me from the elections. This is a familiar story. I am not the first, but I hope I’ll be the last, because I just missed the cut-off: [according to the Russian law] after 9 September [i.e., eight days before the elections], these claims can no longer be filed [to courts],” he said.

Speaking about the grounds for the claim, Shcherbakov said:

“As for the claim itself — it is complete nonsense. I refuted every accusation against me; there were no grounds for it whatsoever. The claim was filed by the contemptible Greens party, which is now spreading false information claiming that they are nominating removed Yabloko candidates. What they are actually doing is removing Yabloko’s candidates. So don’t support contemptible organisations like this, which serve someone else’s interests. Support the Yabloko party.”

Shcherbakov stressed that the ruling has not yet entered into force and that the election campaign continues: “We still have five candidates left in the region. Yabloko candidates, standing for peace and freedom, will be on every ballot paper in the Chelyabinsk Region. And this court ruling will certainly be appealed. So we carry on.”

He also urged Yabloko supporters to help with the campaign and to sign up as election observers: “We need your support. Come and help us distribute our campaign materials. Sign up as observers. We must submit our lists of observers to the electoral commissions by 14 September. This is very important.”

It should be noted that Yaroslav Shcherbakov headed the Yabloko party’s list in the 2026 State Duma elections. He is Chairman of Chelyabinsk Yabloko, a member of the party’s Federal Bureau, and a lawyer by training.