Press Release, 17.09.2026

Photo: A ballot with an inscription “A vote for peace” / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

Territorial electoral commissions (TECs) unlawfully refused to admit around 100 observers for Yabloko candidate Sergei Mitrokhin to work at polling stations. On 16 September, he filed a complaint with the Central Electoral Commission. Throughout the day on 17 September, the Central Electoral Commission kept saying that the complaint was under review. Meanwhile, voting begins tomorrow.

Yabloko is demanding that the Central Electoral Commission review the complaint without delay and admit the observers to the polling stations.

In St. Petersburg, Territorial Electoral Commissions No. 60, No. 61, No. 62, No. 63, No. 29 and No. 21 sent identical letters to Vitaly Isakov, the lawyer standing as a Yabloko candidate for the State Duma in Constituency No. 217.

The commissions claim that the lawyer — Yabloko’s representative in numerous courts, including the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court — allegedly forgot to sign the documents.

Isakov categorically disagrees. He went to the Frunzensky District Administration, where several of the TECs that refused to admit the observers are located. He was not shown the documents in question.

At the same time, the notices of refusal arrived to Isakov only after the commission’s working day had already ended, meaning the TECs left no way to make corrections or clarifications.

Moreover, physical force was used against Yabloko candidate Isakov and his assistant by Oleg Chernov, Chairman of TEC No. 63. All of this took place in front of a police officer, who did nothing, Yabloko in St. Petersburg reports.