Blog post by Viktor Kogan-Yasny, 22.09.2026

Photo: Viktor Kogan-Yasny

Yabloko has shown that society does exist in our country: a peaceful society that wants peace and the public good for everyone, for Russia and its neighbours.

Arrogant officials have always looked at us (and still do) as if we were mad. And in a way, we are: living by the rules and “playing” by the rules when those who make the decisions reject any rules whatsoever is the kind of madness which, we may very much hope, will enable us to achieve our aims.

We are very stubborn. My generation is stubborn, but what I saw at meetings and at polling stations broke every conceivable record… And not once was there any aggression, any spontaneous outburst of discontent or any destruction: the young people showed an enormous sense of responsibility.

The entire visual protest which, according to the Chair of the Central Electoral Commission [Ella Pamfilova], had been suppressed consisted of people bringing apples [the party’s name, Yabloko, means “apple” in Russian] to polling stations. For all my personal dislike of any kind of protest performance, even I can say thank you for one like this.

Thank you to everyone, friends and strangers alike! Thank you to those who, despite hints from their superiors, honestly performed their duties on electoral commissions at all levels.

Thanks even to Ella Pamfilova [Chair of the Central Electoral Commission] for instructing that everyone who was queuing outside the doors of polling stations, and was therefore technically outside them at 8 p.m.[the time polling stations must close], should be allowed to vote.

And boundless thanks to the volunteers!

Life has caught us up in a whirlwind, though we expected things to be as they always had been.Perhaps it is just for a day; perhaps it will burst through into years.Don’t lose heart, hold on: our “then” will be the way we lived through it all, as we are living today,and answered life’s challenges with a timid “yes”.*

* Translator’s note: the original, by Viktor Kogan-Yasny, is in rhyming verse; the translation conveys its meaning but not its rhyme (read the original here).

VIKTOR KOGAN-YASNY
is an Advisor to the Chairman of the Federal Political Committee of the Yabloko party. Head of the public organisation “Regional Civil Initiative – the Right to Life and Civil Dignity”. One of the founders of the Memorial Human Rights Centre. Candidate of chemical sciences.