Press Release, 21.10.2026

Photo: Tatyana Shneider / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

The Kuibyshevsky District Court of Omsk has fined Omsk Yabloko leader Tatyana Shneider 10,000 roubles under Article 20.3.1 of the Code of Administrative Offences over a comment posted on the VK social network 15 years ago. The comment appeared after a series of hacks of Shneider’s social media accounts, and she was not the author of the comment.

It should be noted that the administrative case against the leader of Omsk Yabloko came to light on 15 October. On the same day, Tatyana Shneider went to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, where she was shown two screenshots: one of the politician’s VK page and the other of a comment she had allegedly written in 2011. Moreover, on 15 October, staff at the Public Prosecutor’s Office did not give her the opportunity to examine the case materials in full, putting this off until 21 October, which was effectively the date of the court hearing.

According to the case materials:

• the comment allegedly written by Shneider had been “discovered” by the Centre for Combating Extremism (Centre E) officers monitoring the politician’s social media as early as 12 August, that is, at the height of the election campaign, when Shneider was among the top seven candidates on Yabloko’s federal list for the State Duma elections;
• in response to a request from the Public Prosecutor’s Office, VK stated that there was no information from 15 years ago on its servers, and that it was “not possible” to confirm or refute that the 2011 comment had been posted from Tatyana Shneider’s page.

Nevertheless, although the Omsk Yabloko leader’s guilt had not been proven, a judge of the Kuibyshevsky District Court of Omsk found Tatyana Shneider guilty and imposed a fine of 10,000 roubles.

The administrative prosecution of Tatyana Shneider is undoubtedly linked to her political activities and the broad support for Yabloko in the Omsk Region.

“The only purpose of this prosecution and the pressure on Tatyana Shneider is to keep a popular politician out of the upcoming elections,” stresses Yabloko Chairman Nikolai Rybakov.

It should also be noted that fines under “extremist” articles are often used as a means of political pressure, as they deprive a person of the right to stand for election for a year. Elections to the Omsk City Council will be held in autumn 2027.