Press Release, 9.02.2026

Photo: Lawyers Vitaly Isakov and Maxim Kopytov representing Yabloko’s interests / Photo by Pskov Yabloko

The Pechora District Court has considered Pskov Yabloko’s claim for compensation for unlawful removal from the 2023 municipal elections. The proceedings lasted eight months, yet during this time none of the parties summoned to participate – from the regional electoral commission to the Russian Ministry of Finance – appeared in court. Ultimately, instead of the claimed 348,856 roubles, the court awarded Yabloko compensation of 10,000 roubles (approximately USD 100).

The Pechora Court became the last, seventh in a chain of district courts in the Pskov Region that had been considering similar claims from Pskov Yabloko. The judge had been considering the claim for eight months, with the decision handed down at the seventh hearing.

The first hearing had taken place back in July 2025, and was then repeatedly postponed by the judge for various reasons. Over the eight months of consideration, the following parties were brought into the case as third parties: the Electoral Commission of rthe Pskov Region, the administration of the Pechora Municipal District, the Ministry of Finance of the Pskov Region, the Territorial Electoral Commission of the Pechora District, and even the Assembly of Deputies of the Pechora Municipal District – not to mention the defendant, the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation, on whose behalf the regional directorate of the Ministry of Finance participated in the hearings, and the Pechora District Public Prosecutor’s Office.

Over seven hearings, not one of the third parties brought into the proceedings delegated their representatives to court, nor were there representatives of the defendant or the district public prosecutor. Only the claimant’s representatives – lawyers Vitaly Isakov and Maxim Kopytov – participated in the hearings.

“We have formed a firm conviction that the judge repeatedly postponed the hearing not out of a desire to learn from the electoral commissions and local government bodies of the Pechora Municipal District their opinion on the substance of the stated claim, but rather because of doubts regarding the content of the court decision that she would in any case have to make.

On the one hand, district courts had already handed down decisions on similar claims by the Yabloko party; on the other hand, the judge had already received information that part of the first instance courts’ decisions had been appealed by the defendant through the appellate procedure to the Pskov Regional Court,” Maxim Kopytov explains.

It should be noted that at the end of January, the Pskov Regional Court on appeal reduced the sum to be paid to Yabloko by the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation – from 196,452 roubles to 10,000 roubles (approximatelyh USD 100) for unlawful removal of Yabloko’s lists from the 2023 elections in the Bezhanitsy District.

At that time, in 2023, municipal elections had been taking place in the Pskov Region, and the registration of Yabloko’s lists of candidates had been challenged in courts by representatives of the Party of Growth, A Just Russia, and the Pensioners’ Party. In justification of their demands, they stated that Yabloko’s documents for submission to electoral commissions had been signed on 16 and 17 July (by the new Chairman of the regional branch, Artur Gaiduk, who had been elected on 24 June), whilst information about him had been entered by the tax inspectorate into the Unified State Register of Legal Entities (USRLE) only on 18 July.

Courts of general jurisdiction had supported this position, and in September 2023, before the unified voting day, Yabloko had appealed to the Supreme Court of Russia, but three months later it had refused to consider the complaints on their merits. Then in 2024, Yabloko had submitted a complaint to the Constitutional Court, stating in it that electoral legislation had been interpreted incorrectly by the courts, and that Gaiduk had possessed the right to sign documents a week before the data had been entered into the USRLE, having been elected head of the branch.

In March 2025, the Constitutional Court had agreed with Yabloko and confirmed that the head of a political organisation became such immediately from the moment of his election, and not from the moment the record of this was included in the USRLE. The Constitutional Court drew attention to the fact that the interpretation of the law to which courts of four instances had adhered constituted a deviation from the prescriptions of the Constitution and diminished the freedom of voters’ expression of will.

On 18 August 2025, the judge of the Bezhanitsy District Court had granted the application for compensatory mechanisms and awarded Pskov Yabloko 196,452 roubles in compensation. Of this sum, 96,452 roubles represented actual expenses on conducting the electoral campaign, 50,000 roubles for violation of the constitutional right to participate in elections, and 50,000 roubles as compensation for persistence in achieving the legal goal of defending one’s rights. It was precisely this compensation that had ultimately been reduced to 10,000 roubles.

In total, the court proceedings concerning compensation for Yabloko’s removal from the 2023 municipal elections relate to seven districts of the Pskov Region. In six of them, district courts have already awarded compensation – everywhere except the Pechora District, where proceedings are still ongoing – for a total sum of more than 1,116,000 roubles. In particular, claims by Pskov Yabloko have also been granted by the Strugi-Krasnisky District Court and the Pytalovo District Court, as well as courts in the Opochka and the Novorzhev District.

The Ministry of Finance has appealed all the awarded compensations and in two cases has already lost sums totalling more than 400,000 roubles.