Press Release, 2.04.2026

Photo: Artur Gaiduk / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

A court has fined Artur Gaiduk, leader of Yabloko’s Pskov branch and deputy of the Pskov Region Legislative Assembly, 1,000 roubles under Article 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offences (“displaying extremist symbols”). An administrative liability under this article may prevent Gaiduk from standing as a candidate in the forthcoming elections, as a one-year ban on standing for election applies following a court ruling under the “extremist” article of the Code.

“On 1 April, a report was drawn up against Artur Gaiduk, Chairman of Pskov Yabloko and deputy of the Pskov Region Assembly. On the same day, the Pskov City Court fined Artur Gaiduk 1,000 roubles. Officers of the Department for Countering Extremism of the Ministry of Interior deemed extremist a photograph of Alexei Navalny (listed in the register of terrorists and extremists and not removed from it posthumously) which had been saved on the day of his death in a photo album on his page in the Odnoklassniki social network,” the party’s Pskov branch reports.

Gaiduk’s defence will decide whether to appeal once it has received a copy of the court ruling. The politician continues his work in the regional parliament and, together with the Pskov Yabloko team, is preparing for the forthcoming elections, the regional party branch emphasises.

Artur Gaiduk is the fifth Yabloko politician against whom Article 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offences (“displaying extremist symbols”) has been applied.

Four politicians have already been fined: on 27 November 2025, Olga Shtannikova, a deputy of the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly, was fined 1,500 roubles by the Kalininsky District Court over a post about combating corruption published in 2013. Then, on 4 December 2025, the Vyborgsky District Court of St. Petersburg fined Yabloko Chairman Nikolai Rybakov 1,500 roubles over a post expressing condolences on the death of Alexei Navalny in 2024. Later, on 6 February 2026, Yelena Ivanova, Deputy Chair of Novgorod Yabloko, was fined 2,000 roubles over a post featuring a photograph of Alexei Navalny published in 2017.

On 17 March, it was reported that Alexander Shishlov, leader of the Yabloko faction in the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly, had been charged with “displaying extremist symbols”.

The fines imposed on Yabloko members by the courts under Article 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offences are nominal; however, a court ruling strips them of the right to stand in elections for one year following its entry into force. It is clear to Yabloko that this has nothing to do with “combating extremism” and is solely a matter of carrying out a political order to remove the party’s leaders from the forthcoming federal and regional elections of 2026.