Press Release, 23.04.2026

Photo: Grigory Gribenko on 10 April following the crackdown by traffic police

This afternoon in Irkutsk, a search was carried out at the flat of Grigory Gribenko, Chairman of Irkutsk Yabloko. The party’s central office was informed of this by the politician’s wife.

She told the party that upon returning home from work, she had found her young daughter in the family car in the car park outside their building, surrounded by strangers. These people identified themselves as police officers and said that a search was under way in the Gribenkos’ flat in connection with a case involving “possession of narcotic substances”.

Grigory Gribenko was subsequently taken to a police station. A lawyer working with Yabloko is currently on his way to him.

Over the past several months, Grigory Gribenko has been subjected to pressure from the Irkutsk authorities in connection with his attempts to hold a rally in the city in defence of Telegram and in support of a free Internet. He has been taking legal action against the Irkutsk Mayor’s Office over its unlawful refusals to approve the event, which had originally been scheduled for 1 March and which, according to the estimation of the authorities, could have drawn as many as 70,000 people, given the widespread public interest in the issue of Internet restrictions.

On 10 April, security forces conducted a crackdown on Gribenko and subsequently compelled him to undergo sobriety testing. Fearing that the results might be falsified at a municipal laboratory, the politician had his tests carried out at an independent clinic. The results of both tests were published here. As expected, the results from the private laboratory showed the absence of any intoxicating or otherwise prohibited substances.