Press Release, 27.05.2026

Photo: Emilia Slabunova / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

Today, 27 May, the Supreme Court of Karelia dismissed the appeal against the ruling of the Petrozavodsk City Court of 21 April, by which Emilia Slabunova, a Yabloko deputy in the Legislative Assembly of Karelia and a recipient of the title Honoured Teacher of Russia, had been found guilty of “displaying extremist symbols and paraphernalia” under Article 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offences. The grounds for the administrative prosecution were a non-existent post from 2020 on the politician’s Telegram channel.

Slabunova’s interests in court were represented by lawyer Natalia Chernova and Olga Tuzhikova, a lawyer and Yabloko deputy on Petrozavodsk City Council. In their appeal against the first-instance ruling, as in today’s hearing, the defence argued, among other things, that:

– the record of the administrative offence had been drawn up in flagrant violation of procedure;

– the detention of Emilia Slabunova in April outside the entrance to her home had also been carried out in breach of numerous legal requirements;

– the forensic computer examination conducted by the Ministry of Justice made it impossible to establish either the date on which the post had been published or its authenticity;

– the record of the laptop inspection had likewise been drawn up in flagrant violation of procedure;

– the complainants —members of the nationalist organization Russian Community Ivan Poteryaev and Viktor Ivakhin (who, it will be recalled, filed a denunciation against Slabunova’s fellow Karelian Yabloko member Dmitry Rybakov) — have a personal interest in the outcome of the case.

Addressing the Supreme Court of Karelia Emilia Slabunova spoke, among other things, about the absence of any grounds for initiating the case: the post allegedly published in 2020 concerned an organisation that was designated as extremist only in 2021 and dissolved at the same time. The record of the administrative offence states that the non-existent post contains a photograph of the founder of the dissolved organisation, which “is perceived as paraphernalia”. However, no personal photograph of the politician who once led an organisation designated by the authorities as extremist forms part of the list of extremist materials.

“As a politician, I do everything in my power to ensure that, through every action of the state, citizens have the opportunity to satisfy themselves that they live in a law-governed state, as enshrined in the Constitution,” Slabunova said. “Yet the entire process connected with my personal prosecution demonstrates how readily the law is violated and how easily such violations are overlooked. The haste was apparently intended to obscure the absurdity of this case by the incompleteness of the argumentation. I consider that there are no grounds for the ruling that has been handed down, neither on the merits nor on procedural grounds. The process feels like a battle with the shadows of the past.”

The ruling will be appealed by way of cassation, Slabunova has stated.

To date, nine members of the party have been prosecuted under the article on “displaying extremist symbols.” In addition to the Karelian cases involving Dmitry Rybakov and Emilia Slabunova, fines have been imposed on Yabloko members in St.Petersburg (Olga Shtannikova, Nikolai Rybakov and Alexander Shishlov), in Pskov (Artur Gaiduk and Tatyana Fyodorova), and in Veliky Novgorod (Yelena Ivanova and Anton Kostryukov).

The fines under Article 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offences are nominal; however, a finding of guilt under an “extremism” article makes it impossible for the individual concerned to stand in elections for a period of one year. It is clear to Yabloko that this form of serial prosecution is not a matter of “combating extremism” but serves exclusively to fulfil a political commission to bar the party’s leaders from the forthcoming federal and regional elections of 2026.