Press Release, 29.07.2026

Photo: Yelena Perepelitsa / Photo from her Yandex.Maps profile

Today, 29 July, the Moscow City Court rejected an appeal against the detention imposed on Yabloko member Yelena Perepelitsa in the case concerning a donation to a banned organisation.

The case had been opened over a donation made in the past to an organisation that has since been designated as banned.

It should be noted that Yelena Perepelitsa was detained on 2 July and remanded in custody on 3 July, on charges of “financing extremism” (Article 282.3(1) of the Criminal Code of Russia), by a ruling of the Ostankinsky Court of Moscow, until 2 September.

Earlier, positive character references and personal sureties for Yelena Perepelitsa had been submitted to the court by Yabloko Chair Nikolai Rybakov, Federal Bureau member Andrei Morev, and Chair of Moscow Yabloko Kirill Goncharov.

An urgent statement by Moscow Yabloko stresses:

“Yelena Perepelitsa is a longstanding member of Yabloko with considerable experience of work in electoral commissions at various levels, including the territorial electoral commission of the Maryina Roshcha district. She is a person who has devoted years to honest public and civic work. We regard this practice — where past participation in activity that was legal at the time becomes grounds for prosecution — as a gross violation of the principle of legal certainty and the rule of law.”

It should be noted that Perepelitsa’s detention is the latest episode in the criminal prosecution of Yabloko members. In recent years, 12 party members have already become defendants in criminal cases, including Deputy Chairs Lev Shlosberg and Maxim Kruglov, journalist Mikhail Afanasyev, leader of Kamchatka Yabloko Vladimir Yefimov, St. Petersburg activist Vasily Neustroyev, leader of Ryazan Yabloko Konstantin Smirnov, lawyer and member of Kaliningrad Yabloko Vladimir Sorokin, and others.