Press Release, 29.08.2026

Photo: Lawyer and Yabloko candidate Roman Morozov / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

On Friday, 28 August, Kaliningrad Region Court granted a claim by the Communists of Russia party, which had sought to have the registration of Yabloko’s list for the regional Legislative Assembly elections annulled. Yabloko’s interests in court were represented by lawyer Roman Morozov, one of the leaders of the region-wide part of the candidate list. He stresses that the entire proceedings amounted to “yet another instance of manipulating the law”. The ruling of Kaliningrad Region Court will be appealed.

The Electoral Commission had initially taken part in the case as an interested party.

At the start of the hearing, lawyer Roman Morozov immediately filed a motion to recuse the judge, arguing that she was “indirectly subordinate to the Chairman of the Region Court,” which was hearing the claim to remove Yabloko’s list that day.

It should be noted that the Chairman of Kaliningrad Region Court had previously initiated the prosecution of Roman Morozov himself and of his client, lawyer Maria Bontsler.

Morozov also pointed out that the case concerning Yabloko’s list could hypothetically have been assigned to this particular judge deliberately, since she is the one who hears all political administrative cases and cases relating to electoral disputes.

Representatives of the Central Electoral Commission and the prosecutor’s office did not support Yabloko’s lawyer’s motion.

After a recess in the deliberation room, the judge ruled that the request for recusal be refused.

During the hearing, the judge dismissed almost all of the defence’s motions:

– The motion to adjourn the hearing, on the grounds that Kaliningrad Yabloko had not been properly notified of it — the judge stated that Kaliningrad Yabloko had been notified by email.

– The motion to involve, as interested parties, every one of Yabloko’s candidates on the Kaliningrad Region list — the case concerned the electoral rights of every candidate, Roman Morozov emphasised when filing the motion; the judge refused it without explaining the reasons for her decision.

– The motion to transfer Yabloko’s case to the Moscow City Court on grounds of jurisdiction, since the defendant — the Yabloko party — is registered in Moscow, and the list now being challenged was put forward at the party’s Federal Congress.

– The motion to change the defendant, on the grounds that the proper defendant should be the Regional Electoral Commission — Roman Morozov explained to the court that what was being challenged was the decision to register the list, and that decision had been taken by the Kaliningrad Region Electoral Commission; the judge refused, noting that “the right to choose the defendant” rests with the claimant.

At the same time, after discussion with the parties, the court ruled to change the Electoral Commission’s status from interested party to co-defendant.

The Kaliningrad claim against Yabloko is virtually identical to one filed in the Sverdlovsk Region, where, also on 28 August, the regional court upheld a claim by LDPR to remove Yabloko’s list (the ruling has not yet entered into force and will be appealed). The claims filed with the courts of the Sverdlovsk and Kaliningrad Regions match not only in their references to legislation and standard procedural formulas, but also reproduce long substantive paragraphs word for word.

The judge ruled: Kaliningrad Region Court granted the claim to cancel the registration of Yabloko’s list for the regional Legislative Assembly elections.

After the hearing, lawyer Roman Morozov stressed that the ruling of Kaliningrad Region Court had come as no surprise, since the campaign to bar Yabloko from the elections was literally “running like clockwork”:

“[The Communists of Russia’s] claim repeated other claims. Nevertheless, we always state our position clearly and, I believe, with dignity — including today, when our 43-word platform [for peace and freedom] was read out. The judge issued me a warning for stating our platform, even though, in the administrative claimant’s own view, it is precisely the platform that triggered the claim. It was the platform the judge should have been discussing, not the cancellation of the list’s registration. We set out our arguments in the hearing for far longer than our opponents did. The prosecutor’s closing statement lasted around five minutes, and he read it from a sheet of paper, which can only mean one thing — he was not even listening to our arguments. After ten minutes of deliberation, the judge announced the decision in a shaking voice, without asking the parties [as is required] whether the decision was clear to them, and without explaining how to appeal it. That question was left unaddressed by the court. But we know the deadlines and the procedure — the ruling will be appealed.”

Ivan Bolshakov, leader of the region-wide part of Yabloko’s list in the Kaliningrad Region, commented on the court’s ruling as follows:

“Courts continue to hand down unlawful rulings removing Yabloko’s lists from the elections, denying voters the chance to vote for peace and freedom. Verdicts like this undermine trust not only in the elections, but in the judicial system itself, in which it has become impossible to obtain justice. Removing the legal opportunity to influence political processes and to defend one’s rights in court opens the way for radicals.”

Everyone who takes decisions of this kind today, and everyone who takes part in carrying them out, must recognise their own personal political responsibility for it, Bolshakov stressed.