Press Release, 1.09.2026

Photo: Participants in the “peace picket” / Photo by Novgorod Yabloko

 On 1 September, leaders and activists of Novgorod Yabloko held a “peace picket,” approved in advance with the Mayor’s Office, by the Central Market in Veliky Novgorod, opposite the United Russia party office. However, police interrupted the picket, citing a “terrorist threat”.

“We picketed United Russia’s headquarters for around an hour,” Novgorod Yabloko reports. “We were demanding fair political competition and respect for citizens’ right to vote for the Yabloko party and our candidates in the 20 September elections.”

Thirty minutes after the picket began, detector dog handlers, firefighters, the Russian Guard officers and four police patrol vehicles arrived at the place, activists said. Municipal service staff told the Yabloko members that they had received a “report that the market had been mined”.

Photo by Novgorod Yabloko

At the authorities’ demand, the action had to be cut short.

Novgorod Yabloko thanks everyone who came to the “peace picket” and supported the party’s members, and reminds voters:

“The Yabloko party continues its fight for peace and freedom in the Novgorod Region. Come out and vote on 20 September and support us. Yabloko will appear on three of the four ballot papers: Viktor Shalyakin as a candidate for the State Duma; Yabloko as No. 3 for the Novgorod Regional Duma; and Yabloko’s single-mandate candidates for the Novgorod Regional Duma.”