Press Release, 4.09.2026

Photo: Outside the Supreme Court building / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

On Friday, 4 September, the Supreme Court of Russia rejected an appeal filed by St. Petersburg Yabloko against the refusal to register the party’s city-wide list of candidates for the Legislative Assembly elections.

At the hearing, representatives of the St. Petersburg Electoral Commission and the Central Electoral Commission effectively admitted that they had confused which stage of the election campaign their objections related to. According to them, the refusal was based on shortcomings in the documents submitted when the list was nominated. In reality, however, the objections concerned the first financial report, which forms part of the package of documents required for registration.

Yabloko’s lawyers consider these objections unfounded. The Electoral Commission refused to register the list on formal grounds, citing the “absence” of the first financial report and insufficient authority on the part of the party’s financial representative. At the same time, the Commission delayed notifying the party of its objections to the documents, giving it no opportunity to rectify them in time.

The financial representative had been granted the right to carry out “ALL necessary actions” on financial matters relating to the elections, while the right to sign on behalf of the party had been separately confirmed by a notarised power of attorney. The Electoral Commission, however, deemed this wording insufficient for the signing of the first financial report, and on this basis declared the report not to have been submitted.

The party’s interests at the Supreme Court were represented by lawyer Alexander Kobrinsky, Deputy Chair of the St. Petersburg regional branch of Yabloko.

Yabloko continues to campaign in seven regions. In the Novgorod and Tomsk regions, the party’s lists have been registered, and campaigns are also continuing for 13 and 7 single-mandate candidates respectively. In the Sverdlovsk, Kaliningrad and Pskov regions and in Karelia, the lists have been removed by the courts and the rulings are being appealed, while campaigns continue for 18, 2, 10 and 12 single-mandate candidates respectively.

In St. Petersburg, following the refusal to register the list, 13 single-mandate candidates are continuing their campaigns.