The conference demanded that the authorities immediately stop pressure on independent candidates.

Press Release, 7.07.2022

Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

The conference of the Moscow branch of the Yabloko party approved a list of 229 candidates for the elections of deputies of Moscow municipalities in September 2022. Yabloko candidates will compete for mandates in 66 municipal districts.

Update. 8 July. The list of candidates for municipal deputies is published here: https://www.yabloko.ru/moscow-msu-2022

The leaders of Yabloko addressed the participants of the conference. Yabloko Chairman Nikolai Rybakov said that the Yabloko candidates are those who stand for peace, for stopping killings of people in Ukraine, for Russia’s normal relations with other countries of the world. “This election campaign and voting for candidates from Yabloko is not a vote on the improvement of Moscow courtyards, this is a legal, peaceful, and hopefully safe opportunity for the voter to support the values ​​that Yabloko has been defending politics,” Rybakov noted.

Chairman of the Federal Political Committee of the party Grigory Yavlinsky also spoke about the political meaning of the campaign and the risks arising in connection with the current political conditions. “I am obliged to tell you directly: it is very difficult to enter the public sphere with such a stance now. This is a risk. Yabloko is at risk, but so are all candidates. It so happened that this campaign is not only about the improvement of our city, not only about improving the lives of Muscovites (these are important tasks, and they are reflected in the election programme), it is also a political campaign. The first election campaign after 24 February,” Yavlinsky said.

In his speech, Grigory Yavlinsky also noted that the situation may develop in such a way that the party’s further participation in such an election campaign may become impossible.

Yabloko candidates have been already facing government repression. The conference adopted a statement demanding an end to the pressure and warned of retaliatory measures if the repression continues:

“On Repression Against Yabloko Candidates

 The upcoming September elections will be held in the new reality in which the country found itself after the beginning of the “special operation”: the remnants of independent media have been liquidated, freedom of speech has been totally limited, and public events have been banned.

Already now our candidates in the municipal elections in Moscow and deputies are facing unprecedented pressure: they are put in detention centres under articles that exclude their further participation in the elections (Nikolai Kavkazsky, Andreш Morev, Yulia Shcherbakova, Nodari Khananashvili, Pavel Yarilin and others). Candidates pursuing an anti-war line risk being prosecuted under such conditions.

For us, these elections are a way to convey our ideas to the citizens and succeed in getting such politicians into the municipalities who will really defend the basic interests of Muscovites: peace, progress, and human rights. If we are deprived of this opportunity, and criminal and administrative cases continue to be brought against our comrades and they are prosecuted, we will be forced to react harshly.

The conference nominating candidates from the Moscow Yabloko demands an immediate end to pressure on independent candidates.

We declare that if the repression continues and the Moscow Yabloko candidates are prosecuted, we reserve the right to adopt all necessary decisions appropriate to the situation.”

Elections in Moscow will be held for three days: on September 9 – 11.