Press release, 25.05.2017

On 25 May, the Supreme Court of the RF refused to satisfy Yabloko’s appeal against the decision of the Novgorod Regional Court, which had refused to acknowledge the violations in the election to the Novgorod City Duma of 18 September, 2016.

Anna Cherepanova, who headed Yabloko’s election list to the Novgorod City Duma, said that they would appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.

The regional branch of the party was deprived of the right to use the airtime allocated for campaigning free of charge. Moreover, regional television channels showed stories aimed at damaging the reputation of the party nominees.

For instance, the largest publishing holding in the region refused to place Yabloko’s campaigning materials for the reason that the party was calling for resignation of the governor and for formation of a new professional government of the region. Due to the refusal, Yabloko could not place its free of charge campaigning material in the municipalities where 73 per cent of voters of the Novgorod Region live.

According to Yabloko representatives, those obstacles affected Yabloko’s result in the elections because they only lacked 300 votes to pass the 5 per cent threshold.

Yabloko Deputy Chair Nikolai Rybakov noted that such violations took place in different regions of Russia, not only in Novgorod. “The decision of the Court today demonstrates that the Russian courts do not aim at making the elections in the country fairer. But we will go all the way and I suppose we will have a reason to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights,” he said.