Russia bars anti-war party from parliamentary vote

Russia's Supreme Court barred the liberal Yabloko party on ⁠Monday from contesting September's parliamentary ⁠elections, sidelining the only officially registered party that opposes Moscow's war in Ukraine.

More than four years after ⁠Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the decision highlights the authorities' intolerance of anti-war views and further narrows the already limited space for dissent in Russian politics.

"The decision will be appealed. Friends, let's not despair," the party said in a statement.

The court ruled in favour of ⁠a ⁠lawsuit filed by the small pro-Kremlin nationalist party Rodina, which sought Yabloko's exclusion from the election. Rodina alleged that Yabloko had received undeclared campaign support, including from Western sources, among other accusations.

During the hearing, Yabloko leader Nikolai Rybakov said there was ⁠no evidence to support the allegations and described the case as an unconstitutional attack on freedom of thought by political opponents seeking to clear the field of rivals.

In a rare show of defiance, a ⁠few ‌hundred — ‌mostly young — supporters attended the hearing ⁠as police stood ‌by. Some carried apples to display their affiliation to Yabloko, which ⁠means apple in Russian. One wore ⁠a Russian flag as a cape.