St. Petersburg’s Vyborgsky District Court fined Yabloko Party Chairman Nikolai Rybakov 1,000 rubles for disrupting public order. The amount is equivalent to approximately $11.80.
The ruling was based on Rybakov writing the phrases “For peace,” “For freedom,” “For a life without fear” and “For a ceasefire agreement” on ballot papers while voting on Sept. 20.
Rybakov’s defense rejected
Police accused the Yabloko leader of “ignoring the interests of society, showing disrespect and disrupting public order.” The court also found Rybakov guilty of disrupting public order.
Rybakov and his lawyers requested that the case be dismissed. The defense argued that invalidating a ballot is a form of political expression recognized by law.
In a statement at an earlier hearing, Rybakov said he had expressed his civic position because there was no candidate he could vote for. The Yabloko leader also said that more than 900,000 voters had followed the same path by invalidating their ballots.
Hearing interrupted by evacuation order
Rybakov did not attend the court’s ruling hearing on Oct. 9. The hearing was interrupted after a short-term evacuation order was issued.
Yabloko’s position in the elections
Described as Russia’s oldest liberal party, Yabloko was the only registered political party in the 2026 State Duma elections to make its call for peace the centerpiece of its campaign.
The party’s candidates were largely excluded from the Sept. 18-20 elections. Yabloko’s candidate list was removed from the ballot, while those running in single-member districts for the lower house faced official intervention, detention by police and disqualification decisions.
Yabloko was also barred from participating in almost all regional legislative elections. The party secured a victory in the northwestern Novgorod region, the only region where it won seats in the regional legislature after surpassing the 5% electoral threshold.
As pressure on the party intensified, three prominent Yabloko members received prison sentences over the past four months. The latest of these sentences was handed down against Yelena Perepelitsa on Oct. 8.
In the State Duma elections, the ruling United Russia party achieved a record majority in parliament.
