Russia: Why is the Yabloko party barred from the elections?

Russia's supreme court has banned the anti-war opposition party Yabloko from September's parliamentary elections. What does this mean for the election campaign, opponents of the war and for the political mood in Russia?

Russia's only anti-war party banned

Russia’s only anti-war party has been barred from taking part in next month’s parliamentary elections, after the country’s Supreme Court handed down the decision. It’s the latest sign of the Kremlin’s efforts to silence criticism of the war in Ukraine, launched by Vladimir Putin more than four years ago. Monte Francis has the story.

By FRANCE24

Meduza’s sources close to the Kremlin say Putin’s team registered an antiwar party as an experiment and shut it down, banning Yabloko from the ballot, when the polling came back

On July 29, Russia’s Central Election Commission registered the liberal party Yabloko for elections to the State Duma, the lower house of parliament. On August 7, however, another party, Rodina, filed suit at Russia’s Supreme Court demanding that the decision be overturned. Rodina said Yabloko had repeatedly violated copyright in its campaign materials and on its website, and that it had concealed “foreign funding.” Rodina also claimed to detect “signs of extremism” in Yabloko’s slogan, “For ...