The Russian Opposition’s Apple Test: Failed – Center for Journalistic Investigations

In Russia, a new scandal: a court banned anti-war party “Yabloko” from participating in elections. The Kremlin has once again reminded its own people who is the master in the house. The opposition wonders what to do now — should they bring green apples to the polling stations, or vote for the Communists and LDPR?

The removal of the Yabloko party from participation in the State Duma elections was expected ever since it was allowed to participate at all. The party went to the elections with a brief program “For peace and freedom.” It calls for an immediate ceasefire and the start of diplomatic settlement of the Russia‑Ukraine war, condemns the upcoming mobilization, and advocates for civil liberties.

Nikolai Rybakov. Photo: Evgeny Razumny / Kommersant

“For the first time in five years, Russian citizens have the opportunity to vote peacefully, legally, and safely for the future, for peace, for freedom, for a ceasefire agreement, for a life in Russia without fear,” the head of the Yabloko party, Nikolai Rybakov, optimistically reports.

These ideas resonated with part of Russian youth, who, despite total militaristic and chauvinistic propaganda, do not want to die for Putin’s glory in the fields of Russian death on Donbas or Kharkiv. This was a sort of reopening of “Yabloko” — a youth that will vote for the first time considers the party to be a somewhat new phenomenon in Russian politics.

Supporters of the Yabloko party. Photo: Irina Buzhor / Kommersant

Meanwhile, Yabloko has existed since 1993. And three times in a row it formed its own faction in the Russian parliament, receiving 27, 46 and 21 mandates respectively. Even then the party spoke for democracy and against war — at a time when Russia fought in Chechnya.

In 1999, the then leader of “Yabloko,” Grigory Yavlinsky, refused to support Putin’s candidacy for the post of prime minister on behalf of the faction.

“A significant portion of the deputies of the Yabloko faction will not vote for Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin’s candidacy. First, we feel deep rejection and disagreement with the style the president uses in his appointment. We consider such decisions insulting to the people, to the country, and to power,” Yavlinsky said from the Duma rostrum.

Leader of the Yabloko party Grigory Yavlinsky and Russian President Vladimir Putin, 2002 year. Photo: kremlin.ru

Putin attended the vote, smiled, but remembered and retaliated in his own Chekist way. Since he took command of Russia, Yabloko has never overcome the electoral threshold for the State Duma elections. Initially there was general euphoria about the “firm hand” of the new president, then that hand brutally cleared the informational and political field. Yabloko stayed in the game, allowing participation in elections but not victory. And the party’s stance was toothless and milquetoast — all for the good, against everything bad. This did not win its voters’ sympathy.

And also our sympathies — because although Yabloko does not consider the annexation of Crimea legal, instead of returning what was stolen to Ukraine, it proposes to hold an international conference that will appoint a new referendum in Crimea.

“I personally think that people living in Crimea should be given the opportunity to determine their own fate, to hold a new referendum — a referendum that all interested parties will trust,” explains Yavlinsky his position.

And that’s how it is with them — whether naivety or cynicism.

Protests in support of the Yabloko party. Photo: Irina Buzhor / Kommersant

However, now, when hundreds of thousands of Russians have died in the invasion war, and inside the country there is a choking atmosphere of imperial grandeur, repression, and censorship, the simple and unpretentious slogan “For peace and freedom” turned out to be somewhat more relevant to voters than the Kremlin expected.

Therefore Yabloko instantly came under attack from pro‑Kremlin parties. The head of one of them — the cartoonishly chauvinist party “Rodina” (Motherland) led by Alexey Zhuravlev — filed a suit against Yabloko, preceded by patriotic hysteria directed at the head of Yabloko, Nikolai Rybakov:

Zhuravlev: “You’re telling stories, all sorts of tales about a ceasefire. Do you even understand what you’re saying, you damn well know?”

Rybakov: “There is a proposal to send you to the front!”

Zhuravlev: “Yes!!! And you, be quiet, I’m not interrupting you! Understand?! Now shut his mouth, escort him out of here to the devil’s mother!”

Alexey Zhuravlev, head of the party “Rodina.” Photo: Dmitry Dukhanin / Kommersant

The grounds for banning Yabloko cited by Zhuravlev are ludicrous. First, it is 16 900 rubles, i.e., 200 dollars, donated to the party’s fund by several people who at one time received money from abroad. Second, absurd accusations of copyright violations. Namely, the party’s logo — a stylized image of an apple — was stolen from a famous Soviet poster of a century ago “With a wedge, strike the whites!” by the renowned suprematist El Lissitzky. Also, in Zhuravlev’s view, founder Yavlinsky violated copyright on the slogan “Only so there won’t be war” and on a quotation from the Soviet song “Let there always be sunshine” — although the composer Ostrovsky’s son personally allowed the use of this quotation in Yabloko’s campaign. Zhuravlev also mentioned calls for peace that threaten the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation.

The Yabloko party logo and El Lissitzky’s poster “With a wedge, strike the whites!” Collage: investigator.org.ua

Not all the accusations were upheld by the court, but enough for Putin’s justice to remove the sole opposition party from elections. The court ruled to cancel the registration of the federal list of candidates for deputies to the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation of the IX convocation, filed by the political party “Russian United Democratic Party Yabloko”.

Russian youth, who for the first time in many years began to take an interest in politics under the direct threat of war, saw in this a “signal that something is wrong in Russia” — like the leader of the Falcon Eye, who after three weeks of imprisonment noticed that one wall is missing in the prison cell. They began to protest outside the courthouse and even colored the asphalt with chalk, demanding that the party that promised not to drag them into the Russian army be allowed to participate in the elections.

Drawings on the pavement near the Russian Supreme Court. Photo: Anastasia Tsitsinova / New Newspaper

People with greater memory capacity and life experience know that there has been no real choice in Russia for a long time, and any electoral, civil, or information threat to the regime is neutralized even before the day of voting. Too loud they quiet with status as a foreign agent, too active they judge and jail for discrediting the army, extremism, or propaganda of hostility toward social groups “police” and “officials.” In particular, deputy head of the same Yabloko, human rights defender Lev Shlosberg, received 11 years and 1 months in a Russian court for a repost of the Daily Mirror and calls for the quickest end to the war in Ukraine during debates on YouTube. And some regime critics are simply killed.

The Yabloko party itself, the Kremlin previously allowed to run in elections only because, based on all visible and hidden studies, it had no chance to enter parliament, and its slogans did not enjoy broad public support. As soon as a voter gave the party a chance, the state reacted as usual — by banning.

All other State Duma parties, except the ruling United Russia — the Communist Party, LDPR, Fair Russia – Patriots – For Truth, and New People — are Kremlin puppets that demonstrate unwavering support for Putin’s aggressive regime in every possible way. One would think this is obvious, and all previous parody elections confirm it. Yet the leaders of the Russian opposition cry, tremble, but stubbornly chew the withered cactus of parliamentary cretinism.

Yulia Navalnaya. Photo: Mikhail Pochuev / TASS

Yulia Navalnaya, widow of the murdered Russian opposition politician and anti‑corruption activist Alexei Navalny, and a walking cringe of the Russian opposition, from abroad urged Russians not to despair and to vote for any party except United Russia: “Keep campaigning against United Russia. Go to the polls. Vote in single‑member districts according to the ‘Smart Voting’ recommendations, and for party lists — vote for any party except United Russia.”

Ilya Yashin, who served more than two years for “discrediting the army,” calls all politically minded Russians to go to the polls on the day of voting at 12.00 to create queues and “show their strength.” He also proposes voting for anyone except United Russia — to supposedly demonstrate an anti‑war position:

“If there is no anti‑war party, and the ballots only contain vampires, then you should vote against the main vampire. This is called a protest vote tactic. Our task is very simple: to push down the result of United Russia as much as possible.”

Ilya Yashin. Photo: Ilya Yashin / Telegram

How?! Yulia, Ilya, tell me how voting for the Communist Party, LDPR, or Fair Russia, which every year show total loyalty to Russian aggression, support the annexation of Ukrainian territories and if they are dissatisfied, then only Putin’s bloodthirstiness? Is this hopeless intellectual incapacity or deliberate direction of anti-war mood of some Russians to the Kremlin? Here are the positions of those whom Navalny’s allies urge to vote for as lesser evil:

“Especially fraternal Ukraine has found itself at the crossroads of all winds of war today. They use the deceived fraternal people to spur Russia, to incite against Russian lands, against the Russian language, our great culture. We will surely win. I bow today to the guys fighting on the front!” — Gennady Zyuganov, leader of the CPRF.

“We demand, we are the LDPR party, we are the Russian world — for the fastest and most decisive victory in the special military operation. Now is the time to strike critical blows to Ukraine’s military infrastructure, military logistics, decision‑making centers in Ukraine, to bridges over the Dnieper and thereby destroy Ukraine’s railway infrastructure!” — Leonid Slutsky, head of the LDPR.

Head of LDPR Leonid Slutsky, head of SR Sergei Mironov, head of CPRF Gennady Zyuganov. Photo: spravedlivo.ru

“A regime that is hostile to people must be uprooted. We simply have no other choice if we want to win. The war can only be ended by force and only by the victory of our arms. There is no other option,” — Sergei Mironov, head of Fair Russia.

“The only thing you can regret is that we did not start this (the invasion of Ukraine — ed.) earlier. That’s all. And I can say: in my opinion, we should have started even in 2014 — that’s all, I have no other option, only this. Only that we should have started earlier, that’s the only thing to regret, and that we started correctly — well, in my opinion, that is now obvious,” — Alexei Zhuravlev, head of Rodina.

It’s even interesting: which of these vampires and bootlickers of Putin’s regime will Yulia Navalnaya and Ilya Yashin vote for? We await campaign videos from the opposition in exile.

A feature of the moment is that the Navalnyites living in free world countries, funded by international donors, essentially urge people to vote for parties whose leaders are all on EU, US, UK, and other sanctions lists.

The head of the Yabloko party Nikolai Rybakov promised to appeal the court decision and take part in the elections. He said there is a plan B and the party will surely be on the ballot in September. But 17 August the court rejected the appeal of the Yabloko party and finally banned it from taking part in the elections.

Protests in support of the Yabloko party. Photo: Nikolay Sukhinskiy

And meanwhile Yabloko continues its hopeless struggle to be a decorative parliamentary opposition, while the exile opposition continues what it did all the previous years — legitimizing Putin’s pseudo-elections, urging to do something silly — sorry, “smart” voting for any Putin puppet except “United Russia.” From election to election this sham repeats, but it seems that such a path for the Russian opposition is to be shamed to the very end.

And the well-meaning anti-war youth, who trust these professional protest channels, will get their share of disillusionment.

But whatever the Russian authorities or the Russian opposition muddle through, the only force that truly brings the end of Putin’s dictatorship closer is the Armed Forces of Ukraine. And in order for them to do this better — they should be supported — by personal participation or donations. So take care of yourselves, subscribe to our YouTube channel, Facebook, X, and Telegram, and help the Defense Forces. All the best.