The Kremlin’s Red Line: Why Yabloko Had to Be Removed in a Hurry

On August 7, the Rodina party initiated a lawsuit aimed at canceling Yabloko's registration for the federal candidate list, a party that had campaigned on anti-war propaganda. By August 10, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Rodina, effectively removing Yabloko from the elections. Rodina had only ten days to prepare the lawsuit, which spans approximately forty pages and presents arguments on four distinct grounds.

Portions of the document exhibit a style commonly found in documents from the Justice Ministry or the FSB, indicating that the lawsuit (or certain sections of it) may have been prepared in advance as a contingency measure to remove Yabloko from the race at short notice. The lawsuit comprises four parts: the first alleges copyright infringement in Yabloko's campaign materials; the second claims to have uncovered a large number of social media posts expressing support for Yabloko, which Rodina's lawyers argue is campaigning without paying for it from the electoral fund; the third accuses Yabloko of extremism in their campaign materials; and the fourth raises doubts about whether certain candidate documents were submitted within the required timeframe.