A month ago, Russia’s anti-war Yabloko party was disqualified from the State Duma election. That was only the beginning.

On August 10, Russia's Supreme Court removed Yabloko's federal party list from the State Duma election, disqualifying the only party with an openly antiwar platform. The party had campaigned under the slogan "For Peace and Freedom." Despite the setback, Yabloko still ran 135 candidates in single-mandate districts and planned to participate in regional elections in seven regions.

However, after the federal list was struck, courts across several regions began disqualifying single-mandate candidates, often on the basis of lawsuits filed by competitors. Yabloko now has only 119 single-mandate candidates left, with six candidates detained in the Sverdlovsk region for displaying "extremist" symbols. The party's head, Maxim Petlin, temporarily left Russia to avoid potential prosecution.

Several regional lists were pulled in the following month, leaving Yabloko only on ballots in the Novgorod and Tomsk regions. Yabloko claims it is being obstructed on the campaign trail, with campaign materials being denied airtime, seized, or met with warnings. The party continues to campaign and has encouraged supporters to spoil their ballots in the party-list vote instead of voting remotely on September 20.