Reacting to the Kremlin’s latest abuse of the criminal justice system to target Yabloko, the last remaining officially registered political party in Russia that has been openly calling for an end to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, said:
“In preparation for the September 2026 parliamentary election, Russian authorities are steadily dismantling what remains of peaceful political opposition. It is clear they want to purge the political landscape of any groups which are not under the Kremlin’s control and do not share its agenda, including its ongoing war of aggression against Ukraine.
It is clear [that the Russian authorities] want to purge the political landscape of any groups which are not under the Kremlin’s control and do not share its agenda, including its ongoing war of aggression against Ukraine
Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia
“The pressure on Yabloko’s leadership is relentless. Deputy Chair Lev Shlosberg, convicted under the “foreign agents” law, faces a new criminal case opened today. Another Deputy Chair, Maksim Kruglov, was arrested in October, and party leader Nikolai Rybakov is farcically convicted for “extremism.” These reprisals are a deliberate effort to silence the last organized political force in Russia that consistently calls for peace and speaks out against human rights violations.
“Criminalizing calls for a ceasefire and prosecuting individuals for peacefully expressing views on Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine are blatant attacks on freedom of expression. The Russian authorities must immediately and unconditionally overturn these convictions and drop all the baseless charges against the Yabloko leadership, as well as release all those detained solely for their anti-war views, and repeal war censorship legislation that criminalizes dissent.”
Background
On 5 November 2025, Lev Shlosberg was sentenced to 420 hours of community service for “violation of foreign agent’s duties”. The authorities claimed that he had not marked five videos posted on social media with the “foreign agent” disclaimer. The second criminal case against him – under the “discreditation of Armed Forces” charge – is ongoing.
On 5 December 2025, authorities opened a third criminal case against Lev Shlosberg for “spreading false information about the Armed Forces” over a repost from February 2022. It happened just days before he was due to be released from six months of house arrest that could no longer be legally extended, under a previous “discreditation” case. A day earlier, in two separate cases, St Petersburg courts fined party Chair Nikolai Rybakov RUB 1,500 (USD 19.5) and senior politician, Boris Vishnevsky, RUB 15,000 (USD 195). Rybakov was fined for “sharing extremist symbols” – namely, a photograph of the late opposition figure Aleksei Navalny which Rybakov posted on the day of Navalny’s death. Vishnevsky was fined for allegedly “cooperating with an undesirable organization” in an interview with the elections-monitoring group Golos, which authorities claim is linked to the banned European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations.
These fines serve as pretexts for further reprisals: Rybakov’s “extremism” case already bars him from running in the September 2026 parliamentary election, while the case against Vishnevsky paves the way for subsequent criminal prosecution if he is accused of “cooperation with an undesirable organization” again.
On 2 October 2025, Yabloko’s Deputy Chair Maksim Kruglov was arrested and placed in pre-trial detention over two 2022 Telegram posts referring to UN estimates of civilian casualties in Ukraine and the killings of civilians in Bucha.
At least five other Yabloko party regional leaders and members have been prosecuted. Around 50 administrative cases have been initiated against Yabloko members across Russia’s regions. Eleven Yabloko members, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dmitry Muratov and veteran human rights defender Svetlana Gannushkina, have been designated “foreign agents.”
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