Listen to this articleEstimated 4 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated using AI-based technology. Pronunciation errors may occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve results. The leader of Russia’s only registered pacifist party said he will remain in the country and continue pushing for change, despite growing pressure from the authorities, which has led to the party’s exclusion from upcoming parliamentary elections. On Monday, the Supreme Court ruled to exclude the post-Soviet liberal party Yabloko, which means “apple” in Russian, from the September vote. Leader Nikolai Rybakov told Reuters the decision reflected authorities’ concern that his call to end the more than four-year war in Ukraine was striking a chord with voters. “For us, the support of the people that exists now, which is completely obvious and impossible to hide, is much more important than the court’s decision,” he said in an interview at his Moscow headquarters, recounting how, after the verdict, hundreds of supporters on the street had chanted “shame” loud enough to be heard clearly inside the court. Yabloko, once a leading liberal voice in parliament and a critic of the government, now has only a handful of regional seats and no representation in the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, dominated by the Putin-backed United Russia party. The September vote will elect members of the 450-seat lower house. United Russia will almost certainly maintain its dominance, although Rybakov said Yabloko would be a stronger contender than expected if he were allowed to run. Yabloko is appealing the Supreme Court ruling, which followed a lawsuit alleging the party received undeclared campaign support from Western sources, among other allegations it denies. he said in his office, where a handwritten sign read: “People, don’t kill each other.” “One of the things that the authorities would very much like to see is for people to become disillusioned, for them to decide that they are alone, that there is no one around them who thinks like they do.” prosecution for expressing anti-war opinions or other types of dissent. Rybakov speaks to lawyers at a hearing at the Russian Supreme Court in Moscow on Monday considering a lawsuit to ban the party from participating in September’s parliamentary elections. (Yulia Morozova/Reuters) “I am in Russia and I will remain in Russia,” said Rybakov, wearing a peace dove pin on his lapel. “It is only possible to change what is happening in Russia, to change the political situation in Russia, by being inside the country.” Public opposition to the war is difficult to gauge due to strict state controls on dissent, but the share of Russians who say they support their armed forces’ actions in Ukraine fell to 66 percent in July, the lowest level since February 2022, according to the Levada Center, a non-governmental organization. “A pollster who is on Moscow’s list of foreign agents. Rybakov said that Yabloko’s short manifesto calling for peace and a prosperous democratic Russia had attracted many new supporters, showing that a significant portion of Russian society wanted the war to end,” he said. Social networks are full of videos supporting Yabloko. Many did not contain political slogans, but instead showed young men and women holding apples when asked their voting preference for the September 18-20 elections or dancing to Russian songs that referenced apples.
