The Kremlin let Russia’s only anti-war party, Yabloko, onto the ballot to bleed protest votes. But when it started polling at 6%, the Supreme Court stepped in.

Russia's Supreme Court removed Yabloko, an opposition party, from the State Duma ballot on August tenth, ruling in favor of a lawsuit filed by Rodina, a far-right political party. Yabloko had been polling around six percent with an anti-war platform—a notable result given the party hasn't cleared the five percent parliamentary threshold since nineteen ninety-nine. Meduza reports that Yabloko was permitted onto the ballot initially to split anti-war protest votes from the Communist Party; once it showed electoral strength, Rodina sued over copyright violations and campaign rule breaches. The removal concludes months of pressure: prominent Yabloko members have been imprisoned on speech charges, designated as foreign agents and barred from running, while other establishment parties called for the party to be banned.

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