Ban on Only Anti-War Party Triggers Moscow’s First Major Political Protests Since 2011

(MOSCOW) – Protests broke out in the Russian capital after the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation banned the only party associated with an anti-war stance from standing in September’s parliamentary elections.

Demonstrators gathered outside court buildings in Moscow and other regions, with many carrying apples in reference to the Yabloko party, whose name translates as “apple.”

The protests mark the first major political demonstrations in Moscow in more than a decade, with citizens voicing opposition to a political decision rather than economic grievances such as fuel prices or internet shutdowns.

The Yabloko party, long dismissed as a pocket opposition group that coexisted peacefully with the ruling party for decades, recently adopted a position calling for an end to what the Kremlin terms its “special military operation” in Ukraine.

Internal Russian polling reportedly showed the party gaining support from approximately nine per cent of respondents nationwide, well above the five per cent threshold required to enter parliament. Some polls in Moscow suggested the party had overtaken the ruling United Russia party in popularity.

The ban was reportedly instigated by the far right Rodina party, which claimed Yabloko infringed copyright by quoting song lyrics during interviews with its leaders. The court accepted these arguments, leading to the party’s exclusion from the ballot.

The decision is widely seen as driven by fear within the Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s administration that an anti-war platform could consolidate growing dissatisfaction among Russian youth and other segments of the population.

Unlike previous protest movements, which were systematically dismantled by the FSB and saw opposition figures such as Alexei Navalny killed or imprisoned, Yabloko never presented a direct challenge to the Kremlin’s authority until its recent anti-war positioning.

Russian authorities now face the challenge of managing electoral outcomes without the option of a “vote against all” provision on ballots, a mechanism that exists in some democratic systems but is absent in Russia.

The last comparable political protests in Moscow occurred in 2011 on Bolotnaya Square, a name that translates as “swampy,” an irony not lost on observers of Russian political life.

The protests were reported by Ukrainian vlogger Anna from Ukraine in her daily war update series.