Russia's Supreme Court has excluded the liberal opposition party Yabloko from the Sept. 18–20 parliamentary elections, granting a lawsuit by the pro-Kremlin nationalist Rodina party after the earlier hearing on the challenge.
Presiding judge Vyacheslav Kirillov, who previously banned the Nobel Prize-winning rights group Memorial, ruled in Rodina's favour. Rodina alleged Yabloko received 16,900 roubles in foreign funding from the United States and Germany and labelled the party a "national traitor", while also criticising its 43-word election platform. Yabloko, which planned to campaign under the slogan "For Peace and Freedom," said it will appeal the ruling, which the judge expressly permitted.
Hundreds of supporters, mostly young people, queued outside the Moscow courthouse as the proceedings were broadcast live online. Yabloko had been unanimously cleared by the central election commission in July and would have appeared directly below United Russia on the ballot among the 11 registered parties.