Russian Supreme Court confirms Yabloko's exclusion from elections

The Russian Supreme Court today rejected at second instance the appeal lodged by the opposition Yabloko party, which openly contests armed intervention in Ukraine, against its exclusion from next month's parliamentary elections. The party has announced that it will present a new appeal at the Presidium of the same Supreme Court, announced its lawyer, Gadzhi Aliyev, speaking to the Tass agency. A few dozen Yabloko supporters who had gathered in front of the Court headquarters to protest against the exclusion from the elections were stopped, according to reports from the NGO Ovd-Info, which specializes in legal assistance to opponents. The same organization estimates that up to 85 people could be arrested, taken to different police stations, but several of them began to be released after receiving a warning. On August 10, the Supreme Court decided to exclude Yabloko from the elections scheduled for September 18 to 20, accepting a request from the small pro-Kremlin nationalist party Rodina, according to which Yabloko had violated intellectual property legislation in some posts on his website and had received funds from people financed by foreign states. Leaving the Supreme Court building, Yabloko leader Nikolai Rybakov said that the party will soon announce a new plan to continue its activity. Also today, a judge in the Pskov region sentenced the party's vice president, Lev Shlosberg, to 11 years and one month in prison for "discrediting" and spreading "false news" about the Russian army, the Moscow Times reported.