On the morning of 21 April 2026, police officers detained Emilia Slabunova, a deputy of the Legislative Assembly of Karelia and the long-time leader of the republic’s Yabloko party. A court found her guilty of displaying extremist symbols and fined her one thousand roubles. According to the investigation, six years ago Slabunova posted a joint photograph with Alexei Navalny on her social media (the authorities consider him a terrorist even after his death) and wished him good health. The post has since been deleted. Slabunova has now been convicted under an administrative article and will be unable to take part in this year’s elections.
A few days earlier, on 16 April, the Yabloko faction in the Legislative Assembly of Karelia voted against the report by the head of the republic, Artur Parfenchikov, on the work of the regional government in 2025. It was Emilia Slabunova, as faction head, who delivered the statement and set out the reasoning behind her colleagues’ position. Those arguments were widely covered in regional media.
A personnel reset
In Karelia, Yabloko has a relatively large deputy team: two deputies — Emilia Slabunova and Inna Boluchevskaya — in the Legislative Assembly of Karelia, and another two — Dmitry Rybakov and Olga Tuzhikova — on the Petrozavodsk City Council. The consolidating role in this team is played by Emilia Slabunova, although she did not immediately become head of the regional branch.
In the elections held on the single voting day in 2021, Slabunova, as the lead figure of the election campaign, was forced to rely on a technological groundwork built without her direct involvement. At that time, Yabloko in Karelia was unequivocally positioned as the party organisation of businessman Vasily Popov and former Petrozavodsk mayor Galina Shirshina. Unsurprisingly, the campaign’s executive manager was Anastasia Timoshenko, who was directly linked to the previous cohort of Karelian Yabloko members.
It took time for the influence of the Popov–Shirshina–Timoshenko group over the shaping of the political agenda to weaken completely. Slabunova became head of the regional party branch only after she was already a deputy of the current convocation.
Persecution of Yabloko members
Since February 2022, the Yabloko party has advocated peace between Russia and Ukraine. As legislation has grown more repressive, dozens of party members across the country have faced various forms of repression and police pressure. Ten party members have become defendants in criminal cases.
For example, the leaders of the Yakutsk and Vologda branches of Yabloko, Anatoly Nogovitsyn and Nikolai Yegorov, have been found guilty of “discrediting the army”. Journalist from Khakassia and Yabloko member Mikhail Afanasyev has been found guilty of spreading “fakes about the army”. Party activist Vasily Neustroyev from St Petersburg was recently sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment under six articles of the Criminal Code, including the article on “fakes about the army”. The leader of Kamchatka Yabloko, Vladimir Yefimov, has been found guilty in three criminal cases concerning “discrediting the Russian Armed Forces” and “displaying extremist symbols”.
The persecution unfolding in the North-West stands apart, where Yabloko’s positions remain strong and allow it to have its representatives in regional and city parliaments.
At present, deputy party chairman Lev Shlosberg faces criminal cases on “repeat discrediting of the army” and on “fakes about the army”. He has been held in SIZO-1 in Pskov since 5 December 2025. On 5 November 2025, Shlosberg was convicted in another criminal case — for failing to fulfil the duties of a “foreign agent”.
Of the 11 party members placed on the register of “foreign agents” by Russia’s Ministry of Justice, five are politicians whose media profile has extended beyond the North-West region. They are Boris Vishnevsky and Sergei Troshin (St Petersburg), Lev Shlosberg and Nikolai Kuzmin (Pskov), and Ksenia Cherepanova (Veliky Novgorod).
On 21 April, the same day as Slabunova’s detention, two administrative cases were opened against the leader of the Yabloko faction in St Petersburg over a repost mentioning Alexei Navalny.
It may seem surprising, but until now none of the Karelian Yabloko members had been caught under the steamroller of direct repression — Slabunova was the first. Before this, the only case was the blocking of Emilia Slabunova’s page on the VKontakte social network by decision of the Prosecutor General’s Office. However, the high electoral support for Yabloko in the region and the accumulating socio-economic problems apparently could not allow the authorities to let the party’s most prominent leaders take part in the elections due this year.
A crack in the “peace plan”
At the same time, the actions of some Karelian Yabloko deputies in the “For Peace!” struggle have not always been consistent.
In February 2023, Inna Boluchevskaya unexpectedly agreed to a deputy mission to Luhansk Oblast and thereby indirectly acted against the party’s stance on the military action. This was facilitated by oddly staged incitement from the head of the relevant committee of which Boluchevskaya is a member. The chair of the Legislative Assembly’s Committee on Health and Social Policy, Alexei Kheifets (United Russia faction), stated that those being sent planned to meet with regional parliament deputy Galina Alupova (United Russia) and that, consequently, all committee members should take part in the event. At the same time, proceedings had been initiated against Alupova to establish facts of unjustified “coronavirus” bonus payments (the deputy is the chief doctor of the Medvezhyegorsk Central District Hospital) and she, effectively hiding from the audit, had departed for the special military operation zone.
Slabunova then sent inquiries to the Legislative Assembly apparatus asking what vehicle would be used for the mission and from what funds it would be paid. Having received no answer, Slabunova announced that, under such circumstances, Boluchevskaya would not go on the mission. Given the high reputational risks, the substitution of the deputy’s positions nevertheless ended up at the centre of public attention.
Another “misfire” should be recognised in the situation where Olga Tuzhikova launched a campaign to provide legal assistance to fellow residents who had signed military service contracts, in connection with violations of their labour rights. After receiving public warnings from the heads of military commissariats, the campaign was wound down.
Social protection and nature conservation
Indeed, the Karelian Yabloko members are far more effective at using the issues of social and environmental protest. These strike at political targets obliquely, but remain understandable and in demand among the region’s residents. All the more so because the socio-economic situation of most of them has markedly deteriorated over the past four years.
It was precisely on this plane that the criticism of the republican government was built at the recent report by the head of Karelia. Slabunova noted that the most important criteria in assessing performance are the quality of life of the republic’s residents and the attitude of government officials towards people: 79th place among regions for quality of life, first place for consumption of strong alcohol, fourth for the level of antidepressant consumption, a place in the “top ten” most problematic regions of the 2025 Environmental Rating of Russia’s Regions, many public-sector workers’ pay remains at the minimum wage level regardless of qualifications, people drink poor-quality water and are worn out by endless breakdowns amid rising utility tariffs. The reason for this state of affairs, in the Yabloko members’ view, is the low quality of governance. Karelia leads the North-West in the share of loss-making enterprises (43%, compared with 26% for the federal district), a 33% drop in profit tax in the republic’s revenues, and businesses leaving Karelia for other tax jurisdictions.
It is obvious that the emphasis on such data about the territory’s socio-economic situation provokes the authorities’ displeasure.
Preparations for the elections
The party list in the State Duma elections will probably be headed by Grigory Yavlinsky, Chairman of the Federal Political Committee. Against the backdrop of unprecedented pressure on Yabloko and its leaders, the party already has almost no media figures left who would also continue to do deputy work. In this situation, Emilia Slabunova could have been the second name on the list, but it appears that a case will be opened against her that will lead to the loss of the right to stand for election.
At the moment, the party, thanks to its factions in Karelia, St Petersburg and Pskov Oblast, enjoys an exemption and does not have to collect signatures to take part in federal elections. To a large extent, this gives Yabloko insurance against liquidation. Under the law, a party must take part in a certain number of elections within a seven-year period. However, in regional campaigns over the past four years, anti-war politicians have increasingly been denied candidate registration, and Yabloko chose not to take part in the presidential race.
In the run-up to the elections, several leaders have come under persecution at once. Investigative bodies have charged party members under articles that automatically close the path to the ballot. Last December, a court fined Party Chairman Nikolai Rybakov 1,500 roubles for displaying extremist symbols. The trigger was a post offering condolences to the family of the deceased Alexei Navalny.
In addition, several cases were opened at once against well-known party members. Deputy Chairman Boris Vishnevsky was designated a “foreign agent”, and a collection of his articles was declared “extremist material” for calling to “return Russia to the civilised world”. Another deputy chairman, Maxim Kruglov, was sent to a pre-trial detention centre over social media posts from 2022; investigators believe the politician spread fakes about the army.
In these difficult conditions, the decision on the list of candidates will be made by the party congress, which will take place in June, but even now it can be stated that Yabloko remains the only registered political force in Russia that opposes the conduct of the special military operation.