Russian nationalists seek election ban on anti-war party, calling its members 'traitors'

Russia's Supreme Court is set to consider a lawsuit to bar the opposition party Yabloko from contesting parliamentary elections in September, amid escalating threats from a pro-Kremlin party.

​Russia's Supreme Court said on Friday it would consider ‌a ​lawsuit to bar Yabloko, the only officially registered party which opposes Moscow's war in Ukraine, from contesting parliamentary elections in September.

The suit was filed by Rodina, or Motherland, a small pro-Kremlin nationalist party whose leader Alexei Zhuravlev denounced Yabloko as a Western-backed ‌movement bent on discrediting the elections and Russia itself. In a video statement, Zhuravlev declared: "We are rooting out national traitors to ensure they have no place in our country. They belong neither in the State Duma nor in the country at all. We are firmly convinced of this. We will fight and defeat both the external and the internal enemy."

Even ‌in the context of wartime Russia, where many Kremlin critics have been jailed or forced to flee abroad, the language being used against a registered political ‌party was notably threatening. The case will be considered on Monday. YABLOKO DEFENDS ITSELF, SAYS IT WANTS PEACE

Yabloko accused Zhuravlev of making defamatory statements against it and said it would launch its own suit to protect its reputation. "They want to remove us from the elections because we stand for peace, whereas they want to prolong the tragedy (of the war) indefinitely," Yabloko leader Nikolai Rybakov said on Telegram.

The dominant United Russia ⁠party, which ​backs President Vladimir Putin, is expected to win ⁠the elections easily. But the authorities have acted to curb voices opposed to the war at a time when they say Russia needs to be united in the face of a largely hostile West. Boris ⁠Nadezhdin, a politician who had attempted to run for parliament on an anti-war platform, was designated as a "foreign agent" last month. He has since fled the country.

The language used by Zhuravlev ​to justify the suit against Yabloko was reminiscent of that used by Putin in the early months of the war when he warned Russians to be ⁠on their guard against "scum and traitors" in their midst and to spit them out like flies. CONCERTED ATTACKS ON YABLOKO

Leaders of other broadly pro-Kremlin parties, also expected to be returned to parliament in September, have joined the attacks ⁠on ​Yabloko in recent days. The exiled movement of late Russian dissident Alexei Navalny has urged people to cast their votes for Yabloko. Navalny died suddenly in an Arctic penal colony in 2024, and Western governments say he was murdered with a rare poison, which the Kremlin denies.

Yabloko, once a leading liberal force in the post-Soviet period, ⁠now holds only a handful of seats in regional parliaments and none at national level. But the election campaign has provided it with a window to grab more attention ⁠than usual for its anti-war stance. ⁠The party says it wants Russia to sign a ceasefire agreement and avoid an escalation that it warns could lead to nuclear war.

The Kremlin says Russia is ready to end the fighting only if Ukraine accepts its terms, which include ceding more ‌land, limiting its armed forces ‌and renouncing international military alliances such as NATO. Kyiv says that would be tantamount to capitulation. (Reporting ​by Mark Trevelyan in London Editing by)