Two parliamentary candidates from Russia’s opposition Yabloko party, Shana Ogney and Vladimir Sobyanin, have been detained in Yekaterinburg, according to the party’s social media accounts. Earlier, Konstantin Kiselev, head of the Yabloko faction in the Yekaterinburg City Duma, was also detained and later released.
Yabloko representatives said Ogney, a candidate for the Legislative Assembly in the Krasnoufimsky constituency, was released from an Oktyabrsky District police station. A police report was drawn up against her under Article 20.3 of Russia’s Code of Administrative Offences, which concerns the public display of prohibited symbols.
According to the party, the case relates to a 2024 publication containing an image generated by a neural network in which an inverted star appeared.
Sobyanin, a candidate for the State Duma in the Serov constituency, was detained and was due to be taken to the Kirovsky District police station. Alexander Kudelkin, a Yabloko candidate for the Sverdlovsk Regional Legislative Assembly from the Verkh-Isetsky District, was also detained and had not been released at the time of the party’s statement.
Kiselev, who is also a candidate for the State Duma, was previously detained and charged under the same article. He said the alleged violations concerned posts from 2019, 2020 and 2021 that authorities identified as containing symbols associated with Navalny’s Headquarters and Pussy Riot. Both organisations are designated as extremist and banned in Russia.
Yabloko’s party list in the Sverdlovsk region was previously disqualified from the Legislative Assembly elections. The Regional Court upheld the relevant claims, saying the party had violated copyright rules and spent funds outside its election fund.
By Sabina Mammadli
