Russian opposition party that wants Ukraine ceasefire vows to keep campaigning despite crackdown

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By Andrew Osborn

MOSCOW, Dec 15 (Reuters) – The founder of Russia’s opposition Yabloko party, which wants a ceasefire in Ukraine, has said his party will keep campaigning despite the arrest of two senior figures, a move he said was meant to derail it before next year’s parliamentary election.

Yabloko, one of Russia’s main liberal groups in the early post-Soviet years, now has only a handful of seats in regional parliaments, no seats in the national parliament, and – amid a years-long clampdown on dissent – does not appear to pose any threat to the Kremlin.

But two of the party’s deputy leaders, Maxim Kruglov and Lev Shlosberg, have been placed in pre-trial detention in recent months and accused of spreading lies about the Russian army, something they deny, and a third – Boris Vishnevsky – has been designated a “foreign agent”.

Grigory Yavlinsky, the party’s founder and a former presidential candidate, said he was braced for further action against the party at any time and believed the authorities were worried that Yabloko could become a lightning rod in the 2026 parliamentary election for people who want an end to the fighting in Ukraine

“The only party, the only organisation that represents this position (supports a ceasefire) is Yabloko, so since there will be elections next year and Yabloko will simply come out with this idea, it can count on very substantial support indeed,” Yavlinsky told the Russian-language RTVI TV channel in a weekend interview.

He said that while his party had enjoyed only single-digit support in recent years, its stance on Ukraine – which he said coincided with a growing number of Russians who favour a ceasefire – meant it had the potential to garner support levels of 30-40%, a forecast his critics are likely to dismiss.

“That is why it (Yabloko) is now a threat (to the authorities), and everything must be done by them to prevent Yabloko from continuing or attempting to run in the elections with these ideas,” said Yavlinsky.

State pollsters do not even regularly measure Yabloko’s support in opinion polls

PEACE TALKS

The Kremlin has said some censorship is necessary at a time of war when it says Moscow’s enemies are trying to undermine national unity, but it does not comment on individual criminal cases, which it says are a matter for the courts.

It says that Putin, who sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022, remains the country’s most popular politician by far and that Russians are united behind his aims in Ukraine, which he has vowed to achieve either on the battlefield or at the negotiating table.

A poll conducted by the Levada Center in November – which has itself been designated a “foreign agent” by the authorities – showed that support for the Russian army in Ukraine remained high at 74%.

But the same poll showed that the number of people in favour of peace talks had risen to 65%, while those who supported merely continuing military action had dropped to 26%.

Yavlinsky, who in 2023 said he had met Putin to discuss Ukraine, told RTVI that he planned to stay in Russia no matter what happened.

“The party will continue its work,” he said.

(Reporting by Andrew OsbornEditing by Gareth Jones)