Just Russian parliamentarian Mikhail Delyagin at a State Duma meeting on June 20 called for a ban on the Yabloko party because of its anti-war position and calls to violate the country’s territorial integrity. Representatives of Yabloko told the Daily Storm that they were not surprised to hear about Delyagin’s proposal and see nothing new in it. Earlier, the deputy and his fellow party members have already applied to the Ministry of Justice with such an initiative.
Delyagin said at a meeting of the State Duma: “What does such a political party as Yabloko do in our legal field? Why hasn’t the party been banned, directly and openly, which for 10 years has almost denied the territorial integrity of Russia and considers our fight against fascism a crime?”
Representatives of Yabloko believe that Russia should “recognize the sovereignty of Ukraine within the borders of 2013, stop supporting crime and separatists, inciting hatred and propaganda for war.”
“Why are liberals allowed to violate the laws of Russia? Why are we putting up with this?” Delyagin, rightly Russian, was indignant.
The press secretary of Yabloko chairman Nikolai Rybakov commented to the Daily Storm on the deputy’s proposal to ban the party’s activities: “This is not news, Delyagin has been doing this for a long time.”
The head of the Moscow branch of Yabloko, Sergei Ivanenko, agreed with the opinion of the representative of the head of the party. “Delyagin is known as a person of extremely reactionary views and has been so almost always. This is not his first initiative, he has already submitted an official application to the Ministry of Justice. The Ministry of Justice did not react then, ”Ivanenko recalled in an interview with the Daily Storm.
A representative of Yabloko noted that the association is ready for a ban on activities: “We have been ready for the fact that the party can be liquidated for many years. <...> Why aren’t we liquidated? There must be some reason.”
Fair Russian Mikhail Delyagin on June 4 sent a letter to Russian Minister of Justice Konstantin Chuichenko asking him to evaluate the activities of Yabloko as a legal entity that undermines the territorial integrity of Russia.
Delyagin noted that since 2014, the party and its founder, Grigory Yavlinsky, have been publishing calls for actions aimed at violating the country’s territorial integrity and calling the entry of Crimea into the Russian Federation an annexation. Representatives of Yabloko also propose to hold a referendum on the peninsula on the question of joining Russia in accordance with international legal norms.
Delyagin asked the Ministry of Justice to recognize the activities of the “Yabloko” unlawful and cancel their registration as a political party in Russia.
This is not the first attack by A Just Russia – For Truth on Yabloko. In March 2023, another Just Russian, State Duma deputy Nikolai Novichkov turned to the Russian Ministry of Justice with the same request as Delyagin. The department did not satisfy her.
