Russia's Supreme Court has banned the Yabloko party and its candidates from being on next month's ballots for the Duma legislative elections. File Photo by Yuri Kochetkov/EPA-EFE
Aug. 13 (UPI) -- Russia's Supreme Court has removed Yabloko, the country's only anti-war political party, from the ballot for next month's legislative elections, drawing international and domestic condemnation.
The decision by the Russia nSupreme Court was made Monday ahead of the Sept. 18 Duma legislative elections, with Yabloko, the social-liberal Russian United Democratic Party, releasing a copy of the decision Wednesday. According to the document, Yabloko was banned from the election on allegations that it received donations from Russian nationals who had themselves received the money from abroad.
Other reasons included material supporting Yabloko spreading on social media networks, specifically Instagram and Facebook, blocked or restricted in Russia, as well as copyright infringement.
"Yabloko firmly rejects all the accusations brought against it and believes that they were convincingly disproved in the course of the proceedings," the party said in a statement.
