Leader of Russia’s Sidelined Anti-War Party Says He Will Not Be Silenced
MOSCOW, Aug 13 (Reuters) – The leader of Russia’s only registered anti-war party said he will stay in the country and keep pushing for change, despite increased pressure from the authorities that has led to the party’s exclusion from upcoming parliamentary elections. On Monday, the Supreme Court ruled to bar the post-Soviet liberal party, Yabloko, from September’s vote, a decision that leader Nikolai Rybakov told Reuters reflected the authorities’ concern that its call to end the more than four-year-old war in Ukraine was striking a chord with voters. “For us, the support of the people that exists now, which is completely obvious and impossible to hide, is far more important than the court’s decision,” he said in an interview at his Moscow headquarters, relating how, after the verdict, hundreds of supporters on the street had chanted “Shame!” loudly enough to be heard clearly inside the court. Yabloko only has a handful of regional seats and no representation in the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, which is dominated by the Putin-backed United Russia party. …
