Yabloko reported that a party election observer was seized by police at a St. Petersburg polling station, where he subsequently fell unconscious, according to a statement posted on the party’s Telegram channel on Saturday.
Polling‑station officials accused the observer of attempting to "disrupt the elections" and called in police, who, Yabloko said, used force against the man before taking him to a police station and charging him with disobeying police orders.
The party said it was unclear whether the observer received prompt medical attention after losing consciousness, noting only that he was transported to a police station for processing.
The incident occurred during Russia’s three‑day State Duma election, the first parliamentary vote since Moscow launched its full‑scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. The election, which began on Friday and ends on Sunday, is widely expected to cement the Kremlin’s dominance, with virtually no genuine opposition on the ballot.
Yabloko, the only registered party that openly criticises the war in Ukraine, was removed from the ballot last month by the Supreme Court and now fields only a few dozen candidates in single‑constituency races. Several other anti‑war politicians have been imprisoned or forced to flee the country ahead of the campaign.
Both Yabloko and the Communist Party said many of their observers were denied entry to polling stations. They also reported irregularities such as sealed ballot boxes being opened, refusal to issue paper ballots for verification, and polling‑station doors left unsecured overnight.
On Friday, Yabloko leader Nikolai Rybakov appealed to Ella Pamfilova, head of the Central Election Commission, demanding that the repeated denials of observer access and pressure on its monitors be investigated, saying, "The scale of what's happening does not allow us to view this as a misunderstanding."
Russia did not invite the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to monitor the vote, accusing the body of "double standards" after it criticised Moscow’s actions in Ukraine. The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly President Pere Joan Pons called the decision a breach of Russia’s commitments as an OSCE member state.