47-year-old teacher and ecologist Nikolai Ryabakov is the fourth chairman of the Yabloko party. He joined the party in 1995 and rose from a rank-and-file member to the head of Russia's largest and still not banned anti-war organization. Ryabakov became party chairman in 2019, during which time mass political repression, the start of a full-scale war, and the transition of Putinism into a totalitarian form have occurred. 'Novaya-Baltiya' spoke with Ryabakov about the 2026 Duma campaign, the persecution of party members, and whether it makes sense to participate in elections that do not determine state policy. Also discussed are the youth joining the party, human rights work, and the nature of protest voting in these elections. Chairman of Yabloko, Nikolai Ryabakov, at a briefing at the party's central office, Moscow, September 10, 2023. Photo: Dmitry Lebedev / Kommersant / Sipa USA / Vida Press. The text was first published on the website of 'Novaya Gazeta Baltiya' - Direct question: what are the electoral prospects for a party without administrative resources and alliances with the authorities in Russia in 2026? - One could ask the same question about life in Russia in general: what are the life prospects for all of us who are not in power? We have no other choice. But we can change the circumstances in which we live. It is difficult to say now whether they can be changed. That is why many people have decided that it is impossible to influence what is happening and do not even do what is within their power. I proceed from a different premise: in this life, one must do what one must. Based on the fact that we are united in a party, I do what our entire collective must do. Will this affect the course of events? It largely depends on whether millions and tens of millions of people support us. If this happens, the probability of positive change will sharply increase. 'Yabloko has consistently advocated for the peaceful resolution of all possible conflicts for over 30 years and has always opposed wars. If people say they want politicians who save lives, the situation will change. Then it can be considered that we have not worked in vain. I would note that 'Yabloko' has never existed in the most favorable conditions. We have always faced repression against our comrades. Party members have been killed for their beliefs: it is enough to recall Yuri Shchekochikhin and Larisa Yudina. We, unfortunately, have extensive experience of surviving in sulfuric acid. - We will discuss current persecutions and repressions separately. But let's first discuss the campaign for the September elections: with what calls and slogans does 'Yabloko' appeal to the voter? - Since February 24, 2022, our slogan has not changed. Before that, each election campaign had a new title. Now we have one slogan for any election, whether municipal or State Duma: 'For Peace and Freedom.' Its interpretation: immediate signing of a ceasefire agreement. This year, a continuation appeared because we are thinking about what will happen after [the end of the war]: 'For a Life Without Fear.' We want people to build their future in Russia, not leave, not be afraid to live here, not be afraid for their children and parents. And not be afraid of being eavesdropped on, censored, fined, and imprisoned. Freedom and life without fear in one's own country – this is what we are going to all upcoming elections with: parliamentary, regional, and local. - And yet, how do you assess the party's prospects in these elections, and what results would you consider most successful? - Alex, we do not perceive the current elections as a mechanism for forming government bodies. Unfortunately, this is not the case. For us, they are an opportunity to convey our position on the main issue. For people, this is perhaps the only legitimate and relatively safe way now to express disagreement with the government's policy on it. We do not know of any other way for tens of millions of people to do this. Therefore, we are not talking about any specific result - it can be anything. If our campaign helps to stop the loss of life, then we have achieved success. If such an atmosphere arises in society that everyone goes and votes for the 'Yabloko' list, the peace list, in September, this mood will influence the government's decisions. Yes, someday there will be elections again where state policy is actually formed. Now this is not the case. Voting today is, to a certain extent, a civic act that allows you to come and express your position. Nikolai Ryabakov at a lecture at the 'Yabloko' office in Moscow, February 19, 2024. Photo: Irina Buzhor / Kommersant/ Sipa USA / Vida Press. - Regarding your list. Many 'Yabloko' candidates are removed from elections by the authorities through fines for reposts, images, and other mechanisms invented by them. How do you plan to maintain your list? - The effect of a football team works here. There are many people who know how to play football. Yes, the main squad is disqualified, but there is a second squad, a youth team, and a huge number of people who can take the field. You are right, the strategy, or rather the tactic, of the authorities is to remove prominent party members from elections in various ways. Some are imprisoned, some are put on the foreign agent list—I would call it an insulting list—some are fined minimal amounts that formally deprive them of the right to participate in elections. But overall, they have not removed that many people, and they will not be able to completely disrupt the formation of our party list. The next team will come onto the field. Moreover, we continue to appeal the fines. Regarding my own fine (Ryabakov was fined in December 2025 for posting a photo of Alexei Navalny on social media. - Editorial note), we are awaiting a decision from the Supreme Court by June 26. We are doing everything to get it overturned. But whatever happens next, we will all campaign for our list. - Well, you understand that if the authorities set such a task, they can remove the next team through the same mechanisms... - There are millions of people in Russia who support our position. You cannot fine millions of people. - Well, not everyone is ready to go into public politics. - In the end, we don't need a million, but three hundred people - three hundred Spartans. That's the list we plan to field. It's quite feasible. But something else is more important. 'The main result of the campaign is not mandates, but the opportunity for people to express themselves, a change in public sentiment. For years, both the authorities and some of the opposition have convinced people that elections decide nothing. Now we have to work against this machine: to prove that voting remains a way to express one's position. Ivan the Terrible failed to destroy free-thinking people in the country. Nicholas I failed, Stalin failed. The current authorities will not succeed either. Yes, repressions affect the fates of specific individuals. When our colleague from Khakassia, journalist Mikhail Afanasyev, is sent to a penal colony for five and a half years, he is separated from his children for half of their childhood. This will affect their future. But it cannot lead to a situation where there are no people left in Russia ready to say: there is nothing more important than human life, nothing more important than people's rights and freedoms, and the state must serve this, not itself. This cannot be eradicated. Nikolai Ryabakov at a briefing at the 'Yabloko' office, Moscow, September 10, 2023. Photo: Dmitry Lebedev / Kommersant / Sipa USA / Vida Press. - I completely agree with you here, but I wanted to ask more about political maneuvers. Are you prepared, for example, in extreme cases, to call for voting for candidates from other parties? - This is impossible. Russia now effectively has a two-party system. There is one large party of Putin, with various factions within it: communists, Zhirinovsky's nationalists, populists, 'A Just Russia,' 'New People,' pseudo-Greens, Stalinists - these are all Putin's parties. And there is 'Yabloko.' That's the whole system. To call for voting for one of Putin's parties - no, we cannot. - Yet some politicians have used such tactics... - This is a catastrophic policy, and now, I hope, its erroneousness is obvious to everyone. One cannot call for voting for participants in cannibalistic parties just because they have not yet tasted human flesh. As a result, they get into the State Duma and compete to see who most loudly supports Putin's policies. - The alternative is harsh pressure, as in your case. This includes criminal cases against your regional leaders, fines against candidates, and other ways to make life more difficult. - This can be called a form of dialogue with the authorities. We say that we have a position for peace, and the authorities respond: well, here's another [court] proceeding for you. And we understand that the more people in the country support us, the stronger this pressure will be. - What is the latest chapter in this not-so-pleasant dialogue? - It could be unfolding right now, while we are talking, we just don't know about it yet. But among the important recent events, on the evening of May 25, the head of our faction in the Petrozavodsk City Council, a member of the party's Federal Bureau, a well-known ecologist and my namesake Dmitry Ryabakov, was detained. He was held at the police station all night to be convicted in the morning on charges of disseminating extremist materials, which, of course, are not extremist at all. Standard tactics. 'If we talk about the overall picture, almost all deputies of regional parliaments from 'Yabloko' have received fines with disqualification from running. Twelve party members have acquired the status of foreign agents, including my deputies Boris Vishnevsky, Lev Shlosberg, and Vladimir Dorokhov, as well as Nobel laureate Dmitry Muratov and human rights activist Svetlana Gannushkina. Three members of the federal leadership are currently on trial: Maxim Kruglov, Lev Shlosberg, Konstantin Smirnov. Three have been convicted: Mikhail Afanasyev in Khakassia, Vasily Neustroev in St. Petersburg, Vladimir Efimov in Kamchatka. In total, we have had over forty detentions and administrative proceedings. The total amount of fines is 8.5 million rubles. Before that, there was a major case in Irkutsk: our branch head Grigory Gribenko, who was supposed to become a candidate [in the elections] for the Duma, was arrested twice. In December [2025], he organized a rally in defense of Lake Baikal, which I attended. In January, a rally against internet blockages was planned, but the authorities decided they didn't need so many rallies and explained to Grigory that they would cancel not only the rally but him as well. - Do you still have any means of communication with voters? - We use any opportunity. Imagine having to swim across a raging ocean, with waves and sharks around. We swim as best we can: sometimes freestyle, sometimes breaststroke, sometimes doggy paddle, if we find a log - we cling to it. If there's airtime, we use airtime; if there are social networks, we use social networks; if there's an opportunity to meet people in person - we meet. We will do everything legal that can be done, we will not refuse anything. Moreover, even in the calm 2000s, we were forbidden to distribute leaflets and put up advertisements, let alone now. But there is one peculiarity. Now we are clearly associated with the anti-war agenda. If a person in Russia in 2026 understands that the country should take a different path, they will see 'Yabloko' on the ballot and vote for it, regardless of whether the campaign reached them or not. - Can you estimate the approximate number of your supporters? - I am sure that in these elections, the determining issue is peace. Therefore, we should measure not party ratings, but how many people advocate for an end to the killings. According to polls, this is about 60% of Russians. And it turns out that 'Yabloko' is with this majority. All other parties divide the votes of the minority among themselves. As for sociology, even the polls published by VTsIOM record qualitative changes: 'Yabloko's' electorate is getting younger, and young people are voting for the party more actively. But I would not talk about quantitative results. In conditions of a completely cleared information field, when it is impossible to properly introduce oneself, sociological surveys do not reflect the real picture. - Let's talk about youth, as it is among the youth that there are the most supporters of peace and change. How is work with young supporters organized, and how strong is 'Molodezhnoye Yabloko' (Youth Yabloko)? - We do not divide party members into youth and others; everyone works together. But after February 24, 2022, and especially in the last two years, changes are noticeable. First, there are more people willing to join the party. Second, the proportion of young people among them has sharply increased. 'Previously, mainly middle-aged people came to us. Now, those who have just turned 18, and even 14-16-year-olds, are joining the party. And they were born after 'Yabloko' last was in the State Duma [in 2003]. They do not carry the burden of party history, but they see our position today and understand that it reflects their interests. And the interests are simple: to live in Russia, not to leave, not to die, to start families, businesses, to develop creatively. We are not the only ones who see this - the authorities see it too. Hence projects like 'New People': an attempt to create the illusion of a party for the future, for freedom, for peace. But then they come to the State Duma and vote the same way as 'United Russia,' and sometimes even more cynically. Young people online, fortunately, can read this. I see this from the videos that young people themselves shoot and send me: they understand that there are parties that deceive, and there are parties that are truly for peace and freedom. - In Yekaterinburg, a group of young 'Yabloko' supporters disbanded under pressure. What happened there? - We are a liberal party, and our internal rules are not always strict. In Yekaterinburg, there was a group of young people who were not party members but called themselves 'Youth Yabloko.' We are grateful to them as supporters. But repression does its job. One cannot blame people for becoming scared. Unfortunately, this is a natural reaction. There is nothing shameful about it. The party in Yekaterinburg and the Sverdlovsk region continues to operate; we are preparing for regional elections in September. This has not affected our positions. - So, they were pressured by law enforcement agencies? - Yes. There were already second searches in a year. Armed security forces came to the office. This is absolutely unacceptable, and we have expressed our protest against what is happening. - There is an opinion that the Kremlin wants to liquidate the entire party. Can the authorities decide to dissolve 'Yabloko'? - This is not a question that is on my work agenda. If we proceed from this, how can we build our work and our lives? We are doing everything to continue our activities in any organizational and legal form. And we will not change our position. - Let's fantasize and imagine that 'Yabloko' returns to the State Duma. What would be your first legislative proposals? - It will return; there's no need to even imagine it. The first package is unequivocal: the repeal of all repressive laws. Starting with the 'Orphan's Law' ('Dima Yakovlev Law' prohibiting the adoption of Russian children by Americans. - Editorial note), one of the most demonstratively anti-human laws. And then - laws on foreign agents, undesirable organizations, and any other discriminatory laws. People should have the freedom to express their opinions, freedom of assembly, freedom to build the country as they see fit. Personally, I would add: all environmental protection laws adopted since 2000 must be repealed. Since then, there has been continuous degradation of environmental legislation. It is this that made possible, for example, the deforestation in the Baikal ecological zone. In the 2000s, our environmental law was ahead of European law. Now we have lost all of it and given nature to those who destroy it. - Who will be part of 'Yabloko's' dream team and become the face of the party in the elections? - I suggest we talk about this after our pre-election congress. If we name the names now, we will essentially give the authorities a list of those they haven't yet managed to fine. After nomination, fines are not allowed - then we will talk. - 'Yabloko' seems to be a rare example of a Russian party where a real change of leadership has occurred. Has Yavlinsky, around whom the party was once built, stepped away from an active role? - Yavlinsky has not stepped away from anything. That's the value: all former chairmen continue to work actively. Grigory Yavlinsky heads the federal political committee; Emilia Slabunova and Sergey Mitrokhin are its members. Slabunova, by the way, has also been fined - she heads our faction in the Karelian Legislative Assembly. The example we want to set for society is that the change of leadership does not mean the former chairman should be removed and excluded [from party life]. He continues to work in a unified team. Nikolai Ryabakov. Photo: Igor Ivanko / Kommersant/ Sipa USA / Vida Press. - In addition to public politics, 'Yabloko' has recently taken on a human rights function. In particular, you demanded that the head of the Federal Penitentiary Service conduct an official investigation when political prisoner Azat Miftakhov reported torture in a penal colony. Tell us a little about this. - This is very important both for us and for our country. If we look at the last hundred-plus years of Russian history, there has been a process of dehumanization and the cultivation of disregard for the value of human life. World War I, the Russian Revolution, the Red Terror, the Civil War, collectivization and famine, the Great Terror, the Great Patriotic War, the Siege of Leningrad as a separate component... And then Afghanistan, the two Chechen wars, and the situation we have reached. All this time, the authorities have done everything to make the value of human life zero or even negative. So that a person as an individual means nothing in the face of mythical state interests, its mythical greatness, which was determined solely by the ability to wage war. If the greatness of the state were measured by successes in science, education, and the longevity and quality of people's lives, there would be other priorities and decisions. 'But greatness is intentionally cultivated precisely through military actions and through the devaluation of human life: you are a cog, a splinter that will fly off without leaving a trace. A change in state policy as a whole is impossible without protecting every individual, regardless of their political views. I don't know what Azat Miftakhov's views are, and I'm not interested in that now. No one should be subjected to violence, torture, or actions that humiliate human dignity. When amendments to the Constitution were introduced [in 2020], 'Yabloko' became the only party to propose alternatives to Putin's proposals. One of our amendments was a constitutional ban on torture and criminal prosecution for it. World practice is such that if a problem is not resolved at the level of ordinary laws, it must be enshrined in the Constitution as an inviolable norm. Unfortunately, practice has shown the relevance of this proposal. Therefore, in addition to our own inquiries, we urge our supporters to write them. One of 'Yabloko's' supporters wrote to me before our conversation that she is also sending her inquiries regarding Miftakhov's case. And we also need to write letters to political prisoners. Letter-writing evenings are held at party offices across the country. It is important for a person to know that they are remembered and that they are not alone. To all who have read this far into the interview, I urge you to visit the 'Yabloko' website - there are detailed instructions on how to write such letters. And if you know someone who is being unjustly persecuted, write to them. Alex Yesod