Source: Washington Post
by Vladimir Kara-Murza
“When Russian authorities registered Yabloko for the parliamentary ballot in late July, the Kremlin’s thinking was not hard to read. After all, it had everything under control: the media, the electoral commissions, the repressive apparatus of the state. Why not allow an anti-war party on the ballot, announce its official result at 2 percent, and show to the world that — as Putin had said so many times — the Russian people overwhelmingly back his war in Ukraine? But things began to go wrong. What the regime failed to grasp was that Yabloko was no longer just a small liberal party ….It was now the only avenue for Russian citizens to express opposition to the war. They seized on it. Yabloko exploded on social media, overtaking pro-Kremlin parties in the number of subscribers. … And Putin panicked.” (08/12/26)