标签： Europe

A Moscow court has delivered a ruling that blocks Yabloko, Russia’s sole registered liberal anti-war political party, from competing in the upcoming national parliamentary elections scheduled for next month. The legal challenge that led to this ban was filed by Rodina, a pro-Kremlin nationalist political party, bringing forward a series of allegations against the opposition group.

The accusations against Yabloko are threefold. First, Rodina claimed the party violated Russian law by publicly backing what Moscow has labeled an extremist organization: Yabloko published website material expressing support for the international LGBT movement, which Russia’s Supreme Court designated as an extremist group in 2023. Second, the lawsuit alleged copyright infringement after a senior Yabloko figure quoted lyrics from the iconic Soviet-era song *Let There Always Be Sunshine* during a media interview. Third, Russia’s federal financial monitoring service testified during the hearing that Yabloko had received illicit foreign funding from nations including Germany and the United States through indirect third-party channels.

On the day of the eight-hour hearing, hundreds of mostly young supporters gathered outside the Moscow courthouse to demonstrate backing for the party. Many brought apples — a symbolic nod to Yabloko, which means “apple” in Russian — and chalked pro-freedom, pro-Yabloko messages onto the pavement outside the building. Social media footage captured the crowd’s reaction when the verdict was announced: demonstrators immediately began chanting “Shame! Shame!” in protest of the ruling. For Russians opposed to the war in Ukraine, the gathering represented a rare opportunity to show public dissent, as broad wartime censorship laws have banned most open protests, punishable by heavy fines or lengthy prison sentences.

The road to this ruling has been marked by escalating pressure on Yabloko for months. In late July, the Kremlin-controlled Central Electoral Commission (CEC) had initially approved Yabloko’s candidate list, but multiple senior party figures had already been disqualified from running. That included deputy leader Maxim Kruglov, who was sentenced to seven years in prison in June over social media posts documenting civilian casualties in the Ukrainian cities of Bucha and Mariupol. Just one week before the court ruling, Yabloko also suffered a large-scale cyberattack just hours after it launched a public appeal for donations to its election campaign fund.

Founded decades ago and once led by former presidential candidate Grigory Yavlinsky, Yabloko holds a long record of consistent opposition to Russian military intervention. The party has opposed the Chechen wars, Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, and the full-scale 2022 invasion of Ukraine. While the party has not secured any seats in the State Duma, Russia’s lower parliament, since 2003, it has participated in every national election held since that time. It has also faced internal divisions over the years, most notably expelling late opposition leader Alexei Navalny in 2007 and maintaining criticism of him even after his 2024 death in prison.

In the lead-up to the 2026 election, Yabloko’s public support had been rising amid growing public discontent with the Kremlin. Ruling party United Russia’s approval rating has fallen to just 33%, dragged down by persistent inflation, widespread internet blackouts, and repeated cross-border drone strikes on Russian territory. Yabloko ran its campaign under the slogan “For peace and freedom! For a life without fear!” and explicitly called for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine, a shift to diplomatic negotiations, and an end to political repression within Russia.

Political analysts say the shift from the CEC’s initial conditional approval to the full court ban reflects a change in the Kremlin’s political calculations. Initially, observers believed the government would allow Yabloko to run to use the party’s poor 2021 result — just 1.34% of the national vote — to demonstrate that anti-war sentiment has no broad support among Russian voters. But as signs of growing public dissent over the war have mounted, the Kremlin opted to remove the anti-war opposition from the ballot entirely.

The ban is expected to suppress turnout among anti-Kremlin voters, a outcome that benefits United Russia, as low turnout among opposition-minded citizens works to solidify the ruling party’s projected majority. All 10 other parties approved to compete in September’s election either openly support the war in Ukraine or refrain from public criticism of it. Independent election monitoring groups have already been stripped of most of their authority to oversee the election process and challenge results, leaving the Kremlin with full control to secure its desired outcome.

On Monday, Russia’s highest judicial body ruled to remove Yabloko, the only registered Russian political party that publicly opposes the Kremlin’s military campaign in Ukraine, from the ballot for the country’s upcoming parliamentary election scheduled for next month.

The ruling came in response to an appeal filed by a pro-Kremlin political party, and resulted in the Supreme Court formally annulling Yabloko’s ballot registration. Just one month prior, Russia’s Central Election Commission had granted the party approval to appear on the ballot, alongside 10 other competing political groups.

Yabloko first emerged as a prominent liberal voice in Russian legislative politics, where it built a long record of consistent criticism of government policy. However, over the past two decades, as the Kremlin consolidated greater control over Russia’s political landscape, the party gradually lost all of its parliamentary seats, fading from formal legislative representation.

In recent years, Yabloko has stood alone as the only registered opposition party in the country that maintains an explicit public stance against the deployment of Russian troops to Ukraine. Its 2024 campaign platform centered heavily on peace advocacy, with slogans calling for an immediate ceasefire, diplomatic negotiations to end the conflict, and measures to prevent nuclear escalation. The party also campaigned on a platform of ending widespread political repression and creating a Russia where citizens do not live in fear of government retaliation.

The ruling has come even as dozens of prominent Russian opposition figures living in exile had publicly urged Russian voters to support Yabloko in the upcoming election. Notable figures backing the party included Yulia Navalnaya, widow of the late prominent Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, as well as exiled opposition politicians Ilya Yashin and Vladimir Kara-Murza.

LONDON – For nearly a decade, Count Binface, a novelty political candidate famous for wearing a repurposed garbage can as a headpiece, has been a beloved running gag across British elections. Now, the self-styled intergalactic space warrior is stealing the spotlight in a high-profile special by-election in Clacton-on-Sea, where he is one of 34 candidates competing against Reform UK leader Nigel Farage this Thursday.

The contest has already drawn outsize public attention in large part because all major UK political parties have chosen to boycott the race, creating an open field for unconventional candidates like Binface to capture voter interest. Unlike other fringe candidates who have joined UK ballots over the years, Binface has carved out a distinct niche with his signature armor-adorned look topped by his iconic trash can helmet, and a 20-point policy manifesto that blends absurd humor with pointed, tongue-in-cheek commentary on mainstream British politics.

As the self-proclaimed leader of the Recyclons from the fictional planet Sigma IX, Binface’s political brand is built on a core ethos of reuse: he frequently carries over popular past policies from previous campaigns, where he has challenged sitting prime ministers and the mayor of London, and mixes them with new, joke proposals for each new race. The candidate says he stands fully behind every policy he has introduced over his years in novelty politics.

Among the standout pledges from his current Clacton campaign is a whimsical tax plan: “I will cut your taxes, and raise everyone else’s.” He also promises to construct at least one new affordable home, and to reform arcade claw machines to guarantee players a fair shot at winning prizes. One of his most popular policies, contributed by 10-year-old Jack, would require oil and gas companies to cover the cost of installing solar panels for every UK household.

Other pledges include a new windfall tax on celebrity-written “cozy crime” novels, a national referendum to restore Pluto’s status as a full planet, and a plan to fill road potholes using leftover copies of the UK Labour Party’s 2024 election manifesto. Binface also promises functional on-board Wi-Fi for trains – and, for that matter, functional trains themselves. Rules for bad road behavior would see cyclists who break traffic laws forced to ride unicycles instead, while commuters who play audio on speakerphone in public transit would face conscription.

Hyper-local quirkiness also makes an appearance: Binface has pledged to reposition the hand dryer in the men’s restroom of Uxbridge’s Crown & Treaty pub to a more practical location. On the cultural front, he promises knighthoods for animated characters Wallace and Gromit in recognition of their contributions to Wensleydale cheese, and a ban on loudly crinkled snacks in cinemas and theaters. To address the UK’s ongoing homelessness crisis, Binface proposes requiring the British royal family to keep only one of their four major residential palaces – Buckingham Palace, Kensington Palace, St James’s Palace, and Clarence House – and gift the rest to the state to be repurposed for affordable housing. If the royals object to the plan, he jokes they will be forced to purchase struggling London soccer club Crystal Palace.

ANKARA, Turkey – A new chapter in decades of tensions between Turkey and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) opened Monday, as lawmakers kicked off parliamentary debate on a landmark draft bill designed to cement a fragile peace deal through a conditional amnesty program for thousands of Kurdish militants. The legislation marks the government’s first formal legislative response to the PKK’s historic decision last year to end a 40-year armed insurgency against the Turkish state.

Last year, imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan called on the group to lay down its arms, a request that prompted the organization to formally end its decades-long armed campaign, announce plans to disarm and disband, and withdraw its remaining fighters based inside Turkey to its stronghold in northern Iraq. The group later held a public symbolic disarmament ceremony in northern Iraq, but analysts note it still retains control of the vast majority of its weapons stockpiles.

Spanning 12 articles, the proposed legislation lays out clear frameworks for two core goals: formalizing the PKK’s full disarmament and supporting the social rehabilitation of thousands of group members. Under the bill’s terms, qualifying convicted PKK members will see their prison sentences suspended, while ongoing investigations and trials will be paused for five or 10 years, based on the severity of their alleged offenses. If beneficiaries do not commit any additional terror-related crimes during the suspension period, all outstanding cases against them will be permanently dropped.

Critically, the legislation excludes militants convicted of intentional homicide and those handed life sentences before 2005 from its amnesty provisions – a carve-out that explicitly applies to Ocalan, who has been imprisoned on an island prison off Istanbul since 1999, as well as the PKK’s most senior leadership. Despite excluding Ocalan from amnesty eligibility, Turkish media reports have indicated authorities are preparing to improve Ocalan’s prison conditions, expanding his access to visitors and outside communication, though the draft text makes no official mention of his status or potential future release.

To ensure accountability throughout the process, the bill establishes both ministerial and parliamentary committees tasked with monitoring the PKK’s disarmament. The legislation will only enter into force after Turkey’s National Security Council officially confirms the PKK has fully disbanded and surrendered all of its weapons. Individuals seeking to benefit from the amnesty will have a six-month application window starting from when the National Security Council’s confirmation is published in Turkey’s Official Gazette. Media analysts expect the bill to extend eligibility to exiled PKK members currently based in Iraq and Syria.

Political observers widely project the bill will pass comfortably, as it counts on support from three key blocs: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party, its nationalist parliamentary allies, and the pro-Kurdish DEM Party. The DEM Party has actively pushed for formal recognition of Ocalan’s role in coordinating the post-insurgency transition, a step it hopes will ultimately lead to Ocalan’s release.

The PKK launched its original insurgency against the Turkish state in 1984, a conflict that has claimed more than 40,000 lives and spilled across the border into neighboring Iraq and Syria. The organization is classified as a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States, and the European Union. While it initially demanded an independent Kurdish state, the PKK later revised its goals to push for greater autonomy and expanded political and cultural rights for Turkey’s Kurdish minority. Previous attempts to broker a lasting peace between the two sides have collapsed, most recently in 2015, making this latest legislative push the most significant step toward peace in nearly a decade.