Yabloko finds foreign-linked donations to other parties after being barred from Duma race
After being removed from the State Duma election, Russia's Yabloko party checked other parliamentary parties' finance reports and found similar donations from donors with foreign ties. It is demanding either its exclusion be overturned or the same standard be applied to all.
The Anti-Corruption Policy Center of Russia's Yabloko party has found that all five parties represented in the State Duma received at least 1.153 billion rubles in donations between 2021 and 2025 from donors showing "traces of foreign financing," news outlet Meduza reported.
The review followed a August 10 ruling by Russia's Supreme Court, which, acting on a complaint from the Rodina party, removed Yabloko's federal list from the State Duma election. One of the grounds cited was 16,900 rubles in donations to Yabloko from individuals who had previously received transfers from abroad, according to a report from Russia's financial monitoring service (Rosfinmonitoring) presented in court.
Yabloko examined the consolidated financial reports the other parliamentary parties submitted to Russia's Central Election Commission and applied the same criterion used against itself.
Bulk of donations tied to United Russia
Of the 1.15 billion rubles in donations identified, 811.75 million rubles went to United Russia. The foreign links of that party's donors extend to 22 countries on Russia's list of "unfriendly" states. Donations from donors with foreign connections were also found within Rodina, the party whose lawsuit led to Yabloko's disqualification.
Yabloko clarified that the figures represent donations from companies found to have substantive foreign ties, and that this does not mean the parties formally broke the law — that, it said, is the point of the exercise: ordinary foreign economic activity should not automatically turn a lawful donation into "foreign financing." Still, the party argued, all parliamentary parties clearly fail to meet the standard set by the Supreme Court's August 10 ruling.
Based on the findings, Yabloko demanded that the Supreme Court's decision to remove the party either be overturned, or that the state-created criterion be "consistently applied" to all other election participants. Yabloko has appealed the court's ruling; party chairman Nikolai Rybakov said there were no grounds for the party's removal and that Yabloko would prove this.
