MOSCOW — Russian authorities have detained a member of the liberal Yabloko party, which stands in opposition to the war in Ukraine, on suspicion of making donations to an organization that has been outlawed in the country, the party announced in a statement.
The detained member, Elena Perepelitsa, 60, was taken into custody just eight days after the party’s deputy leader, Maxim Kruglov, was found guilty of spreading false information about the Russian military and sentenced to seven years behind bars.
The arrests are unfolding as Russia prepares to hold elections for the State Duma — the lower chamber of its parliament — in September. The conflict in Ukraine is now in its fifth year, and drone attacks launched by Ukrainian forces have been increasingly affecting daily life within Russian borders.
Yabloko was once considered a major liberal political force during the post-Soviet era, but today holds only a small number of seats in regional legislatures and has no representation at the national level. While the party is unlikely to secure Duma seats in the upcoming vote given Russia’s tightly controlled political environment, its participation in the election provides a rare public platform for anti-war positions that Russian authorities have been working to suppress.
In a separate matter, the Russian edition of Forbes magazine reported the death of journalist Sergei Mingazov, 57, who had been involved in a lengthy legal battle over charges of spreading false information about the war in Ukraine. Forbes reported that Mingazov died of cancer.
