The European Union has imposed sanctions on Russian judges and officials involved in barring the Yabloko party from the September 2026 State Duma elections. Ten individuals were added to the EU sanctions list.

Among them are three Supreme Court judges and an official from the Prosecutor General’s Office who were involved in the case against Yabloko. The Council of the EU specifically noted that Yabloko was the only party running in the elections with an openly anti-war position.

On August 19, the Anti-Corruption Foundation submitted an official request to the European External Action Service, calling for sanctions against those involved in barring Yabloko from the elections. Our submission named Supreme Court judges Vyacheslav Kirillov, Igor Zinchenko, Vladimir Zaitsev, and Denis Tyutin, Central Election Commission representative Sergey Sakharov, and Prosecutor General’s Office official Ilya Rusakov. Vladimir Zaitsev was already under EU sanctions at the time.

The European Union has now imposed new restrictions on those responsible for the decision. Their assets in the EU are frozen, and EU citizens and companies are prohibited from making funds or other economic resources available to them.

On the same day, the European Union also imposed sanctions on Tatarstan head Rustam Minnikhanov. In August, ACF published a major investigation into Minnikhanov. We found that the head of Tatarstan effectively controls the Luciano business empire, worth billions and formally registered to his wife. At the time, we also called on the European Union to impose sanctions on Minnikhanov.