Moscow (AFP) – Russia’s Supreme Court on Monday barred the country’s only anti-war party, Yabloko, from contesting September’s parliamentary elections.

The court thereby upheld a suit brought by a pro-Kremlin nationalist party, stripping voters opposed to the four-and-a-half-year war in Ukraine of their last option on the ballot.

“The claims seeking to annul the registration of the federal list of candidates for the State Duma of the ninth convocation, nominated by the Yabloko political party, were granted,” judge Vyacheslav Kirillov said.

With most of President Vladimir Putin’s opponents jailed, exiled or dead, Yabloko is the only liberal party still operating in Russia.

The party has received the backing of several exiled opposition figures, including Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Both are listed as “extremists” in Russia.

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