Kremlin harshly cracks down on anti-war candidates ahead of elections – WP

The Kremlin has launched a campaign to suppress anti-war candidates ahead of the September elections, completely blocking their participation. The Yabloko party faces unprecedented pressure, and Boris Nadezhdin has been banned from running. Experts link the decline in trust in the leadership to the consequences of the war, including explosions at warehouses and a fuel crisis due to strikes on refineries.

The Kremlin has launched a large-scale campaign to suppress anti-war sentiment ahead of the September parliamentary elections, completely blocking candidates who oppose the fighting in Ukraine. This is reported by The Washington Post and Foreign Policy. The liberal Yabloko party, campaigning under slogans of peace and freedom, has faced unprecedented pressure across the country. Prominent politician Boris Nadezhdin, who planned to run as an independent candidate, has been officially banned from running. Political scientist Andrei Kolesnikov notes that the regime no longer provides official platforms for the opposition. The decline in trust in the leadership is linked to the fact that the consequences of the war are felt inside Russia: regular explosions at warehouses and oil depots. According to GLOBSEC analytics, since the beginning of the year, Ukrainian drones have carried out nearly 200 strikes on Russian refineries, putting eight out of ten largest enterprises out of commission, which triggered a fuel crisis. Experts propose expanding strikes to railways, ports, and Russia's shadow oil fleet.