The Supreme Court of Russia has put an end to the most talked-about political campaign of the summer. The Yabloko party, the only political force on the ballot that openly called for an immediate ceasefire and peace, has been removed from the State Duma election. The lawsuit filed by rivals from the Rodina party was upheld, and with it, even the faint possibility for Russian citizens to legally declare that they are "against" was finally dismantled.
The logic of the prosecution voiced in court is more reminiscent not of a legal proceeding, but of an anti-utopia in which the words "peace" and "life" become evidence. Using images generated by ChatGPT was called a copyright violation; quoting songs about peace was treated as an attack on the authors' intellectual property; and an anti-war stance was labeled "extremism," supposedly standing in the way of the "liberation of territories."
When a political party is barred from an election for using neural networks or archive photos from 1945, that is not protection of the law. It is a demonstrative mockery of common sense. It is a signal: in Putin's Russia, dissent is equated with a crime, and any attempt to offer an alternative is treated as an act against the state.
Gloom, death, and the cemetery "consensus"
The removal of Yabloko is not just a bureaucratic act. It is an act of isolation. A government that is so afraid of its own citizens that it purges the ballot of anyone who dares to say the word "peace" is finally burning the bridges to the civilized world.
Today Russia is sinking into a silence in which only calls for war and marching songs can be heard. Young people who came to court to support the party — those who "don't want to be killed" — have found themselves pushed out of the legal political arena. They are being shown that their voice means nothing, and that their future is merely expendable material for imperial ambitions.
We are watching the country fall into a "black hole" of repression. Where there used to be politics, there is now fear. Where there used to be debate, there are "special operations" by the security services to eliminate rivals. Where there used to be a prospect of development, there is poverty, isolation, and endless mourning for the dead.
The Age of Monsters
Drawing Russia into these terrible times is no accident. It is a systematic process. By eliminating Yabloko, the authorities are showing that they no longer even need the appearance of democracy. The system has been built to leave no room for humanity.
When an anti-war stance is labeled “extremism,” when you can be stripped of your right to speak for a photograph of Hiroshima or a line from a song, society loses its immunity to arbitrariness. Darkness becomes the norm of life. Death becomes the only language the state speaks clearly. And fear seeps into everything: from school desks to ministerial offices.
The closure of Yabloko is not just an election-season scandal. It is proof that there is no longer room in Russia's political system for people who do not want to carry death.
This is a final admission: the authorities are ready to turn the country into a closed camp, where anyone who does not agree with the “death-bound” course will be erased, fined, or thrown in prison.
Russia today is a country where tomorrow has been canceled. And while the state machine, with surgical precision, removes the last sprouts of dissent, each of us must understand: when there is no choice left, only darkness remains. And we are all living in it now.
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