Yabloko party set to win seat in Novgorod legislature
The anti-war party was barred from seven of eight regional elections it contested.
AI-assisted coverage comparison, editor-supervised · How this was made
Yabloko party set to win seat in Novgorod legislature
Photograph: Meduza (embedded from source)
What this story says
- Yabloko received 6.2% of the vote in the Novgorod regional election, according to Russia’s Central Election Commission.
- Novgorod was the only region where Yabloko’s party list appeared on the ballot for a regional parliament.
- Yabloko is the only officially registered Russian party that openly opposes the war with Ukraine.
- The party is set to enter the Novgorod regional legislature.
Who covered it
Percentages are shares of the 7 outlets carrying a published leaning rating. 9 of the 16 outlets we know ran this story carry no rating and are not counted in them. Coverage measured .
Trust
86/100
Craft
77/100
Hype
25/100
16 sources · methodology
Thin on the right so far
Only 2 of the 7 outlets with a published leaning rating that ran this story are rated right.
This story is still being watched, so it is a count and not yet a finding. Coverage keeps arriving for hours after an event, and a side that has published nothing this morning may publish by tonight. If it is still true when we stop checking, we will say so plainly.
Yabloko is set to win seats in the Novgorod regional legislature, with 6.2% of the vote counted from 96.86% of precinct tallies. The party’s list appeared on the ballot in Novgorod, the only one of eight regions where it was registered for a regional parliament election. In other regions, including St. Petersburg and Leningrad, the party’s lists were not registered. In Karelia, Kaliningrad, Sverdlovsk, Tomsk, and Pskov regions, the lists were removed from the ballot after legal challenges from other parties.
Russia’s Supreme Court removed Yabloko’s federal list from the State Duma elections on August 10. This decision followed a lawsuit from the Rodina party, which alleged copyright infringement in Yabloko’s campaign materials and claimed the party had received foreign funding. Yabloko is the only party that ran on an anti-war platform.
Disagreement on election results
Reports differ on the final vote share for Yabloko in Novgorod. Meduza states the party has 6.2% of the vote, citing Russia’s Central Election Commission. Aljazeera does not specify a vote percentage for Yabloko in its report.
What the coverage left out
None of the reports mention the specific vote percentages for other parties in the Novgorod regional election that Meduza published, such as United Russia’s 38.37% or the Communist Party’s 14.54%. The unrated report from CiberCuba includes a claim from Yabloko leader Ribakov that Russian casualties exceed 500,000 dead, a detail not present in the Meduza or Aljazeera reports.
Still developing. We have re-checked which outlets are covering this 3 times, most recently on 21 Sept 2026, 11:00, and will add the sides that appear.
How each side covered it
Our own reading of the reporting listed below, written from the outlets’ articles rather than quoted from them. The reasoning is set out on our methodology page.
Left
4 rated outlets
- The left-rated reports highlighted Yabloko’s status as the sole officially registered Russian party openly opposing the war in Ukraine. Meduza reported that Yabloko is on track to win seats in the Novgorod regional legislature, detailing the vote share and the party’s exclusion from seven other regional races. Aljazeera stated that Yabloko’s exclusion denies opponents of the war and the current political and economic path an opportunity to express their position.
Centre
1 rated outlet
We have not written our reading of the centre coverage of this story. The centre-rated outlets that ran it are listed below.
Right
2 rated outlets
We have not written our reading of the right coverage of this story. The right-rated outlets that ran it are listed below.
Questions about this coverage
- How did the left and right cover Yabloko party set to win seat in Novgorod legislature?
- Of the 7 outlets on this story carrying a published leaning rating, 57% are rated left, 14% are rated centre, 29% are rated right. Those percentages are shares of the rated outlets, not of every outlet that ran it, which was 16. The sections above set out what each side emphasised, in its own terms.
- Is Yabloko party set to win seat in Novgorod legislature left or right?
- Too few of the outlets on this story carry a published leaning rating to say. 7 of them do, and this site does not characterise a field under 12: at that size one newsroom filing moves the share by ten points. The percentages above are the count as it stands.
- Is the coverage of Yabloko party set to win seat in Novgorod legislature biased?
- Yabloko party set to win seat in Novgorod legislature is one event reported by 16 outlets, and this page does not rate the story as biased or unbiased. What it publishes is the spread: which outlets ran it, where named rating organisations place each of them on the spectrum, and what each side chose to lead with. A leaning rating describes an outlet's record over time, not this article, and the two should not be run together.
- Which side is not reporting Yabloko party set to win seat in Novgorod legislature?
- When we first saw this story, outlets rated right had barely covered it. Coverage accretes for hours after an event, so that is where to look rather than a verdict — the split above is the current count, and it is the one to read.
- Which outlets covered Yabloko party set to win seat in Novgorod legislature?
- 16 that we know of, every one of them listed further up this page with a link to its own report and to what we hold on the publisher. Nothing here is a summary of somebody else's summary: the outlets are named so the original reporting can be read.
- What percentage of the vote did Yabloko receive in Novgorod?
- Yabloko received 6.2% of the vote in the Novgorod regional election, according to Russia’s Central Election Commission. This result means the party is set to enter the regional legislature.
- Why was Yabloko barred from most regional elections?
- Yabloko was barred from seven of the eight regional elections it contested. In Novgorod, the only region where its list appeared on the ballot, it is set to enter the legislature. The party is the only registered Russian party that openly opposes the war in Ukraine.
- What other claims were made about the war in Ukraine?
- Yabloko leader Ribakov claims millions of Russians reject the war in Ukraine and that Russian casualties exceed 500,000 dead. This claim was reported by CiberCuba.
Read it at the source
16 outlets, grouped by the leaning a published rating gives them. Every headline links to the original; an underlined outlet name opens our profile of that publisher.
Left
4- Putin’s ruling party on course to retain power after election-day attacks (opens Irish Times in a new tab)
Irish Times — is Irish Times biased? Our profile of this outlet
- Putin's party to retain power after Russian elections where anti-war parties were banned (opens The Journal in a new tab)
The Journal — is The Journal biased? Our profile of this outlet
- Russia’s antiwar Yabloko party was barred from seven of eight regional races. In the one where it made the ballot, it’s set to enter the regional legislature. (opens Meduza in a new tab)
- Yabloko, Why Does a Small Party Raise so Much Controversy in Russia's Election? (opens aljazeera.net in a new tab)
aljazeera.net — is aljazeera.net biased? Our profile of this outlet
Centre
1Right
2- "The Kremlin suppressed dissent, did not allow the only registered anti-war party to vote, and denied international observers access (opens news-pravda.com in a new tab)
news-pravda.com — is news-pravda.com biased? Our profile of this outlet
- The "Apple" Goes to the Novgorod Hood After Almost 100% of the Ballots Are Processed. (opens Interfax.ru in a new tab)
Interfax.ru — is Interfax.ru biased? Our profile of this outlet
Not rated
9- Putin's Party Will Have the Most Deputies in Its History, Nearly 90 War Veterans Will Join (opens Actualno.com in a new tab)
Actualno.com — is Actualno.com biased? Our profile of this outlet
- Elections in Russia: Putin's Party Leads Seconded After Counting over 90% of Votes (opens realitatea.md in a new tab)
realitatea.md — is realitatea.md biased? Our profile of this outlet
- Opposition Party Yabloko Likely to Enter Regional Parliament in Novgorod Region (opens echo24.cz in a new tab)
- Russian Liberal Party Yabloko Wins Support in Novgorod Region. Values of Peace and Freedom Captivate Voters (opens Aktuality.sk in a new tab)
Aktuality.sk — is Aktuality.sk biased? Our profile of this outlet
- Anti-War Party Jabloko Surprisingly Succeeded: It Could only Run in One Area (opens topky.sk in a new tab)
- I Vote in Russia, Putin's Party Wins. No Anti-War Party on the Ballot (opens L'Unione Sarda.it in a new tab)
L'Unione Sarda.it — is L'Unione Sarda.it biased? Our profile of this outletOpinion
- The Opposition Yabloko Party Entered the Parliament of the Novgorod Region. The only One Where It Could Run (opens Hospodárske Noviny in a new tab)
Hospodárske Noviny — is Hospodárske Noviny biased? Our profile of this outlet
- The “Yabloko” Party Unexpectedly Moved to the Oblast in a Single Region of Russia (opens ГОЛОВНА in a new tab)
ГОЛОВНА
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