• Russia's opposition liberal party Yabloko, approved to run in the national parliamentary elections, has been barred from contesting the St Petersburg city election due to a technicality.
• Yabloko is the only party openly campaigning against Russia's war on Ukraine, with many of its members facing political persecution and arbitrary prosecution.
• Despite being allowed to participate in the national vote, Yabloko poses little political risk to the Kremlin as many of its key figures were barred from standing and the party remains electorally weak.

Russia's opposition liberal party Yabloko, which earlier this week was approved to contest the country's national parliamentary elections, will not be able to run in the St Petersburg city election after the Central Electoral Commission declared its list of candidates there invalid, local media reported on Friday.

Yabloko was given the green light on Wednesday to run in the State Duma elections scheduled for September 18-20, making it the only party to contest the vote that openly campaigns against Russia's war on Ukraine. In announcing that surprise decision, the commission said it had unanimously approved Yabloko's list of 269 candidates.

However, in a serious blow, the commission has since declared the party list for the city legislature in St Petersburg, Yabloko's stronghold, invalid, citing a technicality, the Kommersant newspaper reported. The local election will be held on the same days in September.

An appeal by the party against the decision has been rejected.

Yabloko members have long been outspoken critics of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and many have faced what supporters describe as political persecution and arbitrary prosecution.

Political commentators in Moscow believe the Kremlin may have allowed Yabloko to participate in September's national vote because weak polling for the ruling United Russia party had created a need for a controlled outlet for dissatisfied voters.

At the same time, analysts say Yabloko poses little political risk to the Kremlin because many of its best-known figures were barred from standing and the party remains electorally weak.

Yabloko currently holds two of the 50 seats in St. Petersburg's City Council, but the liberal, anti-war party is widely seen as having broader support in Russia's second-largest city.