16:56, 17 September 2026

The observer from "Yabloko" was detained at the polling station in the Azov district.

Masked security forces detained an observer at polling station No. 58 in the village of Yuzhny in the Azov district of the Rostov region, a member of the Regional Council of the Rostov branch of "Yabloko", Boris Miklyukov.

As reported by "Caucasian Knot", the main voting in the elections for the State Duma deputies of the IX convocation will take place in the Rostov region from September 18 to 20, while early voting has been organized in some districts .

In the State Duma elections, the Rostov region is divided into six single-member districts, and voters in the federal electoral district vote for party lists. The Azov district is part of the Bataisk single-member district No. 152, where candidates from "United Russia", the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, "New People", "Fair Russia", "Yabloko", and the Pensioners' Party are participating; Sergey Koshevoy is registered from "Yabloko". At the same time, additional elections for a deputy of the regional Legislative Assembly and municipal campaigns are taking place in the Rostov region: in 399 urban and rural settlements across all 43 districts, more than four thousand local deputies are to be elected, as noted in the "Caucasian Knot" report "Election campaign in the North Caucasus Federal District and Southern Federal District in 2026".

According to the press service of the regional branch of the "Yabloko" party, the observer at polling station No. 58 in the village of Yuzhny in the Azov district, a member of the Regional Council of the Rostov branch of "Yabloko", Boris Miklyukov, was detained by police officers.

"Two plainclothes officers and one uniformed police officer came from Rostov-on-Don – about 100 kilometers away – for Miklyukov," the press service reported today on its Telegram channel.

Miklyukov was placed in an unmarked vehicle and taken to Rostov-on-Don, presumably to one of the police departments. There is no communication with the observer. The reasons for the detention are unknown. "According to preliminary information, the police's interest may be related to Miklyukov's comment on social media," the message stated.

The chairman of the Rostov regional branch of "Yabloko" Alexey Popov considered it not coincidental that the observer was picked up about 100 km away precisely during the observation. He called on law enforcement agencies to exercise restraint and stated that the regional branch would investigate the circumstances of the incident and do everything possible to protect Miklyukov, the press service noted.

As of 16:50 Moscow time, there are no comments on the website of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Rostov region regarding the report of Boris Miklyukov's detention.

Recall that the Supreme Court of Russia canceled the registration of the federal list of "Yabloko" for the State Duma elections on August 10, and on August 17, the appellate panel upheld this decision.

This court decision only concerned candidates running on the federal list and did not affect candidates separately registered in single-member districts, explained earlier to a correspondent of "Caucasian Knot" lawyer Elena Marchenko. She pointed out that the presence of independent observers and representatives of candidates at polling stations is an important condition for protecting the election results.

Translated automatically via OpenAI from https://www.kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/426707