Press Release, 26.11.2018

Boris Vishnevsky, head of the Yabloko faction in the St.Petersburg Legislative Assembly, called on citizens to begin collecting signatures under the letter to St. Petersburg municipal deputies and the leadership of ruling United Russia party to ensure real, rather than decorative, political competition in the election of the St.Petersburg Governor.

According to Vishnevsky, in St.Petersburg there are at least nine politicians belonging to different parties who have sufficient support in society, experience and knowledge in order to qualify for the post of Governor.

“I hope that other opposition parties in St. Petersburg will join this campaign. This is not a campaign for the [promotion] of Yabloko’s candidate. This is a campaign for the right to choose, and not to simply accept another Governor appointed [by the authorities], ” Boris Vishnevsky says.

Vishnevsky also believes that the ever-increasing number of urban problems is caused by the lack of a real alternative in the gubernatorial elections of 2014, when Georgy Poltavchenko won and the subsequent appointment of Alexander Beglov as acting governor, who does not depend on the citizens.

“If the elections of 2019 will be held in the same way – without real competition, with fake “rivals ” for Beglov or someone else nominated by Putin, then we will live on like this, complaining that Smolny [the executive authority in the city] does not hear us. We will be gathering rallies, protest and write letters – and run into the wall of imperious indifference, ” Boris Vishnevsky stresses.

Boris Vishnevsky, leader of the Yabloko faction in the St.Petersburg Legislative Assembly, was one of the first to announce that he intended to fight for the nomination from the Yabloko party as a candidate for Governor of St. Petersburg. Nikolai Rybakov, Yabloko Deputy Chair, and Sergei Troshin, deputy head of the local branch of the party in the Nevsky district of St. Petersburg, also voiced their intentions to run for the post.