Statement by the St.Petersburg branch of Yabloko, 18.09.2019

The St.Petersburg branch of Yabloko does not recognise the election of the Governor of St. Petersburg as having taken place. It was nothing more than an act of appointing [acting Governor] Alexander Beglov, sent to our city by President Vladimir Putin, [as Governor]. The procedure when the strongest competitors of a candidate from the party in power are removed from participation by different ways and means cannot be called elections, and the declared winner is not an elected Governor. We consider Alexander Beglov to be the same appointee as he was before.

The St. Petersburg branch of Yabloko, which nominated more than 500 candidates for the municipal election, faced fierce resistance from the authorities during the election campaign. Almost half of our candidates were unlawfully removed from running in the elections. Nevertheless, even in these difficult conditions, Yabloko candidates managed to win in many municipalities, having earned the voters’ trust.

At the stage of drawing up the results of the municipal elections, Yabloko faced massive fraud. Candidates and members of electoral commissions from the Yabloko literally for days were on duty in district administrations, ensuring that the official election results corresponded to the will of voters. Falsification of protocols, flight of electoral commissions from the premises with ballots, “recounts” that invariably led to an increase in votes for candidates from the United Russia party and a decrease in votes for our candidates, refusals of electoral commissions to enter data into the GAS Vybory system [the federal data base on voting in all the elections in Russia], delaying the approval of results – all these methods were applied in order to review the will of the voters expressed in the elections, and to maintain power for those who sit in the municipal councils for 10-15 years, obediently following the instructions of the authorities. And only in the desperate efforts of our candidates and members of the electoral commissions made it possible in most cases to defend the voters’ will and not allow it to be distorted.

Unlawful removal from the elections, fraud, obstruction in drawing up the results of the election – the Yabloko party will not let the authorities get away with it. We will defend every vote cast for our candidates.

We are certain that the intensification of political reprisals that we are witnessing – arrests and fines for participating in protests against the non-registration of opposition candidates in the elections, absurd criminal cases against political and civil activists for alleged “mass riots”, searches at FBK [Alexei Navaly’s Anti-Corruption Fund] and Golos [a movement for protection of voters rights] represent a direct consequence of the autorities’ defeat in the elections.

The authorities responding with repression to the loss of citizens’ trust, the authorities sending armed national security troops against civilians asking for fair elections, the authorities as being corrupt, persecuting those who expose corruption, must go away. Their time is inevitably coming to an end.