Press Release, 22.05.2020

Photo: Governor Beglov and Boris Vishnevsky, head of the Yabloko faction in the Legislative Assembly of St.Petersburg

Boris Vishnevsky, Deputy Chairman of the Yabloko party and the head of the party’s faction in the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg, sent to the Legal Department of the city parliament a draft decision on no confidence in Governor Alexander Beglov.

According to Vishnevsky, the head of the city performs his duties inappropriately.

“Instead of provision of means of personal protection to doctors and provision of direct aid to citizens, the administration is mainly concerned with absurd bans, restrictions and fines. It demands from citizens to wear masks in the streets, but it did not provide masks and gloves to people. And in general, it [the administration] chose the way of reprisals. All this testifies to the fact that Alexander Beglov cannot cope with the performance of his duties,” Vishnevsky notes.

The deputy also recalled that a week ago the Bureau of the St. Petersburg branch of Yabloko adopted a statement on the need for resignation of St.Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov.

“We stated that the administration of St. Petersburg, headed by Governor Alexander Beglov, was unable to fight the epidemic or protect the city residents. Instead of adjusting the work of hospitals, providing doctors with personal protective equipment and providing direct support to citizens who were left without means of subsistence due to the prohibition to work for many enterprises and organisations and forced “days off”, it only creates increasingly more prohibitions and restrictions, threatening people with fines for their violation,” the statement ran.

“Based on the decision of the Bureau, today I have sent the following draft law to the legal department for their conclusion. As soon as we get a conclusion, we submit it to the city parliament. The bill will have at least two authors. I hope much more,” Boris Vishnevsky said.

According to Article 40 of the St. Petersburg Charter, the Legislative Assembly has the right to pass a no-confidence motion against the head of the city, which may serve as the reason for his resignation. According to Paragraph 5 of this Article, in order to start the motion, it is necessary to collect the signatures of at least one third of the deputies (seventeen people). Two-thirds of the deputies must vote for the bill to make it pass. The decision on the resignation of the Governor is made by the President.