Press Release, 7.06.2021

Photo from the official web-site of the Central District Court of Kaliningrad

The Central District Court of Kaliningrad declared unlawful the refusal of the administration of the city district to permit single pickets of the local branch of Yabloko, which were planned to be held near the entrances to the buildings of the administration and government of the Kaliningrad region using prefabricated demountable constructions. Officials referred to the anti-COVID resolution of the regional government.

The administration’s refusal was challenged in court by Viktor Gorbunov, a member of the Kaliningrad branch of Yabloko. However, on 4 June, after a repeated notification to the administration with reference to the court’s decision, Gorbunov was again refused a permission, but this time with a reference to the violation of norms of the law “On meetings, rallies, demonstrations, processions and picketing”.

According to Yelena Dyatlova, head of the Kaliningrad administration, the permission cannot be given, as it was submitted to hold pickets in several places, and the organiser allegedly will not be able to fulfill the duties of ensuring public order in all of them, also the application did not indicate “forms and methods of providing sanitary services”… Viktor Gorbunov considers the repeated refusal to be unlawful and intends to challenge it again in court.

It should be noted that earlier the court ruled unlawful the refusal of the authorities to permit Yabloko’s election campaign cubes in Saratov.

In late May, Yabloko launched its parliamentary election campaign (elections to the State Duma will take place on 19 September) by distributing 1.5 million Yabloko newspapers. Residents of 106 cities in 53 regions of Russia will receive an issue (.pdf ) of the Yabloko party newspaper, timed to coincide with the start of the election campaign. By 15 June, Yabloko plans to distribute 1.5 million newspapers.