Press Release, 10.01.2023

Photo: Svetlana Vasilkova / Photo from the Grazhdanin newspaper

Svetlana Vasilkova appealed (https://eng.yabloko.ru/30000-2/ ) the decision of the Opochetsky District Court, which recognised her dismissal from the post of head of the Pustoshkinsky District as legal. On 9 January, the Pustoshkinsky District Court received her appeal.

Svetlana Vasilkova asks in the appeal to cancel the decision of the district court, since it was issued by a court interested in the outcome of the case. The district court misinterpreted the norms of substantive law governing the grounds for the early resignation/dismissal of the head of the district, violated the norms of procedural law, and ignored the essential circumstances that are important for the correct resolution of the case.

It should be noted that the grounds (circumstances) of the dismissal became known to Svetlana Vasilkova and her representative only 1.5 hours before the end of the trial. At the time of the dismissal on 24 November, 2022, and before it, the district Assembly of Deputies did not formulate these circumstances in any way; and these circumstances were absent in the decision of the Assembly. At the same time, the main part of the grounds provided were not true, and the other part was not relevant to the case.

The court deliberately deprived the plaintiff of the right to give explanations on the arguments of the defendant by giving her no time to prepare explanations on new materials. The court refused to take into account the complete groundlessness of the decision at the time of its adoption by the Assembly.

The claims made against the administrative defendant – the Governor of the Pskov region – must be satisfied due to legislative restrictions for a top official of a constituent entity of the Russian Federation in the area of responsibility of a local self-government official. The Governor has no right to submit an opinion to the Assembly of Deputies except on the issues of the exercise of the delegated state powers by the head of the municipality.

Taking into account the exemplary execution of transferred state powers in the Pustoshkinsky district, it should be noted that in the case of strict observance of the law by the Governor of the region, he could not (had no reason) to support the removal of Svetlana Vasilkova from her post.

All the aforementioned, as well as other numerous violations set forth in the complaint, should entail the cancellation of the decision by the court of appeal with the issuance of an opposite decision to satisfy the claim. If the Pskov Regional Court recognises the existence of the judge’s interest in the consideration of the case, the case will be sent to a court in another region of Russia.

It should be noted that Svetlana Vasilkova, Deputy Chairman of the Pskov Yabloko, was stripped from her powers by the decision of the Assembly of Deputies of the Pustoshkinsky District of 24 November. Such a decision was taken by 11 pro-government deputies (ten from the United Russia party and one from the LDPR party), three deputies voted against (two from CPRF and one from Yabloko) and one abstained (the Fair Russia). The decision was adopted despite the fact that the State Finance Committee of the Pskov Region recognised the district headed by Vasilkova one of the best in the region in 2021 and allotted additional funding in the form of an additional incentive payment which was used for preparation for the heating season. Vasilkova regards the decisions on an unsatisfactory assessment of her performance by the deputies as far-fetched and having nothing to do with reality. When making a decision, the deputies violated the procedure determined by federal law.

The Yabloko party issued a statement (https://eng.yabloko.ru/29780-2/ ) in support of Svetlana Vasilkova. Yabloko placed full responsibility for what had happened on the Governor of the Pskov region, Mikhail Vedernikov, who personally supported the dismissal of Yabloko’s head of district.