Press Release, 18.12.2023

Photo: Emilia Slabunova / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

The budget of Karelia for 2024 and the planning period 2025-2026 was adopted in the third reading with 25 votes in favour and 8 against out of 34 present. All 20 amendments of Yabloko, as well as proposals of other parties, were rejected. The head of the Yabloko faction in the Legislative Assembly of the Republic, Emilia Slabunova, spoke at a parliamentary meeting about why the faction did not consider it possible to support such a draft budget. Slabunova also demanded that the government of the Republic of Karelia present a plan for solving the problems reflected in the blocked amendments of the three factions, and a plan for increasing its own revenue sources of the budget of Karelia in 2024.

“Having blocked the amendments of our faction and our colleagues, the government of Karelia did not propose any plan to resolve the issues raised in these amendments and very acute social problems. This includes lighting in the villages of our republic, provision of clean water, and a list of other amendments – you have heard all about them here,” Slabunova stressed.

It should be noted that the Yabloko faction of the Karelian parliament proposed to increase funding for healthcare, housing and utilities, resettlement from shabby housing and provision of water to residents. The amendments envisaged that the expenditure part had to be raised at the expense of the reserve fund of the Government of the Republic of Karelia, or at the expense of the funds reserved for co-financing from the Republic of Karelia within the framework of federal (national) projects and programmes.