Press Release, 5.02.2024

Photo: Yevgeny Kaverzin / Photo from social media

Yevgeny Kaverzin, a deputy from Yabloko in the Tomsk City Duma, may be deprived of his mandate. The formal reason is some inaccuracies in his income declarations for 2020 and 2021, but the real reason for deprivation of his mandate is his protection of the interests of citizens that are infringed by the regional waste management operator. The meeting of the City Duma, at which a decision on depriving Yevgeny Kaverzin of his mandate will be held on 6 February.

Yevgeny Kaverzin was elected to the Tomsk City Duma on a non-permanent basis in 2020. He works as a technologist at the Clean World company, which processes recyclable waste. The company has been purchasing waste from citizens and legal entities for 14 years. After the waste reform was carried out throughout Russia, the activities of private companies processing recyclable materials were actually outlawed. However, the Clean World managed to survive due to public support.

Meanwhile, the situation with garbage collection in Tomsk has not improved since the appointment of the regional operator. Yevgeniy Kaverzin regularly wrote about this on his social networks.

In the summer of 2023, Yabloko deputies in the Tomsk City Duma Vasily Yeremin, Yevgeny Kaverzin, Artyom Kanarev and David Avetyan sent an appeal to the acting Mayor of Tomsk Mikhail Ratner demanding to dismiss the director of the regional solid waste management operator, Mikhail Kurilov, due to dissatisfaction of citizens with cleaning up garbage. The deputies pointed out in the their appeal the reports from the Tomsk Accounts Chamber and the Federal Antimonopoly Service for the Tomsk Region, according to which the regional operator (UMP Spetsavtohozyaystva) regularly concludes contracts with contractors in the interests of the latter (the ABF group of companies).

The director of the regional operator, Mikhail Kurilov, filed a lawsuit for the protection of honour and dignity against the deputies from Yabloko, who demanded his resignation due to failed work. The lengthy trial ended on 22 January. The court rejected Mikhail Kurilov’s claim against Yabloko.

At the same time, on 19 January, Yevgeny Kaverzin received a document from the Department for the Prevention of Corruption and Other Offenses of the Administration of the Tomsk Region, which stated that the deputy’s declarations for 2020 and 2021 contained a number of violations, on the basis of which the department recommended that Kaverzin contact the City Duma with application for early termination of the powers of a deputy.

Later it turned out that several months ago the head of the regional operator, Mikhail Kurilov, contacted the Public Prosecutor’s Office with a request to check the declarations of City Duma deputies. But the check was carried out only in relation to Yevgeniy Kaverzin.

“All of the listed “violations” in my declarations are either insignificant according to official documents of the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection, or [these data] are not required at all to be reflected in my reporting financial documents,” Yevgeniy Kaverzin comments. “There are no grounds for bringing me to any responsibility, and a decision to the contrary, if made, will be illegal.”

In addition, it should be noted that a deputy who performs his duties on a non-permanent basis (that is, without receiving a salary for this) must provide information on income, expenses, property and property-related obligations only if during the reporting period he, his spouse or children made transactions to acquire land, real estate, vehicles, securities, etc., and if the total amount of such transactions exceeds the total income of the person and his spouse for the last three years preceding the reporting period (Article 3, Part 1 of Federal Law No 230). Kaverzin and his family members did not make such transactions, which means that Kaverzin did not have to provide any information of his income, and this could not be the basis for any liability.

The head of the Yabloko faction in the Tomsk Duma, Vasily Yeremin, said that the party will insist on the illegality of the conclusions of Governor Vladimir Mazur.

“When discussing the issue of depriving Yevgeny Kaverzin of his mandate, an alternative draft will be proposed to the City Duma assembly. We may have to defend the will of Tomsk residents in court,” Vasily Yeremin says.

Deputy Chairman of the Yabloko party Maxim Kruglov, commenting on the situation, insists that deputy Kaverzin cannot be deprived of his mandate due to inaccuracy in information about his income, since according to the law, he should not indicate this information in his declaration.

“This is an illegal and obviously politically motivated reprisal, and the party will defend its deputy; our lawyers are involved in the proceedings,” Kruglov reports. “We are responsible to our voters, and we will defend the right of Tomsk residents to representation in the Duma, if necessary, in court.”

The meeting of the Tomsk City Duma, at which the issue of depriving Yabloko deputy Yevgeny Kaverzin of his powers will be discussed, will be held on 6 February.