Press Release, 3.07.2024

Photo: A screenshot of a map with locations for collecting signatures that the Chelyabinsk Mayor’s Office offered to the Yabloko party

The administration of Chelyabinsk did not approve for the regional branch of the Yabloko party any of the one hundred locations which Yabloko applied for so that to collect signatures for the nomination of Yabloko candidates for the Chelyabinsk City Duma elections. The Mayor’s Office proposed three collection points instead, which are literally located in a field or near the railway. Yaroslav Shcherbakov, Chairman of the Chelyabinsk Yabloko and a candidate, filed a lawsuit in the Sovetsky District Court of the city.

The regional branch of Yabloko nominated candidates for elections to the City Duma both on the list of party candidates and in single-mandate constituencies. Yabloko candidates are campaigning under the slogan “For Peace and Freedom!”. To be registered in the elections, candidates must collect 5,000 signatures from residents from all over the city and 200 signatures for each candidate in the city’s single-mandate constituency. The signatures must be collected by 19 July.

The Chelyabinsk branch of Yabloko opened a collection at the party office, and also planned to organise stationary points for collecting signatures with cubes in different parts of the city. The party notified the Mayor’s Office about this on 2 July. The application for picketing for collection of signatures included more than a hundred locations.

The Mayor’s Office responded to the application on the same day. In a letter signed by Valery Smirnov, the acting deputy head of the city for social development, it was indicated that picketing for collection of signatures should be carried out only in the so-called “guide parks”, specially designated places where pickets up to 100 people require no notifications of the authorities. There are two of them in Chelyabinsk: near the Traktor Ice Arena and in the Metallurg Park. But, the official also notified Yabloko that these sites were occupied “based on notifications previously submitted by citizen initiative groups”.

Yabloko was offered three addresses for installing cubes and collecting signatures in Ugolnaya, Dorozhnaya and Lazurnaya streets. The maps show that there are deserted fields and railway tracks near these addresses. There will be virtually no people passing by.

The Chelyabinsk branch of Yabloko refused to put up with such “humour” from the Mayor’s Office and went to court to declare the officials’ response unlawful. According to Yaroslav Shcherbakov, the court’s office did not want to register the claim today, proposing to do it at a later date. This may be due to the fact that such claims must be dealt with immediately.