After two years of litigation, the seizure of the St.Petersburg branch of the society for the protection of of architectural heritage was declared illegal. One of the plaintiffs was Yabloko Deputy Chair Boris Vishnevsky
Press Release, 16.12.2024
Photo: Boris Vishnevsky by the VOOPIK office / Photo by the St.Petersbrug branch of Yabloko
The City Court of St. Petersburg upheld the decision of the Oktyabrsky District Court on the illegal holding of a conference of the St.Petersburg branch of VOOPIK (All-Russian Society for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments). On 29 June, 2022, with the support of the city authorities, a raider seizure of the organisation by developers and “restorers” took place. The group of plaintiffs in this case included Deputy Chairman of Yabloko Boris Vishnevsky. The interests of the plaintiffs were represented by Deputy Chairman of the St.Petersburg branch of the party, lawyer Alexander Kobrinsky. The restoring of justice took over two years.
The decision came into force, and the self-proclaimed “leadership” of the St. Petersburg VOOPIK was recognized as illegitimate, the powers of the legitimate leadership of the branch of the organisation, which was elected in 2021 for a term of five years, were restored.
“Thank you to all colleagues who did not put up with lawlessness and defended their rights in court,” Boris Vishnevsky said.
It should be noted that the activists fighting for preservation of St.Petersburg architectural heritage challenged (https://eng.yabloko.ru/32776-2/ ) the results of the conference of the VOOPIK branch, the delegates of which were people elected in violation of the law, accepted into the organisation on the eve of the election of a new leadership. There were almost 220 such “delegates” from various structures associated with developers and their service organisations. At this conference, the head of the St.Petersburg VOOPIK Alexander Margolis and all activists were removed from the leadership of the St. Petersburg branch, and Anton Ivanov was elected Chairman. On the same day, the Presidium of the Central Council of the All-Russian Society for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments (VOOPIiK) expelled from the St. Petersburg branch well-known activists who had tried to actively prevent the “raider takeover”: Anna Kapitonova, Alexander Kononov, Alexei Kovalev and Boris Vishnevsky.
Posted: December 24th, 2024 under Environmental Policies, Governance, Human Rights, Judiciary, Protection of Environment, Yabloko's Regional Branches.