Press Release, 24.12.2024

Photo: Viktor Kurochkin / Photo by Oleg Fyodorov, CHITA.RU

The Chairman of the Transbaikal regional branch of the Yabloko party, Viktor Kurochkin, spoke at a meeting of the Legislative Assembly of the Zabaikalsky Krai (Transbaikal Territory) on 20 December. In his speech, he noted that many specific features of the Stalinist era have returned to modern Russian reality.

Kurochkin emphasised that in today’s Russia a real criminal penalty can again be given for a word or a public statement – in accordance with the amendments to the criminal and administrative legislation adopted in 2022. At the same time, the Constitution guarantees the right to freely discuss any issues, including the most pressing ones for society, but this fundamental law often does not function.

“Everyone who criticizes the government is listed as a so-called “foreign agent”. State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin openly calls them “traitors” and “mercenaries of Western intelligence services”. In some regions of the country, monuments to Joseph Stalin are emerging – this is blasphemy against the memory of millions of people tortured and killed on his orders,” Kurochkin said.

Kurochkin also expressed confidence that the Legislative Assembly of the Zabaikalsky Krai will not allow the return of Stalinism to the region. In conclusion, Kurochkin proposed that the deputies jointly complete the work on maintaining in order the mass graves of victims of repression near Chita, where at least 10,000 people were secretly buried in 1937-1938.

Video recording of the speech is here.