Press Release, 27 December 2025

Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

Yabloko party Chairman Nikolai Rybakov spoke at a rally against the law on clear-cutting at Lake Baikal, which President Vladimir Putin signed on 15 December.

During his speech, Rybakov spoke about the cynicism of the deputies who introduced this law and recalled the investigation by Yabloko’s Anti-Corruption Policy Centre about how parliamentarians wrote the law on logging at Baikal to serve the interests of companies connected to them:

“For some reason they forgot to explain what their true interest in clear-cutting at Baikal actually is. They are trying to tell us that this is needed for building roads and some kind of protective structures. I don’t believe it! Because if you look at this investigation, you will see how the families of the authors of this bill are connected to businesses involved in logging, construction, and road building. Everything would be fine if they had been honest about it,” Rybakov declared.

The Yabloko leader also emphasised that the party had sent appeals to the State Duma demanding that deputies who violated Russian Federation legislation on conflicts of interest be stripped of their mandates. During his speech, he named those featured in the investigation, whom everyone present at the rally knew — Senator Sergei Brilka and State Duma deputies Alexander Yakubovsky and Sergei Ten:

“It’s impossible when people who were born here, grew up here, and who should now be standing in the front rows [of the rally] with the same placards you are holding — for some reason they are doing everything to ensure we won’t have the chance to admire Baikal in the future,” Rybakov noted.

Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

The Yabloko Chairman stressed that he did not believe in the deputies’ supposedly good intentions, recalling the situation with former Irkutsk Regional Assembly deputy Yevgeny Bakurov and the largest illegal logging operation in Russian history, when, according to investigators, an area of forest equivalent to 21,000 football fields was felled.

“The consequences were visible even from space! This person faced no accountability whatsoever. Yes, the officials who signed the permits were punished, but he remains free and continues doing the same thing,” Rybakov said.

Concluding his speech, Rybakov put forward two demands. First, to strip State Duma deputies whose families have business interests in logging at Baikal of their mandates. Second, in an appeal directly to Vladimir Putin to repeal the law on clear-cutting at Lake Baikal. The protesters supported Rybakov’s demands.

“I remember how 15 years ago I delivered together with other environmental activists, to UNESCO headquarters the signatures of 125,000 Russians, including your signatures, calling for the closure of the Baikal Pulp and Paper Mill. And we won. We did it! We must believe in ourselves! We must fight to preserve Baikal. And then we shall win,” Rybakov urged.