Press Release, 25.02.2019

The Yabloko party participated in the actions commemorating Boris Nemtsov. The actions took place in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Saratov and other Russian cities on Sunday, 24 February, 2018.

In Moscow, Yabloko activists formed a column with a banner “Yabloko is the party of peace and is against war! ”. The column was headed by Grigory Yavlinsky, the party founder and Chairman of the Federal Political Committee of the Party, Emilia Slabunova, Chair of Yabloko, Nikolay Rybakov, Deputy, Chairman of the party, Sergey Mitrokhin, Yevgeny Bunimovich and Valery Borshchyov, members of the Federal Political Committee.

Grigory Yavlinsky imposes political responsibility for the murder of Boris Nemtsov on Russian President Vladimir Putin, since Nemtsov was his political opponent. “This murder is unconditional evidence of an authoritarian, semi-criminal government in Russia. Our action is against such a government and against such a policy,” Yavlinsky said. He also noted that none of the participants was satisfied with the investigation of the murder. According to Yavlinsky, those who ordered the murder, have not been named yet. “If there are no such demonstrations, there is no chance that the perpetrators will ever be brought to justice,” he added.

Photo: Grigory Yavlinsky

Emilia Slabunova, Yabloko Chair, noted that the day of the March was also a day of political protest: “Today we are saying no to war and political reprisals that became part of daily news”.

Anyone can be brought behind bars for criticism of the government, she stressed. “We demand political reform, we demand a change in foreign policy, we demand to announce the names of those who ordered and organised the murder of Boris Nemtsov,” Emilia Slabunova said.

Photo: Emilia Slabunova and Nikolai Rybakov

Nikolai Rybakov, Yabloko Deputy Chairman, stressed that people with different demands, from environmental to political, came to the demonstration. “It is important that such rallies are taking place not only in Moscow and St. Petersburg, but also in other regions of the country,” he noted. “The authorities put obstacles to such actions because they do not want to listen to people and an alternative point of view.”

In St. Petersburg, Boris Vishnevsky, head of the Yabloko faction in the Legislative Assembly, was one of the moderators of the rally.

“We have gathered here not only to honor Boris Nemtsov, but also to demand an investigation of his murder, punishment for those who ordered and organised it, achieve what Boris Nemtsov dreamed about: that the country becomes free, democratic and prosperous,” Boris Vishnevsky said opening the rally. Vishnevsky announced a minute of silence in memory of all the victims of political assassinations.

Photo: Boris Vishnevsky

Ekaterina Kuznetsova, Chair of the St.Petersburg branch of Yabloko also spoke at the rally. Kuznetsova stressed that Boris Nemtsov personified freedom, and many people hoped that Russia would be free.

Photo: Participants of the rally in St. Petersburg

The action in memory of Nemtsov was also held in Saratov. Alexander Yermishin, Chairman of the Saratov branch of Yabloko, noted in his speech that the views of Yabloko and Boris Nemtsov had not always coincide, but “we were always united by a common vision of the future of Russia – that of a free, democratic, European country”, “a country free of corruption and other manifestations that are so characteristic of the present government “.

Activists of the Nizhny Novgorod branch of Yabloko came to honor the memory of Boris Nemtsov, who had been the first Governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region in 1991-1997, to the Theatre Square. Activist of the branch of Yabloko in Bashkiria laid flowers to photographs of Boris Nemtsov at the monument to victims of political reprisals in Ufa. In Yekaterinburg, it was decided to hold a rally in memory of Boris Nemtsov on the day of the murder, 27 February. The Tambov branch of Yabloko held a series of one-person pickets (that do not require permission from the city authorities) in memory of Boris Nemtsov; on 27 February, members of the regional branch of the party will lay flowers and light candles by the city monument to victims of political reprisals.

A picket in memory of Boris Nemtsov was held in Oryol. Yabloko activists managed to get a permission for the picket only through the court as the city authorities refused to give a permission to the memorial action. Sergei Zaitsev, Chair of the Oryol branch of Yabloko, represented the interests of the organisers of the mass picket in court.

Politician and statesman Boris Nemtsov was shot dead on the Big Moskvoretsky Bridge by the Kremlin walls in Moscow on27 February, 2015.