Press Release, 19.01.2020

Today, leaders, members and supporters of the Yabloko party paid tribute to lawyer Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasia Baburova who were murdered by neo-Nazis from the BORN group on the doorstep of Prechistenka Street 3, Moscow, on 19 January, 2009. Yabloko has been holding memorial actions paying tribute to Markelov and Baburova for 11 years, since 2009, when this cynical murder was committed in the centre of Moscow.

Yabloko Chairman Nikolai Rybakov, Grigory Yavlinsky, head of the Federal Political Committee Grigory Yavlinsky, members of the Federal Political Committee Emilia Slabunova and Sergey Mitrokhin, member of the Federal Bureau of Yabloko Kirill Goncharov and other participated in the action.

According to Nikolai Rybakov, Stanislav Markelov and Anastasia Baburova should have lived in a completely different Russia, “In a country where thy listen to people, where their opinions are respected, where human rights and freedoms are protected, where a person can feel safe. They were killed by the regime that wants to build a completely different country – a country of lawlessness and disrespect for people”.

Photo: Nikolai Rybakov

The party Chairman said that while there is Yabloko, people will always have the opportunity to express their opinion, “We will convey this opinion to the authorities, to the whole country, and ensure that our country becomes as we want to see it — free Russia of the future, where people will no longer be imprisoned for their opinion. Look what is happening now in the regions. Our comrades are not killed there, but they are sent to jail just because they have their own opinion, and they express this opinion. It should not be like this and will not be. We will fight for this.”

Emilia Slabunova, MP of the Legislative Assembly of the Republic of Karelia, said that the period of Putin’s power was marked by cynical political murders, including that in the centre of Moscow, right near the Kremlin walls, the murder of Boris Nemtsov, as well as the murder of Stanislav Markelov and Anastasia Baburova. Slabunova noted that people are killed not only near the walls of the Kremlin or in the centre of Moscow, but also in more sophisticated ways. She recalled the case of Yuri Dmitriyev, head of the Karelian Memorial human rights centre, when the authorities were trying to destroy his reputation, trying to accuse them of those sins that he did not commit, “We must put an end to this. The moment is coming when society must protect the country, its future and its children,” Emilia Slabunova noted.

Photo: Grigory Yavlinsky and Emilia Slabunova

Sergei Mitrokhin, deputy of the Moscow City Duma, stressed that the threat of fascism still remains, because all the state propaganda, all the state television, all the pathos of government officials and senior officials of the state create fertile ground for extremism. “The political responsibility for this murder, I believe, lies with the leadership of our country. They did not express any emotion about what happened. So, they create the conditions for new crimes of this kind, but, I think that this will not work because of us. Our policy is able to block the path of fascism and other destructive forces of our society, bearing in mind the bright images of Stanislav Markelov and Anastasia Baburova,” Mitrokhin said.

Photo: Sergei Mitrokhin

According to Kirill Goncharov, organiser of the action, Yabloko leaders and activists come here every year to remind to all that nationalism and its manifestations cannot be peaceful and safe for our country, “It always ends with tragedies, catastrophes, killings of peaceful people, democratically oriented people, those who want to see our country first of all a European civilised country. Therefore, we will come here next year, we will ensure that such murders do not happen in the future.”

Photo: Kirill Gontcharov

In the conclusion Nikolai Rybakov thanked everyone who came for their participation and recalled the statement made by the Yabloko party today regarding the launch of the preparation of alternative Yabloko’s amendments to the Constitution as opposite to the Putin’s amendments. According to Rybakov, “Putin’s time is ending, and our task is to ensure that it ends peacefully and that there are no more political murders in our country”.

One person pickets (that do not require any permissions from the authorities) were held in St. Petersburg on the anniversary of the murder of Stanislav Markelov and Anastasia Baburova. Anatoly Golov, member of the Bureau of the Yabloko party and head of Yabloko’s Social Democratic Faction, took part in the action.

Photo: Anatoly Golov

“I knew Stanislav Markelov. By conviction, he was a Social Democrat, and together we did the same thing. I am sure that violence is not a method of resolving ideological conflicts. This discredits those beliefs which are carried by people committing violence,” Anatoly Golov said.

“I came here to pay tribute to the man who did a lot to protect others. The chain of political killings has not stopped, and we must pay tribute to all those victims. Their deaths are a big loss for the society as a whole. The society needs to understand that murder is not a way to resolve political conflicts. We need to discuss things, not to shoot,” Golov stressed.