Press Release, 29.04.2020

Emilia Slabunova, member of the Federal Political Committee of the Yabloko party and MP of the Legislative Assembly of Karelia, believes that Larissa Boychenko, Human Rights Ombudsperson in the Republic of Karelia, should be dismissed.

Slabunova came to the conclusion about the incompetence of the Ombudsperson after reading the report of the Human Rights Commissioner for 2019. It turned out that the text of the report was largely copied from the reports of the Russian Ombudsperson Tatyana Moskalkova. There are large parts of reports by the Russian Ombudsperson from different years, up to 2013, copied to the report of the Karelian Commissioner.

“I believe that Larissa Boychenko should resign, and if this does not happen, the Legislative Assembly of the Republic of Karelia, guided by the law “On the Commissioner for Human Rights in the Republic of Karelia” envisaging that the ombudsperson should have an impeccable reputation, should consider the question of dismissal due to loss of confidence and violation of the oath,” Emilia Slabunova said. “I am by no means a weak-nerved person, but then I simply could not do this reading / research further [until the very end]. Everyone can do it independently. Although the Commissioner writes in a cover letter that the report is posted on the official website, yet it has been impossible to find it there.”

It should be noted that Larissa Boychenko took the post of Commissioner for Human Rights in Karelia in 2019. Previously, she was a member of the regional Public Chamber. Larissa Boychenko is Candidate of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor of the Northern Institute (branch) of the All-Russian State University of Justice in Petrozavodsk. Since 1995 she has been Chair of the Karelian Centre for Gender Studies, for more than 20 years has been heading the Karelian regional branch of the All-Russian Social Movement of Women of Russia.