Press Release, 12.03.2021

On 6-7 March, 2021, Yabloko Chairman Nikolai Rybakov and Deputy Chairman Ivan Bolshakov held seminars with regional headquarters of the party in Yekaterinburg. The participants  of the seminars discussed the party’s coalition policy and the upcoming election campaign to the State Duma. In total, leaders and activists of Yabloko regional branches from 13 regions (Moscow, Volgograd, Perm, Voronezh, Orenburg, Kurgan, Sverdlovsk, Omsk, Rostov and Chelyabinsk regions, Stavropol and Transbaikal regions) took part in the seminar.

Nikolai Rybakov met with members of the Sverdlovsk region branch of Yabloko, got acquainted with the candidates for the Legislative Assembly of the Sverdlovsk Region, and also met with Konstantin Kisilyov, head of the party faction in the Yekaterinburg City Duma.

In addition, Rybakov visited the company Heliotechnologies, which is engaged in the creation of alternative energy sources in Yekaterinburg – solar panels, photovoltaic systems, thermal energy storage systems, etc. The Yabloko Chairman discussed the current political agenda, as well as the environmental situation in the region and the country with journalists from four media.

Nikolai Rybakov, together with the Human Rights Ombudsman of the Sverdlovsk Region Tatyana Merzlyakova, laid flowers at the memorial to the victims of political reprisals, which preserves the historical memory of those shot and convicted in the Urals in the 1930 – 1950s.

The trip ended with Rybakov’s meeting with the city’s environmental activists from such organisations as Peaceful Residents, Clean Yekaterinburg, Parks and Squares, and the Biosaur project. They discussed the environmental situation in the Sverdlovsk region, which was named the most polluted region in Russia. The air pollution is particularly dire in the region. This is due to both industrial emissions and exhaust emissions of vehicles, the number of which has been growing every year. The Yabloko Chairman and environmental activists agreed to meet in summer to discuss draft laws that will stimulate the separate collection and recycling of waste.