Press Release, 22.04.2021

Photo: Nikolai Rybakov / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

Chairman of the Yabloko Party Nikolai Rybakov spoke at a meeting of the Party Bureau on 22 April, 2021. In his speech, Rybakov assessed the President’s Address to the Federal Assembly.

According to Rybakov, Vladimir Putin’s address was no different from his messages of previous years – the President did not propose measures to get the country out of the crisis, and traditionally did not respond to the main problems that worry citizens: poverty, corruption, unemployment, and the inaccessibility of medical care.

“Putin promised to buy ambulances, but it is not clear how they will get to people along the broken roads,” Nikolai Rybakov said.

The Yabloko Chairman also noted that in his election campaign article in KP in 2012, the President spoke about the difference between the poor and the rich, the growing number of people living below the poverty line, bad roads, and corruption. In 2021, all these problems have not been resolved, on the contrary, the situation has worsened. “This is the result of Vladimir Putin governing,” Rybakov stressed.

According to the Yabloko leader, Vladimir Putin does not want to develop the economy, he wants to keep poor citizens on the hook of benefits, so that 5,000 roubles [approximately USD 66] would be a significant amount for the family budget.

“This is being done at a particularly cynical time: in 2020, Putin handed out benefits before voting for the Constitution [Putin’s amendments to the Russian Constitution “resetting” his presidential terms and allowing him to stay in power until 2036], now he does it before the elections to the State Duma,” the Yabloko Chairman said.

The President’s Address did not contain any conclusions regarding how hard Russia was going through the coronavirus. Nothing was said about the fact that 105,000 people died in the Russian Federation and Russia is in the five countries most affected by COVID.

Nikolai Rybakov drew attention to the fact that Vladimir Putin several times touched on the topics that Yabloko had been talking about for many years – the restoration and creation of infrastructure in the country, and gasification. Yabloko’s proposals were designed to get Russian citizens away from the need to rely on government handouts. “We have the “Land – Houses – Roads” programme developed by Grigory Yavlinsky, we have the plan for gasification of the country “Gas to Every Home”, and the Plan to rescue the economy and citizens after the coronavirus pandemic. We want to develop the economy, not poverty in the country,” Rybakov said.

The Yabloko leader said that he did not understand the very form of the President’s meetings with parliamentarians who receive salaries but are waiting for the President to tell them what to do. “It is necessary to replace such deputies of the State Duma,” Rybakov noted.