Press Release, 28.09.2021

Photo by the Press Service of the Nizhny Novgorod branch of Yabloko

Oleg Rodin, Chairman of the Nizhny Novgorod branch of Yabloko, sent an appeal to Gleb Nikitin, Governor of the Nizhny Novgorod Region, asking him to give a permission for an event dedicated to the memory of opposition journalist Irina Slavina who had committed the act of self-immolation protesting against police pressure on her. Members of Irina’s family support the action.

The action should take place on 2 October at 15:00. The site of the action is the place where Irina Slavina committed the act of self-immolation – opposite the building of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Nizhny Novgorod region.

“October 2 marks the anniversary of the death of Irina, and I hope that on this day everyone who wants to honour her memory will be able to do it without squabbling with the police. Throughout the year, when every Friday people brought flowers to the place of her death, the flowers were continuously removed, and the police did not allow to place her photos. This is very vile and mean, it is unacceptable to deprive people of the opportunity to honour the memory of a person,” Oleg Rodin wrote in his letter to the Governor.

In the afternoon of 2 October, 2020, Irina Slavina, the Editor-in-Chief of the Nizhny Novgorod media KozaPress, committed an act of self-immolation by the building of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Nizhny Novgorod region and died. She was 47 years old. Before her death, Slavina wrote a Facebook post in which she asked to blame the Russian Federation for her death.