Press Release, 25.05.2022

Photo: Yaroslav Shcherbakov and Vasily Moskovets / Photo from social networks

Yaroslav Shcherbakov, Chairman of the Chelyabinsk branch of Yabloko, filed a lawsuit with the Chelyabinsk Regional Court demanding from the regional government to open a hyde parks (specially designated places where any public events – meetings, rallies, or pickets – can be held without notifying the authorities) in all the seven districts of Chelyabinsk. The defendant is the Government of the Chelyabinsk Region.

After the government excluded several locations from the list of city guide parks, only two sites remained in Chelyabinsk.

“According to the Constitutional Court, a hyde park should be in every municipality. There are seven of them in Chelyabinsk. Now we get an absurd situation when, for example, residents of one district can protest on a local issue only in their area. The mayor’s office does not give a permission to hold any public event on a sensitive topic in other sites, referring to COVID restrictions,” Yaroslav Shcherbakov noted.

The statement of claim was filed by Yaroslav Shcherbakov, Chairman of the Chelyabinsk branch of Yabloko, together with Anna Ilyina, a member of the Regional Council of Yabloko and human rights activist, and Vasily Moskovets, human rights activist.

The leader of the Chelyabinsk Yabloko called on the residents of the districts that were left without “hyde parks” to join the lawsuit.