Press Release, 4.07.2022

Photo: Kirill Polyakov/ Photo by the Press Service of the Legislative Assembly of St.Petersburg

Vice Governor of St. Petersburg Kirill Polyakov, who is responsible for transport in St.Petersburg, responded to the appeal by the deputies of the Yabloko faction in the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg Boris Vishnevsky and Alexander Shishlov. They asked for an explanation on what grounds the Z-symbols were placed on advertising space in the St. Petersburg subway.

In his response, Kirill Polyakov noted that the Z symbol belonged “to the category of identification signs, the assignment of a special symbolic and essential meaning to it was the result of informal initiatives”.

“Given that at present this sign is recognisable and positively perceived by citizens of the Russian Federation, the Luhansk and the Donetsk People’s Republics, the placement of materials with the Latin letter Z at metro stations is an expression of the civil position of the employees of the State Unitary Enterprise St. Petersburg Subway and does not require documentary confirmation or justification,” the letter of the Vice Governor runs.

Alexander Shishlov stressed that the materials on the walls of the St. Petersburg metro stations could not be compared with inscriptions on a fence.

“We will figure out how the placement of “Z-materials” was paid for, and at the same time we will find out how to place, for example, posters “For Peace!”. As, after all, it is unlikely that all subway workers, like all citizens, have the same civic position: according to VTsIOM and the Levada Centre* polls, at least 20% of respondents do not support the “special operation”, Alexander Shishlov, head of the Yabloko faction in St.Petersburg Legislative Assembly, said.

Earlier the Yabloko faction sent inquiries to the Vice Governor of St. Petersburg Kirill Polyakov and the head of the St. Petersburg Subway Yevgeny Kozin, asking to explain on what grounds posters with the Latin letter Z were placed in the subway as symbols of a “special military operation”.

On 7 June, Kirill Polyakov was answering a question from the Yabloko faction at the meeting of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg about the placement of these materials at metro stations, and said that this had been done at the initiative of the St. Petersburg Subway staff.

* The Levada-Centre is included by the Ministry of Justice in the register of non-profit organisations performing the functions of a foreign agent.

ALEXANDER SHISHLOV

is head of the Yabloko faction in the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg, and a member of the Federal Political Committee of the Yabloko party

BORIS VISHNEVSKY

is Deputy Chairman of the Yabloko Party, member of the Yabloko Federal Political Committee and Bureau, and an MP of the Yabloko faction in the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg