Press Release, 5.12.2022

Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

On 3 December, Yabloko Chairman Nikolai Rybakov and his team came to Astrakhan to meet with Yabloko members and supporters and discuss the region’s problems with active citizens.

The day began with a meeting with Marina Mitaleva, head of the Science Popularisation Centre. On 30 October, 2022, on the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Political Repressions, Marina launched the online project “One Square Meter of Memory” dedicated to students and teachers of Astrybvtuz – Astrakhan State Technical University, who became victims of the Great Terror in 1930s. The web-site includes biographies of students and teachers, as well as photographs and memories of them.

A monument to teachers and students who became victims of Stalinist terror was erected on the territory of the university in 1995. Nikolai Rybakov, together with Sergei Yevstratov, Chairman of the Astrakhan branch of Yabloko, and Marina Mitaleva, visited the memorial and laid flowers at it, and also visited the city monument to victims of political repression.

Later Rybakov held a meeting with members of the Council of the Association of Peasant Farms in the Astrakhan Region. The working day in Astrakhan ended with a meeting with members and supporters of the Astrakhan branch of Yabloko. Nikolai Rybakov discussed with his colleagues the current political situation in the country and the Yabloko’s plans of work in the region. The meeting was also attended by Alexander Efimov, a member of the Federal Bureau of Yabloko.

The next visit of the Yabloko Chairman is planned to Yakutsk, where court hearings of a criminal case against Anatoly Nogovitsyn, the Chairman of the Yabloko branch in Yakutia, will be held on 8 December. Nogovitsyn is accused of “discrediting the army” (Article 280.3 Part 1 of the Criminal Code).