Press Release, 22.12.2022

Photo: Svetlana Vasilkova / Photo by the Pskov Yabloko

On 21 December, the Opochetsky District Court announced the decision on the suit of Yabloko’s Svetlana Vasilkova to challenge her dismissal from the post of head of the Pustoshkinsky district of the Pskov region. As follows from the decision, Svetlana Vasilkova’s demands were “partially satisfied”: it was decided to refuse to recognise the decision of the Assembly of Deputies of the Pustoshkinsky District on the resignation and the “letter of support” of Governor Mikhail Vedernikov as illegal, but to satisfy the request to publish the judicial act in the regional newspaper.

Such a decision was expected from the moment when the Judge refused to transfer the case to a court in another region of Russia (through the regional court).

Svetlana Vasilkova, Deputy Chairman of the Pskov Yabloko, filed an application with the Opochetsky District Court to recognise the decision of the Assembly of Deputies of the Pustoshkinsky District of 24 November to remove her from her post of head of the district as illegal. Such a decision was taken by the deputies despite the fact that the State Finance Committee of the Pskov Region recognised the district headed by Vasilkova one of the best in the region in 2021 and allotted additional funding in the form of an additional incentive payment which was used for preparation for the heating season. Vasilkova regards the decisions on an unsatisfactory assessment of her performance by the deputies as far-fetched and having nothing to do with reality. When making a decision, the deputies violated the procedure determined by federal law.

“The main arguments of the future appeal are already clear: the court of first instance did not apply the legal position of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, and the conclusions of the judicial act contradict the circumstances of the case,” says Vasilkova’s representative Yelena Mayatnikova. “The rulings of the Constitutional Court indicate that the decisions of the representative body of the municipality related to dismissing the head of the municipality should not be arbitrary. Thus, in the context of the exclusivity of the right of a representative body of local self-government to an unsatisfactory assessment, obstacles to subjectivism are established. By refusing to satisfy the application of Svetlana Vasilkova, the Opochetsky Court ignored these legal orders of the court of a higher instance and did not attach any importance to the violations of the dismissal procedure,” Mayatnikova notes.

An hour and a half before the end of the court session, Svetlana Vasilkova finally found out about the circumstances that the deputies from United Russia and the LDPR party considered as grounds for removing her from her post. Dmitry Zarembo, Chairman of the Assembly of Deputies of the Pustoshkinsky District, submitted a letter with these “justifications” to the court almost a month after the decision to dismiss Vasilkova was made by the Assembly of Deputies. In the decision of 24 November, these “circumstances” were not specified. However, the letter of the Chairman of the Assembly runs that the deputies made the decision “basing on their inner conviction”.

The court grossly violated the rights of the administrative plaintiff and did not even begin to discuss the motion to adjourn the court session in order to prepare objections to the new “arguments” of the defendants. Some of the “facts” were refuted by Svetlana Vasilkova immediately, before the court’s decision. But this did not affect the decision of the court.

“The behavior in court of the defendant, the Chairman of the Assembly of Deputies Dmitry Zarembo should be marked specially. He shied away from answering my questions about compliance with the removal procedure, or (with the permission of the judge!) simply refused to answer questions. From this, I conclude that Zarembo, with the direct support of the court, avoided studying the actual circumstances of the case, fearing that significant violations committed by the Assembly and him personally could be recorded.

But even without his explanations, the materials submitted to the court exhaustively documented the good faith of Svetlana Vasilkova’s actions and the abuse of the right by the initiators of the resignation. As follows from the responses to Svetlana Vasilkova’s request read out in court, the minutes of the Assembly sessions, Zarembo’s incorrect behaviour is his behavioral norm. Unfortunately, this is the face of the United Russia party today,” Yelena Mayatnikova commented.

The decision of the Opochetsky District Court has not entered into force and will be appealed by Svetlana Vasilkova to the Pskov Regional Court. The further development of the case will depend on the regional court.

It should be noted that the Yabloko party issued a statement in support of Svetlana Vasilkova. Yabloko placed full responsibility for what had happened on the Governor of the Pskov region, Mikhail Vedernikov, who personally supported the dismissal of Yabloko’s head of district.