Press Release, 5 June 2024

Photo: Boris Vishnevsky / Photo by the Press Service of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg

The Yabloko faction in the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly voted against parliamentary approval of the federal law on raising taxes. The Russian government presents the initiative as “fair”, highlighting only the “progressive scale” of personal income tax from the entire package of all the changes.

“As regards fairness: the super-rich will not pay anything new. They live not on salaries, but on dividends. Dividends will be taxed at the same rate. The blow will fall on IT specialists, lawyers, and those who work in high-tech industries,” Boris Vishnevsky marked.

It should be noted that this scale is only a small part of the changes that can’t be called positive. All funds will go to the federal budget, and, therefore, the increase of taxes will not help either the regions or municipalities.

“I should draw your attention, that St. Petersburg will not receive anything from what you would like to so quickly approve,” Boris Vishnevsky noted addressing the Legislative Assembly of St.Petersburg.

For the second reading, Yabloko proposed to exclude the wording “there are no proposals or comments” from the Legislative Assembly’s resolution. The State Duma has not yet begun to discuss the government bill, and the parliament of St. Petersburg actually refused to introduce amendments to the draft.

“According to the Yabloko party, the true goal of this reform is to collect additional trillions of roubles from citizens and businesses, which will be directed, taking into account the priorities that are declared at the highest level, to even greater militarisation of the economy and the entire country,” Vishnevsky said from the rostrum of parliament.

Yabloko insists: for the development of the country, it is necessary to stop militarisation and reduce spending on “defence” and the security forces. To kick start this development, a cease-fire agreement must be concluded immediately.

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