Press Release, 13.01.2025

Photo by alexpokal / wikimapia

The Novgorod branch of Yabloko demands that the public hearings on the liquidation of urban and rural settlements in the Novgorod district be declared invalid, and the decisions of the Councils of Deputies on liquidating the settlements and transforming them into one municipal district be declared unlawful.

The public hearings on the issue of transforming settlements in the Novgorod district into a municipal district were held with gross violations of the law and the rights of citizens. Novgorod Yabloko sent an appeal to the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Novgorod district.

The transformation of several settlements into one municipal district is aimed at depriving the people of power, optimising management and resources, and centralising powers and money at the top.

On the orders of Novgorod Region Governor Andrei Nikitin, public hearings and meetings of the Councils of Deputies were held in all ten settlements of the district in late December, on New Year’s Eve. The hearings adopted decisions to liquidate the settlements and create a single municipal district with a population of over 60,000 people and an area of ​​two Moscows with headquarters in Veliky Novgorod.

In all settlements, the hearings were held with numerous gross violations of the constitutional rights of citizens to participate in local self-government and the provisions of Federal Law No. 131. We believe that the public hearings cannot be recognised as having taken place, and the decisions on transformation made on their basis must be cancelled, Novgorod Yabloko activists write.

After Novgorod Yabloko contacted the Public Prosecutor’s Office, officials began to falsify the documents. Thus, on Sunday, 12 January, a decision of the Council of Deputies on the appointment of public hearings with the publication date of 29 November, 2024 suddenly appeared on the website of the Proletarskoye Urban Settlement Administration. Maxim Molchanov, the head of the settlement and also its “liquidator”, had already left his post, to which residents elected him four month earlier. As a “gift” for good work, he received the post of Deputy Mayor of Veliky Novgorod.

Activists of the Novgorod branch of Yabloko call residents of the district not to remain silent when their rights are violated. Together with residents, Novgorod Yabloko is preparing collective lawsuits to the court to recognise public hearings in the Novgorod District unlawful, and is collecting signatures against municipal reform.