Press Release, 17.02.2025

Photo: Valentin Baimetov / Photo by Ryazan Yabloko

On 10 February, public hearings were held in the settlement of Miloslavskoye, the Ryazan region, on the issue of liquidating the urban settlement and merging the settlements and villages of the area into a single district, which also leads to liquidation of local self-government bodies of the settlements and villages of the area.

“There were only 33 people present, including one businessman, one pensioner, and one Chairman of the Council of Veterans – the rest were public sector employees, mainly from the administration. First, the head of the district administration spoke and told us what a good life awaits us in the district, although he did not say how residents of remote villages and towns will resolve their issues,” Valentin Baimetov, deputy of the Miloslavsky urban settlement from Yabloko, said. According to him, the hearings lasted only a few minutes, there was no clear information about the consequences of the transformation, and no one asked any questions. As a result, 32 people voted for the liquidation of the settlement, only Baimetov voted against.

On 12 February, the municipal deputy from Yabloko Valentin Baimetov filed a statement with the Miloslavsky District Public Prosecutor’s Office, demanding that an investigation be conducted and the decision of the Council of Deputies and the results of the hearings on the liquidation of the settlement be cancelled.

“Supporting such an initiative entails fundamental changes in local self-government, and residents need to know what this merger of their settlements into one single district means. Residents of the Miloslavsky urban settlement did not receive such information at the public hearings on 10 February, 2025,” the deputy’s appeal runs.

It should be noted that earlier the Dubrovichi Council decided to liquidate its settlement the very next day after the arrest of the Yabloko deputy, journalist Konstantin Smirnov, despite the negative reaction of local residents at the public hearings on the liquidation of their settlement. Meanwhile, the district public prosecutor’s office began an investigation on Konstantin Smirnov’s appeal into the legality of merging rural settlements of the Ryazan area into a single district.