Press Release, 10.09.2025

Photo: Nikolai Rybakov with the Novgorod Yabloko team at the Rurikovsky settlement in the Novgorod region/ Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

On September 5 and 6, Yabloko party Сhairman Nikolai Rybakov visited the Novgorod Region. The purpose of the visit was to support 12 candidates running in the Novgorod Region elections: eight candidates in the Novgorod Municipal District and four candidates in Borovichi, Okulovka and Staraya Russa.

On the first day, the Yabloko leader, together with the Chair of the Novgorod Yabloko Anna Cherepanova, as well as members of the regional Bureau of the party Ksenia Cherepanova, Viktor Shalyakin, Yelena Ivanova, Andrei Shuvalov and Alexei Sabelsky, came to the estate of composer Sergei Rachmaninov Oneg, located 30 km from Veliky Novgorod.

Photo: On the site of the lost estate of Sergei Rachmaninov Oneg/ Photo by Novgorod Yabloko

At the beginning of the World War II, the estate was destroyed, in fact, only the foundations and the remains of the estate park remained. After many years of attempts to revive the estate, in 2023 the necessary agreement was finally signed. It is planned that the composer’s family estate will be restored by 2027. It is important to note that in 2012, the Assembly of Native Novgorodians under the leadership of the Chair of the Novgorod Yabloko Anna Cherepanova prepared a concept for the revival of the Oneg estate, which later became the basis for subsequent developments by the Ministry of Culture of the Novgorod Region. According to Rybakov, it is very valuable for the entire region and Russia to revive the family estate of the great composer. This is a tribute to the memory of the composer and his family.

Photo: Nikolai Rybakov and Anna Cherpanova at the memorial to fallen soldiers in Myasnoy Bor/ Photo by Novgorod Yabloko

Not far from the estate is the village of Myasnoy Bor – the site of bloody battles during the World War II, where the 2nd Army of the Volkhov Front perished in 1942. Party members laid flowers at the memorial built in memory of the Soviet soldiers who died in the war.

Photo: Nikolai Rybakov at the memorial to fallen soldiers in Myasnoy Bor/ Photo by Novgorod Yabloko

The Yabloko delegation also visited the villages of Khutyn and Sholokhovo, where they met with local residents. Sholokhovo is home to large families and young parents who received land plots under the state programme. In total, as of 2023, 406 families received such land plots. Having allocated land, the regional authorities left the entire village without basic living conditions. Public transport is irregular. If one does not have their own car, it becomes a problem for families to get to the city for work, study or the hospital. The second major problem is the worn-out power supply networks, as a result of which the electricity is constantly cut off. There is no gas in the village, so after the electricity, there are interruptions in water and heat – it becomes impossible to live there.

Photo: At a meeting with residents of the village of Sholokhovo in the Novgorod Region/ Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

Anna Cherepanova is confident that the Novgorod Region cannot develop without solving basic infrastructure problems – good roads, reliable electricity supply, gasification, clean water.

“The current government has failed in this area, depriving current and future generations of Novgorodians of the dream of building a house on their own land. There is a lot of land in the Novgorod Region, but it is impossible to live on it. Novgorod Yabloko is making efforts to change this situation. But much depends on the Novgorodians themselves, on their participation in politics and support for politicians independent of the government,” Cherepanova said.

Nikolai Rybakov noted that in 2009 Yabloko developed the “Land-Houses-Roads” programme, the implementation of which would solve the problems of Sholokhovo residents, as well as dozens of thousands of settlements in our country. Unlike the state programme, the Yabloko programme not only provides for the allocation of land plots for private construction, but also assumes aid in building a house, as well as laying communications to it.

“As often happens: the authorities hear a good initiative, but do as usual. Families with children with serious illnesses were allocated land plots without a road, without communications, without constant electricity and without normal transport accessibility. This is an important example of how an initially good idea, programme and proposal can be ruined,” Rybakov noted.

In addition, on the first day of the visit, the Yabloko leader, together with members and supporters of the party, discussed the problems of residents of the Novgorod District, visited historical places, gave an interview to the editor-in-chief of the Novgorod.ru publication Lev Semin and held a meeting with the regional team.

Photo: At a meeting with members of Novgorod Yabloko/ Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

On 6 September, the Yabloko delegation was joined by member of the regional party Bureau and deputy of the Trubichinskoye rural settlement council Yelena Tulina, as well as candidate for deputy of the Starorussky district Duma Anton Kostryukov. Together they spent a campaign day in Staraya Russa.

Photo: Nikolai Rybakov with the Novgorod Yabloko team near house-museum of writer Fyodor Dostoevsky in Staraya Russa/ Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

The second day of the visit began with an inspection of the perishing cultural heritage sites of the city, of which there are many in Staraya Russa: the Belyaev-Petrov house, the Alexandrova house, the city school, the synagogue and others. The authorities do not deal with them, carried away by typical landscaping, installations, murals and city sculptures. The Novgorod branch of the party approached the Ministry of Culture of Russia with a proposal to carry out the restoration of the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery, but officials replied that there was no money.

Photo: Nikolai Rybakov together with the Novgorod Yabloko team during an inspection of architectural monuments in Staraya Russa/ Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

After inspecting the architectural monuments, Rybakov discussed the situation in the city with a journalist from the Staraya Russa newspaper:

“My impression is twofold. On the one hand, I saw a beautiful city with remarkable architecture. It was nice to see the restored water tower, because I know about the participation of the Novgorod branch of the Yabloko party in saving the tower. But I also saw many architectural monuments that are under threat and which the city will not be able to restore due to the lack of money in the local and even regional budgets for these purposes. I believe that the federation should intervene in the restoration of civilian cultural heritage sites and church architecture monuments, because they are our material culture, the loss of which would be criminal,” Rybakov emphasised.

On the same day, members of the Yabloko party honoured the memory of thousands of Soviet soldiers who died in the World War II, and were buried at the Simonovskoye Cemetery in Staraya Russa. Two years ago, the reconstruction of the memorial was carried out with serious deviations from the project in a truncated form. Novgorod Yabloko and Viktor Shalyakin have repeatedly contacted law enforcement agencies regarding violations during the work: a plastic figure of a soldier has been installed on the memorial, cheap concrete tombstones have been installed at the burial site, and the pedestals under the granite slabs with the names of the dead are made from primitive metal brackets. But for some reason, lanterns have been installed at the cemetery and a permanently closed toilet. However, the public prosecutor’s office’s inspections into the failure to carry out a significant portion of the work to create the memorial have not yielded any results.

Photo: Simonovskoye Cemetery in Staraya Russa

In the evening, Rybakov, together with candidates for the Staraya Russa Duma Anton Kostryukov and Viktor Shalyakin, met with residents on Sobornaya Square, where they distributed Yabloko leaflets and newspapers “For Peace and Freedom!” near the campaign cubes, calling on them to support the party’s candidates in the upcoming elections.

Photo: Campaign picket in Staraya Russa/ Photo by the Yabloko Press Service