Adopted at a meeting of the Federal Bureau of Yabloko on 7.04.2026; published on 8.04.2026

Photo by Alexei Tanyushin, Kommersant

Since 9 March 2026, the mass-scale and forced destruction of cattle on peasant and farming holdings has been taking place in Novosibirsk Region.

“Special operations” to destroy livestock, including in the owners’ absence, were carried out by personnel in protective biosafety suits accompanied by masked police officers.

All of this was conducted under the pretext of an epidemic of a dangerous disease; however, the regional governor’s decree on the basis of which the animals were seized — a decree that plainly affects the rights and freedoms of the animals’ owners — was not published, in violation of the Russian Constitution.

Livestock owners were shown no test results and no official decisions authorising the confiscation and destruction of their cattle. In many cases, owners were not issued any documentation recording the seizure; the relevant acts were not drawn up, in breach of applicable regulations. Owners’ objections that their animals were healthy were disregarded. Where owners resisted the seizure, force was used. Journalists who attempted to cover the farmers’ protests were detained.

As a result of these actions, many families were stripped of the foundation of their livelihoods and their sources of income. The compensation offered to citizens is wholly inadequate — the figures cited by the regional authorities are approximately three times lower than actual market purchase prices — and does not cover the losses sustained.

If an epidemic was indeed under way, citizens should have been given full information about what was happening. Instead, the Novosibirsk authorities carried out the wholesale destruction of livestock, offering no explanation and responding to objections and protests with force.

Yabloko regards such actions as a demonstrative contempt for citizens’ lawful rights, including the right to own property.

Yabloko considers it necessary for the Novosibirsk Region authorities to do the following:

· publish without delay the legal instruments governing the organisation and conduct of the animal seizures, specifying: the dates and times at which information was received confirming the diagnosis of a particularly dangerous animal disease; the names of the territories in which outbreaks were identified; the species of animals and/or animal-derived products subject to seizure; and details of the laboratory tests conducted;
· increase the compensation payments to animal owners so as to cover the losses sustained in full;
· apologise to the owners of the seized animals.

Yabloko considers it important for the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation to:
· conduct an investigation into what occurred — including an assessment of the conduct of the veterinary services and law enforcement agencies of Novosibirsk Region, and an assessment of the adequacy of compensation for property lost — and bring those responsible to account;
· assume oversight of the compensation payment process.

Yabloko considers that in this particular case a separate investigation is required, one that examines the circumstances and the applicable legal norms in connection with reports that animals were burned alive. This matter falls within the scope of Article 245 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

Nikolai Rybakov,
Yabloko Chairman