Press Release, 10.07.2026

Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

Yabloko Chairman Nikolai Rybakov has sent a letter to State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin and to deputies, proposing that they give up the enormous bonuses or transfer them to help gravely ill children.

It had become known from media reports that State Duma deputies were planned to be paid bonuses in September of this year (before the termination of the powers of the current convocation of the State Duma) funded from budget savings. The total volume of these payments is estimated at two billion roubles, with the cost per deputy amounting to 4.4 million roubles.

“I consider such a step to be unacceptable in principle for the Russian parliament, and all the more so amid the continuing loss of life, the deteriorating economic situation in our country, rising prices, including for medicines and medical services, and a huge federal budget deficit. I propose that you give up the payment of these bonuses,” Rybakov said.

Should a decision nonetheless be taken to pay the bonuses, Rybakov called on all deputies to direct the payments they receive to charitable organisations that save the lives of gravely ill children. Such transfers, he said, would help pay for expensive medicines, complex operations and rehabilitation that many families cannot otherwise afford.

In his letter, he also shared information on the scale of the work carried out by Russia’s largest charitable foundations helping children suffering from the most severe illnesses, including cancer.

In 2025, the Podari Zhizn (Gift of Life) Foundation received donations from 430,953 individuals and 728 companies, totalling 1.7 billion roubles. With these funds, it was able to help more than 7,600 children.

The Dom s Mayakom (House with a Lighthouse) Foundation received donations totalling 1.2 billion roubles from 142,639 individuals and 411 companies, as well as from the state, and was able to help 1,066 families.

Rusfond was able to spend 210 million roubles on its Oncology programme, helping in the treatment of 157 children.

The Onkologika Foundation raised 170 million roubles for its work in 2025; the Deti-Babochki (Butterfly Children) foundation, which helps children and adults with rare skin diseases, raised almost 363 million roubles from 18,056 private donors and 203 companies; and the charitable organisation Perspektivy, which helps children and adults with severe developmental disorders, raised 109 million roubles from private individuals, companies and the state budget.

Rybakov enclosed copies of each foundation’s public reports and asked Speaker Volodin to read out his appeal at the next plenary session of the State Duma, as well as to call on deputies to send the funds not to their own election funds or towards personal needs, but to save children’s lives.