Press Release, August 25, 2013

At night of August 23, Natalya Romanuk, leader of the Ust-Labinsk branch of YABLOKO, Krasnodar Territory, had suffered an attempt against her life. Her car was severely hit on a highway by a black car. By a lucky chance the woman managed to avoid a collision with a car ahead and wasn’t badly injured. Ambulance doctors registered that Natalya Romanuk had knee-joint injuries.

The preceding events prove that it wasn’t an ordinary road accident. Activists from the regional YABLOKO branch expressed their certainty that it was a revenge for Natalya Romanuk’s political activities in Ust-Labinsk as she had been investigating into illegal purchases and sells of housing.

The Ust-Labinsk branch of YABLOKO conducted a special investigation and found out that a criminal group of illegal “realtors” gave psychoactive drugs to the local elderly people so that to get powers of attorney on their housing and than sold their flats and houses. Natalya Romanuk brought documents on the illegal “realtors” to the Prosecutor’s office on August 8. After this an investigation commission began working in the city.

Shortly before the road accident Natalya Romanuk received several phone calls asking her “to mind her own business”. On the morning of August 23, Romanuk went to Krasnodar and noticed that she had been followed. She managed to escape, but on the way back a black car rammed at her car.

“I consider this a revenge for my political activities,” Natalya Romanuk said. “The organised road accident was meant to be warning to me and also cause me serious financial troubles as the trajectory of my car was counted in such a way that I should have damaged an expensive car ahead of me which I missed only by ten centimetres.”

These weren’t the first attempts to intimidate the leader of the Ust-Labinsk branch of YABLOKO. “There was a case when I was invited for a “talk in the forest”, after which unknown persons opened fire above my head and several bullets whistled next to me. I picked out service weapon bullets from the trees as a keepsake,” said Natalya.

“Natalya Romanuk is in danger. In the situation of a general merger of the authorities and crime only wide publicity can help to protect our colleagues from violence. The Krasnodar Territory seem to follow the “Chechen road” here”, said Leonid Zaprudin, Deputy Chair of the Krasnodar branch of YABLOKO.