Press Release, 30.10.2024

On 30 October, Boris Vishnevsky spoke before his colleagues in the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg for the last time, as his deputy mandate had to be withdrawn due to his “foreign agent” status. He recalled that he became a deputy of the city parliament 13 years ago and was forced to resign as a result of an extrajudicial procedure organised by those who cannot fight opponents by political methods.

According to Vishnevsky, he will continue to challenge in court the decision of the Ministry of Justice to include him in the register of foreign agents, protecting not only his honour and reputation, but also the rights and dignity of his voters violated by such decision.

“Changes in the country and the city will definitely begin – no matter how much the authorities would wish that the present situation is maintained forever. The predecessors of the current government thought liked this forty years ago. But it turned out differently.

The supremacy of human rights, freedom, democracy, parliamentarism, freedom of speech and freedom of assembly will definitely return. Because this is the natural development of history. It can be slowed down, but it cannot be stopped. I will return,” Vishnevsky said.

The leader of the Yabloko faction in the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg, Alexander Shishlov, recalled that thaat day, 30 October, was the Day of Remembrance of Victims of Political Repression.

“When 33 years ago, in the fall of 1991, this day became an officially recognised day of remembrance, it seemed that the concept of “political repression” had forever remained in the past. Alas, political repression is returning to our country. The law on “foreign agents” has become one of the modern instruments of political repression aimed at persecuting dissent and discriminating against citizens who have different views,” Shishlov said.

According to Shishlov, the Yabloko faction will again propose that the Legislative Assembly of St.Petersburg send a request to the Constitutional Court to verify the constitutionality of laws on discrimination against those who disagree with state policies and deprivation of “foreign agents” of their parliamentary mandates. The laws on “foreign agents” must be repealed, he emphasised.

Yabloko Chairman Nikolai Rybakov recalled that 125,000 residents of St.Petersburg voted for Boris Vishnevsky in the elections.

“He is one of the last well-known deputies of the country, a true patriot of St.Petersburg and Russia. Vishnevsky became a symbol of the defence of his hometown, and his expulsion from parliament destroys the country and its future even more,” the Yabloko leader noted.

According to Lev Shlosberg, a Deputy Chairman of Yabloko, Boris Vishnevsky’s political space in his hometown is huge and irreplaceable. “I am sure it will be preserved even without his parliamentary powers, but the termination of the mandate of public trust in a politician by means of extrajudicial reprisals is insulting to the state and humiliates the government,” Shlosberg wrote.

The current system fights against talented people who help the people, Sergei Mitrokhin, a member of the Yabloko olitical Committee, notes: “It does not need people’s defenders, but lackeys.”

Boris Vishnevsky will continue to defend the rights of St.Petersburg residents even without his parliamentary mandate. The decision on who will take his place in the city parliament will be made at a meeting of the Federal Bureau of Yabloko on 31 October.

BORIS VISHNEVSKY

is Deputy Chairman of the Yabloko Party, member of the Yabloko Federal Political Committee and Bureau, and an MP of the Yabloko faction in the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg