Press Release, 09.02.2018

Yabloko party Chair Emilia Slabunova visited Kaliningrad, Russia’s Western region, to present Grigory Yavlinsky presidential programme. Yesterday, Slabunova ended her two-day visit to the region with a visit to the ambulance station and a discussion with regional journalists.

During the visit to an ambulance substation of Kaliningrad, the politician spoke about the health care in the region. She said that one of key problems was low wages of healthcare workers. A doctor’s salary in the Kaliningrad region amounts to 46,000 roubles (approx. 766 USD), which is 30 per cent lower than the average salary of doctors in the North-West Federal District of Russia and 20 per cent lower than the average salary of doctors in the country in general. “Such low salary does not allow, for example, to take a mortgage and solve their housing problems, provide recreation of a normal quality. People are forced to work on a 1.5-2 salary rate,” Slabunova said.

Therefore, the salary of doctors should be at least 60,000 roubles, and salaries for mid-level medical staff at least 45,000 roubles, only in case young professionals would come to the sector, Slabunova stressed. She also added that the state should help to solve the housing problem of medical workers: to provide preferential mortgages, office housing and other support measures.

Aid to the cancer patients in the region was also discussed: as a result of “optimization of costs” in the region, the oncology centre was closed, and the new one was not built. “Certainly, [the authorities] say that the main reason is the lack of funds. We categorically disagree with this. One has simply to look at the stadium Kaliningrad Arena. According to the estimates of Yabloko’s Anti-Corruption Policy Centre, the stadium is ranked second among the most expensive stadiums in the country. Each place in the stadium will cost 508,500 roubles, and losses during construction amounted to 8.8 billion roubles. “With this money, it was possible to build a modern oncology centre,” Emilia Slabunova said. The total cost of the stadium construction amounted to 17,8 billion roubles, the budget of Kaliningrad is 11 billion roubles. The region could live 18 months on this money,” the politician noted.

There is a lack of oncologists in the region. Now there are only 12 oncology medical rooms; whereas the norm is 40. “The number of people with newly diagnosed cancer has been growing, and every effort should be made to solve this problem as quickly as possible,” Slabunova added.

On the final day of her visit, Slabunova also gave several interviews to local media and a press conference. At the press conference she spoke about the situation in the region, saying that “it leaves much to be desired”. According to the results of 2017, the Kaliningrad region is ranked 37^th as of families welfare, 7 points down compared to the previous year. And the average salary in the region is 31,166 roubles, 30 per cent lower than the average salary in the North-West Federal District, and 20 per cent lower than in Russia in general. Among other problems of the region are introduction of visa-free entry, abolishing of construction of a coal-fired power plant in the village of Vzmorie as residents protest against it, and other.

“Such a system of government in the country can not be tolerated any more,” Emilia Slabunova said. “A change of power is needed. This can be done on [the election day of] 18 March in order to fundamentally change the foreign and the domestic policies, and the economy. The programme of our candidate, Grigory Yavlinsky, is aimed at this, it will allow the country not to remain on the sidelines of world development, but to move to the future. ”

Slabunova also noted that the key directions of Yavlinsky’s programme were fight against poverty, a new budget policy, the implementation of the program “Land – Housing – Roads “, solution of all the foreign policy faults of the present government: peace with Ukraine, withdrawal from the war in Syria, solution of the problem of Crimea and restoration of all good-neighbourly relations. Emilia Slabunova spoke about all these strategic directions of the programme in detail at a meeting with Kaliningrad residents on the first day of her visit.