The politician visits Novgorod to support party candidates

Press Release, 4.09.2019

Photo: Maxim Petrov, Emilia Slabunova and Anna Cherepanova

Yabloko Chairperson Emilia Slabunova is on visit in Novgorod, north-west Russia, to support 76 party candidates in elections at different levels that are taking place in the region.

This is already the sixth in the past three years visit of Yabloko leader to Novgorod. This visit began with a meeting in the Tesovo-Netylsky ambulant clinic. Yabloko’s list of candidates in the elections to the Council of Deputies of the Tesovo-Netylsky rural settlement is topped by the district doctor Maxim Petrov. During her meeting with Petrov Slabunova discussed the state of local health care and the results of the government’s “optimisation” of the sector conducted in the region.

Lack of equipment and medicines, a large amount of work, whereas wages that do not correspond to those declared in the President’s May 2012 decrees, lack of specialists – these are just some of the problems of the health care in the region. Residents have to wait for ambulance to come from Novgorod, so the waiting time is 40 minutes or more!

After visiting the dispensary, Emilia Slabunova said in an interview with local journalists that the party’s candidates would focus on all the acute problems of the region, including the health care.

The social problems faced by the residents of the region are related to the budget policies pursued by the authorities, Slabunova stressed. “The priorities of the budget are not built in favour of people,” she noted.

Yabloko candidates, if elected, will strive to change the budget policies. The party proposes to distribute all collected taxes in proportion: 33% for the local budget, 33% for the regional budget, and 34% will go to the federal budget.

Yabloko nominated Anna Cherepanova, Chair of the regional branch of the party, as a candidate in the by-elections to the State Duma in single-member constituency No. 134. Yabloko also nominated Ksenia Cherepanova, head of the public organisation The Regional Centre for Human Rights to run in the by-election of deputies of the Novgorod Regional Duma

The Novgorod Yabloko also nominated candidates for the heads of Yermolinsky, Trubichinsky and Savinsky rural settlements in the Novgorod region. Yabloko candidates also participate in the elections of several councils of deputies: in the Tesovo-Netylsky, Yermolinsky, Savinsky, Trubichinsky rural settlements, and the Krestetsky urban settlement.

Emilia Slabunova emphasised that Anna Cherepanova, the party’s candidate at the by-elections to the State Duma, the current deputy of the Duma of Novgorod, has already made a lot of efforts to stop the thoughtless optimisation carried out by Governor Andrei Nikitin and Antonina Savolyuk, regional healthcare minister.

Photo: An interview

It should be noted that the Novgorod branch of Yabloko went on a picket in support of the dismissed doctors of the children’s regional hospital. In winter, the party’s regional branch also held a rally against healthcare optimisation in Okulovka. In addition, the regional Yabloko office organised a rally against the closure of a round-the-clock hospital in the regional hospital of Shimsk in the Novgorod region, as well as a rally against the closure of the hospital in the village of Moshensky. On 13 July, the regional branch of the party organised a rally in Novgorod in support of the dismissed doctors of the the otolaryngology department of the children’s regional hospital, as well as against “optimisation” of the health care in the region.

Anna Cherepanova, leader of the Novgorod branch of Yabloko, spoke about the crisis of the healthcare system in the region from the rostrum of the regional Duma. The leader of the Novgorod Yabloko stressed that the irresponsible policies of the authorities turned the Novgorod region into a suicide region.

The attention of Yabloko’s deputies will also be directed at solving political problems: canceling the municipal filter in gubernatorial elections, returning direct elections of city mayors, electoral reform, repealing the law on disrespect of authority.

Serious legislative measures to combat corruption, introduction of mandatory separate collection of garbage and creation of conditions for a small businesses that can work in the field of garbage processing – all these tasks will be solved by Yabloko candidates if elected, Emilia Slabunova stressed.

Honest, principled and incorruptible – this is how Yabloko leader described Anna Cherepanova, Chair of the Novgorod branch of the party, nominated by the party at the by-election to the State Duma. “Our candidate has a whole set of qualities that will allow her to be a real defender of the interests of Novgorod residents,” Slabunova noted. “Residents will not only not be ashamed of such a deputy, they will be proud of her, they will feel that they have someone to rely on in solving their problems.”

Speaking about Ksenia Cherepanova, head of the Regional Centre for Human Rights public organisation and Yabloko candidate for deputies of the Novgorod Regional Duma, Slabunova noted that Ksenia would be able to competently solve any issues as a deputy.

In the evening, at the rally “Let Us Protect the Novgorod Healthcare!”, Emilia Slabunova said in her speech, “Everything is fine with medicine, we have wonderful doctors, but we have problems with the organisation of healthcare, for which the authorities are responsible, so that all the achievements of modern medicine would work for the people! ”

Photo: Rally. 

According to Slabunova, what has political reasons can only be changed with political tools. “To do this, you need to change politicians, elect differentr deputies to the State and regional Duma,” Slabunova said.

The rally participants adopted a resolution, “We, the participants of the rally in defense of the Novgorod medicine, demand the resignation of Governor Andrei Nikitin, the government of the Novgorod region, and regional Minister of Healthcare Antonina Savolyuk for the collapse of the healthcare system in the Novgorod region and massive violation of citizens’ rights to affordable and high-quality medical care. We urge all to come to the elections on 8 September and change the anti-people power ”.