Press Release, 23.12.2021, St.Petersburg

Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

The Bureau of the Yabloko party, upon the recommendation of the Yabloko party commission, expelled four members of the St. Petersburg branch from the party for violating the party’s by-laws and causing political damage to the party:

– public dissemination of absurd accusations against the party’s leadership that they are “regular FSB [Federal Security Service] officers”;

– public statements about the correctness of the “takeover of the party” by the persons expelled from the party earlier;

– organization of collection of signatures and public distribution of the appeal, where the decision of the Federal Political Committee of the party was called a “public denunciation”;

– public calls for the persecution of a party member and conducting an “investigation” against him, allegedly on behalf of Yabloko, which is not envisaged by the Yabloko by-laws and decisions of the party, while the court assessed the accusations against this party member (and found them false).

No political party will ever allow such behaviour go unpunished within the party, as a political party should be a team of like-minded people, not a club of changing interests.

Such actions are considered completely unacceptable, in particular, in Western democracies, where politicians operate under strict rules of a political party discipline and responsibility.