Press Release, 1.09.2019

On Saturday, August 31, Nikolai Rybakov, Deputy Chairman of the Yabloko party, met with Yabloko candidates for deputies to the Council of Chelyabinsk Districts and local residents. The politician visited the socio-political exhibition, which annually takes place in the park named after Yuri Gagarin. A meeting of voters with candidates for deputies and Yaroslav Shcherbakov, head of the regional branch of the Yabloko party, was held by the party’s stand. Rybakov took part in the distribution of leaflets, brochures and newspapers of the Yabloko party and presented Yabloko programme to Chelyabinsk residents.

Later, a meeting of candidates for the Council of Chelyabinsk Districts with residents of the city was held in the conference hall of the Meredian hotel. Rybakov also spoke at the meeting and called on Chelyabinsk citizens to actively participate in the elections. He noted that “the problem was not that people did not support the party, but that they simply did not come to polling stations”.  Rybakov also spoke about candidates running for Yabloko, “These are people of very different professions: engineers, business leaders, owners of small and medium-sized businesses, and farmers. What is noteworthy is that among them there is not a single official or civil servant. After all, the people representing our party are choosing the European way of development, they understand that without a strong economy, independent court and political freedoms, our country has no future”.

Nikolai Rybakov expressed his confidence that the victory in the upcoming elections will go to worthy people – candidates from the Yabloko party. “That is why it is extremely important to monitor the vote count, as fraud of representatives of pro-government candidates can impede victory,” he emphasised.

In addition, Nikolai Rybakov, along with Yaroslav Shcherbakov, head of the Chelyabinsk Yabloko, visited the apartments of voters in one of the constituencies. He introduced Yabloko’s candidate, handed voters a programme and CV of Yaroslav Shcherbakov and his proposals for managing the city.

One of the main problems of Chelyabinsk is unfavourable environmental situation in the region. Citizens actively participate in actions against the construction of the Tominsky mining and processing plant (Tominsky GOK) organised by the party, and are well acquainted with activities of Yabloko candidates for deputies in the field of environmental protection. At the same time, the leader of the STOP GOK movement Vasily Moskovets was not allowed to participate in the elections. He tried to challenge the decision of the electoral commission in court, but the claim was not satisfied. Nevertheless, Nikolai Rybakov expressed confidence that Yabloko would succeed in the elections, since there were no other deputies representing the interests of residents and taking care of the city.

Elections in the Chelyabinsk region will be held on 8 September. Representatives of Yabloko are running for the Council of Deputies of Chelyabinsk (in seven districts), the Assembly of Deputies of the City of Miass and the Council of Deputies of four rural settlements. Deputies to the Chelyabinsk City Duma will be elected at a meeting of the Council of Deputies no later than October 8.