Nikolai Rybakov’s Facebook page, 8.09.2021

Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

We began the working day together with Tatyana Levchenko, Chair of the Tomsk branch of Yabloko, and Vasily Yeryomin, head of the Yabloko faction in the Duma of the city of Tomsk, and activists and volunteers of the party.

In the morning we had a working meeting with the Chairman of the City Duma Chingis Akatayev. We discussed one of the important topics for the city – the preservation of the historical buildings of the city. The regions will not be able to cope with this problem on their own. It is necessary to create a programme at the federal level for the preservation of historical and architectural objects throughout Russia. I will go on pushing for the holding of the collegium of the Ministry of Culture in Tomsk, a city with unique wooden architecture. A possible solution to the problem is in the transfer of houses to private ownership with a mandatory protective status to preserve the external historical appearance of the building.

After the meeting, we went to the apiary, a small business in the village of Karbyshevo. The apiary includes 100 hives. Every season Pyotr Shvedov and his colleagues produce up to 3 tons of honey. I was glad that the beekeepers are planning to switch to alternative energy next year – solar panels instead of generators. Thanks to their energy, honey production will not only be cheaper, but also more environmentally friendly.

The next destination was a separate waste collection point. It was organised by Igor Lyutaev, a City Duma deputy and our candidate for the State Duma elections, and his team of volunteers.

Such collection points organised by the Kursor association of the “green” forces of Tomsk operate in three districts of the city and are organised monthly. Dozens of people regularly come to the separate collection points to recycle cardboard, plastic lids, bottles, glass jars and bottles and even clothes.

All the waste collected by the volunteers, is carefully sorted into 17 fractions and taken to the private enterprise Chisty Mir (The Clean World). This company was the next point of our visit. The enterprise is engaged in the processing of recyclable materials in Tomsk. Yevgeny Kaverzin, the commercial director of The Clean World, a deputy of the Duma of the city of Tomsk and Yabloko’s candidate for the elections to the State Duma from the Tomsk region, told us that the company collects waste paper, plastic bottles, films, canisters, dairy bottles, plastic bags, fruit crates, toothbrushes, combs, hangers, egg containers, disposable dishes, aluminum cans and glass containers. After processing waste, The Clean World sells it to industries that use recyclable materials for the manufacture of their products. The unique feature of the enterprise is that it is ready to take almost any waste for processing.

The current garbage reform has turned into open support for the present garbage mafia. Yabloko, on the contrary, advocates minimal government intervention into economic processes, in particular, in the field of waste management.

I also gave an interview to TV-2 and the Blagovest radio. The day ended with the distribution of leaflets and newspapers in the centre of the city and a meeting with the activists of the regional branch of Yabloko. The Yabloko activists are in a fighting mood, everyone is determined only to win. My further plans include visits to Perm, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Tagil, Chelyabinsk and Kazan.