Press Release, 7.09.2021

Photo by the Press Service of the Altai branch of Yabloko

Nine campaign banners of the Yabloko party were stolen in Barnaul, the Altai Republic. They were ripped off from public transport stops by unidentified persons on 4 and 5 September.

Most of the banners – seven out of nine – were stolen from the territory of electoral district No. 21. Andrei Tkachenko, the director of the organisation of advanced vocational education, is running for the Altai Regional Legislative Assembly from Yabloko in this constituency. Activists of the Altai branch of Yabloko believe that Ivan Nifontov, a judoist and a candidate to the Altai Regional Legislative Assembly in the same constituency from the ruling United Russia political party, is associated with the abduction of the banners.

“As the saying goes, you’re not a thief till you’re caught, but this coincidence prompts certain assumptions,” Aleksandr Goncharenko, Chairman of the Altai branch of Yabloko, comments on the case.

The production of each banner cost 2,000 – 2.500 roubles. The Altai Yabloko estimates the damage at about 20,000 roubles. Vyacheslav Filippov, a member of the regional Bureau of the Altai branch of Yabloko, wrote a statement to the police.

In the past elections to the Altai Regional Legislative Assembly, Yabloko also experienced problems with the placement of its campaign banners. The entrepreneur who placed the banners received a letter from the Chairman of the Committee for Construction, Architecture and Development of the city of Barnaul with a “request” to replace the banners of the Yabloko party by the informational holiday messages dedicated to the 286th anniversary of the city of Barnaul.