Press Release, 29.09.2024

Photo: Olga Tsepilova at the Conference of the St. Petersburg branch of Yabloko / Photo by the regional branch of the party

On 28 September, the St. Petersburg regional branch of the Yabloko party elected the governing bodies of the branch for the next two years. Olga Tsepilova, who previously held the position of a Deputy Chairperson, became the Chairperson of the regional branch (in 2022-2024, the branch was headed by Alexander Shishlov, who proposed to elect Olga Tsepilova to this post). Dmitry Anisimov, Yegor Karpenkov, Alexander Kobrinsky, and Ilya Kiselyov were elected as Deputy Chairs. This time the leaders of the St. Petersburg branch are noticeably younger. The average age of the previous composition was 70 years old, and now it is 44.

Olga Tsepilova received 15 delegate votes (out of 18). The second candidate was the Chairman of the Pushkin local branch of the party, Alexander Makhankov. He was nominated by his branch.

“Yabloko is an ideologically integral party that has survived many attempts at raider takeovers and splits. I have made a lot of efforts to resist this and will continue to do so. I proclaim a policy of continuity both in relation to the party as a whole and in relation to its regional focus. There will be no radicalisation of our political activity. We must approach the 2026 elections with an updated and strengthened internal structure. We must be ready for the elections politically and organisationally,” Olga Tsepilova said.

One of the key issues of work outlined by Olga Tsepilova is work within the framework of the main party slogan “For Peace and Freedom”.

Nikolai Rybakov, Yabloko Chairman and delegate to the conference of the St. Petersburg branch, noted that despite the changes, the main principle of the party would remain unchanged.

“The party will work to ensure that people stop killing each other. There is nothing more important. Certainly, we must raise a new generation of politicians so that in two or four years they can come to power and govern the country. However, if we do not resolve the issue of war and peace, then they will have nowhere to come. When we see threats with nuclear weapons, we must understand that its use by one of the parties will not go unanswered and the world will be destroyed. We are working and living now to prevent this from happening,” Nikolai Rybakov said.

After the election of the head of the regional branch, the conference voted for new Bureau members. It included (in addition to the chairperson and her deputies), Boris Vishnevsky, Oleg Maksakov, Vladimir Molodozhenya, Olga Pokrovskaya, Dmitry Khorzov, Alexander Shishlov and Olga Shtannikova. Dmitry Anisimov was elected as a member of the Federal Council of the party from St. Petersburg. A new Regional Council of the branch was also elected, consisting of 29 people.