Press Release, 21.05.2020

An expert group under the Bureau of the Yabloko party in the Altai Territory, headed by Andrei Tkachenko, discovered over 37 million roubles in the budget of Barnaul that the authorities of the regional capital had planned to spend on gifts and celebrations. The Altai branch of Yabloko suggested that the city authorities reallocate these funds to support citizens and businesses during the period of restrictive measures caused by the spread of the coronavirus infection.

“We sent a letter to Vyacheslav Frank, head of the city of Barnaul, with a proposal to cancel these purchases in 2020, and to allocate more than 37 million roubles that were released to support certain categories of citizens, individual entrepreneurs and small businesses that were seriously affected during the coronavirus pandemic,” noted Alexander Goncharenko, Chairman of the Altai branch of Yabloko.

In particular, the Office of the Barnaul Mayor plans to spend almost 5.4 million roubles on the provision of services for placement and dismantling of banners on static banner structures, work on changing placement of banner structures, and development, manufacture and installation of information stands. The city authorities plan to spend more than 15.5 million roubles on the purchase of gift, prize and souvenir products. About 1.3 million roubles will be spent on technical support of the legal acts portal, purchase of equipment and services for protection of confidential information, as well as three lots for provision of city services for organising and conducting celebrations and festivals for a total amount of more than 14.8 million roubles.

Earlier, Alexander Goncharenko, Chairman of the regional branch of the Yabloko party in the Altai Territory, sent a letter to Viktor Tomenko, Governor of the region, with a proposal to cancel a number of purchases, and reallocate almost 336.5 million roubles to anti-epidemic measures, support of citizens, individual entrepreneurs and small businesses.

It should be noted that Yabloko forwarded to the President, government and parliament a package of its proposals with urgent measures to support people, workers and private businesses in the context of the coronavirus pandemic. The party also calls on the President and government to expand the list of supported NGOs.

In addition, the party Chairman Nikolai Rybakov sent letters to the Governors of more than 20 Russian regions urging them to redirect funds allocated for campaigning for amendments to the Constitution to fight against coronavirus.