Statement by the Yabloko Bureau, 7.10.2021

Photo: the Legislative Assembly of St.Petersburg

Yabloko thanks the voters who voted for our [candidates] list and our candidates in single-mandate constituencies in the elections to the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg.

We appreciate your stance very much and we are certain that Yabloko received many more votes than was officially announced.

Despite the fact that due to violations and falsifications, Yabloko received fewer mandates than it should have received with your support, the Yabloko deputies in the Legislative Assembly will represent and protect your interests.

We are grateful to the members of those electoral commissions who did not admit falsifications and violations at their polling stations.

We would like to thank our candidates – both those who made it to the voting day and those who were unlawfully removed from the elections.

We would like to thank our campaigners who helped spread the word about our stance and our candidates.

We would like to thank our members of electoral commissions and observers who courageously resisted the falsifications.

We would like to thank those journalists who objectively covered the election campaign.

Our political assessment of the past voting procedure is extremely negative, we cannot call it fair elections. There were gross and massive falsifications (and not only against the candidates from Yabloko), which distorted the results of the voters’ will.

The most widespread violations of citizens’ electoral rights occurred in the Central, Admiralteisky, Vasileostrovsky, Petrogradsky, Nevsky, Vyborgsky, Moskovsky and Frunzensky districts.

Particularly prominent is Constituency No. 2 in the Central District, where Boris Vishnevsky [Yabloko Deputy Chair] confidently won as of the sum of votes in 71 out of 76 polling stations, but in five “anomalous” polling stations they counted five times more votes for  [the ruling] United Russia [party] candidate Alexander Rzhanenkov than for Boris Vishnevsky, which ensured the “victory” of Rzhanenkov. At the same time, there was no video surveillance or video recorders in almost all of these polling stations.

Yabloko candidates have filed more than 150 administrative lawsuits in courts to cancel the voting results at the polling stations where the most flagrant violations of electoral legislation were recorded. We will work towards the restoration of genuine election results, protecting every vote of our voters.

Falsification of the will of citizens is a state crime, and Yabloko will seek to bring to justice those who participated in violations and their removal from the electoral system of St. Petersburg.

What happened during the elections in St. Petersburg destroys citizens’ respect for the law and trust in the state.

Yabloko starts compiling the “Black Book of Election-2021”, which will include members of electoral commissions involved in gross violations of electoral rights, and invites voters, observers and political parties to take part in this work.

We appeal to all caring residents of St. Petersburg to take part in monitoring future elections by registering on the web-site of the Yabloko party or through the St. Petersburg Observers organisation, and invite voters, observers and political parties to take part in this work.

Nikolai Rybakov,

Yabloko Chairman