Press Release, 13.01.2021

Photo by konstsem/depositphotos.com. Smolny Palace in St. Petersburg. Now the building is the residence of the Governor of St. Petersburg.

The government of St. Petersburg does not rule out that Alexander Beglov, Governor of the city, initiates an inspection of 19 out of 22 municipal deputies from the United Russia party, who did not declare their families’ property in their financial statements. This follows from the answer of Alexander Belsky, Vice Governor of St. Petersburg, to the inquiry of Yabloko Chairman Nikolai Rybakov.

On 10 December, 2020, Nikolai Rybakov urged Governor Beglov to check financial statements of those municipal deputies from United Russia who violated the law and did not indicate in their statements published on the websites of their municipalities the information about the residential premises in their use or in the use of their family members. This was preceded by a check of the declarations of opposition deputies initiated by the Governor, as a result of which Yabloko deputies Anna Karulicheva (Narva District) and Vera Morozova (Malaya Okhta District), as well as self-nominated candidate Svetlana Utkina (Finlyansky District) were deprived of their mandates.

“Information has been sent to Governor of St. Petersburg Alexander Beglov for adoption of decisions on conducting checks on the accuracy and completeness of information on income, property and property obligations submitted by the deputies for 2019, as indicated in your inquiry, with the exception of Yu.F. Kashkarov, E.M. Tikhonova, and T.F.Danilyuk,” the answer of Vice Governor Belsky runs.

“The selectivity in the application of the law, and use of the law for putting pressure on the opposition, is obvious. Only after our appeal did the city authorities decide to check the United Russia deputies. However, I do not cherish any illusions about these checks. The law allowing to deprive a deputy of powers should be changed. Only voters in the elections can deprive a deputy of a mandate by means of not voting for him,” Nikolai Rybakov stressed.

The three aforementioned deputies will definitely not be checked, because information about the property of E.M.Tikhonov (Komarovo municipality) is listed on the website of the municipality, T.F.Danilyuk (Ulyanka municipality) presented evidence that her children had come of full age, and the powers of the deputy Yu.F. Kashkarov (Balkansky municipality) were terminated pre-term.

Thus, the check can be initiated against the deputies of V.E. Anisimov (Ushkovo municipality); D.V.Yezhova (Strelna municipality); E.N.Gromova (Smolyachkovo municipality); G.V. Ivanova (Serovo municipality); V. V. Prosvirnina (Serovo municipality); M.S. Anderson (the municipality of the settlement Molodezhnoe); O.N.Bogdanova (Metallostroy municipality); A.S.Kapralova, D.A. Starikova, A.A. Starykh and V.A. Changyan (Lanskoe municipality); I.E. Romanyuk (Sampsonievskoe municipality); V.Yu. Kucher (Okkervil municipality); A.S.Ovchinnikova (municipality Nevsky District); S.A. Kraineva (municipality Ligovka-Yamskaya), R.A. Moskvina and E.M. Gustova (municipality Zvezdnoye); V.V. Bondareva (municipality Vvedensky); V.D. Ivanova V.D. (municipality Yekateringofsky).

At the same time, the Vice Governor points out that the grounds for checking the financial statement is provision of sufficient information on the acquisition by the deputy, his or her spouse, as well as their minor children, of a real estate, a car or securities for a total amount exceeding the total family income for the past three years. Since there is no information on the completion of such transactions in Rybakov’s inquiry, the government of St. Petersburg does not see any grounds for initiating control over deputies’ expenses.