Press Release, 7.08.2019

Members of the Irkutsk regional branch of the Yabloko party held single-person pickets. The action was dedicated to forest fires raging in Siberia, including in the Irkutsk region and Yakutia. Yabloko activists called on the authorities to take urgent measures to deal with the environmental disaster.

“It so happened that Vladimir Putin makes all the important decisions in the present vertical of power. Therefore, we chose the square at the entrance to the regional government, where the presidential administration is located, as the picket area,” Grigory Gribenko, chairman of the Irkutsk Yabloko and one of the protesters, said.

After the picketing, Yabloko activists sent appeals by e-mail from the Irkutsk Yabloko to the reception offices of the Presidential Administration, the Governor of the Irkutsk Region and the Legislative Assembly of the region with the following requirements:

1) Send additional units of the Ministry of Emergencies, the Ministry of Defense and the Russian Guard to fight fire.

2) Review the “control zones” so as not to repeat the disaster.

3) The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection of the Russian Federation to assess the damage and consequences from fires and tell the whole truth to people.

It should be noted that earlier the Krasnoyarsk branch of Yabloko called on the authorities of the region to declare a “black sky” regime in the region in connection with the continuing smokiness of the territories from forest fires raging in the Lower Angara and Evenkia. Members of the party’s regional branch rallied for the resignation of the Governor. The Altai branch of Yabloko demanded during pickets in Barnaul that Vladimir Putin pay attention to the catastrophic situation with forest fires in Siberia. The Novosibirsk branch of Yabloko demanded that officials who allowed growth of forest fires be brought to justice.