Press Release, 21.09.2020

The Kemerovo branch of Yabloko will take part in by-elections to the City Council of Deputies of Prokopyevsk, the Kemerovo region, which will take place on November 1. Natalya Zubkova, environmentalist and Editor-in-Chief of the independent Internet publication Novosti Kiselyovsk, became a candidate. The candidate has submitted 67 signatures of voters in her support to the district electoral commission of the single-mandate constituency No 6 and is awaiting the results of the verification of the signatures by the commission.

Natalia Zubkova have been repeatedly threatened with physical harm. Now even her children are getting threats. The regional branch of the Yabloko party notes that there has been a special website in the Kemerovo region (since 2017), which tries to besmirch the opposition. Natalia Zubkova has repeatedly become the protagonist of such publications. According to Yabloko, this site may be moderated by the employees of the Federal Security Service. Natalia Zubkova says that she has already written seven complaints on the facts of threats to her and libel in the publications of the web-site. There is still no reaction from law enforcement officers.

Natalya Zubkova works as Editor-in-Chief of the independent Internet publication Novosti of Kiselyovsk (News of Kiselyovsk), and is widely known in Kiselyovsk for her activities in the fight for favourable environment and counteracting the expansion of coal mines in the south of Kuzbass. This summer, she helped to cover the events in a tent camp of local residents protesting against the plans of a coal company to build a coal loading facility near the village of Cheremza (Novokuznetsk District, the Kemerovo Region). After the riot police dispersed the defenders of Cheremza, police drew up protocols of administrative violations and imposed large fines on many citizens. The law enforcement try to present Natalia Zubkova as the leader and organiser of the protest so that to prosecute her despite the fact that she raises three children.

It should be noted that the cities of Kiselyovsk and Prokopyevsk are located nearby and even have one common street. The main industries of these cities are coal mines and mines. There are nine coal mines in Kiselyovsk. In total, 110,000 miners work in the coal industry in Kuzbass.