Press Release, 10.09.2020

On September 9, the Nizhny Novgorod  branch of Yabloko” was holding a seminar for those who signed up to be observers at the upcoming elections to the City Duma of Nizhny Novgorod. After the lecture began, police officers suddenly stormed in. They said that on they were acting on basis of a statement they had received  from “a certain person”, so they stopped the lecture and began to put down the personal data of all those present.

As a result of such an unlawful police raid, Mikhail Borodin was detained. He allegedly touched the police officer’s radio with his hand. The rest were released after the police tried to get explanations from them and collect their personal data.

“This is obvious pressure on the headquarters of independent candidates and observers who want to observe the September 13 voting. But we are not afraid. We are ready for this pressure. This shows that the positions of our candidates are strong and the authorities are frantically looking for opportunities to somehow interfere. Today’s training was not the last one,” activists of the Nizhny Novgorod Yabloko noted.

Representatives of the regional branch of the Yabloko party also stressed that they intend to continue with seminars for observers, online webinars inclusive.

The elections to the City Duma of Nizhny Novgorod will be held on September 13. The Nozhny Novgorod City Duma of the 7th convocation will consist of 35 deputies. The term of office of the deputies of the City Duma of Nizhny Novgorod is five years. There are six candidates from Yabloko participating in the race. However, a number of candidates from the party were not admitted to the elections, including  Oleg Rodin, Chairman of the regional branch of the party, and Alexei Sadomovsky, Deputy Chairman.