Press Release, 25.04.2019

A meeting of the initiative group on holding a referendum in Tatarstan on the need to hold local referendums in the constructing waste management facilities with a capacity of more than 40,000 tons per year was held by the Yabloko branch in Tatarstan. The initiative group included twenty-five residents of the Republic of Tatarstan, including members of different parties and social movements and leaders of the movement against the construction of an incinerator in Osinovo (a suburb of Kazan). Ruslan Zinatullin, Chairman of the regional branch of the Yabloko party, was elected as one of the authorised representatives of the initiative group.

According to the Chairman of the Tatarstan Yabloko, the officials do not take into account the opinion of the residents of the Republic when making important decisions.

“The authorities constantly create artificial obstacles for expressing the real opinions of citizens, and instead of a normal discussion when making decisions that affect the lives of people, it offers simulacra of public participation. We will see how the officials are confident that the residents support their policies, because if this is so, they should not be frightened by any referendums or competitive elections,  but, unfortunately, for many years we have seen the opposite,” Ruslan Zinatullin noted.

It should be noted that the petition for registration of the initiative group for holding a referendum was submitted to the Central Electoral Commission of the Republic of Tatarstan. The Commission must verify the correctness of filling out all documents. If everything complies with the law, then the issue of holding a referendum should be submitted to the session of deputies of the State Council of the Republic of tatarstan. To minimise the cost of holding a referendum, the initiative group proposes to combine it with the elections to the State Council of the Republic of Tatarstan, which will be held in September 2019.

The officials chose Osinovo, the suburb of Kazan, for the construction of an incineration plant with a capacity of 550,000 tons per year and worth more than 20 billion roubles. The decision to build an incinerator plant in Osinovo provoked protests of Tatarstan residents, and there were numerous rallies against the construction in the Republic.

The Yabloko party offers an alternative programme for the treatment of waste “Clean Russia”. It will allow, by 2030, to process up to 70 per cent of household waste, reduce the amount of garbage being buried of by 80 per cent and create more than 250,000 jobs.