Press Release, 19.01.2021

Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

Leaders and activists of the Yabloko party laid flowers at the scene of the murder of lawyer Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasia Baburova at Prechistenka 3 in Moscow. Markelov and Baburova were shot dead by neo-Nazis on 19 January, 2009.

This year, the police installed metal fences along the road from the Kropotkinskaya metro station to the site of murder. Riot police officers  stood along the way every 10-20 meters.

Such police reinforcement, as well as the refusal of the authorities to permit peaceful actions against nationalism and enmity on this day represent “an indicator of what country Russia is turning into,” Kirill Goncharov, a member of the Yabloko Federal Bureau, said.

For many years Yabloko members have been coming to Prechistinka street every year on this day to remember Stanislav Markelov and Anastasia Baburova,” Yabloko party Chairman Nikolai Rybakov said. “These people fought for freedom, human rights, for everyone in Russia to be protected and feel respected. The regime made their murder possible, accepted and permissible,” the head of the party stressed.

Yabloko Chairman Nikolai Rybakov. Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

“Political killings and murders motivated by hatred demonstrate an unhealthy atmosphere in our country, the state of society and the state of the authorities, encouraging all this,” Ivan Bolshakov, Deputy Chairman of Yabloko, said. He recalled that the neo-Nazi group BORN, which organised the murder, had connections with the Presidential Administration and pro-Kremlin youth movements.

“As the famous saying by Martin Niemöller runs, they can come for everyone – consistently and methodically, and there will be no one left who can speak our for us. Therefore, we come here to honour the memory of Stanislav Markelov and Anastasia Baburova so that to remind people of this responsibility,” Bolshakov concluded.

Ivan Bolshakov, Kirill Goncharov, Nikolai Rybakov and Grigory Yavlinsky. Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

Grigory Yavlinsky, Chairman of the Yabloko Federal Political Committee, stressed that today’s meeting at Prechistenka was not just a memorial action. “This action is a reminder, it is also about the future. There should be no doubt that the growth of fascist tendencies, endless authoritarian personal power and nationalism means that such events can happen in the future to many people, virtually anyone –  political activists, journalists, ordinary citizens,” Grigory Yavlinsky said. “This is not an accident, it can happen again and again. The present developments in Russia suggest that the field for such events has been expanding every year. Remember this.”