Press Release, 16.11.2019

Today, a conference dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Pskov regional branch of  Yabloko was held in Pushkinogorsky district of the Pskov region.

Party Chair Emilia Slabunova and Yelena Dubrovina, member of the Yabloko Political Committee and head of Yabloko’s Centre for Legislative Initiatives, arrived in the region to congratulate their colleagues.

“25 years of the life of the Pskov Yabloko is not just a story, it is a path with a long and lengthy stage of self-determination, and accumulation of strength. The path that transferred to a new quality ten years ago, when the organisation took the path of successful election campaigns very seriously and solidly and showed very serious results over these ten years, ”Emilia Slabunova said in her congratulatory speech.

Slabunova emphasised that the Pskov branch of Yabloko now represents not only the legislative, but also the executive branch.

“I wish Pskov Yabloko a lot of energy, strength, inspiration, public support on the path to conquest, and achievement of serious solid results, so that all efforts turn into a change in the situation in the region,” Slabunova noted.

Photo: Emilia Slabunova

The Chair of Yabloko also read out congratulations to the conference from Grigory Yavlinsky, Yabloko founder and Chairman of its Political Committee.

Congratulating his colleagues, Lev Shlosberg, the leader of the Pskov Yabloko, noted the difficulties encountered in the work.

“We really sometimes feel aggressive resistance of those people who don’t want to give up power, they don’t want to give up the country. They do not want to allow people to live a normal life. But we are not working for them. We work for those people who want to live honestly for the benefit of the country,” Shlosberg said.

Photo: Lev Shlosberg

“This warms us, allows us to gain strength in difficult times, when many are disappointed, when it seems that this system cannot be broken. When it seems impossible to prove the truth and achieve justice. Just because we have a team, we can sometimes do impossible things with you, which it was impossible to think that this could happen for some days or weeks before these events,” Shlosberg emphasised.

Then Emilia Slabunova and Lev Shlosberg handed diplomas and letterы of acknowledgment to the deputies and activists of the party.

The conference programme was very busy. Lev Shlosberg summed up the work of the Pskov branch of Yabloko for a quarter of a century and separately for 2019. Svetlana Vasilkova, head of the Pustoshkinsky district, and Sofia Pugacheva, head of the Novorzhevsky district, elected from Yabloko, spoke about the specifics of their work. Emilia Slabunova made a presentation on the relationship between the party and civil society. Yelena Dubrovina, who worked as a member of the Central Electoral Commission of the Russian Federation in 1999-2016, spoke about the concept of reforming the electoral legislation of Russia, developed by Yabloko’s Centre for Legislative Initiatives she leads. The Pskov Yabloko team also discussed their tasks for 2020 and 2021.

Photo: Yelena Dubrovina

The conference was attended by almost 100 participants of the Pskov Yabloko team from all cities and districts of the Pskov region, as well as guests from the Leningrad, Vologda, Novgorod, Nizhny Novgorod and Smolensk regions.