Press Release, 21.11.2019

Chair of the Yabloko party Emilia Slabunova appealed to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Public Prosecutor of the Sverdlovsk region in connection with threats to the family and the assistant of Konstantin Kiselyov, Chairman of the Yabloko faction in the Yekaterinburg City Duma.

“Due to the high public importance of the case, we are asking you to take the investigation under your personal control in order to ensure the most transparent investigation, identify those responsible and subsequently impose a fair sentence on them,” the appeal runs.

Yabloko leaders express their confidence that the content of the messages with threats of murder shows that they are related to the implementation of Kiselyov’s public duty as a deputy of the city parliament. Therefore, the actions of the authors of the messages can be qualified under Article 119 Part 2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (threat of murder or grievous bodily harm based on political and religious hatred, as well as in connection with the performance of official duties and public debt), which involves a punishment of up to five years in prison.

It should be noted that on 20 November, the wife, the mother-in-law and the assistant of Konstantin Kiselyov, deputy of the Yekaterinburg City Council and Chairman of the Yabloko faction, received threats with murder. The relatives of the deputy and his assistant were called from a telephone number unfamiliar to them and were threatened with murder and violence against children. The leaders of the Yabloko party are preparing appeals to law enforcement agencies.

Konstantin Kiselyov’s assistant contacted the police on November 20. The deputy and his relatives also intend to submit an application to law enforcement agencies.

It should be noted that Konstantin Kiselyov was almost every day among the protesters during the protests against the development of the square and building of a church in place of a public garden by the Drama Theatre in Yekaterinburg in May-June 2019.

The Sverdlovsk branch of Yabloko also called for a referendum on the construction of St. Catherine’s Church, and Konstantin Kiselyov, Yabloko’s deputy of the City Council, participated in the negotiations between the protesters and the regional government.

Yabloko Chair Emilia Slabunova noted that the decision to build a temple in the park was unlawful, the party leader sent appeals to Yevgeny Kuyvashev, Governor of the Sverdlovsk region, and Alexander Vysokinsky, Mayor of Yekaterinburg, demanding a referendum on the construction project.

Konstantin Kiselyov, Candidate of Philosophical Sciences and teacher, was elected deputy of the Yekaterinburg City Council from Yabloko in the fall of 2018. In May 2019, he gave an interview for Yabloko’s web-site on the conflict around the construction of a church in place of a public garde.n