Press Release, 2.09.2020

Chairman of the Yabloko party Nikolai Rybakov visited the Voronezh region on Monday, August 31, as part of his election tour on the threashold of regional elections.

Nikolai Rybakov began his visit to Voronezh with participation in an open discussion “What About the Environment?”. In which, in addition to representatives of the Yabloko party, candidates for local elections from A Just Russia and the Rodina (Homeland) parties also took part in this discussion.

During his speech, Nikolai Rybakov noted that the opinion popular in the 1990s was that one should first develop the economy and only then deal with the environment was untenable, because insufficient attention to environmental problems jeopardised health of ordinary citizens, and also increased indicators of premature mortality from cancer and other serious diseases. He also expressed the opinion that in order to effectively solve environmental problems, first of all, the government should be changed and put under the control of citizens.

Tatiana Shkred, Chair of the Voronezh regional branch of Yabloko, noted that the Voronezh Yabloko traditionally has been paying great attention to environmental issues both in the city and the region. Party representatives supported environmental activists in Voronezh, for example, the movement “In Defense of Khopr!” against nickel mining, defenders of the Apple Orchard, the Northern Forest, the Tanais Park and other “green” objects. Tatiana Shkred emphasised that in the course of the struggle for environmental protection, it was important to consolidate actions of both residents and public movements and parties.

Ilya Beilin, Yabloko’s candidate to the City Duma and expert in urban development, also participated in the discussion. He talked about how to effectively reconcile the preservation of green zones and the need of large cities for development and expansion. Ilya Beilin drew the participants’ attention to the fact that a draft General Development Plan of Voronezh had been put up for public discussion. Beilin called on all those indifferent to the problems of the city to actively participate in sending their proposals to the plan and other similar documents.

During his visit Nikolai Rybakov also met with the regional activists of the party. The participants of the meeting discussed the issues of the forthcoming reform of the Yabloko party. Nikolai wished the regional activists victory in the elections on 13 September. The list of candidates from Yabloko was registered in the elections to the Voronezh City Duma.

At the end of the day Nikolai Rybakov also visited the Severny Les (Northern Forest) forest park, a special protection zone in the city where illegal cutting of trees took place. On August 30, there was a clash here between local residents and unidentified persons who set up a fence around the park. Rybakov spoke with representatives of the initiative groups protecting the Northern Forest and the Apple Garden, which the mayor’s office plans to cut down for construction sites.

Alexei Shlyaev, organiser of the initiative group of defenders of the Northern Forest, showed Nikolai Rybakov the large scale cutting of trees in the territory of the natural park. He explained that under the pretext of protecting residents from the fall of dry trees, the owners of the forest area cut down healthy pines and drilled holes in the trunks and cut off the bark in order to provoke the death of trees. Environmental activists Ilya Beilin and Gennady Pankov told Rybakov about the problems with cutting down of an apple orchard.

The Yabloko Chairman promised to help solve these problems. After returning from Voronezh, he sent an appeal to the Governor of the Voronezh region with an appeal to take under personal control the situation around the felling of trees in the Severny Les forest park and personally visit the park as soon as possible so that to assess the situation specially protected natural area.