Press Release, 28.09.2016

Today YABLOKO Chair Emilia Slabunova, forwarded YABLOKO statement to the law enforcement and Public Prosecutor on persecution and intimidation of YABLOKO activists in Zhukovsky, the Moscow Region.

On 23 September, unidentified persons burned a car of Fyodor Karpov, Chair of the local branch of YABLOKO in Zhukovsky and environmental activist.

This action was one in the chain of a campaign of intimidation of local activists fighting against unlawful cutting of pine forests in the city and illegal construction of real estate in these areas, the statement runs.

On 15 June, someone threw a bottle with Molotov cocktail in the window of the apartment of Olga Deyeva, local activist. Fortunately the bottle ricocheted on the window frame and fell and broke under the window in the street.

On 27 June, the car of Michail Yuritsyn, environmentalist and member of the public organization Lubimiy Gorod (Beloved City) was burnt.

On the night of 7 July, the car which Svetlana Bezlepikina, local council deputy from the YABLOKO party, used was burnt. On the same day someone’s car parked by the gates of the garage rented by Fedyor Karpov was set on fire.

All the victims participated in the litigation against the city administration and owners of the development companies, Slabunova stressed.

According to YABLOKO Chair, “these facts, as well as the actual inaction demonstrated by the Moscow Region police in the investigation of these incidents, allow us to state with confidence that the case has political background. Investigation into the crimes committed against the activists are not held, the “unidentified” persons remain unidentified. The intimidation campaign against political and civil activists is a challenge to the city and the community, it is a challenge to the Moscow Region administration.”

Slabunova noted the incidents result from a situation when people incapable of political dialogue are in power”: during elections the authorities use the administrative resource, after the elections they recourse to pressure, harassment and intimidation of the dissenting.

“We lay the political responsibility for these incidents to the authorities of the city of Zhukovsky and the administration of the Moscow Region. We demand an immediate investigation into chain of crimes committed against local activists. All those involved in the arson, as well as those who have helped them to escape punishment must be brought to justice. Fraudulent allocation of plots of land in the urban part of the forests, unlawful cutting for the woods for illegal construction of real estate there must be investigated immediately. The city and the regional authorities must do everything so that to prevent violations of the law in the future,” Slabunova concluded.