Press Release, 26.04.2018

n 26 April, turns 33 years since one of the largest disasters in the history of the nuclear industry – the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. About 400 million people worldwide were exposed to radiation. According to experts, up to 830,000 people were directly or indirectly involved in liquidation of the consequences of the accident. Now, 33 years later, about 5 million people live in infected areas. On this day, the Green Russia Faction of the Yabloko party holds its annual all-Russia action in memory of the Chernobyl tragedy.

In Moscow, Yabloko activists held a picket in front of the Russian Federal Atomic Energy Agency (Rosatom). Sergei Mitrokhoin, Yabloko’s Federal Political Committee member, and Galina Mikhaleva, Chair of Yabloko’s Gender Faction, participated in the action.

In Rostov-on-Don, the participants of the picket, in addition to the danger of a peaceful atom, touched upon urgent issues of the Rostov region: cutting of a forest and the attempts to build a waste recycling plant almost within the city.

In Kostroma, members of the Green Faction of the Yabloko party,  environmentalists and public activists gathered to commemorate the victims of the Chernobyl disaster near the central city fountain by the Regional Duma. More than 4,000 Kostroma citizens participated in the liquidation of the consequences of the disaster, half of them died. In addition, on 21 April, members of the Green Russia faction held a round table in Kostroma with representatives of the Harmony Women’s Club.

In Chelyabinsk Yabloko held a picket in the Andrievsky park. The participants of the action were folding origami paper cranes, symbolising a world without nuclear weapons and dangerous nuclear technologies. These paper cranes will be sent to the President of Russia with a demand to take into account the opinion of residents of the Chelyabinsk Region.

The Volgograd branch of Yabloko held an action under the slogans “Radiation or Life?”, “Plant a Forest Instead of a Nuclear Power Plant!”, “Remember?! Will Not Repeat?!” The action took place in Krasnoarmeysky and Kirovsky districts of the city. Students of schools also participated in the action.

In Novosibirsk a picket of memory of Chernobyl took place on 27 April. On 26 April, Novosibirsk Yabloko party members laid flowers in the Narym Garden.

Members of the Tambov regional branch of the Yabloko party held one-person pickets at the monument to victims of nuclear disasters.

On 26 April, a series of one-person pickets with a banner “For clean air in Sibay, Ufa and Bashkiria” took place in Ufa. Pickets were held along the streets Komsomolskaya, Bessonova and along Prospekt Oktyabrya. Then Yabloko activists they laid flowers at the foundation stone in Prospekt Oktyabrya.

A series of one-person pickets in memory of the tragedy in Chernobyl took place in Arkhangelsk on 26 April. In addition, members of the Arkhangelsk Yabloko attended a meeting with a nuclear physicist Andrei Ozharovsky and discussed the problems of radiation safety.

In Krasnodar, a picket was held at the memorial to Chernobyl victims of Kuban. The Krasnodar activists of the party laid flowers at the general commemorative action of the liquidators of the Chernobyl accident, and also held a picket, during which they distributed leaflets with information about the alternative to nuclear power plants – the green energy.

In Stavropol, members of the regional branch of the party laid flowers at the city’s monument to the victims of the Chernobyl disaster.

In Voronezh, members of the regional branch of the party laid flowers at the monument located in the Alley of Memory of Voronezh participants in the liquidation of the consequences of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

In Astrakhan, a memorable picket was held at the monument to the heroes of Chernobyl in the Avenue of Chernobyl victims.

In addition, on 26 April, Yabloko also organised commemorative events in Vologda, Karelia, the Moscow Region, St. Petersburg, and Tver.