Press Release, 29.07.2021.

Photo by Igor Ivanko/ Kommersant

The Yabloko party refused to sign an agreement proposed by the pro-government United Russia party on holding elections amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The reason is the fourth paragraph of the document, which provides for the refusal of the political parties participating in the parliamentary elections to discuss the actions of the authorities in combatting the pandemic.

Yabloko party Chairman Nikolai Rybakov said that Yabloko would not keep silent about the government’s mistakes in combatting the pandemic. “We think it is absolutely necessary to discuss this vital issue during the election campaign, [this problem] has already cost our country nearly 300,000 lives of Russia’s citizens.

We will raise the question of a disruptive “optimization” of healthcare that has reduced the number of hospitals and hospital beds. We will discuss the issue of long-term budget savings on healthcare at a continuous rise of the military expenditure and the write-off of huge debts to other countries,” Rybakov stressed.

“We intend to demand introduction of days-off, when it is necessary for saving thousands of people, and a much more substantial aid to the citizens and the economy of the country. The National Welfare Fund has grown by 6 trillion roubles in a year, and part of this money should be directed to help workers and entrepreneurs in order to save jobs and protect people from rising poverty,” the Yabloko party Chairman said.

Yabloko believes that Russian citizens have the right to know which of the political parties refused to discuss all these issues during the campaign, so that they could give their assessment to such political parties at the elections in September, as well as to the work of the President, the government and the parliament during the pandemic.

It should be noted that to date, the agreement to remain silent about the pandemic has been signed by United Russia, the LDPR party, New People, Rodina, The Greens and the Civil Platform.

Earlier, the leader of Yabloko called on President Putin to introduce a lockdown with compensation for losses for business from the National Welfare Fund in order to extinguish the third wave of the coronavirus epidemic.