Press release, 05.09.2016

The Electoral Commission of St. Petersburg approved of YABLOKO’s motion on a referendum against the decision to name the bridge across the Duderhof canal after Akhmad Kadyrov, former Chechen President, unanimously. The motion will be referred for consideration of the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly, which will decide whether the questions proposed by the initiative group should be put to a referendum within 20 days.

The initiative group founded by the YABLOKO party appealed to the Electoral Commission of St. Petersburg to initiate a referendum against naming one of the city’s bridges after Akhmad Kadyrov, first President of the Chechen Republic, which was done by the regional government despite loud public protests. Renowned film director Alexander Sokurov, deputies of the St.Petersburg Legislative Assembly Boris Vishnevsky and Alexander Kobrinsky, YABLOKO Deputy Chair Nikolai Rybalov, Chair of St.Petersburg YABLOKO Mikhail Amosov and other politicians joined the initiative group.

“There were no referendum in St. Petersburg within the last 25 years. Today we won the first battle but the campaign is still ahead. I hope that next time we come to the Electoral Commission we will bring 72 thousand signatures of St. Petersburg residents in support of the referendum. To do so, the Legislative Assembly must approve of the question which we proposed for the referendum,” Boris Vishnevsky noted.

It was the third attempt of the initiative group to authorise a city-wide referendum concerning the decision to name the bridge across the Duderhof canal after Akhmad Kadyrov. The first two appeals were declined on formal grounds.

“Akhmad Kadyrov has nothing to do with the history or culture of St.Petersburg. Moreover, the name of Akhmad Kadyrov is associated not only with the death of thousands of Russian citizens during the Chechen war but with the totalitarian regime established in the Republic of Chechnya,” runs the party statement.