St. Petersburg municipal deputy Vitaly Bovar was deprived of his mandate

On June 6, at an extraordinary meeting, deputies of the municipal council of the Vladimir district of St. Petersburg, including representatives of United Russia, Yabloko and A Just Russia, unanimously deprived deputy and deputy head of the district Vitaly Bovar of his mandate to represent the prosecutor’s office, the politician reported in his blog. Some colleagues told him that during the meeting they were threatened with being sent “to the front.”

The reason for deprivation of powers was the alleged failure to submit an anti-corruption declaration. In fact, Bovar claims, he sent the declaration by letter with a notification of receipt - he also published a photo of the notification on his channel.

Vitaly Bovar was elected to the municipal council in 2019 from the Yabloko party. In February 2022, he signed an open letter from the MPs against the invasion of Ukraine, and after refusing to withdraw his signature, he was expelled from the party. The deputy later left Russia.

Deputy of the MS of the Vladimir district of St. Petersburg

Vitaly Bovar

1. I won’t say that this was good news - it was unpleasant in human terms. I am not close to such a masculine and technological image of politics, which brushes aside emotions. For 3.5 years I fulfilled my duties conscientiously and responsibly, to the best of my ability.

2. I do not believe that I was deprived of my mandate. Based on consultations with lawyers, for example, the public post of lawyer Pavel Shapchits on Facebook, the decision is illegal, and the excuses about the possible dissolution of the council are legally void, which means I will consider myself entitled to be called both a deputy and deputy head of the district.

3. The worst thing is that I feel Spanish shame in front of the voters and the political community (activists and observers) who elected us in 2019. Our victory then stemmed from four sources: the technological assistance of Maxim Katz, the political decision of the Yabloko party to fight for those elections, Smart Voting and the growth in the number of protest-minded citizens as a result of the work of Navalny’s team - and this is the most political community of the city. To deceive voters and all those who helped us win (Yabloko then took 12 out of 20 mandates in the district) - I don’t know what could be worse in politics. This is some kind of terrible moral corruption.

4. All this is nothing compared to the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, but the history of our district and team shows how Putinism works as a political system, how it co-opts citizens with the slightest power into its ranks and forces them to be scoundrels.

5. I will continue my work on the practical study of territorial inequality in Russia, from which, in my opinion, a significant share of the problems stems. I am grateful to those who expressed words of support and showed solidarity.