The Moscow City Duma stripped Ryzhkov of his mandate from Yabloko deputy – Kommersant

Deputies of the Moscow City Duma voted to revoke the mandate of politician Vladimir Ryzhkov, who was elected to the capital’s parliament from the Yabloko party. Earlier, the politician himself sent an appeal with a request to deprive him of his parliamentary powers. The decision to deprive Mr. Ryzhkov of his mandate was made unanimously by all parliamentarians present at the meeting.

The editor of the project and the chairman of the commission on legislation, rules and procedures, Alexander Semennikov, noted during the meeting that the corresponding statement from Ryzhkov, by which he resigns his parliamentary powers “at his own request and in connection with changes in family, personal and work circumstances,” was received on 25 December 2023, reports TASS. Semennikov recalled that during the current convocation of the Moscow City Duma in 2020–2021, the parliamentary powers of communists Nikolai Gubenko and Oleg Sheremetyev were terminated early for other reasons.

Vladimir Ryzhkov in his Telegram channel called the decision to resign his parliamentary powers “forced.” “External circumstances and personal reasons, well known to everyone, have made it too difficult to exercise authority,” he noted. The politician said that he had “almost completely” fulfilled his election program and expressed gratitude to the voters who voted for him.

Mr. Ryzhkov was elected to the Moscow City Duma in 2021 in by-elections in district No. 37 (Academichesky, Gagarinsky, Lomonosovsky districts, part of the Vernadsky Avenue district) as a candidate from Yabloko. The mandate then became vacant due to the death of the first deputy chairman Nikolai Gubenko (Communist Party of the Russian Federation). Kommersant’s sources did not rule out that Mr. Ryzhkov could also receive the post of vice-speaker, but in the end it was taken by a non-factional deputy, VGTRK journalist Andrei Medvedev.

After the start of the military operation in Ukraine, Vladimir Ryzhkov left Russia. In the summer of 2022, the Yabloko faction reported that the deputy had gone on vacation to Germany and would return by the beginning of the autumn session. However, since then, at meetings of the capital’s parliament, Mr. Ryzhkov didn’t show up, each time notifying the Duma apparatus that he is absent for a good reason, because he is on a business trip. At one of the last meetings in December 2023, deputies refused to consider this reason valid.

Read about new elections to the Moscow City Duma, scheduled for September 2024, in the Kommersant article. “The deputies took a roundabout route”.

Alexander Kislov