The Moscow City Duma will deprive Yabloko leader Vladimir Ryzhkov of his powers – Kommersant

The commission for organizing the work of the Moscow City Duma submitted for consideration to the capital’s parliament a draft resolution on the termination of the powers of deputy Vladimir Ryzhkov (Yabloko faction). According to the explanatory note, Mr. Ryzhkov himself addressed the Moscow City Duma with a written application for early resignation of his mandate. The reasons are not disclosed in the document.

Vladimir Ryzhkov himself did not comment to Kommersant about this decision and added that he was resigning “for personal and work reasons.” “I worked for two and a half years. There will be new elections in a few months,” the deputy said.

Let us recall that Vladimir Ryzhkov, ex-deputy of the State Duma of the first four convocations and its former first deputy chairman (1997–1999), 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) from the Yabloko party ” 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 he took non-factional deputy journalist Andrei Medvedev.

Let us note that after the start of the special operation, Vladimir Ryzhkov left Russia. In the summer of 2022, the Yabloko faction reported that the deputy had gone on vacation to Germany and would allegedly return by the beginning of the autumn session. However, since then, Mr. Ryzhkov has not appeared at meetings of the capital’s parliament, each time notifying the Duma apparatus that he is absent for a good reason, since he is on a business trip. At one of the last meetings in December, deputies refused to consider this reason valid. Vladimir Ryzhkov’s application for termination of powers may be considered at the next meeting on January 31.

Andrey Prah