The Communist Party of the Russian Federation has collected the required number of signatures in support of holding a referendum on returning the monument to the head of the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission Felix Dzerzhinsky to Lubyanka Square. According to State Duma deputy Valery Rashkin, "we managed to collect at least 150 thousand signatures with 146 thousand required." "We are currently checking them to make sure they are valid (to exclude defective signatures - TASS note)," he added. The documents were then sent to the Moscow City Electoral Commission, which registered the initiative group. The main condition for holding the referendum was collecting signatures from 146 people in 315 days. First of all, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation planned to put two more questions to the referendum: on closing clinics and merging schools and kindergartens, but these questions were recognized by the Moscow City Duma as not complying with the law.
Chairman of the Yabloko party Sergei Mitrokhin indicated that first these signatures need to be verified (by the election commission). "But 146 signatures are guaranteed," he emphasized.
As reported by the PR service of the Communists, the leader of the CPRF Gennady Zyuganov instructed the Moscow headquarters of the party, which is dealing with issues of holding a referendum in the capital of the Russian Federation, "to work out a scheme in which it would be entirely possible to hold a citywide referendum (official or popular) on all three tasks initiated by the CPRF: healthcare reform, education, and restoration of the monument." The height of the bronze sculpture is 5,75 m, weight - 11 tons.
