Penza, 23 February 2016. PenzaNews. Approximately 40 people took part in the LDPR public rally held by the former Penza film theater “Rodina” on Tuesday, February 23, under the motto “For Russian World! For Russian Troops!” This is 8 times less than a year ago, when the previous public rally on the same date had gathered over 300 people.

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The members and supporters of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia were holding the yellow-on-blue banners reading: “LDPR For Strong Russia,” “LDPR – Peace And Order In World,” “LDPR: Foes Will Be Defeated,” and “LDPR – 30 Years Guarding the Fatherland.”

Some of them were also holding black-on-white paper banners: “We Don’t Want To Be Settlers On New Land,” “Demolishing Strong Houses Is Crime, While Truly Dilapidated Pose Threat to People,” “By Resettling Us To Zarya, City Authorities Violate Our Constitutional Rights,” “We Want To Live In Our Resid Area,” and “City Center For Rich And Successful, Poor And Old Out Of The City.”

In a welcoming word to the crowd, Alexander Vasilyev, coordinator of the Penza regional LDPR branch, concentrated on the foreign policy, and pointed out that “the aggressors keep surrounding Russia.”

“We are seeing the situation in Syria and Ukraine alike. All Western forces seek to sow chaos in our country, in Russia, but our army is strong, and we will not let them do that. Our defenders have always protected our country, and will not let them conquer it,” he said.

According to Alexander Vasilyev, not only military personnel can be called defenders of the Fatherland.

“These are also all of us – the people who live in this country. The regular citizens, the police officers, all officials who are working for the good of our country,” added the coordinator of the LDPR regional branch.

Moving on to the acute issues of Penza citizens, he directed the attention to the people involved in the program of resettlement from dilapidated buildings, who are invited to be moved to the Zarya residential area which is still not comfortable for habitation.

“They are trying to resettle them from nearly the city center to somewhere on the outskirts of our city. The people are fighting for themselves, go to the city hall, meet the officials, and the most recent reply to them was: ‘Yes, we know this problem, yes, we are discussing it.’ But nobody proposes any solutions,” Alexander Vasilyev stressed.

According to him, the LDPR is trying to help the resettlers; however, he did not clarify the ways the party intends to achieve a positive outcome.

In conclusion of the public rally, all protesters received souvenirs from the LDPR and sung the anthem of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia.

The State Duma deputy for the LDPR Anton Ischenko, who, based on the abstract published on the website of the regional party branch, would have been the planned guest of the event, did not appear at all.

In total, the public rally lasted for about 20 minutes.