Penza, 19 December 2017. PenzaNews. The Left Front activist Marina Polubarova held a one-person protest near the Legislative Assembly of the Penza region in support of the former head of radioisotope diagnostics laboratory of the Penza oncology dispensary Anton Stolyarov, who had lost his job due to reduction.

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Movement representatives think that the dismissal was politically motivated because of the doctor's participation in the elections to the Legislative Assembly of the region as a representative of the Communist Party, and the person who could be involved in this personnel decision was the deputy chairman of the Legislative Assembly, member of the United Russia party Sergei Egorov, who was Anton Stolyarov's competitor in single-seat electoral district No. 3.

That was why Marina Polubarova was standing at the entrance to the parliament parking lot holding a banner reading: "Mr. Egorov, we are waiting for an answer! Why was the physician Stolyarov fired?"

The one-person protest began at about 8.40 before the start of the meeting of the United Russia parliamentary faction scheduled at 9.00 and finished at about 10.00 when deputies from other parties and officials arrived at the session of the Legislative Assembly of the Penza region.

In a conversation with a PenzaNews correspondent, the press secretary of the Left Front regional department Sergei Padalkin reminded that representatives of the movement had already conducted similar protests on November 24 – before the last session of the regional parliament, and later had held a direct action campaign with a coffin and wreath near the building of the regional Ministry of Health, which had caused a wide public response.

"We believe that the dismissal of Stolyarov is a political process and the region has lost such a great specialist in favour of someone's political interests. I will remind that the state has spent a lot of money on his education – he has repeatedly undergone training both in Moscow and abroad," the opposition activist explained.

He added that Anton Stolyarov was forced to go to work to another region.

"We do not have specialists of such a level, that is why we continue the campaign in his support and go on waiting for an answer from the deputy Egorov why the physician Stolyarov was actually fired and how the deputy is related to this fact if he is," the press secretary of the movement explained.