The municipal electoral Committee of St.-Petersburg at the meeting of the election Commission on Tuesday, March 28, to vote on draft decision on holding a referendum determining the future of St. Isaac’s Cathedral, informs “Fontanka.ru”.
According to the publication, the document will be approved. “Presented in the Saint-Petersburg electoral Commission application for registration of the initiative group for the referendum and the attached documents meet the requirements of Federal law and the Law of St. Petersburg”, — stated in the draft decision.
After approval by the electoral Commission the documents will be sent to the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg for approval. The final stage is to gather signatures for a referendum to vote not less than two percent of the electorate (75 thousand people).
The application for the holding of a referendum entered in the electoral Commission at the end of February. The address was passed by an initiative group consisting of 22 people, among them deputies of the legislative Assembly from the “Yabloko”, “Fair Russia” and the “party of growth”, the representatives of the St. Petersburg Union of scientists, the Russian Union of culture workers and local activists.
The residents of St. Petersburg offered to answer whether they agree, are monuments of history and culture of cathedrals needs to be assigned to state museums, with the possibility of conducting religious rites and ceremonies.
In January, the St. Petersburg authorities have agreed to transfer the St. Isaac Cathedral, the Russian Orthodox Church for free use for 49 years. Governor Georgy Poltavchenko has promised to keep the Museum function of the building. However, this decision caused the discontent of the citizens. For the first time the St. Petersburg diocese has requested the transfer of Isaac in 2015, but then they refused.