Novosibirsk Zoo named after R.A. Shilo asked to stop voting for the New Year's talisman of the city and not to take into account the results of the poll. This was reported on the zoo's website.
The zoo said it initially hoped for «sincere interest and positive attitude» to the idea of holding a vote for the city's New Year's talisman in 2023.
“Unfortunately, today we see that our animals have become participants in a farce organized by people.
The survey is used for purposes far from choosing a symbol of the festive Novosibirsk — a number of bloggers, deputies, journalists (including those who have nothing to do with our city) called on their audience to give the poll for the talisman a political coloring. The negative nature of what is happening towards the end is beyond doubt, ”summed up at the zoo.
Novosibirsk received the status of the «New Year's Capital of Russia» in 2022, after which the zoo proposed the idea of voting for the mascot. Among the candidates were Aisha's cat, Batu the orangutan, Max the Amur tiger, Sayan the snow leopard and Shilka the polar bear cub. The mayor's office interrupted the voting a day before the end.
Municipal Portal of Novosibirsk< /p>
By this time, 133 thousand people managed to vote. In the poll, Batu was in the lead with 39.39%, Sayan was in second place with 37.19%, and Shilka was in third with 11.94%. Aisha and Max received 8.53% and 2.95% of the vote respectively.
On February 4, Taiga.Info wrote that the manul Aisha initially won the talisman election, but the orangutan Batu began to gain points sharply after the broadcast of an independent deputy of the City Council, Sergei Boyko, in which he said: “Why can’t a monkey be the symbol of Novosibirsk? Here I hear criticism that monkeys do not live in the Novosibirsk region, but the fact is that polar bears do not live in the Novosibirsk region either.”
“Against the background of everything in Novosibirsk, I believe that the orangutan is absolutely the best option.
Therefore, I urge you to support the orangutan,” Boyko said.
Batu was also supported by independent city council member Igor Ukraintsev and bloggers.
“All normal guys vote for Bata. Batu is the candidate of the people. But United Russia wants to smuggle the bear cub through,”
— journalist Ilya Varlamov wrote in his Telegram channel.
Taiga.Info, without citing sources, wrote that the administration of the President of the Russian Federation began to seriously monitor the fate of the talisman.
“An urgent request was received from the apparatus of the Siberian plenipotentiary of the head of state to the mayor’s office of Novosibirsk prevent the orangutan from becoming a symbol of the New Year's capital. After that, Shilka took the lead, ”the publication reported.