Is
Modernisation in Russia Possible? Interview
with Grigory Yavlinsky and Boris Titov by Yury Pronko,
"The Real Time" programme, Radio Finam, May
12, 2010
Photo: Alexander Yefimov / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service
The Volgograd Regional Court sent for revision the administrative case of Alexander Yefimov, a Yabloko Federal Bureau member, for “participation in the activities of an undesirable organisation”. On 4 April, the court of the city of Volzhsky fined Yefimov 15,000 roubles for his interview with the Youtube channel of the Golos independent observers movement. The politician’s appeal against the court’s decision cited the lack of corpus delicti and procedural errors.
On 14 May, on the second anniversary of the death of Andrei Babushkin, an event in memory of the human rights defender, Yabloko member since 1999, Chairman of the public human rights charity organisation Committee for Civil Rights and a member of the Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights under the President of the RF, was held at Yabloko. Colleagues in human rights activities, friends and party members shared their memories of Andrei Babushkin.
Photo by Dmitry Chiginsky / Photo from social media
Dmitry Chiginsky, a member of the Bureau of the Tula branch of Yabloko, was fined under the administrative article of “discrediting the army” for writing about the need to conclude a ceasefire agreement on a ballot paper. The Tula district court fined Chiginsky 45,000 roubles for publishing a photo of the ballot on his Vkontakte page. Dmitry Chiginsky, a member of Yabloko and an active participant in the elections in Tula, needs help paying a fine. Yabloko announces a fundraising.
Photo from left to right: Nikolai Ivlyushkin, Alexander Daniel, Svetlana Gannushkina, Valery Borshchyov, Vyacheslav Bakhmin, Vyacheslav Igrunov, Alexei Smirnov, and Alexander Podrabinek / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service
On 12 May, a round table with the participation of Soviet dissidents was held at the Yabloko central office in Moscow. The participants talked about the history of the dissident movement, its political and moral aspects, as well as the protection of human rights in modern Russia. Valery Borshchyov, Co-Chairman of the Moscow Helsinki Group and a member of the Federal Political Committee of the Yabloko party, Svetlana Gannushkina, Chair of the Civil Assistance Committee and a member of the Federal Political Committee of Yabloko, Alexander Daniel, human rights defender and writer, Vyacheslav Igrunov, MP of three convocations of the State Duma from Yabloko, Vyacheslav Bakhmin, Co-Chairman of the Moscow Helsinki Group, Alexander Podrabinek, human rights defender and journalist, Soviet political prisoners Alexei Smirnov and Nikolai Ivlyushkin participated in the discussion. Tatyana Kasatkina, the wife of imprisoned Chair of the Board of the Memorial human rights centre Oleg Orlov, as well as other participants and witnesses of the Soviet dissident movement were among the guests of the event.
Photo: The Moscow City Duma / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service
Such decision was made by the Moscow Yabloko Bureau in early May. A headquarters has been created to work during elections. The work of the headquarters will be coordinated by Maxim Kruglov, the head of the Yabloko faction in the Moscow City Duma, Kirill Goncharov, a Deputy Chairman of the Moscow Yabloko, and Maria Chuprina, the Chair of one of the local branches of the Moscow Yabloko. The decision to nominate candidates will be made at the Moscow Yabloko conference in June.
On 9 May, the leaders and members of the Yabloko party honoured the memory of those killed in the Second World War at the Preobrazhenskoye cemetery in Moscow, where more than 10,000 soldiers and commanders of the Red Army are buried. The delegation laid flowers and a wreath at the War Memorial.
On 8 May, on the eve of Victory Day, the day of the victory over the Nazi Germany in 1945, members of the St. Petersburg Yabloko laid a wreath and flowers at the Motherland monument at the Piskarevskoye memorial cemetery.
The State Duma has approved amendments stipulating that elected deputies included in the foreign agents register by decision of the Ministry of Justice will be deprived of their deputy mandate.
The regional branch of the Yabloko party, on the basis of moral principles and principles of humanity, opposes the killing of captured stray dogs as a way to solve the problem of animals without owners.
In April, a survey was conducted on the government services portal “On the need to introduce additional measures into regional legislation to solve the problem of animals without owners in the Novosibirsk region”. One of the possible survey answers proposed to kill captured stray dogs if “the dog has not found a new owner within one month”.
On 23 May, the Yabloko Party University will host a lecture “The Institute of Asylum in Russia. How Can We Help Refugees?” the lecturer is Svetlana Gannushkina, a member of the Federal Political Committee of Yabloko, Chairman of the Civic Assistance Committee, a member of the Memorial group, and a member of the Expert Council under the Commissioner for Human Rights.
On 14 May, an event in memory of human rights defender Andrei Babushkin will be held at the central office of the Yabloko party in Moscow. Andrei Babushkin, a human rights defender, member of the Presidential Council for Human Rights and a member of the Yabloko Federal Bureau, passed away on 14 May, 2022.
Photo: Boris Vishnevsky / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service
The St.Petersburg branch of Yabloko regards the initiation of an administrative case under Article 20.33 of the Code of Administrative Offences against Boris Vishnevsky, Deputy Chairman of the Yabloko party and deputy of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg, for his online interview with participants in the election observation movement Golos, as another example of pressure on political opponents of the authorities .
The Moscow office of Yabloko hosted the final screening of the film “The Eternal Road” (2017) by the Finnish director Antti-Jussi Annila, the screening was held within the framework of the Another Look film festival. Participants watched the feature film based on the real fate of Finns who emigrated to the USSR from America and were expelled from Finland after the victory of the “whites” in the civil war of 1918. The discussion of the film was attended by the Ambassador of Finland to Russia Antti Helanterä, the Chairman of Yabloko Nikolai Rybakov, experts in the field of history and cinematography from Finland, as well as members and supporters of the Yabloko party.
The Oktyabrsky District Court held the first hearing on Yabloko’s claim on non-admission of Yabloko representatives from joining the city’s electoral commissions. The interests of the party were represented by lawyer Alexander Kobrinsky.
Photo: Maxim Kruglov / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service
Amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code have been submitted to the State Duma for consideration, according to these amendemnts investigators and interrogators will be able to access the telephone calls of all citizens, bank accounts and transactions based on a simple request, without the sanction of a judge. Maxim Kruglov, the head of the Yabloko faction in the Moscow City Duma and Deputy Chairman of the Yabloko party, sent a request to the Minister of Internal Affairs Vladimir Kolokoltsev, asking to explain the need to introduce unconstitutional methods of collecting information into the Criminal Procedure Code and to list measures restraining security forces.
The 26 of April is Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Chernobyl Tragedy and Other Radiation Disasters
Statement by the Yabloko party, 26.04.2024
Photo by istockphoto.com
Due to the explosion of the RBMK-1000 reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant 38 years ago, hundreds of thousands of square kilometers of the former Soviet Union and other countries were contaminated with hazardous materials. As a result, people had to be completely relocated from a significant number of settlements. Millions of people were exposed to radiation. The affected areas have not yet been properly rehabilitated. We also have to note that there are 7 RBMK-1000 power units with an extended service life in Russia today.
Photo: Nikolai Yegorov with his family / Photo from the personal archive
The judge of the Veliky Ustyug District Court of the Vologda Region made a decision on 25 April. Nikolai Yegorov, former deputy of the Vologda Legislative Assembly, father of six children and Chairman of the regional branch of the Yabloko party, will have to pay the state 200,000 roubles.
It should be noted that Nikolai Yegorov was found guilty of “discrediting the army” (Article 280.3 Part 1 of the Criminal Code) for posts on social networks. On 3 May, 2023, a group of police officers (12 people) detained Yegorov near his country house and then took him to his apartment for a search. Investigative actions also took place in the apartment of Yegorov’s daughter. On 5 May, 2023, a search took place in the office at Yegorov’s place of work. Equipment and data storage devices were confiscated from Yegorov. His family and he himself was under a ban on certain actions for almost a year while the investigation was going on.
Photo: Boris Vishnevsky and Alexander Shishlov/ Photo by the Yabloko Press Service
Deputies of the Yabloko faction in the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly published their income declarations for 2023. Alexander Shishlov and Boris Vishnevsky insist on the openness of people’s representatives, and therefore do not take advantage of the possibility to report anonymously envisaged by the recent law.
Photo: Boris Vishnevsky / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service
Boris Vishnevsky, deputy of the Legislative Assembly of St.Petersburg and Deputy Chairman of the Yabloko party, sent two administrative claims to the court challenging the decision of the Ministry of Justice to include him in the register of “foreign agents.”
Photo: Crocus City Hall after a fire as a result of the terrorist attack on 22 March, 2024 / Photo by Dmitry Lebedev, Kommersant
The head of the Yabloko faction in the Moscow City Duma, Maxim Kruglov, received a response from the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Russian Federation about the reasons for the mass death of people due to a fire as a result of the terrorist attack in Crocus City Hall on 22 March, 2024. The ministry reports that investigative actions are currently underway, including on the issues of putting the facility into operation, its functioning, finishing of the premises and the operability of all fire protection systems. In addition, the Ministry of Emergency Situations reported that it had supported amendments to legislative acts related to improving the activities of the federal state fire supervision. The bill was introduced to the State Duma after the tragedy in the Zimnyaya Vishnya shopping mall in Kemerovo in March 2018. Then the fire claimed the lives of 64 people. At the same time, it follows from the response of the Ministry of Emergency Situations that the bill introducing the definition of “a facility with a large number of people” and stipulating that state construction supervision at these facilities should be carried out with the participation of specialists from fire supervision authorities, has not yet been adopted. According to the information system of the State Duma web-site, the amendments to the legislation “stuck” at the second reading stage.
