On May 26, the Russian Entrepreneur’s Day, YABLOKO will conduct a rally in protection of small business. The part has already applied for a permission for the action to the Moscow Mayor’s Office.

Entrepreneurs from Moscow, Samara and Tver will participate in the action.

Preliminary it is planned that the rally should take place in the centre of Moscow in Novopushkinskiy Garden.

The time of the rally will be announced after getting a permission from the Moscow authorities.

YABLOKO has been conducting a rally in protection of small business on May 26 for several years already.

Press Release, the ALDE party, May 13, 2013

Reacting to the results of the snap parliamentary elections in Bulgaria held on Sunday 12 May, ALDE Party President Sir Graham Watson MEP today said: “with the lowest turnout in the history of parliamentary elections in Bulgaria, yesterday was a dark day for democracy and a repudiation of the EPP-aligned government led by Boyko Borisov. The conduct of the election also gives cause for concern.”

“It is worrying that the election was marred by several reports of irregularities, vote-buying and controlled voting. The discovery by police of 350,000 ballot papers printed by a company belonging to a GERB councillor raises important questions. The next government must undertake serious efforts to defeat fraud and regain the voters’ trust in democracy.”

“European Liberal Democrats congratulate ALDE member party Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) on their performance in the election and their efforts during the campaign. Negotiations for a government coalition must take their result into account.”

LI President, Hans van Baalen MEP, has written to leader of the Progressive Party of Iceland (LI Full Member), Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson, to congratulate him on his party’s success in the recent parliamentary elections. Iceland’s President, Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, invited Mr Gunnlaugsson, who has been made Prime Minister-elect, to form a government following parliamentary elections in which the Progressive Party made the biggest gains in electoral support; more than doubling their number of seats from 9-19. The Progressive Party has experience of coalition politics and as the Prime Minister-elect, Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson, entered into Coalition talks, he said: “I feel good about this. There are of course many and big issues to discuss so this will take some time, but it’s right to be optimistic, in the beginning at least”. The Liberal’s return to government comes as the Socialist Party they replaced were unable to solve Iceland’s national concerns, resulting in voters punishing the Socialists for imposing tough austerity measures and failing to tackle high levels of household debt.

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LI Secretary General Moderates Europe Day Debate in Maastricht
Thailand’s Liberals Condemn Minister’s Censorship Proposal
Special FDP Congress Convenes in Nurnberg
RELIAL Calls on Venezuelan Government to Protect Human Rights
Young African Liberals Convene at South African Congress

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On the eve of the Victory Day of May 9, activists and leaders
of the YABLOKO party paid tribute to the soldiers and victims
of the Second World War laying a wreath and flowers at the
Eternal Flame at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier by the Kremlin
wall in Moscow.

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Press Release, the ALDE Group, European Parliament, May 7, 2013

The European Parliament’s Civil Liberties Committee discussed today for the first time the report on the situation of fundamental rights: standards and practices in Hungary. The need for this report arose from a series of controversial amendments introduced by the country’s ruling party to the media law, the legal order and the national Constitution which go against the values of the European Union…

EP report on Hungary confirms a clear risk of a serious breach of EU values

Seminar “The Future of EU-Russian Relations – The Liberal Viewpoint”. Helsinki, April 29, 2013

Keynote speech by Grigory Yavlinsky “Russia in Ten Years”

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A traditional May Day Democratic Manifestation was held
along Nevsky Prospekt and ended with a rally at Konnyushennaya
Square. This year the main slogan of the manifestation was
“For Russia Free from Political Reprisals and Religious
Obscurantism!”

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Press Release, the ALDE party, May 1, 2013

The Future of EU-Russian Relations – The Liberal Viewpoint” seminar was held in Helsinki, Finland on the 29th of April and gathered over 200 people in the audience. The hosts of the seminar were the Swedish People’s Party in Finland (SFP) and the Swedish International Liberal Center (SILC) and it was arranged in cooperation with Russian ALDE member party Yabloko and Svenska Bildningsförbundet.

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Seminar “The Future of EU-Russian Relations – The Liberal Viewpoint”. Helsinki, April 29, 2013

Keynote speech by Grigory Yavlinsky “Russia in Ten Years”

Liberal International 190th Executive. Published on April 26, 2013

…But I should note that the reaction of Vladimir Putin’s regime to the mass protests was not only intensification of reprisals. Putin responded to the challenge with a specific state ideology based on aggressive clericalism and complete denial of the liberal values. This is a significant difference from the policies of ex President Medvedev who often appealed to the liberal values.
Orthodoxy has been exploited by the regime in a very specific way. The emphasis is laid on its contraposition to the Western values and way of life. This “sacred resource” provides the authorities an ideological basis for criticism of the human rights concept, as well as political systems based on respect for civil liberties…
…New evidence of the growth of aggressive clericalism has been emerging every day. The Russian parliament adopted a law envisaging five years of imprisonment for the injury of religious beliefs and feelings. However, the law protects only “traditional confessions” and Russian
Orthodoxy in the first place. It is obvious that opponents of clericalisation of the state will become the first victims of this vague norm based on subjective estimates…

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Yesterday, representatives of democratic parties and organisations gathered for their second meeting in one of Moscow clubs to discuss nomination of a single list in the Moscow City Duma elections.

Representatives of from the YABLOKO party and YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin, RPR-Parnas (Vladimir Ryzhkov), Democratic Choice (Vladimir Milov), the Civil Initiative (Nikolai Alekseyev), the Solidarity (Michael Schneider) and the Coordinating Council of the opposition (Gennady Gudkov) participated in the meeting. This time new participants joined the meeting: representatives of the The Party of December 5 (Denis Bilunov and Sergei Davidis), the Civil Initiative, the Civil Federation movement and The White Ribbon joined the consultations.

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On April 22, the Vladikavkaz Court declared unlawful the refusal of the Ministry of Justice Department in North Ossetia-Alania Republic to register the regional branch of the YABLOKO party in the Republic.

“The refusal of the Ministry of Justice Department in North Ossetia-Alania Republic to register the regional branch of the YABLOKO party should be recognised unlawful and cancelled,” runs the decisions of the court.

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