“To prevent growth of prices on bread,
cereals and some other basic food-stuffs it is necessary
to urgently create grain exchanges, where only grain and
grain products producers will get the right to register,”
such a statement was made by YABLOKO’s leader Sergei
Mitrokhin to journalists earlier today. “This will
prevent boosting of prices by a chain of intermediaries,
speculators and one-day firms, that have been parasiting
on the agrarian sector,” Mitrokhin noted. According
to YABLOKO’s leader, creation of grain exchanges will
not involve any expenditures from the federal budget, as
“trades can take place at electronic trading platforms
organised by the Federal Anti-Monopoly Agency”.
“Also today the state has a possibility to restrain
price growth by means of grain interventions from the Grain
Fund reserves, whereas part of these reserves can be sold
via exchanges.” “Application of these two methods
will lead to reduction of the growth of prices on agricultural
products in a very short term,” Mitrokhin said...
Such a proposal YABLOKO’s leader Sergei
Mitrokhin put forward at the European Forum Alpbach. The
European Forum Alpbach is a kind of analogue of the World
Economic Forum in Davos, however, Alpbach focuses on the
problems of European integration.
According to Sergei Mitrokhin, the first
step in the way of Russia’s integration should be
raising of the role of the Council of Europe and new principles
of PACE formation. “The Council of Europe should become
an instrument for involving Russia into the system of European
values, European standards in politics, economy, protection
of human rights and environment,” Sergei Mitrokhin
said. YABLOKO’s leader proposed to European politicians
to make CE more influential via direct elections to PACE
with mandatory control over elections in the member states
by the Council of Europe. Mitrokhin is also certain that
this would be also important for Russia and its movement
along democratic way of development.
Debating with RF Ambassador in the EU Vladimir Chizov YABLOKO’s
leader raised an issue of development of a common EU strategy
towards Russia. According to Sergei Mitrokhin, “this
should be a consistent EU strategy towards Russia based
on integration rather than confrontation”...
The Chelyabinsk branch of YABLOKO submitted
15,000 voters’ signatures for registration in election
campaign to the legislative assembly of the Chelyabinsk
region. The Electoral Commission will have to adopt a decision
on registration of the party in the elections within 10
days.
In this campaign YABLOKO plans to focus
on the environment, which is one of the most acute problems
in the Southern Urals. YABLOKO’s list is topped by
a well-known ecologist Natalya Mironova. The second slogan
of the campaign is “Politics is Women’s Business!”
This human rights issue is led by human rights Activist
Farima Kobzhasarova...
This summer Byvalino village, Moscow region,
was severely damaged by fire. All the buildings by Saint
Martyr Nikita Temple burnt down: children’s school
by the temple, canteen, archive, sewing shops and prior’s
cell. YABLOKO collected money for
aid for the victims of fires throughout August. It was decided
that part of these funds should go on the purchase of sporting
clothes and school supplies for the sunday school, which
lost virtually everything during fire: pupils’ private
belongings, school supplies, toys and books...
After the rising of tension in the Moldovan
four-party ruling Alliance for European Integration (AIE)
coalition, Moldova's Acting President Mihai Ghimpu of the
Liberal Party (LI Observer Member pending Congress confirmation)
said that it must put an end to infighting if it wants to
win the upcoming parliamentary elections. In an interview,
President Ghimpu said the alliance had a duty to continue
the reforms it set upon: “The AIE [is] responsible
not only to its voters, but also to the European Union,
which [has] helped [the AIE] to govern.” His remarks
came after Prime Minister Vlad Filat of coalition partner
the Liberal Democratic Party announced that he might run
for President, thereby violating a former coalition agreement.
The government coalition, which also holds LI Observer Member
Alliance Moldova Noastra, is looking forward to complete
a set of important constitutional reforms before the next
elections including a reform of the electoral system. The
coalition faces fierce opposition from the Communist Party
of Moldova, which is the biggest party in the Moldovan Parliament...
The Russian United Democratic Party YABLOKO expresses its
categorical protest in connection with a court’s sentence
to renowned human rights activist Lev Ponomaryov. This sentence
is another example demonstrating the use of force when citizens
try to realise their constitutional rights. Grave violations
of the law and the use of force in detentions and fraudulent
evidence in trials have become an everyday practice for
the interior. The courts acting in Stalin’s style are guided
by the idea that the law enforcement are always right and
protesting or dissenting citizens are necessarily criminals.
“The YABLOKO party welcomes the decision by President Medvedev
to suspend works in the Khimki Forest. We hope that the
route of the new highway Moscow – St.Petersburg will be
revised,” said YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin.
Mitrokhin also noted that YABLOKO has been fighting against
the present project of the highway envisaging cutting of
a substantial part of the Khimki Forest for three years
already, since this project emerged.
The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for
Europe deeply regrets that several European governments
have brazenly stigmatised the Roma community over these
past summer months. "The exiling of German-born Roma
children to Kosovo, the military-style dismantling of Roma
camps in France, the massive expulsions, and the encouragements
of an Italian minister to carry out openly xenophobe policies,
are sad events for the European Union whose values have
been ridiculed", deplores Guy VERHOFSTADT, president
of the group who requests a declaration from the Council
and the Commission on the Roma situation in Europe for the
next Strasbourg plenary. "The Parliament must remind
Europe of our principles and the Commission must assure
that the rights of minorities are respected", added
M. Verhofstadt ...
YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin and Executive
Secretary of YABLOKO’s Political Committee Galina Mikhalyova
handed to representative of the Embassy Kirsch York YABLOKO’s
address to the German government calling to abrogate the
decision of exporting German nuclear waste into Russia...
Moscow, 23 August: According to human rights
campaigners, the murder of Natalya Estimirova, an activist
of Memorial (human rights centre), is not being investigated.
"The investigation is not moving. It
has stagnated," Svetlana Gannushkina, head of the Citizens'
Assistance committee and a member of the council of the
Memorial human rights centre, told Interfax on Monday (23
August)...
Criminal proceedings on a libel case (Ed.
In Russia persecutions on a libel case may be launched both
in the civil and the criminal proceedings) were launched
against YABLOKO’s deputy of the Tula City Duma Vladimir
Timakov for his alleged libel against Governor of the Tula
Region Vyachslav Dudka. Timakov faces up to three years
of imprisonment in accordance with Article 129 of the Criminal
Code.
Vladimir Timakov was the only politician
in the region who dared to criticize the Governor. According
to Timakov, mechanisms of civil and political control over
the executive branch have been completely dismantled in
the region for the past five years, which facilitates corruption.
Timakov holds the Governor responsible for record high corruption
in the region...
On 18 August, in a speech to mark the milestone
date of the first 100 days of the coalition government in
office, UK Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, leader of LI
full Member Liberal Democrats, declared himself 'really
proud' of the government's achievements as he insisted that
the coalition was committed to long-term decision-making
“that will promote a better future, a more prosperous
economy and a fairer society.” Mr. Clegg further hailed
progress on the economy, civil liberties, political reform
and changing the shape of public services by saying that
the government was 'about much more than cuts' as he set
out his vision for a fairer society. 'I am really proud
of the achievements so far, from civil liberties, to political
reform, to steps to reshaping our public services. And of
course, our first budget, which set out our plans to repair
the public finances...Our critics characterise us as being
solely defined by our public spending cuts. So let me be
clear: tackling the deficit is our immediate priority, but
is it not our be-all and end-all. This Government is about
much more than cuts” Clegg continued...
On August 17 the Electoral Commission of
the Chelyabinsk Region validated YABLOKO's list of candidates
for elections to the regional Legislative Assembly. YABLOKO
will have to collect 15,000 to confirm its rights to participate
in the October elections. YABLOKO’s list in the part
of regional elections is topped by two renowned women: Natalya
Mitronova, Chair of the Southern Urals Movement For Nuclear
Safety and Fatima Kobzhasarova, Chair of the Chelyabisnk
City Women’s Movement Fatima...
The Russian United Democratic Party YABLOKO
considers Sergei Makhnatkin (Ed. A passer-by arrested during
breaking of a peaceful protest action in the centre of Moscow
on December 31, 2010, who tried to protect a woman from
violence by the police and sentenced to two years of imprisonment
under a pretext of using violence against police) unfairly
and unjustly convicted.
Police officers have been systematically
demonstrating their extremely low qualification in dealing
with unauthorized peaceful public actions, their inability
to solve tasks without violence bordering on cruelty against
women, elderly citizens and passers-by...
..."In this campaign I am protecting
my team mates. This is a principled position, and we had
enough grounds for adopting of such a decision. The YABLOKO
party guarantees to all the members of the team, candidates
in elections in the Sebezhsky District its political and
legal protection. If needed all the forces of the party,
including applications to regional and federal law enforcement
bodies will be involved for such a defence,” Schlosberg
said. He also added that pressure on elections commissions
is inadmissible and unlawful, and Russian law envisages
criminal persecution for such actions"...
YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin
demanded from Public Prosecutor to file a criminal case
against Alexander Semchenko, head of the Teplotekhnik company
felling trees in Khimki Forest. In his interview to Komsomolskaya
Pravda paper Semchenko told that he had organised an attack
of football fans on the defenders of the forest.
Semchenko also admitted that he had employed
a group of persons for provocations against ecologists and
other citizens...
By Marietje Schaake. Special for
YABLOKO's web-site, August 14, 2010.
Yabloko's noble fight for freedom and democracy
is something the Dutch party D66 can strongly relate to.
Although the point of departure was different when our party
was founded in 1966, democracy is always a work in progress
and D66 has always been committed to holding Dutch democracy
to the highest possible standard.
In the 1960s, Dutch politics were heavily
dominated by the four 'pillars' that made up our society
at the time: the socialist labourers, the Catholics, the
Protestants and the liberal 'bourgeoisie'. The Dutch people
were blindly loyal to the political parties at the top of
their pillars, which resulted in a stale political landscape
where all the real decisions were made by party elites negotiating
amongst each other...
The YABLOKO Party has repeatedly drawn attention
to the unacceptable negligence by the Russian authorities
to ensuring of environmental safety of the population. Today
we once again are drawing the attention of the authorities
and the citizens to the danger of possible additional radiation
exposure caused by the pyrogenic spread of radionuclides.
Forest fires in Russia have already reached the Bryansk
forests contaminated by Chernobyl’s fallout, and the
forests around the city of Ozersk in the Chelyabinsk region
polluted by the plutonium productions...
The biggest story in Russia today is the
battle to tame a national outbreak of wildfires. The flames
have consumed nearly 2 million acres of forests, farms and
villages in their path. More than 4,000 people have lost
their homes. A dense blanket of smoke and pollution has
settled over Moscow; hundreds are pouring into hospitals
because of illnesses triggered by the suffocating smog.
Russian media are focusing on government
efforts to extinguish the fires, showcasing President Dmitry
Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's promises to
hold local officials accountable for not preventing the
devastation. What the media are not reporting is the Kremlin's
insistence, even as these fires rage, that a centuries-old
oak forest on the outskirts of Moscow be cut down.
If you know about the destruction of Khimki
Forest, it is only because you have heard the voice of Yevgenia
Chirikova, the 33-year-old mother of two who unexpectedly
has become one of Russia's fiercest environmental activists...
In a speech on Wednesday, British Secretary
of State for Energy and Climate Change Chris Huhne, of LI
Full Member the Liberal Democrats, lashed out at the Labour
party for leaving the United Kingdom in a financial state
close to bankruptcy. The speech came in an effort to justify
the coalition government's spending cuts in order to overcome
the United Kingdom's biggest budget deficit in peacetime
history. Mr. Huhne said: “In just two financial years
up to the election, public spending rose by 10 percent in
real terms. [..] The truth is Gordon Brown tried to buy
the election. Labour's big spender went on a hell of a bender.
It was goodbye prudence and hello hangover”...
YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin
demands from Minister of Extraordinary Situations Sergei
Shoigu and President of the Republic of Mordovia Nikolai
Merkushkin to adopt urgent measures for evacuation of the
prisoners from the Potma prison camp encircled by forest
fires. At present Mitrokhin is preparing
an application to the Public Prosecutor demanding to conduct
an audit on liquidation of the Potma-Barashyevo railroad
which connected over 20 camps, and basing on the results
of the audit to file a criminal case against the heads of
the Federal Service for Execution of Punishment. Due to
dismantling of the railroad 15,000 prisoners can die in
fires...
YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin
called Governor of the Nizhni Novgorod Region Vlary Shantsev
to take urgent measures for restoration of the regional
web-site The Virtual Wyksa www.wyksa.ru which had been the
only source of information for the population on terrible
fires in the Wyksunsky District of the region. From August
5 on the threashold of Shantsev’s inauguration the
web-site had been confronting continuous DDoS-attack, and,
consequently, ceased to function. “Such
‘killing’ of the web-site helping to eliminate
fires means killing of people,” runs Mitrokhin’s
letter to the Governor. According to Mitrokhin, if Governor’s
facilitation in restoring of the web-site, will mean not
only a very step in fighting the fires, but will also clear
the Administration off the suspicions in involvement in
the hackers’ attack...
Women topped YABLOKO’s list of candidates
for elections to the Legislative Assembly of the Chelyabinsk
region scheduled on October 10. Such a decision was adopted
by the regional conference of the party which took place
on August 7...The conference also nominated Oleg Mukharlamov
YABLOKO’s candidate to the post of the head of Bredinskly
District of the Chelyabinsk Region...
The memory of the dozens of thousands people
killed by the nuclear tornado in those August days of 1945
calls for our increased efforts so that to achieve as soon
as possible complete prohibition of all forms of weapons
of mass destruction.
The end of the Cold War and fabulous material
and human resources wasted by the mankind for a dangerous
confrontation set a new challenge for the world: finding
other methods and techniques for provision of national security
that would not involve elimination of people.
In the 21st century the global security,
including national security systems of the states of the
globe, represents above all the need to address common human
and global problems of climate change, chemical and biological
pollution and other negative effects of modern civilisation...
...The arrest and trial adds another incident
to the long list of controversial Russian government obstruction
of the YABLOKO party's political activities. “Spending
this day in Khimki I saw the functioning of the judicial-police-prosecution
mafia which have kept the whole district in their tentacles”,
Mitrokhin said. “The police are lying, but the courts
believe these lies and public prosecutors cover all these
police actions,” he added referring to the court case.
Leader of the Movement in Protection of
the Khimki Forest Yevgenia Chirikova, her aid Yaroslav Nikienko
and YABLOKO’s activist and defender of Chirikova Artur
Grokhovsky have been just detained when leaving the Khimki
police department where Chirikova has been interrogated
and are being taken to court. According to Grokhovsky, the
court of the first instance will hear the case of disobeying
the police when police was dispersing the activists from
ecologists’ camp on July 28. Then police accused ecologists
of burning fires. The detained were escorted to the local
police department where they were detained for nine hours.
The following day only ecologist Elena Maksimova was summoned
to court...
According to the latest information Chirikova
has been found guilty of organization of an unsanctioned
action in the Khimki Forest on July 28 and sentenced to
a fine of RUR 1,500... Chirikiva’s aid Yaroslav Nikitenko
is now waiting for the hearing of his case. He is also accused
of organisation of an unsanctioned action and disobeying
the police.
YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin
urged Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to establish a moratorium
on the felling of forests in the Khimki area "at least
until the end of fires and lifting of the of the emergency
situation regime in the Moscow region." The
photographs attached to the letter show the signs of fire-hazardous
activities in the work of woodcutters and securities protecting
them, in particular, a fire they had made in their camp
and cans with fuel for chainsaws simply scattered throughout
the clearance.
"In spite of the order by the Moscow
Region Governor Boris Gromov on limiting access of citizens
to forests in the Moscow region, dozens of voluntary assistants
to the Teplotekhnik company are supporting felling of the
forest and their work can also contribute to fire development,”
runs the statement...
YABLOKO’s
activists Olga Ushakova and Andrei Lazaryev conducted picketing
of the Interior Affairs Department of the Moscow Region
where the police took today Yevgenia Chirikova for interrogation.
YABLOKO’s activists demanded to release the ecologist.
After the end of a press-conference in the
Independent Press Centre the police virtually kidnapped
Chirikova on the eyes of journalists. Without giving any
explanations three policemen from the OMON division (the
riot police) twisting her arms took Chirikova to their car
(strange, but the car number was ordinary, not one of the
special numbers belonging to police) while journalists and
ecologists were pushed off with police chains...
...“We have such a situation in Khimki
that the smallest gathering of people is prohibited and
dispersed, while the efficiency of the police work from
the point of view of the law and the citizens has been falling
towards zero,” YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin
told in his speech at the picket. According to Mitrokhin,
an attack against journalist Mikhail Beketov is still uninvestigated
(editor-in-chief of and independent Khimki Pravda paper
defending the Khimki Forest who was beaten virtually to
death and left to die. To-date Beketov is handicapped),
and none of the policemen dared to opposed the attack of
hooligans against the Khimki administration. “The
Khimki police is not simply exercising arbitrary rule, it
is even dangerous for the society,” Mitrokhin added...
“Now we have a so-called “mini-Stalinism”
in Khimki: they can detain a person on the street under
faked pretexts and get him imprisoned. We had this in our
history only in Stalin’s period,” the ecologist
said. She also said that the ecologists were not protesting
against construction of a highway in general, “We
only want the highway to change its route and go past the
forest”. This is especially important, she added,
when we have such extremely hot summer and many forests
are on fire. “We should preserve every tree,”
Chirikiva said...
Yesterday court ruled out that Sergei Mitrokhin
was guilty of disobeying police orders and organization
of unsanctioned rally in defence of the Khimki Forest and
sentenced to a fine RUR 500. The court’s decision
stated that Sergei Mitrokhin organized an unsanctioned rally.
When a policeman, according to the court’s statement,
came up to him, gave his name and politely asked to leave
the site of action, Mitrokhin refused to do this disobeying
the police.The court included into the case a video material
showing only policemen taking Mitrokhin into the police
car. Moreover the video recording had been done from a long
distance...
...At this moment YABLOKO is picketing by
the Criminal Police Department of the Moscow Region protesting
against arbitrary rule of the Khimki police. The activists
are holding slogans “Heads of the Khimki police to
trial!”, “Put an end to arbitrary rule by the
Khimki police!”...
An Executive Committee meeting and an Extraordinary
meeting of the General Assembly of International Federation
of Liberal Youth (IFLRY) will take place in St.Petersburg
on August 6-8. Representatives from over 40 countries will
come to St.Petersburg.
The meeting will be opened by Bart Woord,
IFLRY President, Nikolai Rybakov, deputy head of St.Petersburg
YABLOKO’s branch and Alexander Gudimov, Chair of St.Petersburg
Youth YABLOKO. The participants will discuss development
of democracy and liberalism.
...“The second charge was fabricated right
after I demanded to release me, as the first charge had
already been announced,” Mitrokhin said. He also noted that
the second charge may be needed so that to convoy him to
court.
It should be also noted that the six activists
with the same charges and detained together with Mitrokhin
have been still kept in the police department for over three
hours already in violation of the law.
...Ten minutes after the meeting of the
ecologists began the police came to the site and began detaining
all the men present at the meeting. YABLOKO’s leader Sergei
Mitrokhin was one of the first detainees. Wringing his hands
the policemen forced him to come into their car making him
sit on the floor, virtually in the luggage compartment...
Take
and Divide.
Interview with Igor Artemyev, head of the Federal Antimonopoly
Service. Izvestia, July 30, 2010
...Artemyev: It is not
our desire to bankrupt companies, but punishment for violation
of antimonopoly laws must be unavoidable. Therefore, we
have fined, are fining, and will continue fining. The TNK-BP
case became a precedent. And, we are planning to take advantage
of the Supreme Arbitration Court's decision which is favourable
for us and apply it to other companies...
Police has begun persecution of the activists
from the "In defense of the Khimki Forest" movement
and Euvgenia Chirikova, the movement’s leader. According
to the defenders of the forest, yesterday they found out
that they were under surveillance, police officers came
to their homes without informing their relatives of the
purpose of the visit. Also the activists did not get any
official notifications from the police. "Yesterday,
shortly after we came out of the court of the Khimki town,
we found our that we were under surveillance. It a stout
man in a white suit. However, we managed to escape him:
luckily we quickly got into a taxi and headed to Moscow",
Yaroslav Nikitenko, Aid of Euvgenia Chirikova said...
Today on July 30, YABLOKO’s leader
Sergei Mitrokhin applied to Prime Minister Putin and Public
Prosecutor General Chaika in view of unlawful cutting of
the Khimki Forest.
According to the federal law "On Highways”,
"cutting of the woods is only possible after obtaining
a permission for construction of a highway. The Forestry
Code requires that every user of the forests should obtain
a land declaration. The normative acts of the town of Khimki
require obtaining of a special cutting ticket, which should
be supplied with a dendroplan and a tally sheet. According
to our data, all of these documents are missing, thus cutting
of the woods is unlawful,” runs Mitrokhin’s
letter to Public Prosecutor General...
YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin
and party activists once again managed to stop cutting of
the woods in the Khimki Forest.
Mitrokhin told the workers about the order
of Public Prosecutor to stop all the works. After this the
driver of a harvester stopped his work and was going to
leave the site. However, one of the guards from the private
security company tried to stop him, however, the driver
refused to resume work. At the same time the other guards
were calling their chiefs...
Despite Public Prosecutor’s ban the
workers of the Phobos company constructing the Moscow-St.Petersburg
highway continue cutting of the Khimki forest. Vyacheslav
Sorokin, whose house is located in 200 meters from the Khimki
Forest, informed YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin
of it today...
At present YABLOKO’s leader Sergei
Mitrokhin is in Public Prosecutor’s office in Khimki
filing an application of unlawful actions by the police.
The police confiscated mobile phones of
nine detained ecologists and journalists, thus depriving
them of an opportunity to get in touch with lawyers and
get a legal consultation.
The police officer on duty told Mitrokhin
that confiscation of mobile phones was lawful, and the activists
are kept in the wards. The police issued protocols of administrative
violation (disobeying the police orders) against them, which
can involve such punishment as 15 days of arrest. The leader
of the defenders of the Khimki Forest Yevgenia Chirikova
(who is one of the nine detained ecologists) managed to
tell Mitrokhin that the policemen referred to an order of
the Moscow Region Governor Boris Gromov who “had prohibited
any persons to appear in the Forest”...
At night of July 28 special riot police
(OMON) broke into the camp of the Khimki Forest defenders
made close to the cutting site. The police detained 16 persons,
including the leader of the ecologist Yevgeniya Chirikova
and five journalists.
However, YABLOKO and ecologists continue
defending the Khimki Forest. YABLOKO’s experts state
that the highway Moscow – St.Petersburg can well take
one of the alternative routs without going through the Khimki
Forest which is acting as the “lungs” of the
region. Cutting of the woods has been held without any permits.
Representatives of the construction company did not come
to the scheduled meeting with the ecologists and residents
of Khimki where they had promised to show “all the
due permits”.
The meeting of the residents of the Khimki
city, the Moscow regions, and Sergei Mitrokhin with representatives
of OOO Teplotekhnik conducting cutting of the woods in the
Khimki Forest is postponed for an undetermined period. At
the agreed time (June 28, 5 p.m.) the residents of the city
and YABLOKO’s leader and party activists came to the
meeting. However, the doors were closed and a sheet of paper
notifying that the meeting is “postponed” was
pinned on the doors. The notification gave no time or date
of the new meeting.
...In early May 2010, head of the Moscow
construction complex Vladimir Resin said that the contract
with the developer - the Phobos company – was dissolved.
The local authority also issued an order to stop the works.
However, these orders did not stop the Phobos construction
company. The residents of the neighbouring houses are afraid
that their houses may give cracks and, consequently be ruined
due to large-scale construction works in the old district
of the city. After the workers were ousted by police the
residents decided to fill in the excavated pit with earth.
On Thursday, July 29, Sergei Mitrokhin
will meet with the residents of the district and also participate
in filling in the pit with earth...
YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin
and party activists will participate in the meeting of the
residents of the Khimki district with representatives of
a contracting company eliminating the Khimki Forest. The
hearings will take place at 5 p.m. in the Dom Kulturi Rodina
(address: Khimki, Leninsky prospect 2, by the Khimki railway
station in the Leo Tolstoy Park).
Please note that tonight despite an announced
moratorium on construction works and cutting of the woods,
OAO Teplotekhnik continued cutting of the trees. According
to the witnesses the work was conducted under spotlights.
It is expected that after public hearings the participants
of the meeting will go to the place of cuttings so that
to stop unlawful works.
Liberal International Human Rights
Newsletter, July 27, 2010.
One year after the murder of Russian human
rights activist Natalia Estemirova, her killers have yet
to be brought to justice due to an investigation frought
impartiality. “This negligent attitude on behalf of the
authorities enhances political terror in the country. Such
reprisals are targeted at intimidation of all the dissenting
with the present political course at the Northern Caucasus,
violation of human rights, curbing of civil liberties and
suppression of the freedom of speech,” said Dr Grigory A.
Yavlinsky, founder of the YABLOKO party (LI full member),
prize-winner of the Prize for Freedom in 2004.
The Moscow City Court appointed hearings
of the YABLOKO party law suit disputing lawfulness of the
General Plan of Moscow Development until 2025 on August
9. The trial will be open for public. "I have filed
this lawsuit personally as a citizen, whose rights are violated
by the law. If we translate this in short from the legal
language, [the Plan] affects the following rights: driving
around the city without traffic jams, breathing clean air,
buying housing at affordable prices and walking around historical
places of the city. All these rights were violated by the
developers of the law to fill Moscow with office and trade
premises,” Sergei Mitrokhin, leader of the YABLOKO
party, said yesterday. Mitrokhin also explained, "This
trend violates my right to a healthy environment, not only
a natural, but also architectural and technological environment”...
YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin stopped
construction works in the place of destructed architectural
heritage in Tishinsky lane, Moscow. Despite a ban of the
Moscow regulator the builders began excavation works. After
arrival of Sergei Mitrokhin the workers disappeared.
The building at Bolshoi Tishinsky 30/44
building 1, was built in the early 20th century by architect
Nirnzeye and was almost completely destroyed in 2008. Under
a pretext of renovation the construction company left only
a corner wall of the building. The residents of the area
jointly with the YABLOKO party have been fighting against
construction of a new building with a multi-level underground
garage on the site of the destructed monument of architecture
for two years. In early May 2010, head of the Moscow construction
complex Vladimir Resin said that the contract with the developer
- the Phobos company – was dissolved...
Today on July 26, a one-person picketing
under the slogan “Medvedev, do not be a FSB puppet!”
was conducted at the Red Square. YABLOKO’s Artur Grokhovsky
was holding a placard picturing the “KGB men”
- Felix Dzerzhinsky, Lavrenty Beria and Vladimir Putin –
and a photograph of President Dmitry Medvedev tied to their
fingers.
YABLOKO called the President not to sign
the law broadening of the proxies of secret services. The
police detained the activist who was picketing at the Red
Square, broke the placard picturing the “KGB men”
and their “puppet” President Medvedev. Also,
allegedly a FSB (Federal Security Service) officer tried
to wipe out all the records from the journalists’
cameras and recorders and also tried to break a camera...
The YABLOKO party has always opposed imports
of nuclear waste into Russia. It was the only parliamentary
party which in 2000 jointly voted against introduction of
changes into the law allowing for imports of radioactive
waste into Russia. Even at that time we were saying “we
should not turn Russia into an international radioactive
waste dump even for much money!” However, such changes
in the law were made under the pressure from the Russian
Atomic Agency (Rosatom), despite of the fact that 90 per
cent of Russian citizens are against imports of radioactive
waste into Russia.
The 123 Agreement on cooperation with Russia
in the nuclear field has been considered by US Congress
at present. In case it is approved, Russia will be able
to import US radioactive waste from Taiwan, Japan, South
Korea and many other countries, under a formal pretext of
recycling and virtually for its burial.
Submitting the bill into Congress US President
said, “implementation of this agreement does not bear
any risks for our security…” Such care of US
President of his country security inspires respect, while
the Russian authorities’ care of the security of their
country arises much doubt and concern...
...The Russian United Democratic Party
YABLOKO calls the human rights community and democratic
politicians to defend the constitutional rights of the Khimki
activists and render them all possible assistance. This
is the case, when Russia’s civil society has virtually shown
itself and dared to resist the big money and the state machinery.
Its support in this confrontation is far more important
than hundreds of rallies in defense of democracy in general.
We also fully support the requirements of
the defenders of the Khimki Forest. Destruction of a unique
natural complex providing fresh air to the capital of Russia
will bring to nothing all the talks about modernization
and demonstrate to Russian citizens and the entire world
the inability of the Russian state to modernise...
Sergei Mitrokhin, leader of the YABLOKO
party, called Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev not
to sign the law on broadening of the proxies of the FSB
(Federal Security Service) adopted in three readings by
the State Duma (the lower chamber of the Russian parliament)
and approved by the Federation Council (the upper chamber).
“President’s reputation is at
stake here, Sergei Mitrokhin said. – This is the moment
of truth for the President: either he really targets at
making Russia a modern law-governed state or all his speeches
about modernization is a part of a cover operation developed
within the Federal Security Bureau”...
An unsanctioned action against broadening
of proxies of secret services was held by Youth YABLOKO
activists in St.Petsersburg. The action was held in front
of the Big House (the Federal Security Service building
in St.Petersburg, Liteyniy 4).
Two young activists were dressed as prisoners
with inscriptions “A Victim of the Regime” on their clothes.
Three other activists acting as KGB men shot the victims
with red paint by the entrance to the FSB building. “We
have shown the pinnacle of this amendment to the FSB law
when ordinary people will become potential prisoners as
it was in 1937 [under Stalin],” Alexander Gudimov, leader
of St.Petersburg Youth YABLOKO said. “Then [in 1937] they
had special proxies, however, they used these against people
and not against criminals,” he added...
A picket organized by the regional Memorial
branch in memory of human rights activist Memorial’s
Natalya Estemirova kidnapped in Grozny, Chechnya, and killed
in Ingushetia on July 15, 2009, took place in Ekaterinburg.
Maxim Petlin, leader of Sverdlovsk YABLOKO,
Alexander Kalkh, Chair of the Perm Memorial branch, Tatyana
Merzlyakova, Ombudsman in the Sverdlovsk region, activists
of the Movement Against Violence (Glec Edelyev) and Interregional
Centre for Human Rights (Vladimir Shaklein) participated
in the picketing. The picket ended by a demonstration along
the main street of the city and demonstration of a documentary
“Aldy: Without Limitations Period” (a joint
production by Memorial and YABLOKO) devoted to killings
of civilians on February 5, 2000, the Noviye Aldy village
in Chechnya. The film basis on the materials obtained by
Natasha Estemirova with a risk to her life...
With high level participation of Liberal
International, Convergencia Democratica de Catalunya (CDC)
and the Swedish International Liberal Centre (SILC) organized
a conference in Barcelona on “What else can be done
for democracy in Cuba?” Attracting great media attention,
the Conference was addressed by some of the recently released
Cuban political prisoners exiled in Spain. In dramatic confessions,
they described the horrible conditions under which they
have lived in the Cuban prisons, as well as the daily misery
that the Cuban people continue to live. Among the speakers
were democracy and Human Rights activist, politicians, representatives
of exiled media. LI Secretary General Emil Kirjas recalled
the experiences from his last visit to Cuba: “for
years LI has been in various terms supporting the pro-democracy
movements both in Cuba and in exile”. Concluding the
Conference, LI Deputy President Juli Minoves said that “This
is a memorable moment for human rights. LI will continue
to work on Cuba with new strategies, and will expand the
outreach. These initiatives must and will -I am certain-
gather all political internationals.”
A Moscow court of the first instance continues
hearings on Artur Grokhovsky’s case. Grokhovsky is
accused of “disobeying a lawful demand” of the
police during the action against broadening of secret services
proxies held by the State Duma on July 9. A policeman who
detained “disobeying” Grokhovsky has given his
evidence in court today...
On July 21 Judge Olga Borovkova during the
hearings of Artur Grokhovsky’s case watched the video
of detention of Artur Grokhovsky, Advisor to YABLOKO’s
Chairman. Grokhovsky is accused of “disobeying a lawful
demand” of the police during the action against broadening
of secret services proxies held by the State Duma on July
9. Grokhovsky is facing admoinsitrative arrest up to 15
days...
One-person picketing against broadening
of the competence of secret services was conducted by the
Federation Council (the upper chamber of the Russian parliament)
as the latter had to examine the draft law today on July
19. Artur Grokhovsky, Advisor to YABLOKO’s Chairman,
was holding a huge placard (1.5 x 1 meters) picturing Felix
Dzerzhinsky, the head of the KGB, Lavrenty Beria, Stalin’s
closest accomplice standing behind mass-scale reprisals
and Vladimir Putin with an inscription “The KGB men
are for it!”...
From 2 to 3 thousand people, according
to different estimates, gathered for a rally in protection
of environment in Tuapse (a city on the Black Sea) on July
18. The rally was organised by an initiative group headed
by coordinator of the Environmental Watch in the North Caucasus
and member of the YABLOKO party Andrei Rudomakha.
The participants of the rally demanded to
conduct a referendum on construction of a terminal for the
EuroChem chemical company in the Tuapse port, as well as
stop oil extraction at the Black Sea shelf.
A broad-scale campaign launched by the local
authorities and targeted at disruption of the rally was
held on the threshold of the public action...
An action in memory of renowned human rights
activist Natalya Estemirova kidnapped and murdered a year
ago in took place in Nevsky Prospect, St.Petersburg, on
July 16, 2010. Activists from the YABLOKO party, Memorial
and The House of Peace and Non-Violence dressed in T-shirts
with a photograph of Natalya marched along the main street
of the city Nevsky prospect and distributed leaflets about
the killed human rights activist among passers-by. The latter
asked questions about Natalya and about the news of the
investigation...
The activists protecting the Khimki forest
made a camp in the place of cutting of the woods and are
now blocking a car of a stranger who attacked Eugenia Chirikova,
the leader of the Movement in Protection of the Khimki Forest,
and almost hit her with his car.
On July 16 this man drove to the camp in a silver KIA jeep
(No B 104 YE 98). Coming out of the car the man began hitting
Eugenia on the hands trying to make her drop her mobile
phone. Then he jumped into his car and tried to knock her
down with his car, Eugenia managed to escape only by a miracle...
...Environmental safety of several thousands
of the residents of the Khimki area is swapped for profit,
unraparable damage to the ecological system of the Moscow
region. For the sake of profits the authorities are covering
the criminals: the bandits who made handicapped Mikhail
Bekotov, Editor-in-Chief of the Khimki Pravda paper courageously
defending the Khimki Forest, have not been found.
Elections to the federal parliament will come soon. We are
drawing the attention of the Muscovites and the residents
of the Moscow region to the fact that the attack against
the Khimki Forest is supported by the omnipresent [progovernmental]
United Russia party and its leader Vladimir Putin. Thus,
hey once again demonstrate that the commercial interests
of the few are more important than care of the health and
well-being of many...
Three activists of the Youth YABLOKO were
detained by police by the State Duma (the Russian parliament)
when attempting to conduct a protest action against introduction
of amendments broadening the competence of secret services
(FSB).
Today deputies of the State Duma are to
consider the draft law in the final third reading. YABLOKO’s
activists came to the State Duma disguised as prisoners
with a placard, a scaling ladder and leaflets...
Deputy Chairman of the Moscow branch of
YABLOKO Galina Mikhalyova and young YABLOKO’s activist
Igor Savyolov were found guilty of committing a misdemeanor
and fined 500 rubles each. The cases of the other two activists
- Maxim Kruglov and Arthur Grokhovsky - were postponed until
July 23 as the policemen were late for the trial.
The decision states violation of Article 20.2 of the Code
of Administrative Offences (Violation of the set order in
organsing or conducting a gathering, rally, demonstration,
march or picketing”).
YABLOKO’s activist had to stand before
court for holding a one-person picket by the State Duma
on June 11 - when the draft law for broadening of the proxies
of the secret service (FSB) was examined by the Duma in
the first reading. Galina Mikhalyova stood by the walls
of the State Duma with a placard while of other party activists
waiting for their turn at a distance. The
police detained all the activists of YABLOKO despite the
fact that a one-person picketing was conducted only by Galina
Mikhalyova.
"The example of this particular case
demonstrates that our courts are biased and not impartial.
The court’s decision was not guided by fraudulent
administrative violation cases provided by police rather
than by Russian laws," Mikhalyova said...
Statement by the Tula branch of
YABLOKO, July 15, 2010.
The Tula regional branch of the YABLOKO
party expresses its deep concern with criminal prosecution
of deputy of the Tula City Duma from our party Vladimir
TImakov [launched under a pretext of a libel case].
Timakov gave his assessment of the Governor’s
work at his post.
Actually Timakov’s statements are
based on his believes, and, in our view, there are no grounds
for criminal prosecution in our opinion no. The fact that
the Investigation Committee with the Public Prosecutor's
Office in the Tula region three times refused [the Governor]
in launching a criminal case for the lack of the elements
of crime [in such criticism] is one more proof of this.
In our opinion, this constitutes a demonstrative
political "bashing" of a dissenting oppositional
politician and journalist so that to force him stop his
activities and give up his believes...
The YABLOKO congratulates the staff of
the Baikal Ecological Wave who managed to prove that impounding
of computers and software from their office was unlawful.
The computers are returned, and the Irkutsk police brought
their apologizes to the ecologists.
During the investigation it was confirmed
(however, this was obvious from the beginning): the Baikal
Ecological Weave used only licensed software...
“The President’s statement crosses out
the course towards modernisation he has proclaimed. Amendments
proposed to the law on the Federal Security Service demonstrate
that instead of building a modern state in Russia the President
has been restoring the most archaic institutions of the
totalitarian past,” YABLOKO’s leader said.
According to Mitrokhin no one but corrupted
bureaucracy which is afraid of the people and tries to maintain
at any price its power and riches accumulated with the help
of this power needs these amendments.
Today President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev
said at a joint press-conference with German Chancellor
Angela Merkel that the draft law “has been developed on
his order”. However, the draft law was submitted to the
parliament by Chair of the Government Vladimir Putin...
Please receive our congratulations on the
20th anniversary of your work in the federal Anti-Monopoly
Service!
Throughout the years of its functioning,
especially led by a remarkable economist and a politician
of principle and our friend, Igor Artemyev, the Federal
Anti-Monopoly Service has become playing a significant role
in the economic and political life of the country, fight
against corruption and monopolies...
On June 26 YABLOKO held a meeting with
the delegation of the European Liberals, Democrats and Reformers
party (ELDR) – Mrs. Annemie Neyts, ELDR President,
Mrs.Kristiina Ojuland, MEP, Mr. Michael Jensen, member of
Danish parliament and Mr.Robert Plummer, ELDR Political
Advisor.
Opening the meeting YABLOKO’s leader
Sergei Mitrokhin proposed to discuss the prospects of further
cooperation between ELDR and ELDR full member the YABLOKO
party.
Member of YABLOKO’s Political Committee
Grigory Yavlinsky said that the EU has not yet developed
a single strategy for cooperation with Russia, therefore
development of such a strategy can become a task of ELDR
and its faction in the European Parliament. And YABLOKO
can help in development of such a strategy. "The absence
of a well-developed European strategy as regards integration
with Russia is one of the key obstacles in development of
relations between Russia and Europe. YABLOKO’s proposals
and some provisions of our party programme could form the
basis for such a strategy," Yavlinsky said.
YABLOKO’s leaders also dwelled upon
some aspects of such a strategy. Thus, Sergei Mitrokhin
proposed to European liberals to more actively support YABLOKO’s
initiative on abolishing visas between the EU and Russia.
He called the visa regime “a rudiment of the Iron
Curtain preventing assimilation of the European standards
by the Russian citizens”...
Judge Olga Borovkova sent the cases of
three activists of the Youth branch of YABLOKO (Kirill Goncharov,
Vladislav Pankov and Igor Savyelov), who had chained themselves
on July 9 with handcuffs to the fence of the State Duma
in protest against broadening of proxies of the Russian
secret service (FSB). The judge detected numerous violations
in issuing the protocols. Motivated decisions will be handed
to Stanislav Gorlov who defends the activists tomorrow.
Hearing of the case of the fourth activist Veronica Belozerskikh
has not yet been scheduled yet...
The detained activists of the Youth YABLOKO
and Artur Grokhovsky, Advisor to Sergei Mitrokhin, are facing
15 days of arrest in accordance with Article 19.3 of the
Administrative Violation Code “Non-obeying to the
lawful police order”.
Protocols on administrative violations by the activists
were made in the Tverkoye police station, Moscow. “I
access this as an act of moral pressure,” Artur Grokhovsky
said over the phone.
YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin
told that this constituted an attempt of intimidation of
the activists as they had dared to oppose Vladimir Putin’s
initiative...”
Four activists of the Youth YABLOKO were
detained by police after they enchained themselves with
handcuffs by the State Duma (the Russian parliament) protesting
against the new security service (FSB, the former KGB) law.
Artur Grokhovsky, Advisor to party Chair Sergei Mitrokhin,
was also detained.
“YABLOKO has been conducting this action protesting against
adoption of the draft law broadening the proxies of the
FSB. Today deputies of the State Duma has to examine the
draft law in the second reading. Artur Grokhovsky stood
by the entrance to the parliament building with a placard
picturing Byeria (Stalin’s main accomplice), Dzerzhinsky
and Putin with an inscription “Amendments to the FSB law
– the KGB men are for it!” with the signatures YABLOKO had
collected against this law...
July 3 marks seven years since the death
of an outstanding journalist and fighter against corruption
Yuri Schekochikhin.
On this day the Russian United Democratic
Party YABLOKO considers it necessary to remind to Russia’s
leadership that the circumstances of the death of Yuri Schekochikhin
have not been determined.
The decision on termination of the investigation
adopted by the Investigation Committee of the Public Prosecutor’s
Office in 2009 demonstrates inability or lack of desire
of the present Russian state to conduct a full-fledged investigation...
With the decision made by the Liberal Democrat-Conservative
government in the UK to hold a referendum on adopting “Alternative
Vote” , the UK moves one step closer to adopting a form
of proportional representation. According to recently elected
Deputy Leader of the Lib Dems, Simon Hughes MP: ““The coalition
Government has decided in one move to give all voters a
much greater say in who is chosen to represent them and
to give Parliament a much greater say in the business of
Government…With an easier and more up to date electoral
register in the future, the whole of Britain will have a
much more representative democracy. We will also end the
scandal where votes have been of unequal value and in many
places of no value at all — and where many people have scandalously
not even been allowed to vote.” The Liberal Democrats currently
serve as a coalition partner in the United Kingdom, with
leader Nick Clegg serving as Deputy Prime Minister. Recently
he met with leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, Michael
Ignatieff .
YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin
expressed his satisfaction with the decision of the Constitutional
Court of the Russian Federation on the complaint from YABLOKO’s
member Andrei Malitsky.
The Constitutional Court ruled out that
some provisions on the Russian Federaiton law “On
the Basic Guarantees of Franchise and the Right to Referendum”
connected with a ban for the citizens residing in a foreign
state to be members of electoral commissions. Being a Russian
citizen Malitsky obtained in 2009 a residence permit in
Lithuania. Due to this fact he was expelled from a territorial
electoral commission in Moscow where he represented YABLOKO’s
interests...
YABLOKO’s
activists conducted memory actions in different Russian
cities on the night from June 21 to June 22, on the day
of the 69th anniversary of the beginning o the Great Patriotic
War (Ed. The term used in Russia and the CIS countries to
describe the period of 1941-1945 of the Second World War,
when Hilter invaded the USSR).
In Moscow the activists and advocates of
YABLOKO lit 1,418 candles symbolizing the number of the
days of war by the monument to the Muscovites-defenders
of Moscow...
YABLOKO’s leaders - Sergei Mitrokhin,
party Chairman, Grigory Yavlinsky, member of YABLOKO’s
Political Committee and the founder of the party and Eugeni
Bunimovich, Moscow Ombudsman for Children’s Rights
laid flowers to the monument.
In St.Petersburg 1,418 candles were lit
by the so-called Blockade Ice-Hole where the citizens took
water from during the city blockade at the Fontanka embankment.
Representatives of the Pskov regional branch
of YABLOKO headed by their Chair and member of YABLOKO Bureau
Lev Shlosberg paid tribute to the victims of the Second
World War at the Victory square by the Eternal Flame...
In the centre of Penza activists of the
Youth YABLOKO lit candles by the Victory Monument.
On June 22 at 4 a.m. representatives of
the Pskov regional branch of YABLOKO headed by their Chair
Lev Shlosberg will pay tribute to the memory of the victims
of the Second World War at the Victory square by Eternal
Flame. The activists will lay flowers to the Grave of the
Unknown Soldier and light candles.
“Participation in this memorial action
is a civil and not a party action,” Lev Shlosberg
said. “This is an integral part of a personal genetic
memory of a person, as well as genetic memory of the nation.”
Party symbols will not be used in
the action.
Renown Russian politician and economist,
one of the founders of the YABLOKO party and member of YABLOKO’s
Political Committee Dr.Grigory Yavlinsky will visit Kirov
on June 24.
The first event in his programme will be
a meeting with the public. Then Grigory Yavlinsky will deliver
a lecture “Modernisation of Russia’s Economic and Political
System” in the Vyatka State University. A meeting of Grigory
Yavlinsky and Governor of the Kirov Region Nikita Belykh
will take place at 2 p.m. A press-conference will be organised
after the meeting. The closing event of the visit will be
Grigory Yavlinsky’s meeting with the activists of the Kirov
branch of the YABLOKO party...
By Andrei Kolesnikov, Forbes Russia,
June 18, 2010.
Mr. Lukin as Ombudsman is an experiment:
a democrat of 1960s (Ed. The famous period of liberalisation
in the Soviet Union) in the state structure of the Putin’s
period. Will he survive or not? Will he bend or not? Will
he merge with the surroundings or not? He survived, did
not bend and did not merge...
But he unexpectedly presented an example
of an honest politician in dishonest circumstances. There
even emerged such an unconventional concept in politics
as a conscience. And this is an awesome power. They all
are afraid of that old honest man.
The house of Editor-in-Chief of the Ogni
Povolzhiya (Lights of the Volga) newspaper and member of
the Regional Council of the Saratov branch of YABLOKO Salimzhan
Gaisin was burned on the night of June 15. His daughter
and son in law and their two children managed to get out
of the burning house. A newly built house and an adjacent
old building completely burt out. YABLOKO expresses support
of the colleague and considers this accident as obviously
of criminal nature.
“We connect this not only with the
journalistic activity, but also with a pro-active attitude
and human rights activities by Salimzhan Gaisin, who conducted
numerous anti-corruption investigations, revealed facts
of abuse of power by local officials and identified numerous
violations of election law,” runs the statement by
the Bureau of the Saratov branch of YABLOKO...
Announcing a policy towards modernisation
in Russia President of Russia put himself in line with a
number of Russian rulers-reformers who aspired to perform
radical transformations in the country. Some specific traits
of this policy resemble those of his predecessors. The President
understands modernisation primarily as acceleration of scientific
and technological development. With some reservations about
the need for political reform, the latter look like a number
of quite shallow and very systematic activities...
Speech by Sergei Mitrokhin
Liberal International Executive Committee
Berlin, June 11, 2010
Announcing a policy towards modernisation
in Russia President of Russia put himself in line with a
number of Russian rulers-reformers who aspired to perform
radical transformations in the country. Some specific traits
of this policy resemble those of his predecessors. The President
understands modernisation primarily as acceleration of scientific
and technological development. With some reservations about
the need for political reform, the latter look like a number
of quite shallow and very systematic activities...
Action against mandatory army conscription
organised by the Youth YABLOKO took place by the Ministry
of Defence on June 15. Ten YABLOKO’s activists were
holding a slogan “How many of us should die so that
you abolish mandatory army conscription?” and also
chanted “Away with mandatory army conscription, let’s
transfer to a contract conscription!”...
...The picket resumed at the Gogol Boulvalrd.
The organiser of the action Kirill Gontcharov stated that
incessant chain of deaths of young conscripts made YABLOKO
to hold such an action. He also noted that “due to
corruption only children from poor families serve in the
army”. “Instead of defending our motherland
our soldiers have to build country houses for generals and
clean water closets,” he added. He also said that
“harassment of subordinates became a symbol of the
Russian army”...
On June 11 YABLOKO’s leader Sergei
Mitrokhin made a speech at the Executive Committee of Liberal
International in Berlin. As Sergei Mitrokhin’s speech
was scheduled in the agenda item “Human Rights in
the Authoritarian States”, he spoke about police breaking
YABLOKO’s picket by the Russian parliament which was
conducted against adoption of the law “on preventive
measures against extremism”, as well as breaking of
a peaceful rally on the Triumfalnaya square in Moscow on
May 31.
The participants of the Executive Committee
also received Sergei Mitrokhin’s report “Russia
and European Integration”. In this report YABLOKO’s
leader once again stressed the necessity to work out a single
strategy for EU interaction with Russia, which should be
based on integration, rather than confrontation. According
to Mitrokhin, the first step in realisation of this strategy
would be introduction of a visa-free regime between Russia
and the European Union.
Another example of realization of this uniform strategy,
runs the report, may be the Anti-Ballistic Missile Defence
system (ABM) as a joint project of the RF and NATO countries.
“Both the West and Russia will profit from such cooperation
and lose from confrontation, as democracy can not develop
in anti-Western hysteria”, Mitrokhin stressed.
The report also indicates that cooperation
between Russia and the European Union should take place
in the field of environmental safety too.
According to Mitrokhin, “the present
political and economic situation in the country can be characterised
as the ongoing stagnation which began under Putin. Russia’s
modernisation announced by President Medvedev has been taking
place in words only”...
..Major Brezhnev personally participated
in detaining Grokhovsky: first he dragged Artur to the police
car and then hit him in the belly. Now Anton is heading
to the hospital to certify the bruises.
Grokhovsky also told that in February he
had been already arrested by the same policeman for one-person
picketing. Due to the video recording made by YABLOKO Grokhovsky
was acquitted by the court then. Grokhovsky hopes that the
court will acquit the activists this time too, as the action
was also recorded...
YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin expressed
his indignation with police breaking of YABLOKO’s one-person
picket and arresting the activists protesting against the
amendments to the law on the Federal Security Service (former
KGB) by the Russian parliament building. No permission or
coordination with authorities is required for conducting
one-person pickets in accordance with the Russian law. Nevertheless
the picket was brutally broken and the activists were arrested.
Mitrokhin said that actions by police officers
who arrested the activist holding the placard, as well as
three other activists who were standing by were a rude violation
of the Constitution and the law “On assemblies, meetings,
demonstrations and pickets”...
Action against introduction of amendments
on the law on the Federal Security Service (the former KGB),
which YABLOKO attempted to hold today by the building of
the State Duma (the Russian Parliament) was brutally broken
by police. Despite of the fact that it was a one-person
picketing (four activists had to replace each other in turn)
and did not require any permissions or notifications from
the authorities, four YABLOKO’s activists were arrested
and taken to the local police department and a placard depicting
the head of KGB Felix Dzerzhinsky, the closest accomplice
of Stalin in setting terror in the country Lavrenty Beria,
and Vladimir Putin and bearing a the words "The KGB
people vote FOR it!" was confiscated.
On June 11, at 9.30 am, half an hour before
the plenary session the Russian parliament had to start,
First Deputy Chair of the Moscow Yabloko Galina Mikhalyova
took her place by the main entrance to the parliament building
with a placard depicting Felix Dzerzhinsky, Lavrenty Beria
and Vladimir Putin against a black ground and a hand voting
for them. “The law on preventing extremism. The KGB
people vote FOR it!" ran the slogan under the picture.
The Russian parliament will discuss this draft law in the
first reading today...
Svetlana Kuznetsova, head of the Soldiers’
Mothers faction in the YABLOKO party, says that “YABLOKO
is categorically against the amendments referring to a legalized
“buy-out” from the army service, as they are
discriminatory and targeted at commercialization of the
army. The authors of the amendments say that the state does
not have enough money for a contract-based army; whereas
every such one million roubles [about USD 30,000 paid by
a young person wishing to avoid mandatory military service]
will suffice for maintenance of two contract soldiers. Since
2001 YABLOKO has been insisting that the state has enough
money on a contract army and our economists can prove that”...
Grigory Yavlinsky’s letter to Vsevolod
Bogdanov, Chair of Russia’s Journalists Union, June 9, 2010.
Yuri Schekochikhin is an event in the lives
of all of us, an event both in our journalism and in politics.
Whatever he did - wrote play scripts, engaged in journalist
investigation or worked as a Russian parliament member –
all was very different from how other people did this, all
had an imprint of his personality, talent and his understanding
of freedom and justice.
Yuri Petrovich was not merely a politician
in the ordinary sense or the word, he understood life as
the one who had the ability to transform it. A special atmosphere
always emerged around him, and there was place for different
people by his side. And he still unites us all, we do not
simply keep memories of him, but feel his presence in our
life.
Yuri Schekochikhin has always been and remains
our friend.
The VVD has won the Dutch parliamentary
elections on Wednesday 9 June, becoming the number one party
in the Netherlands for the first time in its 62 year history,
with 20.4% of the votes. The election night started with
exit polls showing the Liberals and Labour running neck-and-neck,
but when 90% of the votes were counted the VVD took the
lead with 31 seats (an increase of 9 seats) against 30 for
Labour, which lost three seats...
The other ELDR member party, the social
liberal D66 obtained 7% of the votes and more than tripled
its number of seats, from 3 to 10. D66 achieved the highest
result in Wageningen, the hometown of its Political leader
Alexander Pechtold; 15%.
ELDR President Annemie Neyts-Uyttebroeck
MEP: "I am thrilled to see that both our Dutch member
parties have achieved such good results. It confirms our
conviction that citizens expect leadership in these times
of crisis and support parties which are not afraid to implement
liberal reforms and tough measures to achieve again a sustainable
budget."
On June 5, the World Environment Day, the
activists of the YABLOKO party conducted a flash mob at
the Red Square. YABLOKO’s activists carried a large white
banner showing the Lake Baikal chanting "Hands off
of the Lake Baikal!" The same slogan was printed on
their shirts. However, this march was broken by police and
all the participants of the action were taken to the police
station...
On the same day an action against another
problem – raising of water level in the Cheboksary reservoir
was held in Nizhni Novgorod. YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin
and head of YABLOKO’s Green Russian faction Acad. Alexei
Yabloko visited Nizhni Novgorod and participated in the
picketing...
The biosphere of our planet has not improved
for the past year. We have been facing dangerous ongoing
climate change, deterioration of the condition of the world
ocean, shrinking biodiversity, disappearance of the rain
forests, aging nuclear power stations and proliferation
of nuclear weapons threaten us with another Chernobyl, chemical
contamination and the spread of GMOs. Influential international
bodies – the G-8 and the G-20, the World Bank, the
European and the Asian Banks of Reconstruction and Development
- declaring the importance of preserving the planet's ecosystems
in words, virtually support quick-profit technologies detrimental
on nature.
Lack of stringent environmental control
over implementation of commercial projects at the national
and the international level leads to a terrible disasters
like that we observe in the Gulf of Mexico...
On Saturday, June 5, YABLOKO’s leader
Sergei Mitrokhin will visit Nizhni Novgorod. As
part of his mission, Mitrokhin and political scientists
and businessmen from Nizhny Novgorod will take part in a
roundtable discussion "Environmental and political
situation in Russia. The upcoming elections in autumn 2010”.
The event will be held at the Higher School of Economics
from 09:30 to 10:40. Then Sergei Mitrokhin, will participate
in a press conference for regional journalists devoted to
the elections. The press conference will take place in the
Interfax office (beginning at 11:00).
Then YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin
and Chair YABLOKO’s Green Russia faction Acad. Alexei
Yablokov will conduct a picket against the raising of the
water level in the Cheboksary reservoir. Members of the
environmental organization Dront will also participate in
the picket...
According to Interfax, the Supreme Court
of Dagestan sentenced Rakhil Mamedrezayaev to 15 years of
imprisonment in the colony of strict regime, the Jury found
Mamedrezayaev guilty of murder of Farid Babayev, the leader
of the Dagestan YABLOKO, and unlawful keeping of guns.
The state prosecution asked the court to
sentence the accused to 12 years of imprisonment in accordance
with Article 105 of the Criminal Code (murder) and to additional
five years of imprisonment in accordance with Article 222
of the Criminal Code (unlawful weapons-bearing and keeping
of guns). Considering this fact, the Jury acknowledged the
accused deserving leniency, the prosecutor asked to give
him 16 years in total...
Russia’s Ombudsman and one of the
founders of the YABLOKO party Vladimir Lukin says that the
heads of the interior should apologise before the participants
of the rally they arrested at the Triunfalnaya Square, Moscow.
He also refuses to sign an agreement
on cooperation with the Interior Ministry until this is
done, runs the BBC service.
Lukin has also prepared or is going to prepare
and submit to the heads of the state proposals on “normalisation
of the situation with conducting rallies,” Grani.ru
informs with a reference to the Echo Moskvi radio station.
Lukin announced this while commenting on police breaking
of the action held in protection of Article 31 of the Constitution
of Russia which guarantees freedom of assembly. “The
Russian law does not contain such words as “sanctioned”
or “unsanctioned”, and all the talk about sanctions
are purely subjective,” Lukin stated. He also added
that the heads of the Interior Ministry should conduct a
thorough investigation of the events at the Triumfalnaya
Square in Moscow on May 31.
Lukin also reiterated that he himself had
been present at the rally and “can state that the
law enforcement acted in an extremely tough and rude manner”.
He also noted that on the same day the authorities gave
a permission to conduct “a ‘gala-medical’
action”; whereas all the participants of this action
were allowed to conduct a rally in the centre of Moscow
from early in the morning till late at night...
Russia’s Ombudsman and one of the
founders of the YABLOKO party Vladimir Lukin published Report
- 2009. The Report deals with the most acute problems of
human rights in Russia, provides information on Ombudsman’s
activities, including dealing with citizens’ requests,
interaction with the state bodes and civil society institutes,
analysis of the present law in the field of human rights,
as well as proposals on its further development. The key
factor determining the composition of Lukin’s Report
was the dynamics of developments in the field of human rights
in Russia...
Yesterday the European Union publicly expressed
its concern over the situation with human rights in Russia.
Such a statement was made by deputy head of the EU delegation
in Russia Michael Webb. On the threashold of the Rostov-Don
summit Moscow police brutally supressed an opposition rally.
The head of state in the meantime did not respond to both
of the developments. NG experts comment that Dmitry Medvedev
is deliberately disassociating himself from the urgent problems.
They note that Premier Vladimir Putin does not avoid the
human rights topic.
Michael Webb of the EU mission said at the
news conference in Rostov-on-Don that the European Union
was particularly upset by the “situation with human
rights activists and murders of journalists in Russia”.
“We have also expressed our concern with the fact
that the crimes committed by the law enforcement go unpunished,”
Webb added...
Yesterday, on June 1, the Regional Council
of the Moscow YABLOKO once again examined the issue of YABLOKO’s
participation in the Consultative Council under the Moscow
City Duma. It was decided to delegate two YABLOKO’s
representatives to the Consultative Council.
Chair of the Moscow YABLOKO Sergei Mitrokhin
and member of the Regional Council Elena Morozova were elected
out of five candidacies by secret ballot...
Today, on the International Children’s
Day, the YABLOKO party conducted a series of one-person
pickets by the Ministry of Health Care and Social Development
demanding raising of children’s allowances to the
child’s subsistence minimum. YABLOKO’s activists
demonstrated what a person can buy with child’s allowance
amounting to RUR 750 (approximately USD 25 per month).
The Moscow authorities did not give their
permit to conduct this action. The activists held placards
“Raise the allowance to the subsistence minimum!”
and “Subsistence minimum of RUR 7,006 = children’s
allowance of RUR 750?”...
The Russian United Democratic Party YABLOKO
consders the reaction of the authorities to the protest
actions that took place in Moscow, St.Petersburg and other
Russian cities yesterday be unacceptable and absurd.
A deliberately tough use of obviously superior
police forces against the groups of citizens who simply
expressed their opinion without endangering anyone’s
security represents a proof of inability of state officials,
top officials inclusive, to adequately assess the situation
in the country...
Andrei Voznesensky symbolized for many people
not only a new word not only in poetry, but also in life.
Bright, free and always in search of new forms he long ago
became a part of our modern culture, turned into its history.
I express my deep condolences to his spouse
Zoya Boguslavskaya, friends and next-of-kin of outstanding
poet Andrei Voznesensky.
Sincerely,
Sergei Mitrokhin,
Chair of the YABLOKO party
Decision of YABLOKO’s Bureau
from May 22, 2010. May 31, 2010
The Russian United Democratic Party YABLOKO
has already made several statements that Kirsan Ilyumzhinov’s
regime in the Republic of Kalmykia is one of the ugliest
developments in Russia’s political history of the
past two decades representing a disgusting mixture of authoritarian
rule, corruption and criminal.
Fight against this regime has in 1998 taken
the life of Larissa Yudina, Chair of the Kalmyk regional
branch of YABLOKO, whereas Kirsan Ilyumzhinov’s aid
was found guilty of this murder. The political responsibility
for this crime lies, in our view, completely on Kirsan Ilyumzhinov...
Engelina Borisovna Tareyeva, member of the
Moscow YABLOKO Regional Council and the eldest blogger of
the Russian segment of the Internet (Runet) turns 85 today,
on May 30. Her Live Journal has over 4.500 readers.
Engelina Tareyeva writes about the events
that took place 50, 60 and even 70 years ago very brightly,
interesting and wisely. She writes about these developments
as if they happened yesterday...
The Russian United Democratic Party YABLOKO
once again conveys its condolences to the relatives and
next-of-kin of the miners killed during the accident at
the Raspadskaya mine. Regardless of the specific reasons
leading to the accident at the mine, it is obvious that
the problem is system-driven. This is confirmed by another
accident at the Alexeyevskaya mine which followed the accident
at Raspadskaya.
The owners of the mines set such rules and
regulations which make the miners to neglect the safety
requirement and risk their lives so that to get more or
less adequate wages. A civilised dialogue with the employer
turns out to be impossible: the owners of the mines being
aware that the miners will not be able to find another job
talk with them from a position of force. The possibilities
of a labour dispute or a strike are restricted by law...
Another lecture in the series of the Evening
Party University lectures took place on May 26 in YABLOKO’s
office, Moscow. The lecture “An unlearned lesson of
the totalitarian past” was delivered by Galina Mikhalyova,
Executive Secretary of YABLOKO’s Political Committee
and head of the Evening Party University.
Mikhalyova presented the decision by YABLOKO’s
Political Committee on overcoming Bolsheviks’ and
Stalin’s legacy as a condition for Russia’s
modernization in the 21st century. She also presented a
second edition of the book Overcoming Stalin’s Legacy
which runs that Russia’s development is impossible
without state assessment of totalitarian past.
Mikhlyova also noted that the crimes of
the Soviet period affected virtually every family: “Stalin’s
methods of governing led to deaths of millions of Soviet
citizens, and dozens of millions people were affected by
political reprisals and deportations”...
On May 27, Chair of the YABLOKO party Sergei
Mitrokhin forwarded a letter to V.Shevshuk, Public Prosecutor
of Moscow, and A.Kibovsky, head of the Rosokhrankultura
(Agency for preservation of historic and cultural heritage)
with a request to stop unlawful pulling down of buildings
in the territory of the Resurrection Temple in Kadashi,
Moscow.
The buildings that had to be pulled down
on May 24 in Kadashi are situated within the boundaries
of a historical and cultural heritage zone, and any works
except for preservation and regeneration are prohibited
there. Mitrokhin also expressed his doubts in the lawfulness
of the permit issued by Moskomnasleydiye (the Moscow Heritage
Committee) to pull down buildings there...
Activists from the Youth YABLOKO were waiting
for President of Kalmykia Kirsan Ilyumzhinov be the entrance
to the office of the Echo Moskvi radio station so that to
remind him of the murder of Larissa Yudina, a journalist
and leader of the Kalmykia branch of YABLOKO, killed 12
years ago... Larissa Yudina, the leader of Kalmyk YABLOKO
and Editor-in-Chief of oppositional Sovietskaya Kalmykia
Segodnya paper, was murdered 12 years ago on June 7, 1998.
The official investigation does not name the person who
ordered this crime, however, they obviously know this person.
The question about Ilyumzhinov’s personal involvement in
the crime is still open, as the organiser of the murder
S.Vaskin (a person with repeated convictions) was Ilyumzhinov’s
Legal Advisor...
“The person who ordered the murder of Larissa
Yudina and all the people involved in this crime should
not avoid punishment. The goal of objective investigation
should be suspend the proxy of Ilyumzhinov as President
of Kalmykia,” runs the statement by YABLOKO’s leader Sergei
Mitrokhin.
“The
present political regime representing oligarchs and monopolies
does not need small businesses in general. Representatives
of the small business demolished as a class should resist
this,” Sergei Mitrokhin, YABLOKO’s leader, said at a rally...
The rally adopted a resolution calling the
authorities to stop demolishing the small businesses and
also unanimously supported the proposal to call all the
entrepreneurs to join around YABLOKO “which is the only
party protecting small business”.
By Robert Woodthorpe Browne. Special
for YABLOKO's web-site. May 26, 2010
...Now the UK has a coalition Government,
in which Nick Clegg is Deputy Prime Minister, with 5 LibDems
in the Cabinet and a further 15 as junior ministers. The
legislative programme, read out by Queen Elizabeth II yesterday,
contains very many policies from the LibDem manifesto, and
the two parties are committed to a 5 year government to
enable them to carry out their reforms and eliminate the
deficit.
The real lesson to be learned from a Russian
point of view is that the UK suffered from limited access
to the media for minor parties. If a platform is given to
others – as in the prime ministerial debates –
the people are able to make an informed choice and will
be excited by a political process that they will not think
to have been “fixed” by those already in power.
The Russian United Democratic Party YABLOKO
expresses support to Andrei Malitsky in his litigation of
the norm of the Federal Law “On the Basic Guarantees
of Franchise and the Right to Participate in a Referendum”.
According to the present norm of the law,
a citizen of the Russian Federation having residence permits
in other states is not allowed to be member of electoral
commission...
The conference of the Moscow YABLOKO which
took place yesterday, on May 23, confirmed its opposition
to the Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov and his government and
called the country to return to the direct election of the
Moscow Mayor (the Moscow Mayor enjoys the Governor status).
“In the federal authorities are not
ready to return to the election of all governors, it can
at least make an exception for the cities of federal importance
– Moscow and St.Petersburg – where the city
dwellers unlike residents of other cities are deprived of
the right to elect the city heads,” runs the statement
of the Moscow YABLOKO.
Draft statement “On the political
crisis in Moscow and the ways out of it” was submitted
by YABLOKO’s leader and chair of its Moscow branch
Sergei Mitrokhin...
The Jury of the Supreme Court of Dagestan
return a verdict on the murder of the leader of the Dagestan
regional branch of the YABLOKO party Farid Babayev.
According to Interfax correspondent, one
of the accused was recognised guilty, and the second was
acquitted.
The Jury ruled out the Rasil Mamedrizayev
who had been accused of the murder and keeping of weapon
was guilty of the crime...
Statement by the Bureau of the YABLOKO
party. May 20, 2010
The YABLOKO party has been closely following
the trial on the murder of Farid Babayev, the leader of
the Dagestan YABLOKO and a human rights activist.
On June 4, 2009, the Penal Chamber of the
Supreme Court of Russia abrogated the previous decision
of the Jury and a sentence passed against Rasil Mamedrizayev
and Seferali Sefemerzoyev and returned the case to another
trial by a new composition of the Jury. It is expected that
a new sentence against the culprits will be passed soon.
The YABLOKO party has several times expressed
its concern over open pressure applied by the interested
side to the witnesses and the Jury, and consequently they
either changed or refused from their previous testimony
against the culprits...
UK Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg (Leader
of LI Full Member the Liberal Democrats) this week pledged
the “biggest shake up of [UK] democracy in 178 years”,
as he vowed to extend plans for political reform and promised
to restore the British voter's faith in politics. He laid
out his view for a liberal Great Britain during a speech
on Wednesday, in which he also said the aim was to 'transform
[UK] politics so the state has far less control over you,
and you have far more control over the state'. This would
include significant measures and reforms aimed at improving
British citizen's right to privacy. Mr. Clegg stated: “I'm
talking about the most significant programme of empowerment
by a British government since the great enfranchisement
of the 19th Century. The biggest shake up of our democracy
since 1832, when the Great Reform Act redrew the boundaries
of British democracy, for the first time extending the franchise
beyond the landed classes. Incremental change will not do.
It is time for a wholesale, big bang approach to political
reform.'
On May 17 deputy of the Yekaterinburg Duma
Maxim Petlin received a notification from one of the district
courts of Yekaterinburg that Mayor Chernetsky filed a protest
on the court decision on the libel case (case No 2-134).
Earlier the court had turned down the libel suit by Mayor
Chernetsky to Maxim Petlin and television channel Russia
which broadcasted Petlin’s critical statement about
the situation with kindergartens in the city. The court
also had charged the Mayor RUR 20,000 (about USD 700) for
compensation of the legal costs incurred by Maxim Petlin...
Yesterday First Deputy Mayor of Moscow Vladimir
Resin annulled his earlier order of May 5 on creation of
an anticorruption commission in the Moscow construction
sector.
A day before this on May 17, Alexander Gnezdilov,
Deputy Chair of the Moscow YABLOKO and the Youth Chamber
under the Moscow City Duma, in his speech in the Moscow
parliament sharply criticized the composition of the commission.
He stated that it was inadmissible when Moscow officials
with criminal cases opened against them participate in the
anticorruption commission. For example, Alexander Levchenko,
head of the Moscow roads, bridges and infrasrtucture construction
department, was included into the commission despite of
the fact that a criminal persecution due to his abuse of
authority had been launched against him...
The YABLOKO party has motioned a suit in
the first instance court demanding to oblige the Moscow
authorities to provide a state expertise the State Plan
of Moscow Development. “According to our information,
the State Plan of Moscow Development has not received a
positive conclusion from the state expertise in spite of
the fact that Mosgosekspertiza (Moscow State Expertise Agency)
under the Moscow Government was mandated to conduct it.
As far as we know, most experts were dissatisfied with the
solution of transport problems in the new plan,” runs
the statement signed by YABLOKO’s Chair Sergei Mitrokhin...
...This problem can be solved only via a
dialogue with the workers. Russian large business treating
independent trade unions like enemies will no go for such
a dialogue, therefore, creation of conditions for such a
dialogue should become a direct responsibility of the authorities
of all levels.
Miners have the right to fight for safe
working conditions and decent living. The state must make
a radical revision of the labour law and change its attitude
to the regulators that have to control implementation of
the law.
We are calling President of Russia to create
a special commission for examination of the justified claims
of the miners and development of social support measures
for their families from the federal budget...
Is
Modernisation in Russia Possible? Interview
with Grigory Yavlinsky and Boris Titov by Yury Pronko, "The
Real Time" programme, Radio Finam, May 12, 2010
Parts 1 and 2
...Yavlinsky: Well, it’s correct.
You can live like this, and live like this for a long time.
Or not so long, it depends. Approximately 25% of the population
of our country are satisfied with the situation, and will
be satisfied. The economic system created in the country
is a stable system, a self-reproducing system with its social
support, and it should be noted, with a strong public support,
the key feature of this system which is that people who
live in this system and use it do not wish to part with
it, because this would worsen their situation very rapidly.
[Our] people are mostly well-educated, intelligent, they
understand that such a system will not last long in a strategic
sense, but to part with it at present, today would mean
worsening of their situation today and tomorrow. Therefore,
they do not want this. The system has shown for the past
ten years, that if the situation on the world markets is
more or less favourable, than the system will be functioning
and provide good growth rates...
It was 65 years ago that the World War II
ended. The scope of the disaster was so devastating that
the entire world learned the lesson and found ways for reconciliation
of the recent foes and creation of international mechanisms
for peaceful development of the mankind. Responsibility
and intellect of politicians, experts and public leaders
took over narrow national and corporate interests allowing
to formulate common approaches to the construction of a
new Europe and a new world. After the war, the UN and the
Council of Europe were established and the integration of
the European democratic states leading to today’s
European Union began. The Liberal International was created,
and its Oxford Manifesto of 1947 proclaimed liberal values
to be a must for future development. Freedom and democracy,
human rights and rule of law became key components of the
new world order. In spite of the fact that half of Europe
remained under Stalin’s totalitarian dictatorship,
progress was irreversible. This value-orientation proved
to be successful as the communist regimes collapsed in the
USSR and Eastern Europe...
On May 12, the Youth YABLOKO organisation
conducted a flash mob by the Ostankino TV centre under the
slogan “We Do not Need Such Television!” Four young activists
brought a TV set to the entrance of Ostankino centre and
placards “For the Freedom of Speech!”, “For Independent
Media!”. Then young people broke the TV set shouting “Putin,
change the format!” and “We are tired of TV brainwashing!”...
We are sharing the pain of all those who
lost their relatives and next-of-kin in the explosion at
the Raspadskaya mine. Whatever the objective and subjective
causes of the accident were, we can not return these lives
and crying only won’t help us. We know that miners
are courageous people who can patiently and with great dignity
bear such things. I hope God gives you strength to bear
this pain.
On the 65th anniversary of the victory in
the Second World War the YABLOKO party commemorated the
victims of the war laying flowers to the Eternal Flame over
the mass grave of the largest military burial ground in
Moscow – the Preobrazhensky Cemetery. Such memory
actions have been traditionally conducted by YABLOKO at
the Preobrazhenskoye cemetery for several years already.
On behalf of the party the wreaths were
laid by YABLOKO’s leaders Sergei Mitrokhin and Grigory
Yavlinsky, Political Committee member Sergei Ivanenko, deputy
Chair of the Moscow YABLOKO Ivan Bolshakov and leader of
the Moscow Region branch of YABLOKO retired General Major
Anton Goretsky and his deputy Dmitry Ilyushin...
Today activists of the YABLOKO party lay
flowers to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in the Alexandrovsky
Garden by the Kremlin Wall. YABLOKO’s leaders – its Chair
Sergei Mitrokhin, members of Political Committee Grigory
Yavlinsky and Alexei Arbatov, and Anton Goretsky, Chair
of the Moscow Region YABLOKO and General Major (retired)
participated in the mourning ceremony...
Today the Youth organisation of YABLOKO
conducted a series of one-person pickets by the Kazan Cathedral
in the centre of St.Petersburg. YABLOKO protests against
placement of Stalin portraits in the city. “We are
outraged by emergence of portraits of the executioner of
the people on the threashold of the Great Victory Day. It
is inadmissible to place portraits (whatever they may be)
of a man who broke millions of lives, was an absolutely
talentless leader of the army and killed the heroes who
had protected Leningrad during blockade,” stated the
organisers of the action.
Four young YABLOKO’s activists dressed
in prisoners’ clothes and bearing plates on their
chests with a list of Stalin’s crimes were spreading
leaflets. The leaflets described Stalin’s crimes and
explained why his portrait was an insult of the memory of
the war and its victims...
The fact that Stalin’s portraits as
a Marshall of Victory finally have not emerged in the Moscow
streets is a great achievement of our civil society.
The YABLOKO party took an active part in
the campaign. In our first statement we said that there
is no place for Stalin’s portraits in the V-Day decoration
of Moscow streets and squares.
However, placement of the materials of totalitarian
propaganda (that have already been printed) in the Moscow
museums and public centres makes us to return to this issue
once again...
...Sergei Mitrokhin, leader of the Yabloko
opposition party and a former Duma deputy, voiced doubts
that the Public Chamber had a chance of defeating City Hall
in court. “All court cases will be lost,” Mitrokhin said,
adding that the critics faced a tough fight with “hungry
investors” coming to “snatch up the city.”
He said the opponents managed to score a
minor victory when they forced City Hall to remove new waste-burning
plants within the Moscow city lim its from the Genplan...
About 1,200 people participated in the March
of Changes organised by YABLOKO on May 1.
The columns of demonstrators with YABLOKO’s
flags and white balloons marched from the Maly Theatre towards
the Lubyanka square. The leaders of the party, human rights
activists and ecologists held a slogan “For the Changes!”
“For the Changes! For Russia! For
YABLOKO! We are tired of stagnation! No to oligarchia, yes
to democracy!” chanted the demonstrators. When the
columns of demonstrators approached the Federal Security
Service building a slogan “Away with the power of
the KGB!” was heard...
...Most of violations of the labour rights
are connected with non-observance of the labour protection
law. Direct loss from occupational traumatism in the Russian
Federation is 250 times higher than in the US and the EU
countries. Also the Russian labour law has many gaps leading
to mass-scale lawlessness of the workers.
For example, the Russian Labour Code does
not contain a notion of labour contract. The Code does not
envisage the responsibility of the employer to provide work
to the employee. The owner of the company is not liable
by his income or property for the company’s performance
and damage to the health and life of the workers. Thus,
the employers are, on one hand, often interested in bankruptcy
of their companies and even prepare such bankruptcies, on
the other hand, they neglect labour protection norms considering
them unprofitable...
The YABLOKO party demands from the State
Duma to decline the draft law envisaging broadening of competence
of the Federal Security Service (FSB) connected with the
so-called “special preventive measures” against
extremism.
The draft law stipulating that the FSB has
the right to announce to the Russian citizens official warnings
for the actions that can allegedly cause extremism and arrest
them for 15 days for non-obeying to the lawful demand by
the FSB officer creates grounds for violation of the law
by the FSB staff and is targeted against the dissenting.
Taking into account the lack of transparency
and control of the Russian secret services and an extremely
wide interpretation of the notion “extremist activity”,
as well as systematic bans on rallies and pickets the draft
law initiated by the Russian government provides unlimited
prospects for security services’ arbitrary rule.
The sanction for non-obeying the warning
distorts the legal liability principle, as the liability
takes place in case of a definite wrongdoing. The proposed
norm envisages in some cases (e.g., for participation in
the actions that are not agreed upon with the authorities)
even tougher liability for the same violations than envisaged
in the present law...
“I think that this treaty is useful and
profitable for both the countries. This is a step forward
towards integration creating a basis for further long-term
cooperation,” YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin told to
Interfax on Tuesday.
However, considering the fact that Russia
simultaneously lowered gas price for Ukraine by 30 per cent,
Mitrokhin noted that this was “a high price paid by Russia”.
The key issues on the agenda of discussions
between YABLOKO members Grigory Yavlinsky and Alexander
Shishlov meetings and PACE politicians are the reforms in
PACE and the Council of Europe and drawing public attention
to the Babayev case (leader of the Dagestan YABLOKO and
candidate to the State Duma Farid Babayev was murdered in
2007, the trial has been still going on).
On April 26-27 the founder of the YABLOKO
party Grigory Yavlinsky and member of YABLOKO’s Bureau
and ex First Vice Chair of the ALDE Group, PACE, Alexander
Shishlov will be in Strasburg on the invitation of one of
PACE’s factions - the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats
for Europe Group (ALDE).
Grigory Yavlinsky and Alexander Shishlov
will propose a number of changes to the charter documents
of PACE and CE. “The reforms are necessary so that
to prevent PACE’s turning into a kind of small UN,”
Grigory Yavlinsky stated at a press-conference earlier today...
Today, on April 26, on the Memory Day of
Nuclear Disasters Victims, YABLOKO held an action commemorating
the victims of nuclear disasters by Rosatom (Russia’s
Atomic Agency). The police and security
guards refused to let YABLOKO’s activists to the territory
of Rosatom, therefore the activists fixed the placard “Memory
of nuclear disasters victims” on the fence around
the building and laid flowers to it.
“Rosatom is a legal successor of the
Atomic Ministry and bears full responsibility for the disasters,”
said YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin, who also participated
in the action. According to Mitrokhin, the victims of these
tragedies “have not got due compensations yet”,
moreover, even “not all the victims have legal right
to such compensations”...
Statement by the YABLOKO party on
the Memory Day of Nuclear Disasters Victims, April 26, 2010
Today we are commemorating the victims of
nuclear disasters, the innocent victims of Novozemesky and
Semipalatisnky nuclear testing sites, those who got under
the radioactive cloud from Chernobyl, dozens of thousands
of Chernobyl liquidators who passed out prematurely, submariners
who died in the accident with the Komsomolets submarine
and other submarines, and the victims of the disaster and
pollution from the Mayak plant and other nuclear facilities.
The state has been trying to forget and
avoid responsibility for the life and health of hundreds
of thousands Russian citizens living in the territories
with radioactive pollution, such as Bryansk, Tula, Oryol,
Kaluga, Tomsk, Chelyabinsk, Novosibirsk, Irkutsk and other
regions, Yakutia, Altai, Matitime, Baikal and Krasnoyarsk
areas, as well as to forget about the consequences of dozens
of underground “peaceful” nuclear tests conducted
in Russia.
We can not agree with the ideas that “it
is high time to forget Chernobyl and the consequences of
the cold war” neither from moral grounds nor from
academic views: all these consequences of nuclear pollution
will affect the health of several further generations. These
policies led to the situation when many thousands of involuntary
hostages of the nuclear sector can not get just compensations...
On April 26-27 Grigory Yavlinsky will have
a number of meetings in PACE. Grigory
Yavlinsky’s schedule includes meetings with Mr Thorbjørn
Jagland, Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Mr
Melvut Çavusoglu, President of the PACE, rapporteurs
of the Monitoring Committee on Russia, Mr Andreas Gross
and Mr Gyorgy Frunda, Mr Dick Marty and rapporteur on the
North Caucasus, as well as a speech at the meeting of the
Alliance of Liberal and Democrats for Europe (ALDE).
The Spring session of PACE will take place
in Strasburg on April 26-30 and will be devoted to the consequences
of the economic crisis, the war between Georgia and Russia
and other issues...
...For three days Khodorkovsky was comparing
the real development of the company with the bandit slang
of the prosecutors. What the investigators called “criminal
schemes” all the world has been learning in business
school and paying high fees for that and also reading in
the Economics textbooks, i.e. the entire world but for the
prosecutors...
Yesterday, on April 22, the meeting of the
Regional Council of the Moscow YABLOKO discussed the situation
in the Rechnik village. Ludmila Gaiduk, the leader of the
initiative group of the residents of the village which had
had suffered reprisals from the Moscow authorities, made
a speech at the meeting. She expressed gratitude to YABLOKO
for protection of the village and its residents. Gaiduk
handed to Sergei Mitrokhin a letter of appreciation. “Thanks
to your speech at the State Council meeting and in the mass
media, organisation of picketing in protection of property
rights and multiple statements by YABLOKO’s activists
we managed to get attention from the country leader to our
problem and pulling down of houses was stopped,” runs
the letter...
Valery Borschyov is ex deputy of the State
Duma, member of the Moscow Helsinki Group and Secretary
of the YABLOKO Bureau.
Valery Borschyov: Any shrinking of the field
for trials by a jury court is unfavourable. It is very bad
that cases connected with terrorism and extremism and many
other issues connected with this notion have been removed
from the jurisdiction of the jury court. Obviously, there
is a problem, that, for example, it is impossible to have
a trial on terrorists in Chechnya, Ingushetia or Dagestan
by a jury court. However, Russia is a large country, and
certainly [such cases] can be examined by a jury court in
a different federation subject, or by a higher court and
not necessarily in the Northern Caucasus, if the terrorist
comes from this region. There were concerns voiced that
the jury court may acquit terrorists. However, what is the
essence of a trial by jury? The jury acquits the accused
when investigation has failed.
Web-site “For St.Petersburg without
Matviyenko” (http://www.piter-bez-matvienko.ru/) collecting
signatures in favour of resignation of St.Petersburg Governor
Valentina Matviyenko has been launched. “We,
citizens of St.Petersburg, demand resignation of Governor
Valentina Matviyenko; for six and a half years she has been
in power we have been clearly shown that the policies conducted
by her administration is hostile to the interests of the
citizens and represents a consistent violation of their
rights,” runs the address to the citizens...
The oligarchs' formula for modernization:
the citizens should work more, get less payment, and not
complain when they are dismissed without compensation.
People usually name the confrontation between
the civil society and a corrupt state be the key political
conflict in modern Russia. The latest statement by [tycoon]
Mikhail Prokhorov, who voiced the position of the Russian
Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RUIE) on labour
legislation, showed the people that there is one more serious
conflict. It is called ‘open social confrontation’.
Between business and hired labour. The statement by RIUE
sis very important.
Maybe for the first time for the past years
the society has been openly shown that large business has
its own interests; separate from both the "state"
and the "public" interests. During the heady "noughties",
the large business dressed up in the clothes of bureaucratic
patriotism and its face demonstrated a grin of "social
responsibility" when in public...
The Russian United Democratic Party YABLOKO
expresses its extreme concern by the growth of havoc and
violence in Kyrgyzstan, which also led to the acts of violence
and robbery against Russian citizens and ethnic Russians
living in Kyrgyzstan.
In the situation of abrupt weakening of
the power and virtual negligence by the law enforcement,
nationalistic bashing can end in multiple victims. The duty
of the Russian authorities is to prevent murders of our
compatriots, as well as the citizens of Kyrgyzstan and all
other nations that are left without protection.
We are calling President of Russia and Prime
Minister of Russia to take under their personal control
the issue of preventing mass killings in Kyrgyzstan, make
corresponding public statements and use all the leverages
so that to influence the situation...
A senior Russian judge who presided over
the high-profile trial of a gang of racist killers was assassinated
in Moscow on April 12 2010. Eduard Chuvashov, who was shot
on the way to work on Monday morning is suspected to have
been killed by ultranationalists as revenge, after he jailed
three skinheads last week for racially-motivated murders.
The Moscow City Court judge has previously sentenced a gang
of skinhead youths for similar crimes and also worked on
cases involving Russian officials accused of corruption
and embezzlement. Sergei Mitrokhin, leader of LI Full Member
YABLOKO, commented on the murder that took place in broad
daylight in Moscow: “We think that this blatant murder
of a federal judge who has been conducting the most resonant
cases against nationalists and chauvinists represents a
challenge both to the judiciary and the civil society…
[it is an attempt] on behalf of nationalistic and fascist
forces to frighten and split our multiethnic society over
nationalistic issues.”
The Russian United Democratic Party YABLOKO
expresses its support to The New Times magazine in connection
with an attempt of the law enforcement to conduct unlawful
inspection of documents in the editing house. We think that
these actions represent an act of punitive censorship which
has to produce a chilling effect on Russian journalists
in case they wish to publish articles inconvenient to top
military and police officials.
We hope that this event will not interfere
with functioning of the editorial house and conducting of
serious journalist investigations by the magazine...
The Russian United Democratic Party YABLOKO
calls to release St.Petersburg scientists Eugeni Afanasyev
and Svyatoslav Bobyshev.
Considering the “practices” of work of the
Federal Security Bureau in the recent years we have all
the grounds to state that the accusations set against the
scientists in their alleged transfer of state secrets to
China are groundless.
Any investigation that the law enforcement
consider necessary can be performed without bringing the
scientists in custody. We consider such measure of restraint
as excessive and demonstratively repressive by nature...
The YABLOKO party supports the action of
the Federation of Russia’s Motorists targeted at introducing
amendments into the traffic rules regulating the use of
special signals on officials’ cars.
The recent developments on the Russian roads,
in particular, a scandal with Presidential Advisor (the
post represents virtually a kind of honourable discharge)
abusing his right of preferential passage shows the importance
of this action and its public importance...
Executive Secretary of YABLOKO’s Political
Committee Galina Mikhalyova presented the book Overcoming
Stalin’s Legacy in Voronezh on April 10.
Over 20 people participated in the discussion:
members of the Regional Council of the YABLOKO party, heads
of the Voronezh branch of the Memorial society, history
teachers, representatives of youth human rights movement,
independent students’ paper Perekhod and the Young
Europe international network, those who suffered Stalin’s
reprisals and representatives from other parties and movements.
Chair of Voronezh YABLOKO Inna Kudryashova stressed that
communists were trying to revive Stalin’s cult in
Voronezh as well as in other Russia’s cities...
YABLOKO's leader Sergei Mitrokhin, Secretary
of YABLOKO's Political Committee Galina Mikhalyova, deputy
head of the Moscow YABLOKO Ivan Bolshakov and other activists
laid flowers to the wall of the Polish Embassy.
The Russian United Democratic Party YABLOKO
expresses sincere condolences to the people of Poland and
all the next-of-kin of the victims of the aircrash by Smolensk.
On this hard moment of pain we are wishing
you strength so that you may overcome it with courage so
characteristic of the Polish nation.
The memory of the Katyn tragedy and of those
killed in the aircrash will make our nations even closer.
We are sharing your pain and joining you
in mourning over the victims.
Sincerely,
Sergei Mitrokhin,
Chair of the YABLOKO party
Interregional conference “Women’s Movement
in Russia: the Present and Socio-Political Prospects” and
the meeting of the Council for Consolidation of Women’s
Movement in Russia will take place in Voronezh on April
9, 2010. The conference marked the 10th anniversary of the
Voronezh regional movement Women’s Unity.
Co-organisers of the conference were the
Council for Consolidation of Women’s Movement in Russia
and the Russian Academy of State Service...
Mass rally took place in Tuchkovo, the Moscow
region, on April 10. The election of the new head of Tuchkovo
was conducted under tough pressure from the city administration
composed our of United Russia members. The election results
have not been recognised valid yet, as the residents of
the area voted for Viktor Alksnis who was in opposition
to United Russia...
The police considered Sergei Mitrokhin’s
calls to Governor Gromov to resign as extremism and summoned
Viktor Alksnis as organiser of the rally to the local police
department for explanations. Sergei Mitrokhin and Viktor
Alksnis gave their explanations in the police department...
A mass rally for “Installing order in the
housing and utilities sector” organised by the YABLOKO party
was held at the Pushkin square, Moscow, on April 10. About
600 people participated in the rally, including initiative
groups of Muscovites from different Moscow districts...
“Ten years ago YABLOKO proposed a principally
new reform of the housing and utilities sector, where tough
control over monopolies had to play the key role. However,
our proposal was turned down and the reform developed toward
monopolization: the vertical of power began deriving super
profits via raising tariffs for the citizens,” Sergei Mitrokhin
said at the rally...
...On the occasion of the forthcoming meeting
between President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry
Medvedev to sign an agreement on a landmark nuclear arms
reduction treaty, ALDE leader Guy Verhofstadt offered his
words of support: “The agreement reached represents
a break with the past and makes a major contribution to
the ambition of building a safer world without nuclear weapons.
I am strongly encouraged by the US-Russia agreement on nuclear
arms reduction. I expect it to serve as a basis for the
forthcoming summits in Washington D.C. and New York that
will frame international consensus on tackling nuclear proliferation.
President Obama will find strong supporters within the European
Union in addressing this challenge...”
The leaders of YABLOKO and the Russian Medical
Association (RMA) signed today a Memorandum on state policies
in healthcare and a healthcare reform.
“The positions, approaches and the
concept of the healthcare reform proposed by the RMA completely
coincide with YABLOKO’s approach,” Sergei Mitrokhin
said opening the press-conference. According to Mitrokhin,
the party will reinforce its programme in the part of healthcare
measures and will get a possibility to work with Russia’s
medical community.
“Our common task is not only formulate
a concept of a healthcare reform and translate medical and
research tasks into a political language, but also to protect
doctors and patients,” added Galina Mikhalyova, Executive
Secretary of YABLOKO’s Political Committee.
“The slogan of our party has been
“Freedom and Justice”, Mitrokhin reiterated.
“However, the main drawback of the present healthcare
system is the lack of both of them. And YABLOKO and the
Russian Medical Association completely agree in their vision
of this problem,” he said...
On the ninth day after the acts of terror
in the Moscow metro YABLOKO’s activists and students
of Moscow universities commemorated the victims of the tragedy.
Grigory Yavlinsky insists that modernisation
concept should include political reforms
Kommersant, April 6, 2010
...In his turn Grigory Yavlinsky, co-chair
of the Council of ZaModernozatsiyu.Ru and member of YABLOKO’s
Political Committee, stated that that "discussing enforced
modernisation would be a waste of time and effort”.
"History shows us that a totalitarian regime can transform
an
agrarian state into industrial, however an industrial state
can not be transformed into a post-industrial in such a
way." “We have a country of total literacy, however
why should we seriously discuss Skolkovo (Kommersant: creation
of the Russian Silicon Valley there),” Yavlinsky said.
“This is like growing corn which we all witnessed
once (Mr.Yavlinsky is speaking here about countrywide cultivation
of corn initiated by Secretary General of the Communist
Party Nikita Khrushchev in early 1960s)! The same thing
has been happening with nanotechnologies. Why should we
discuss this on a national level?!”...
Yavlinsky’s master class sparks buoyant
discussion, generates new ideas ICEUR's
first master class starring reform economist and opposition
leader Grigory Yavlinsky was held on 26th March, 2010, at
the International Press Club Concordia in Vienna. It was
attended by a select audience including diplomats, journalists,
members of the scientific community and students. At the
beginning of the session which held the participants in
suspense for almost three hours, Yavlinsky analyzed the
current situation in Russia and identified six preconditions
for reform which, in his mind, could lead Russia out of
the present impasse. A successful economic reform, he argued,
was impossible without the realization of property rights,
a functioning local administration, an independent justice
and a new relationship between citizens and authorities...
An action by the Youth branch of the YABLOKO
party “To Europe without Visas” took place by
EU representation in Moscow today, on the day on coming
into force of the Visa Code of the EU. Young
YABLOKO’s activists were holding flags of Russia and
the European Union and were chanting slogans “Russia
is a part of Europe!”, “To Europe without visas!”
and “No wasting time in queues by the consulate departments!”
“A visa-free entrance of the
Russian citizens to Europe conditions Russia’s becoming
an integral part of Europe,” Maxim Kruglov, one of
the leader of the Youth YABLOKO said. “Young people
would like to get education in Europe, to travel there and
to see how Europeans live,” he added.
YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin
also came to the Embassy to support the young activists.
Mitrokhin said that the initiative of elimination of visa
barriers between Russia and EU belongs to YABLOKO. For the
first time this idea was proposed by the Yabloko faction
of the Russian parliament in 1995. “This idea was
supported by Russia’s Foreign Ministry after a long
period of our talks and negotiations with them,” Mitrokhin
said. YABLOKO's leader also raised the issue of a visa-free
regime the congress and meetings of the ELDR party (of which
YABLOKO is a fully-fledged member), as well as the meetings
of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Group
(ALDE), the third largest group of the European Parliament...
Presentation of a book “The Equation
of Security” by Dr.Alexei Arbatov, member of YABLOKO’s
Political Committee, head of the International Security
Centre with the Russian Academy of Sciences, took place
in YABLOKO’s Moscow office today. YABLOKO’s
leader Dr.Sergei Mitrokhin and member of Political Committee
and the founder of the party Dr.Grigory Yavlinsky participated
in the presentation.
The book offers an assessment of the international
security system and the place of the Russian Federation
in the present changeable concept of international relations.
Some of the key postulates of the book lie in the decision
of YABLOKO’s Political Committee “On Russia’s
Foreign Policies”...
Interregional conference “Women’s
Movement in Russia: the Present and Socio-Political Prospects”
and the meeting of the Council for Consolidation of Women’s
Movement in Russia will take place in Voronezh on April
9, 2010. Chair of YABLOKO’s Gender faction and Co-Chair
of the Council for Consolidation of Women’s Movement
Galina Mikhalyova will make a report at the conference “The
Political Prospects of Women’s Movement at the Present
Stage”...
Today, on April 2, Yekaterinburg district
court turned down the libel claim motioned by the city Mayor
Arkady Chernetsky against deputy of the city Duma and leader
of the local branch of YABLOKO Maxim Petlin. The court charged
the Mayor RUR 20,000 (about USD 700) for compensation of
the legal costs incurred by Maxim Petlin.
Chernetsky started a legal case against Petlin after the
latter said in the TV programme that Chernetsky had “sold
half of kindergartens buildings”. The Mayor called
this phrase a libel and motioned a libel case against Petlin.
The second defender in the court was Rossiya television
channel which had broadcasted Petlin’s interview and
showed an item on alienation of large number of kindergartens
in favour of Chernetsky’s family members...
YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin
forwarded to the head of the Investigative Committee at
the Public Prosecutor’s Office Alexander Bastirkin
a second address demanding to start criminal persecutions
on the murder of Chechen farmers gathering herbs by the
Arshty village in Ingushetia on February 11-12...
Mitrokhin’s letter based on the facts
obtained during investigation of the Memorial human rights
centre. Memorial proved that the versions voiced by the
top officials that the militants had allegedly used the
civilians as a shield and that people had been killed due
to the air strikes were incorrect...
“I realise that after yesterday’s
statement by Umarov [where he took the responsibility for
the acts of terror in the Moscow Metro] the Investigative
Committee may have psychological difficulties with the adoption
of such a decision, however, this body has to be guided
by lawful interests of the citizens protected by law rather
than by bandits’ provocative statements,” runs
Mitrokhin’s letter...
Sergei Mitrokhin, Leader of LI Full member
YABLOKO, was quick to express his condolences after the
deadly attacks on the Moscow Metro on Monday morning. “On
behalf of the YABLOKO party I am expressing our deepest
condolences to all the relatives of the victims of today's
acts of terror, and our support and compassion to all the
victims.” He added that Russians should thoroughly
investigate the incidents, saying “I demand an objective
and urgent investigation of these crimes. I find it necessary
that not only the organisers of these acts of terror but
also the heads of the security bodies who did not draw any
lessons out of the previous crimes of this kind in Moscow
and other cities in different parts of the world [will be
interrogated].” LI President Hans van Baalen MEP issued
a statement earlier this week condemning the attacks: “These
cowardly attacks once again show the need for increased
international cooperation in the fight against terror. Russia
can not defeat terrorism alone. Putin and Medvedev need
to reconsider their opposition to NATO and foster stronger
relations with its member and partner countries in order
to provide better security to its citizens.”
The book provides the decision of YABLOKO’s
Political Committee on overcoming Stalin’s and Bolsheviks’
legacy, offers political assessment of the key issues of
Russia’s history in the 20th century and also suggests
that overcoming Stalinism and Bolshevism should be the key
pre-requisite of Russia’s modernisation. Such a political
decision containing an assessment of the Stalin’s
system and the coup of October 1917 was adopted for the
first time in Russia...
Today, on the day of mourning of the victims
of the acts of terror in the Moscow metro, the founder and
the first chairman of the YABLOKO party and member of YABLOKO’s
Political Committee Grigory Yavlinsky laid flowers at the
Park Kultury metro station...
Outrages act of murder that took place in
the Moscow Metro and that killed dozens of people dead and
injured does not leave unnoticed. On behalf of the Alliance
of Liberals and Democrats for Europe allow me to express
my condolences and solidarity in the face of this tragedy.
Terrorism has no excuse or justification. On this Monday
morning in Moscow it has shown its ugliest face. A hideous
crime was committed without concern or consideration for
human life. We deplore in strongest terms and call to justice
all of the perpetrators of this massacre. Fighting terrorism
requires determination and cross-border partnership. European
Union stands prepared to extend its hand in finding sustainable
solutions in persecuting and eliminating terrorism.
Liberal International President Hans van
Baalen MEP has strongly condemned the terrorist attacks
in Moscow. He stressed the need for more cooperation through
international organizations in the worldwide war against
terrorism. Van Baalen also expressed his condolences to
the families of the victims and the Russian people.
According to Van Baalen: “These cowardly
attacks once again show the need for increased international
cooperation in the fight against terror. Russia can not
defeat terrorism alone. Putin and Medvedev need to reconsider
their opposition to NATO and foster stronger relations with
its member and partner countries in order to provide better
security to its citizens. Terrorist networks are linked
from Yemen to Afghanistan to Chechnya. Terrorism is an international
problem that requires an international solution. We need
to take a stand together.”
The ELDR Party wishes to express its condolences
to the people and families that have been caught up in the
bombings on the Moscow metro system earlier this morning...
Please receive our deepest condolences in
view of the acts of terror in Moscow.
An atrocious crime was made and our hearts
are with those who were injured. We are grieving about those
killed together with their relatives and all the Russian
citizens and we are wishing the soonest recovery to the
injured.
Terrorism has no place in our world whatever
goals they would proclaim.
Sincerely,
Kristina Ojuland,
Deputy of the European Parliament,
the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Group
(ALDE)
Sergei Mitrokhin’s blog at
the Echo Moskvi radio web-site, March 29, 2010
On behalf of the YABLOKO party, I am expressing
our deepest condolences to all the relatives of the victims
of today’s acts of terror, and our support and compassion
for all of the victims. I am demanding an objective and
urgent investigation of these crimes.
I also find it necessary to investigate
not only the organisers of these acts of terror, but also
the heads of the security bodies who did not draw any lessons
from the previous crimes of this kind that took place in
Moscow and other cities across the world.
It would appear that the authorities have
lulled themselves into a false sense of security with their
own propaganda; the claims that they have successfully ended
the war in the Caucasus, that they have allegedly achieved
stability in Russia.
Is not it clear that after every operation
against militants in the Caucasus we should not confine
ourselves to bravura reports and press releases, but we
must prepare for the terrorists’ acts of revenge in
every Russian settlement, especially in crowded towns and
cities...
On behalf of the YABLOKO party I am expressing
our deepest condolences to all the relatives of the victims
of today’s acts of terror, and our support and compassion
to all the victims.
I demand an objective and urgent investigation
of these crimes. I find it necessary that not only the organisers
of these acts of terror but also the heads of the security
bodies who did not draw any lessons out of the previous
crimes of this kind that took place in Moscow and other
cities in different parts of the world.
On March 27, a mass rally in protection
of the Lake Baikal took place in Ulan-Ude, Buryatia. The
rally was organised by YABLOKO’s branch in Buryatia
and ecological organisations. About 500 people came to the
rally.
The participants of the rally demanded to
abrogate the Resolution of the Government of the RF No 1
on launching the Baikal Pulp Plant. The rally called the
authorities to develop tourism in the area which would create
new jobs for the citizens of Baikalsk, rather than creating
jobs at environmentally unfriendly enterprise...
On March 27, the Political Committee of
the YABLOKO party and the Russian Medical Association (RMA)
signed a Memorandum on cooperation in reforming the healthcare
in Russia.
The Memorandum fixed the intentions of YABLOKO
and the RMA to cooperate in development of new approaches
to the healthcare reform, determining the priorities for
the sector and protection of the rights of the medical workers
and the patients.
Representatives of the RMA headed by their
President Ashot Sarkisyan gave YABLOKO’s Political
Committee of their proposals on each of the lines of cooperation...
Russia’s Ombudsman Vladimir Lukin asked
Public Prosecutor Yury Chaika to examine whether the government’s
decision to construct a highway Moscow – St.Petersburg that
has to go through the Khimki forest was lawful.
In accordance with the order of the Government
the lands of the Khimki forest were transferred to the category
of “industrial lands”.
In his letter to Public Prosecutor Vladimir
Lukin noted that the Khimki forest is a protected natural
territory in accordance with the Forestry Code, thus any
cuttings should be prohibited there...
An open address to the President
of the RF and Pobeda organisational committee, March 24,
2010
Respected Dmitry Anatolyevich,
On behalf of the YABLOKO party I am supporting
the decision of the Pobeda (Victory) organisational committee
[of the May 9 festivities] on inadmissibility of using the
Victory Day for Stalinist propaganda.
However, there are still doubts that placards
picturing Joseph Stalin, the executioner of the Russian
nation and other nations of the Soviet Union, will not emerge
in Moscow streets.
The Moscow government is free to initiate
such “social advertising”.
And the fair Victory Day will split the
nation as of the attitude to Joseph Stalin rather than become
a national unity day. We should not allow that...
Vassily Potapov, leader of the Miass branch
of YABLOKO, again won the election race to the assembly
of the Miass city district. At the first meeting of the
new assembly Potapov was unanimously elected chair of the
Commission on Regulations, Ethics and Public Relations.
“My first deputy term was a kind of
credit of trust, by my second term I regard as support of
my views as regards organisation of city governing and my
initiatives on making the district more comfortable,”
Potapov said. “However, it is a pity that my colleague
Viktor Strutz did not manage to win in his electoral district.
It would be more difficult for me to find support in the
assembly without his participation...”
On March 21, 2010, a mass-scale rally against
corruption in the housing and utilities services sector
took place in Saransk, Mordovia. About 1,000 people gathered
at the rally organised by YABLOKO.
Chair of the Mordovian YABLOKO Vladimir
Gridin opened the rally. In his speech he spoke about unjustified
raising of tariffs on electricity, heating and other utilities,
also he spoke about fraudulent schemes of transfer of communal
lands into municipal land.
YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin
also spoke at the rally. He laid the liability for corruption
and violations in the sector on the United Russia party
[as its members held the key posts in the sector].
“This party [United Russia] has been
stealing your money which deputies and bureaucrats make
you pay for the poor quality or even lacking services, as
it has been stealing your votes, ascribing itself 99 per
cent of the votes at the State Duma elections, “ Mitrokhin
said...
LYMEC news, March 22, 2010 On Friday, March 19, three young members of Russia's
Yabloko Party were arrested by the police in Omsk, Russia,
for gagging a statute in a city park as part of a Europe-wide
day of protests against the Belarus dictatorship. The activists
were released today but their situation remains precarious
in Russia's legal system.
Aloys Rigaut, President of European Liberal Youth, reacted
today to this news: 'We are pleased that the three activists
were released, but this situation simply should have never
happened. The Russian police grossly overreacted in a manner
that is incompatible with a country that claims to be a
democracy. This example goes to show that the right to a
peaceful and non-violent protest is still not something
that the Russian people can freely enjoy'. He continued:
'We are particularly worried that one of the activists suffered
from a serious medical situation while in prison and was
not offered any help. Such actions are unforgivable and
should make those responsible for arrest themselves a subject
of a criminal investigation.'
Annemie Neyts, ELDR President, also raised
her voice immediately last Friday: 'We all must recognize
that Russian people are increasingly subjected to a harsh
political pressure and denied their freedom of speech. A
painful example is the constant exodus of journalists to
the near Baltic or Scandinavian countries as political refugees.The
three young liberal activists arrested in Russia during
a peaceful demonstration against censorship in Belarus represent
the noblest example of courageous people unwilling to succumb
to a system of controlled information. ELDR strongly asks
for the release of the prisoners, for a fair investigation
over the detention and calls for the accountability of the
government'.
A rally against raising of transport tax
took place in Penza. The rally was organised by an initiative
group of Penza car owners at support of the YABLOKO party.
The regional authorities tried to use the
media of the city so that not to let people come to the
rally. However, about 500 people came to the rally (a good
result for Russia). The action was also supported by the
activists of the Volya party and the Left Front movement...
The activists held slogans “Government
to dismissal!”, “Who will be responsible for
fiscal lawlessness?”, “A car is not a luxury.
The luxury is the tax”, etc...
On Sunday, March 21, a mass-scale rally
against corruption in the housing and utilities sector and
unlawful seizure of lands by the authorities of the republic
will take place in Saransk, Mordovia. The rally will begin
at 1 p.m. YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin will also make
a speech at the rally.
The organiser of the action, Chair of the
Mordovian YABLOKO Vladimir Gridin told about unlawful action
of the companies providing housing and utilities services.
Thus, for example, heating payments reach 2,000 roubles
per a one bedroom flat, whereas average wage amounts to
only 5,000 roubles. The city administration, despite the
decisions of the court, also refuses to transfer land belonging
to the blocks of flats to the citizens owning flats in such
houses...
Statistical analysis of the voting in Tula
at Sunday’s elections to the city parliament demonstrates
an obvious correlation between the percentage of the votes
obtained by the parties and the voters turnover. The higher
is the turnout at an electoral district (a territory), the
higher is the average number of voters giving their votes
for progovernmental United Russia party, and, consequently,
the lower is the percentage for other parties.
This abnormal correlation is observed both
at breakdown of the votes as of polling station and as of
electoral district (territory). Such a correlation is one
more proof that United Russia was bribing voters.
Dr. Grigory Yavlinsky made a report at the
Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House)
at a
round table devoted to Russia’s economics and politics.
Dr.Yavlinsky offered his analysis of the roots of the present
situation in Russia and gave detailed proposals on a complex
of required economic and political reforms.
Note: Chatham House leads the ratings of world analytical
centres; it is the third time that Dr.Yavlinsky is invited
to make a report in the Chatham House.
Three activists of the Omsk Youth YABLOKO
organisation arrested at night of March 18 are have been
still detained. The Main Interior Department informs that
they are accused of vandalism, however, the local police
department which is detaining the activists denies this
and promises to release the activists soon.
An annual action in support of freedom of
speech in Belarus has been held at night March 18 – 19.
This is a part of international campaign European Youth
Against the Belarus Dictatorship. The participants of the
performance gag statues with banners saying “Freedom to
Belarus!”
Omsk YABLOKO activists Anton Zhebrun, Mikhail
Maglov and Andrei Yermilov were arrested by police when
they were gaging a Dostoyevsky statue. They were escorted
to the local police department Centralnoye, where they were
kept the whole night without water and food. Anton Zhebrun
had a heart attack, the police called an ambulance. However,
the policemen did not allow the young people to make calls
via their mobile phones...
Special police forces (OMON) and road police
have been blocking the column of the motor race against
construction of a nuclear power station in the Nizhy Novgorod
region at the Moscow Circular Road for 40 minutes already.
YABLOKO’s activists and YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin
are arrested. Some cars the police left on the road, which
led to a traffic jam.
The participants of the race were stopped
at the Moscow Circular Road for checking of their documents.
However later a police official stated that they were stopped
“because of such unsanctioned event”. Special police forces
arrived probably to assist the road police in checking the
documents...
During the Russian regional elections on
14 March there were once again allegations of fraud and
manipulation in favour of ruling party United Russia. Liberal
International Full Member YABLOKO was not allowed to participate
in the regional parliamentary elections in some regions
where YABLOKO traditionally obtained good results. YABLOKO
leader Sergei Mitrokhin commented on the elections: “We
think that the situation in Russia has been deteriorating.
Our party was not allowed to participate in regional parliamentary
elections in two regions (the Sverdlovsk Region and the
Kaluga Region), as Russian law contains a discriminatory
norm of collection of signatures for non-parliamentary parties
[which allows an] oppositional party [to] be ousted from
elections”. Despite the obstructions to YABLOKO in
the regional elections, on the threshold of federal elections
in 2011, the elections showed rising support for the party
on the local level. Elections to the municipal assembly
in Tula were especially successful: despite alleged fraud
in favour of United Russia, YABLOKO obtained over 11 per
cent in Tula, considerably improving its previous result
in this city (3 per cent in autumn 2009).
Also YABLOKO’s
list got 28.5 per cent of the votes at elections to local
legislative assembly of the Solnechny settlement, the Tver
region. At present YABLOKO’s deputies are forming
a faction YABLOKO – United Democrats in the municipal
parliament.
Olga Kurmanskaya,
Chair of Commission for Education, Culture and Social Policies
and Anatoly Makarov, pensioner and acting deputy of the
Astrakhan City Duma were supported by YABLOKO and became
deputies of the Astrakhan City Duma getting 49 per cent
and 67 per cent of the votes respectively.
YABLOKO’s list
at elections to the local assembly of the Nevelsky Area
of the Pskov Region was supported by 7.58 per cent of the
voters (fourth place). Thus, the party overcomes the barrier
and obtains one mandate (as nine mandates out of 17 are
distributed in accordance with party lists). Lawyer Svetlana
Arsenyeva will become a deputy from YABLOKO...
Two candidates – Anatoly Makarov and
Olga Kurmanskaya – supported by the YABLOKO party
got mandates in the Astrakhan City Duma. Both Makarov and
Kurmanskaya led in the vote in their electoral districts
getting 66.7 and 56.9 per cent of the votes, respectively.
Other YABLOKO’s candidates –
Tatyana Semyonova, Igor Avdeyev and Oleg Alexeyev –
obtained from 7 to 18 per cent of the votes failing to win
the mandates.
“All the participants of the electoral
process mark the imitational character of the election to
the city parliament. All the results of the voting have
been falsified to a lesser of greater extent: for example,
there were cases when about 30 per cent of the electorate
at one of the electoral districts voted per-term and all
for the same candidate,” noted Vadim Monin,
leader of the Astrakhan branch of YABLOKO.
YABLOKO obtained over 11 per cent of the
votes at parliamentary elections in the Tula region, which
gives a right of three or four mandates in the regional
parliament. However, election campaign was accompanied by
multiple violations. Bribing of votes in favour of the United
Russia party was observed during pre-term voting and multiple
violations took place on the election day.
YABLOKO’s list at the Solnechniy settlement
of the Tver Region obtained about 30% of the votes.
YABLOKO’s list at elections of the
Assembly of the Nevelsky Area of the Pskov Region is on
the verge of overcoming the barrier, however due to multirple
fraud the data has not been submitted to the GAS Vibory
system (electronic election data base) yet. Nevertheless
YABLOKO’s activists obtained 13 mandates in other
municipal settlements of the region.
Olga Kurmanskaya and Anatoly Makarov supported
by YABLOKO became members of the Astrakhan City Duma obtaining
49 and 67 per cent of the votes in the region electoral
districts respectively.
YABLOKO will also get two mandates in the
Assembly of the Krasnokamsky Area of the Perm Region. Svetlana
Ivanova obtained over 55 per cent of the votes in her district
and Arkady Kolokolov over 57 per cent.
Vassily Potapov, YABLOKO’s leader
in Miass of the Chelyabinsk Region, obtained about 50 per
cent of the votes and was reelected deputy of the Council
of Deputies of Miass...
...Golos, Russia's leading election watchdog,
said the election campaign was as dirty as any in recent
years, complaining of United Russia's domination of the
media.
The electoral commission blocked the opposition
Yabloko party from standing in two regional votes after
thousands of signatures collected by the party were ruled
invalid...
The YABLOKO party participates in local
and municipal elections in 15 Russia’s regions: Astrakhan,
Voronezh, Kirov, Lipetsk, Tula, Omsk, Pskov, Rostov, Tver,
Chelyabinsk regions, Krasnoyarsk, Perm and Khabarovsk areas,
the Moscow region and St.Petersburg.
Chair of YABLOKO’s branch in the Khabarovsk
area Igor Khovansky runs at parliamentary elections in the
Khabarovsk area from YABLOKO.
YABLOKO’s activists also compete for
the posts of heads of two large municipal entities: Igor
Pershin runs for the Mayor of Shakhti, the Rostov region,
and Sergei Parvitsky runs for the post of the head of the
Shatura municipal area, the Moscow region.
57 members of YABLOKO compete for 48 parliamentary
mandates in the Tula city parliament. YABLOKO’s list
is topped by Sergei Filatov, the present deputy of the city
Duma.
A heated campaign has developed in the Pskov
region. YABLOKO’s candidates run in 12 municipal areas
of the region.
However, electoral commissions of the Kaluga
and Sverdlovsk regions refused to register YABLOKO in the
campaigns to regional parliaments on faked pretexts.
Counting of votes at parliamentary elections
in Tula goes on. According to the preliminary data YABLOKO
obtains 13 per cent of the votes which means three or four
mandates in the regional parliament. At the same time observers
have fixed multiple violations.
Thus, abnormally high voting outside the
polling station was observed at electoral district No 421.
About 400 people referring to this district voted at home.
YABLOKO’s observer Olga Ushakova lodged a complaint
so that the results of the voting at this electoral district
should be recognised void. The electoral commission insisted
on counting these 400 votes and threatened to expel her
from the polling station...
Polling station No 390 demonstrated that
about half of all the notifications of voting at home (totaling
89) was received in a single pool at 10 a.m...
Regional Elections in Russia
The European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party, convening
in Rome, Italy on 12th March 2010:
Noting:
- The ELDR Party resolution “Russian Elections”
adopted in November 20092;
- That regional elections are taking place this Sunday (14th
March 2010) and ELDR’s member party, Yabloko is not
being allowed to run in the regions of Sverdlovsk and Kaluga;
- That despite President Medvedev’s statements on
access to participating in elections, the Yabloko Party
continues to be discriminated against.
Calls on the Russian authorities to:
- Take urgent remedial measures in ensuring free and fair
elections and maximum public control over voting;
- Observe Russia’s obligations to ensure democratic
standards under its membership of the OSCE and the Council
of Europe.
Will:
- Raise this issue with the ALDE Groups in the Council of
Europe and the European Parliament.
Speech by Sergei Mitrokhin at ELDR
Council meeting, Rome, March 12, 2010
In my view, elimination of visa barriers
between Russia and Europe should be examined and solved
by politicians rather than bureaucrats. All we need is political
will towards such strategic decision-making. Long-term advantages
here both for Russia and Europe considerably overweight
bureaucratic problems. And it will also allow us to solve
such issues as, for example, work permits and registration
for foreign citizens working in Russia, which should be
part of the general agreement on elimination of visa barriers.
For the Russian citizens the freedom of
movement within Europe is not reduced only to facilitation
of their business, study or tourist trips (though this is
also very important). This means their normal life within
a single European civilization on the basis of mutually
shared principles and values. This issue has become especially
acute when visa barriers separated us from our close Eastern
European neighbours. However, close interaction with them
has always been very important when we speak about European
trends in Russia.
The Russian United Democratic Party YABLOKO
is expressing its indignation with the situation when the
United Russia party has been openly and blatantly violating
the law at the Tula City Duma elections. Mass-scale and
virtually open bribing of voters has been taking place in
the city. A vote in favour of the United Russia party costs
from 400 to 500 roubles at pre-term voting. About 10 per
cent of the electorate have already voted at eight polling
stations (No 419, 423, 424, 428 – 432).
The Altair cable television channel has
been broadcasting a reel where those voting for the United
Russia party are guaranteed free subscription to the channel.
Bribing of voters has been at polling station
No 52 was video recorded and confirmed by the witnesses
at the police station.
Such actions by the United Russia party
on the threashold of the election day make us doubt the
results of the overall voting in the city.
Despite Medvedev’s appeal for smaller
parties to participate, running in local elections has become
even harder, said Vladislav Morozov, head of the Yabloko
opposition party's branch in the Kaluga region, located
160 kilometers southwest of Moscow.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court banned the
party from running for seats in the regional legislature,
citing problems with signatures the party collected to be
registered for the vote. Yabloko leader Sergei Mitrokhin
said the violations were minor, Noviye Izvestia reported
Wednesday.
Morozov is currently one of three Yabloko
deputies in the regional legislature, which like most in
Russia is dominated by United Russia.
Morozov complained that Kaluga Governor
Anatoly Artamonov, a member of United Russia is actively
campaigning for United Russia candidates and almost daily
appears on local television to endorse party candidates.
“That reminds me of the times of Brezhnev,”
he said, referring to Soviet elections when the Communists
had a one-party monopoly.
YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin
is going to get support to YABLOKO’s initiative on
introduction of a visa-free regime between Russia and the
EU from European liberals during the annual meeting of ELDR
Council which will take place in Rome on March 12-13.
On the threashold of the meeting Russian
Vedomosti newspaper published an article by Finnish Foreign
Minister Mr.Alexander Stubb where he stated the adherence
of Finland to the agreement between the RF and the EU on
facilitation of the visa regime which came into force in
summer 2007, as well as called the Russian authorities “to
concretize and accelerate” the work in this direction.
“Finland would welcome a visa-free regime between
the EU and Russia and will spare no effort for hitting this
goal,” Mr. Stubb stated. “I hope that Russian
leaders will have enough insistence and political will so
that to facilitate the necessary reforms,” he wrote.
Sergei Mitrokhin discussed the problem of
introduction of the visa-free regime at the meeting with
Ambassador of the Republic of Finland to the Russian Federation
Matti Anttonen on February 17.
Officials from Administration of the Lomonosovsky
District of the Leningrad region offered their apology to
Alexander Senotrusov, deputy head of YABLOKO’s Green
faction, for their intention to dismiss him from school
where he had been working as a teacher and their suspension
of functioning of a children’s club where he also
worked. Persecutions against YABLOKO’s activist began
after his interview to the NTV television channel.
On March 7, NTV released a piece devoted
to the practices of unlawful construction of cottages in
the natural reserves. Alexander Senotrusov told the journalists
about unlawful construction at the Lebyazhiye village situated
on Gulf of Finland shore.
After this the district administration began
persecutions against the teacher. Local bureaucrats were
going to dismiss Alexander Senotrusov as redundant and also
cut off electricity in the children’s club where he
worked.
ELDR Newsletter. March 4, 2010
If on one hand Yabloko, Russia, is still struggling against
the Russian authorities because of its last non-registration
in the regional election race in two key regions (please
click here for more details), on the other Radicali Italiani,
scored a good goal on the path of the rule of Law and protection
of civil rights.
The Italian party, after a careful investigation, reported
the numerous irregularities over the list of the centre-
right candidates in Rome and Milan- two crucial strongholds
of Berlusconi’s party - and seeing them finally erased
from the competition.
The Tula branch of YABLOKO recorded a mass-scale
buying of votes in favour of the United Russia and the Just
Russia party observed at pre-term elections to the Tula
parliament. A vote cast for United Russia cost 500 roubles
and a vote for the Just Russia party cost 100 roubles.
Today, on March 10 at about 11 a.m., YABLOKO’s
election headquarters received a telephone call about a
bribe of electorate at polling stations No 369 and 370 located
in school No 52. Several cars were parked in the yard of
one of the houses near the school. Unknown persons from
the cars first put down the data of the voters and after
their voting gave money to them.
Sergei Filatov, one of the leaders of YABLOKO’s
election list and deputy of the Tula parliament, arrived
to the polling station and discovered queues by the school
building. He recorded all he saw (see the recording),
interviewed the voter and also called the police.
START-1 does not affect the viability of
Russia's ground-mobile missiles. Authoritative representatives
of the RVSN (the former and new commanders, the former and
new chiefs of the MoD 4th Central Research Institute, and
others), and there are no grounds for trusting them less
than to Colonel Belov, Generals Ivashov and Chervov, or
Marshal Yazov, who are not even missilemen. The peacetime
deployment area (125,000 square km) defined for each regiment
is more than sufficient, and the missiles' concealment relies
not on the acreage of the area but on the ramified structure
of the roads and the strength of the bridges. In the pre-war
period the operational deployment of missiles was in no
way limited in terms of acreage. The key thing for the viability
of our mobile launchers is camouflage in the field positions,
where the Americans have never monitored anything and about
which they know nothing. START-1 had nothing to do with
this.
Statement by the International and
Moscow Memorial Societies. Press Release. March 3, 2010
Officials from the Moscow Mayor’s
Office have stated that portraits of Stalin are to be put
up in the city for the 65th Anniversary of Victory Day.
As is usual, it is not known by whom and at what level this
decision was taken, but it is clear that the portraits will
be produced at the expense of the taxpayers, who include
those who lost their relatives through the fault of the
dictator. But it is not a question of money, and nor is
it that some of those invited to the celebrations will probably
not wish to come to a city, decorated in such a dubious
manner. The appearance of portraits of Stalin on Victory
Day is an insult to the memory of the fallen...
If portraits of Stalin do indeed appear
on the streets of Moscow, we shall do all within our power
to ensure that, simultaneously, they will be accompanied
by other placards, stands, and posters which tell of the
tyrant’s crimes and of his true place in the history
of the Great War for the Fatherland. We are convinced that
hundreds of Muscovites – the children and grandchildren
of the front-line soldiers, of those to whom Victory really
belongs – will help us in this.
On March 3 during the second meeting of
the Coordination Council leaders of political parties and
public organisations and movements functioning in the Kaliningrad
region signed a joint document on creation of a coalition
targeted at stopping the monopoly of the progovernmental
United Russia party in the Kaliningrad region.
A press-conference of the new coalition
will take place in the Regional Duma on March 5 at 1 p.m.
The participants will present the text of the agreement
opened for all the parties and organisations sharing this
platform and will also answer the journalists’ questions.
On March 3 member of YABLOKO’s Political
Committee made a visit to the Astrakhan Region within the
framework of election campaign to the Astrakhan City Duma.
Grigory Yavlinsky had a meeting with Governor
Alexander Zhilkin. The Governor spoke in detail about implementation
of the long-term strategy of socio-economic development
of the region. “The executive authority of the region has
been working in close contact with the Public Chamber of
the region, trade unions, deputies and representatives of
political parties,” Zhilkin noted. The Governor also showed
his interest in further cooperation with YABLOKO.
The Governor also highly assessed the work of the representatives
of YABLOKO in the Administration of the region.
Conference “Women’s Movement
in Russia: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow” took place
in YABLOKO’s Moscow office on February 26. 75 heads
of leading women’s organisations and experts from
Moscow, St.Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Ekaterinburg and Perm
participated in the conference. The conference was broadcasted
life via YABLOKO’s web-site.
Galina Mikhalyova, moderator of the conference,
Chair of the Gender faction of the YABLOKO party and Co-Chair
of the Council for Consolidation of Women’s Movement
in Russia stressed the difficulties in the development of
women’s movement in the situation of increasing discrimination
of women in Russia in all spheres of life and the need to
consolidate efforts of public organisations, expert community,
journalists and political forces for realization of the
gender equality principles. YABLOKO’s leader Sergei
Mitrokhin noted that YABLOKO is the only Russian party fighting
for gender equality and proclaiming equality of rights and
opportunities for men and women.
Statement by the Bureau of the YABLOKO
party. February 27, 2010
Right after President Medvedev’s statement
made at the State Council meeting on the need to
facilitate political competition and democratization of
the political system YABLOKO was cynically and unlawfully
withdrawn from elections to the legislative assemblies of
the Kaluga and Sverdlovsk regions, the regions where YABLOKO
enjoyed considerable support from the electorate.
The signatures collected in support of YABLOKO’s
election lists were announced “invalid” on
factitious unlawful grounds. The Chair of the electoral
commission of the Sverdlovsk region publicly announced that
signatures in support of YABLOKO would be recognised invalid
already when YABLOKO had only been collecting these signatures.
The electoral commission of the Kaluga region made all it
could so that not to allow the leaders of the regional YABLOKO
branch to participate in the audit of the signatures.
YABLOKO’s lodging complaints of such
refusals in courts did not lead anywhere – the courts,
as well as electoral commissions, refused to examine the
evidence submitted by YABLOKO’s activists...
President Dmitry Medvedev's police reforms
will turn into a sham if the public is excluded from the
process and other law enforcement agencies are left untouched,
opposition politicians and human rights activists said Thursday.
“It is impossible to reform the Interior
Ministry without reforming the prosecutor's office and the
justice system,” Yabloko party leader Sergei Mitrokhin
said at a round table organized by the Moscow police to
discuss the reforms with the public...
On 23 February the leader of LI Full Member
YABLOKO, Sergei Mitrokhin, and several other activists were
arrested in Moscow outside the Ministry of Justice after
staging a demonstration to call for the protection of military
pensioners' rights. The participants of the picket held
slogans “Scanty Military Pensions — a Disgrace
to the State!” when about 15 OMON policemen arrested
YABLOKO's activists and drove them to the local police station.
The demonstration had not been coordinated with Moscow officials,
as local authorities had declined YABLOKO the right to demonstrate
on that date (the Day of Defenders of the Fatherland). Among
the detainees was Anton Goretsky, General Major of the reserve.
Commenting on the events Mitrokhin said “It is absurd
that General Major of the reserve was arrested on the Day
of Defenders of the Fatherland” . According to Mitrokhin,
the local authorities were acting in the interests of the
Ministry of Defence which did not want to see accusations
in cynical attitude to the military on their holiday.
A rally in protection of the Utrish national
reserve park and the Baikal Lake took place in the centre
of Krasnodar on February 20. The rally was organised by
YABLOKO’s activist Andrei Rudomakha.
After the rally the participants marched
along the main street of the city and held a second rally
at the end of the march.
YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin
welcomes today’s statement by the Minister of Foreign
Affairs of the Russian Federation on introduction of a visa-free
regime between Russia and EU.
“We hope that consultations conducted
by experts will reach a solution in the nearest perspective
and we shall be able to speak about definite time [for implementation
of the visa-free regime] then. Russia is ready to transfer
to a visa-free regime with Russia already tomorrow,”
Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s Foreign Minister, told the
journalists after his negotiations with Catherine Ashton,
the High Representative of the European Union.
YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin
and leader of the Moscow Region YABLOKO General Major Anton
Goretsky were arrested for conducting a picket in protection
of the military pensioners’ rights that had not been
coordinated with the authorities. The local authorities
declined YABLOKO’s application to conduct picketing
by the Ministry of Defence on February 23 (the Day of Defenders
of the Fatherland). However, the same action had been allowed
on January 20.
The participants of the picket held slogans “Scanty
Military Pensions – a Disgrace to the State!”
when about 15 OMON policemen arrested YABLOKO’s activists
and drove them to the local police station.
Today, on February 20, All-Russia congress
of the Elder Generation public association formed on the
basis of the former Pensioners’ Party took place in
YABLOKO’s office in Moscow. The congress adopted a
decision of a merger with YABLOKO via creation of the Russia’s
Pensioners faction in YABLOKO.
Delegates from 24 Russia’s regions
participated in the congress: 22 delegates voted for the
merger and 2 abstained. The Elder Generation has branches
in 32 Russia’s regions.
The leader of the Elder Generation Alexei
Borschenko called YABLOKO “the only party which can
at present protect the interests of Russia’s pensioners”.
He also reiterated that pensioners constitute about one
third of Russia’s population.
At a meeting of the European Liberal Democrats
parliamentary group in Brussels on 3rd February, Sergey
Mitrokhin, Leader of ELDR member party, YABLOKO, calledfor
a strong collaboration amongst liberals in view of the introduction
of a visa-free regime between Russia and the European Union.
Mitrokhin called on the European Union to
“work out a strategy for interaction with Russia based
on integration rather than confrontation”. Such integration
is needed both for the EU and Russia in the field of the
economy (which should not be reduced to oil and gas issues
only), politics and national security (e.g., creation of
a joint ABM), as well as a broad spectrum of other aspects,
such as integration of Russia’s rich intellectual
and labour potential into the European economy. “The
European Union should initiate projects that would engage
Russian society and elite into the European values and approaches”.
According to Mitrokhin, such a strategy can ensure Russia’s
steady movement towards the European way of development.
Elimination of visa barriers and free communication between
the citizens of the EU and Russia will enable Russian citizens
to experience the achievements of Western democracies and
observe how democratic institutions should really function
and apply this in their own country... READ
MORE
About 700 people participated
despite sever frosts in the rally for protection of Baikal
in Irkutsk. Members of ecological organisations, members
and supporters of YABLOKO, residents of Irkutsk and Baikalsk
and CPRF members spoke against resuming of functioning of
the Baikal Pulp Plant.
The rally organised by the ecological organisation
The Baikal Wave and the Baikal movement was held under the
slogans “To close the Baikal Pulp Plant!”, “To
provide alternative jobs to the residents of Baikalsk!”
and “Stop budget financing of oligarch Deripaska!”
One of the most brilliant Russia’s
journalists and member of YABLOKO Boris Vishnevsky has become
laureate of the highest award of the Union of Journalists
of Russia. On February 12, 2010, journalist
of Novaya Gazeta Boris Vishnevsky was announced to win Russia’s
Golden Pen award. He has become the first journalist from
St.Petersburg who was awarded the prize. Chairman of the
Union of Journalists Vsevolod Bogdanov handed Vishnevsky
the award for “a series of publications in the federal
and regional papers on the building of the [scandalous]
Gazprom’s skyscraper in St.Petersburg”.
On January 31, 2010, Gelendzhik YABLOKO
conducted a meeting of protest against destruction of the
Utrish relict lagoons, where the Presidential Property Management
Department planned to build a “sports and recreation
complex” and Administration of the Krasnodar Area
– commercial buildings. Public protest action took
place by the city Administration building. And
already on February 5, Sergei Buldakov, leader of the local
YABLOKO branch was informed that he was transferred to another
work place located in 57 km from his current place. Alexander
Umitbayaev, Director General of the Vodokanal municipal
state company, where Buldakov worked informed Buldakov of
this transfer.
On behalf of the YABLOKO party I am pleased
to express our heartiest congratulations to Arseny Roginsky
on the case of his receiving the Officer Cross award of
the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. Arseny
Roginsky is a renowned Russian human rights activist and
historian studying the political terror period. His large
contribution into protection of human rights is difficult
to overestimate...
Arseny Roginsky will also deliver a lecture
The Anatomy and Scopes of Stalin’s Terror within the
framework of YABLOKO’s lectures.
Why is Russia romanticising the memory
of Stalinism, enquires Memorial's founder Arseny Roginsky,
when its defining feature was the use of terror?
The memory of Stalinism in contemporary Russia raises problems
which are painful and sensitive. There is a vast amount
of pro-Stalinist literature on the bookstalls: fiction,
journalism and pseudo-history. In sociological surveys,
Stalin invariably features among the first three "most
prominent figures of all times". In the new school
history textbooks, Stalinist policy is interpreted in a
spirit of justification.
There are also hundreds of crucial volumes of documents,
scholarly articles and monographs on Stalinism. The achievements
of these historians and archivists is unquestionable. But
if they do have any influence on the mass consciousness,
it is too weak. The means of disseminating the information
have not been there, and nor in recent years has the political
will. However, the deepest problem lies in the current state
of our national historical memory of Stalinism.
The Russian United Democratic Party YABLOKO
expresses its categorical protest in connection with the
actions of the Chair of the Sverdlovsk Electoral Commission
V.D.Mostovschikov. Mostovschikov made multiple statements
in the mass media on alleged violations of law in proposing
the list of candidates to the election, the documents submitted
to the electoral commission, including signatures submitted
for enrollment in the race, prior to adoption of decisions
by the electoral commission. We assess the actions of the
Chair of the Sverdlovsk Electoral Commission as unlawful,
biased and virtually representing propaganda in favour of
other parties participation in the election, first of all
progovernmental United Russia.
YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin
called to the activisation of efforts in the introduction
of a visa-free regime between Russia and the European Union
at the meeting of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats
for Europe (ALDE) taking place in Brussels today. ALDE is
the third largest faction in the European Parliament holding
the balance between the right and the left.
Sergei Mitrokhin told in his speech that
“the European Union should work out a strategy for
interaction with Russia based on integration rather than
confrontation”. “The European Union should initiate
the projects that would involve and initiate the Russian
society and elite into the European values and approaches,”
he said. According to Mitrokhin, such a strategy can ensure
Russia’s movement along the European way of development...
According to Mitrokhin, the idea of abolishing
visas between Russia and the EU was proposed as early as
in 1995 by the YABLOKO faction in the Russian parliament.
“We specially invited then Foreign Minister of the
Russian Federation Igor Ivanov and persuaded him that this
initiative was not a fantasy,” Mitrokhin said. He
also noted that in 2003 Ivanov shared these ideas with his
Italian counterpart.
A number of MPs of the European Parliament
supported the idea of development of a new European strategy
in relations with Russia and agreed with Mitrokhin that
the European Union had not developed such a strategy yet.
Some MPs also supported the proposals on the earliest introduction
of a visa-free regime and also stated that they would welcome
Russia’s perspective joining the European Union...
The Russian United Democratic Party YABLOKO
considers abolishing of the visa barrier separating the
European Union and Russia be the most important and a very
necessary step towards RF-EU integration.
The advantages that both the sides will get in solving this
problem considerably overweight the bureaucratic problems
that may seem insurmountable today.
We are certain that the issue of elimination
the visa barrier between Russia and Europe should be examined
and solved by politicians rather than bureaucrats. A political
will towards strategic decision-making will enable us to
find constructive ways out in such issues as, for example,
the readmission problem.
We would like to specially stress that freedom
of movement within Great Europe is not reduced for the Russian
citizens to facilitation of their business, study or tourist
trips (albeit this is also very important). This means their
normal life within a single European civilization on the
basis of shared principles. And this issue has become especially
acute when a visa barrier separated us from our closest
Eastern European neighbours as close interaction with them
has always been and continue to be very important when we
speak about European trends in Russia.
Statement of the Bureau of the YABLOKO
party, February 1, 2010
On January 28, 2010 the police of the Irkutsk
region without any rulings of the court or public prosecutor
blocked the work of the largest public organisation engaged
in protection of the Lake Baikal – The Baikal Ecological
Wave – confiscating their computers under the pretext
of a check whether this organisation had been using licensed
software. However, the representatives of the interior refused
even to look at the certificates of the software submitted
to them. The ecologists who tried to disobey confiscation
of their computers were threatened with legal persecution
in view of “attacking the police”.
The YABLOKO party expresses its resolute
protest in view of such actions of the interior and considers
them as a awkward attempt to shut down the wave of public
discontent in view of the adoption by the Government of
the RF of a resolution allowing to resume functioning of
the Baikal Pulp Plant that have been polluting Baikal with
its waste, as well as stored, buried and burnt hazardous
waste on the banks of the lake. Such governmental decision
was adopted in satisfaction of short-term interests of the
owner of the plant – a definite tycoon, and contradicts
Russia’s interests.
Governor of the Moscow Region Boris Gromov
motioned a libel suit against YABLOKO’s leader Sergei
Mitrokhin who had laid blame for a physical attack on Editor-in-Chief
of Khimskinskaya Pravda oppositional paper Mikhail Beketov.
The official claims compensation of RUR 500,000 (about USD
16,600) for the moral damage.
Sergei Mitrokhin stated that the party had
grounds to think that “Administration of the Khimki
city district and personally Head of Administration Strelchenko
supported by Governor Gromov are behind this crime”
during an action held on November 16, 2009 one year after
the attack. A
video record of Sergei Mitrokhin’s speech published
at YABLOKO’s web-site was used by the Governor
as an evidence of libel.
On November 13, 2008, Editor-in-Chief of
Khimskinskaya Pravda oppositional paper Mikhail Beketov
who had been opposing the construction of a paid highway
Moscow – St.Petersburg, was found unconscious in the
yard of his house. Doctors stated a severe head injury,
multiple factions and injuries. Despite treatment Beketov
remains a handicapped – he can not take care of himself
and his speech functions have not restored. The action in
support of Beketov was held under the slogans “Attack
on Beketov Is an Attack on the Freedom of Speech”
and “Attack on Beketov Is Political Terror”.
Social orphanage Zhizn (Life) gives shelter
and normal living conditions to orphans and social orphans.
The orphanage was founded over 15 years ago and helped to
about 600 children. The orphanage does not get any state
aid and has been financed by private donations only. At
present the orphanage has to move to a new place and its
expenditures have abruptly grown. Zhizn would be grateful
for any aid, as it is moving to empty flats. For bank transfers
pls use the following banking
details (it is important to indicate that it is charity).
Even if you do not have a possibility
to help us financially, you can help to the orphanage by
spreading information about it.
This morning YABLOKO’s leader Sergei
Mitrokhin arrived at the site of the Rechnik village where
bulldozers began pulling down the houses early in the morning.
Mitrokhin noted that YABLOKO had been deterring
pulling down of the village for two years. According to
Mitrokhin, the Court Bailiffs Service, the police and the
local authorities resumed their efforts as soon as the term
of YABLOKO’s deputies in the Moscow City Duma expired
and YABLOKO was not able to get the mandates after fraudulent
elections of October 11.
On arriving at the site Mitorkhin called
Ferdauis Yusupov, head of the Moscow Court Bailiffs Service.
Yusupov asked Mitrokhin to find out whether there were any
court decisions or documents for pulling down the houses.
However, when Mitrokhin tried to find out the legal basis
for demolishing of the village he was quickly blocked by
police. Policemen made a cordon around him and did not let
him freely move in the territory of the village.
The Russian United Democratic Party YABLOKO
states that the work of human rights activists and independent
journalists in Russia have not become less dangerous for
the year since the murder of Stanislav Markelov and Anastasiya
Baburova.
It’s not only because the past year
saw new attacks against human rights.
Nothing changed in the policies of the authorities
and the situation with resentment of dissenting opinions
promoted by the state mass media. State officials have been
treating human rights activists as the enemies of the state,
and their opinion coincides here with that of nationalists
and fascists.
Such an attitude of the state to human rights
activists demonstrates that at present Russia is not a law-governed
state and, moreover, it does not try to become such.
On behalf of the Memorial organisation,
I would like to thank the European Parliament for its high
accolade – the Sakharov Prize.
We at Memorial see this award as relating
not only to our organisation. We take the view that, through
us, the prize is being bestowed on the whole human rights
community in Russia, and indeed more widely – on the
entire section of Russian civil society sympathetic towards
defenders of human rights. For forty years now – first
in the Soviet Union and then in Russia – human rights
defenders have been standing up for ‘European’,
that is to say, universal values. This struggle has never
been easy; in recent years it has become tragic, as it increasingly
claims the lives of the best, the most active and the most
fearless.
I am sure that, in awarding the Sakharov
Prize to the Memorial organisation, the European Parliament
had them in mind, first and foremost – our dead friends,
comrades-in-arms, kindred spirits. This prize belongs by
right to them. And the first name I should cite is that
of Natalya Estemirova, human rights defender and fellow
member of Memorial, murdered this summer in Chechnya.
I cannot go on without mentioning other
names too: the lawyer Stanislav Markelov and journalists
Anna Politkovskaya and Anastasia Baburova, murdered in Moscow,
ethnologist Nikolai Girenko shot in St Petersburg, Farid
Babayev, murdered in Dagestan, and many others – sadly,
it is a list that could go on for a long time. I ask you
to honour the memory of these people by standing.
The relatives of leader of Dagestan YABLOKO
and human rights activist Farid Babayev murdered in 2007,
expressed their concern that the defendants had been ruining
the case and that the killers would get freedom soon. The
key witness of the plaintiffs who had seen the killer suddenly
retracted his testimony...
The second session of the 15th Congress
of the YABLOKO party took place on December 19-20, 2009.
YABLOKO’s Chairman Sergei Mitrokhin
opened the Congress with a report on organisational tasks
of the party. He called the Congress to concentrate on the
tasks of the coming elections to the State Duma focusing
attention on the control over elections at all the stages.
Also by-elections to the Bureau took place on the first
Congress day...
“Propaganda of Stalinism should be
prohibited,” such a statement was made by YABLOKO’s
leader Sergei Mitrokhin in view of celebration of Joseph
Stalin’s birthday conducted by the Communist Party
of the Russian Federation and a number of other political
organisations.
“Today’s celebration [of the
130th anniversary] of the executioner of the Russian people
and other nations of the former USSR represents a fest on
the blood of the murdered and those tortured to death, a
witless joy about the national catastrophe of 1920-1930s,”
Mitrokhin said...
Deputy head of the Moscow branch of YABLOKO
Eugeni Bunimovich was appointed Ombudsman for Children in
Moscow. The corresponding order was signed by Moscow Ombudsman
Alexander Muzikansky.
“I find this post very important,
as I as well as any other person realise what should be
done here,” Bunimovich told to the Interfax news agency.
Bunimovich also noted that the post of Moscow
Ombudsman for Children’s Rights is quite independent
in the administration of the Moscow Ombudsman. Speaking
about his plans Bunimovich told that “he is not the
Plenary Meeting of the Communist Party of the USSR to make
definite plans”, he “will first examine what
problems and complaints people have and only after that
will make plans.”
However, Bunimovich noted that he would
pay special attention to children’s risk groups –
orphans, neglected children and other, as well as legal
education in the field of human rights for children and
grown-ups. “Grown-ups often do not understand what
is a violation of child’s rights or, for example,
humiliation”, he noted.
Chairman of the YABLOKO party Sergei Mitrokhin
demanded that Anton Zhebrun, young YABLOKO activist expelled
from the Omsk University, should be allowed to resume his
studies in the university. Such a claim was sent by Sergei
Mitrokhin to Public Prosecutor of the Omsk Region and the
head of the Education Control Agency.
YABLOKO connects expelling of the student
with his public activities, as he is one of the leaders
of the Omsk Youth YABLOKO.
A solemn ceremony of awarding the Sakharov
Prize took place at the session of the European Parliament
in Strasburg on December 16. The laureates of the prize
were Russian human rights activists Ludmila Alexeyeva, Sergei
Kovalyov and Oleg Orlov. Human rights activists called the
European legislators “not to turn a deaf ear”
to Russian lawlessness, and President of the European Parliament
Jerzy Buzek expressed his hope that the murderers of Anna
Politkovskaya and Natalya Estemirova will be hold for court.
European legislators welcomed the laureates
with a storm of applause. Sergei Kovalyov in his speech
expressed his gratitude to the European Parliament for a
warm welcome, and asked the audience to hold a minute of
silence in memory of Natalya Estemirova, human rights activist
from the Memorial human rights centre, killed in Chechnya
in July 2009. “Europe should not keep silence when
human rights are violated in Russia,” Kovalyov said.
President of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek in his
turn expressed his hope that the prize will encourage human
rights activists to continue their fight against lawlessness
and protect the values that “we have been promoting
– freedom and democracy”.
On December 9, 2009, the Evening University
of the YABLOKO party organised a meeting for its students
with Dr. Grigory Yavlinsky, the founder of the party and
member of the Political Committee.
Answering the questions of YABLOKO’s members
and advocates on the present economic, political and social
situation in Russia, elections, Russia’s relations with
other countries, etc. Grigory Yavlinsky noted that a qualitatively
new situation developed in Russia after the elections of
October 11. “No one believes words about democracy in the
country any more after such elections.” Yavlinsky also noted
that the policies of the Russian authorities were unsuccessful.
“The authorities should realise that they do not have the
strength to modernise Russia, this means that the opposition
and other citizens get a chance,” Yavlinsky said.
On December 8, 2009, the award ceremony
of the Russian Ombudsman Medal “Hurry Up to Make Good Deeds”
took place in Moscow. Human rights activists Natalya Estemirova
and Maksharip Aushev awarded medals post mortem.
Both were members of the Expert Council
with the Ombudsman of the Russian Federation. Natalya Estemirova
had been investigating abdications of civilians, executions
and tortures since the First Chechen War. She worked in
the Memorial human rights centre. Maksharip Aushev actively
engaged in the protection of human rights after his son
and nephew abdicated in Grozny in 2007 had been released.
On December 8, 2009, the Perovo District
Court of Moscow declined YABLOKO’s suit on annulment of
the results of the voting at two polling stations in the
Veshnyaki area where 1.002 votes had been simply added to
the progovernmental United Russia party. At the previous
hearings the key witness of YABLOKO – a member of the electoral
commission with a casting vote – made a statement that her
signature in the official protocol had been faked. Signatures
of several other members of the district electoral commission
had been either missing or faked...
YABLOKO asked the court to satisfy its claim
as the Moscow and the local commissions failed to determine
the will of the electorate. However, the judge turned down
YABLOKO’s claim. YABLOKO is going to appeal this decision
in a superior court.
This has become already the second decision
when Moscow local courts were turning down YABLOKO’s suits.
On December 3, 2009, the Golovinsky District Court refused
to satisfy YABLOKO’s claims in connection with two districts
in the Levoberezhny area where United Russia was simply
added votes taken from other parties. The next trial will
take place in the Kuntsevsky District Court.
The ELDR congress convening in Barcelona
on November 19-20, 2009,
Observes that:
- The elections that took place in Russia on October 11,
2009, demonstrated an unprecedented scope of falsification
of results of the voting and violations of the law confirmed
by observers from all the political parties, except the
ruling party, and mass media.
States that:
- ELDR will closely observe the development of the situation
with lawsuits and complaints on election fraud.
Calls on:
The Russian authorities to:
- conduct a full inspection of candidates and parties’ complaints,
and the evidence of election fraud published by the media,
and take urgent remedy measures up to declaring the elections
void;
- observe democratic standards and Russia’s obligations
under its membership in the OSCE and in the Council of Europe
on ensuring free and fair elections;
- ensure free and equal conditions for all political parties
and candidates and maximum public control over elections
and voting.
The Russian United Democratic Party YABLOKO
expresses its concern in view of refusal of the Moscow authorities
to prolong contracts on the office premises rent with the
Moscow Helsinki Group and For the Human Rights Movement.
A strange coincidence of adopting such decisions
on the two most renowned human rights organisations that
rent offices in different places of the city is indicative
of political motivation of the city heads.
Thus, a new technology has been used against
civil society. Human rights organisations are simply ousted
out of the offices in the streets under invented pretexts.
The 56th Congress of the LIberal Internatioanl
convening in Cairo...
Calls on:
The Russian authorities to:
- conduct a full inspection of the complaints of the actions
(or negligence) of election commissions in all the Russian
Federation subjects, all the evidence of fraud published
by the mass media and punish all those guilty of election
fraud, as well as take urgent remedy measures, if needed,
declaring the elections void;
- observe Russia’s obligations under its membership in the
OSCE and in the Council of
Europe on ensuring free and fair elections in the country;
- form new electoral commissions ensuring that representatives
from all of Russia's political parties should have equal
participation to cast a vote;
- ensure free and equal conditions for all the political
parties and candidates, as well as maximum public control
over elections and voting.
Statement by the Russian United
Democratic Party YABLOKO, November 4, 2009
The 4th of November is officially announced
the Day of National Unity in Russia. However, it is this
day when the streets of Russian cities turn into arena for
skin-heads, Nazis and racists provoking ethnic hatred. “Russian
Marches” conducted on permission of local authorities
and multiple unsanctioned nationalists’ actions will
take place in 16 Russian cities.
According to the analytical centre SOVA,
50 people died and 280 people were wounded due to xenophobia
since January 2009.
The YABLOKO party states that provoking
of ethnic hatred, as well as assistance in the organisation
of nationalists’ actions, is prone of very serious
consequences, including shedding of blood and disintegration
of the country.
Here comes information from the polling
stations where Dmitry Medvedev, Vladimir Putin and [Mayor
of Moscow] Yuri Luzhkov voted:
United Russia — 36,7%; CPRF —28,4%;
YABLOKO — 14,9%; Just Russia —
9,2%; LDPR — 6%
What the electoral commissions shall do
now?! Internet is full of gags and jokes and this is the
evidence of the mental health of the nation. However, jokes
end sooner of later. In the end Russia’s future is
in stake. The stage of a saving sense of humour will end
in a year or two. Then the people will either oust the bosses
who lost their honour or vise versa this team will drive
the people to a “stall”. The latter is more
likely: such people never give up power voluntary, moreover
with such a load of unlawful acts on their back...
By Sergei Mitrokhin
Sergei Mitrokhin, who served as a State Duma deputy from
1994 to 2003 and a Moscow City Duma deputy from 2005 to
2009, is chairman of the Yabloko party.
The level of falsifications in the Oct.
11 Moscow City Duma elections was unprecedented in modern
Russian history. Officials did everything in their power
to prevent opposition candidates from registering, and Yabloko
was obstructed by local authorities and siloviki structures
as early on as the signature collection stage.
On Oct. 10, the eve of the elections, almost
every electoral district had run out of ballots. According
to Yabloko representatives, the Strogino election committee
handed out a total of only 149 ballots for the entire district.
Instead, we witnessed the so-called “carousel”
system busloads of passengers who travel from district
to district to cast their votes repeatedly.
The protocol of voting of local electoral
commission No 192 of Khamovniki district, Moscow, showed
that the electorate did not give a single vote for YABLOKO
at the polling station where Sergei Mitrokhin and his family
voted. Moreover, the commission reported on the absence
of any invalid or spoilt bulletins.
The electoral commission of the polling
station gave the breakdown of the total of 1,020 bulletins
as follows: United Russia obtained 904 votes, CPRF –
87 votes and Just Russia – 29 votes. In accordance
with the protocol, LDPR, Patriots of Russia and YABLOKO
did not get a single vote (see a scanned copy of the protocol
at our web-site). These data were also registered at the
Moscow Electoral Commission web-site.
The signed copy of the protocol which was
made available to YABLOKO was printed specially for electronic
polling boxes, however, Sergei Mitrokhin and his family
put their ballots into a wooden box (see the photograph
at our web-site).
“Maybe the heads of this electoral
commission intend to show that I do not exist either as
a voter or as a citizen,” Sergei Mitrokhin commented
on the situation. “I have to disappoint them, YABLOKO
does exist and moreover is able to turn to the law-enforcement
bodies for punishment of the criminals faking the elections,”
he said.
Sergei Mitrokhin also noted that YABLOKO
received 18% at the polling station where Prime Minister
Vladimir Putin voted. “Naturally, no one dared to
falsify anything there, however, these two Moscow districts
hardly differ as of the structure of their electorate,”
Mitrokhin added.
Electoral district No 1702, Danilovsky district,
Moscow,
All who has seen election campaigns of the
recent years mark an unbelievable scope of fraud at yesterday’s
election (Moscow City Duma election on October 11, 2009).
Here comes only one example of election
fraud...
United Russia simply “got” 550
additional votes from nowhere. 550 is a beautiful figure.
See the screenshots of the protocols below.
The first screenshot represents the protocol of the Moscow
Electoral Commission.
The second screenshot is the protocol obtained
by the observer.
The Moscow Duma elections saw multiple violations
despite the reports of the Moscow Electoral Commission that
“no grave violations” were registered during
this election.
Thus, on the threashold of the election
day, the Moscow Electoral Commission had suddenly “run
out of absentee voting certificates”. This situation
was observed in Otradnoye, Basmanniy, Beskudnikovo, Strogino,
Northern Tushino.
On the election day, October 11, observers
from the YABLOKO party were not allowed to implement their
function. Thus, YABLOKO’s activist Semyon Burd was
deported from voting station No 118 (Presnya) by force.
The local electoral commission gave Burd its decision prohibiting
him to observe the counting of votes. Such a decision was
adopted in violation of the Election Code. In Meschansky
district YABLOKO’s observers were deported from the
voting station under a pretext that the stamps on their
documents did not overlap Sergei Mitrokhin’s signature.
An hour before expiration of the time of
voting (from 7 to 8 p.m.)YABLOKO received a storm of telephone
calls from the worried voters. The voters coming to the
voting stations between 7 and 8p.m. found out that “someone”
had already voted on their behalf.
Also coaches full of “voters”
(the so-called merry-go-round) were commuting from one electoral
district to another. The same “passengers” of
such coachers voted at several districts several times.
Such coaches were observed at Begovaya, Mariyna Roscha,
Northern Medvedkovo, Arbat, Presnya and some other districts...
A meeting of YABLOKO’s Political Committee
took place on September 26. The Committee developed the
goals of the party in modern Russia.
YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin
indicated in his report to the Committee that a system of
bureaucratic cronyism developed in modern Russia. Its goal
is to maintain in power one and the same ruling group for
an unlimited period of time.
“Supporting a number of President
Medvedev’s recent statements on the need of modernisation
in Russia YABLOKO states that their realisation is incompatible
with the real goals of this system,” Mitrokhin said.
Mitrokhin expressed his certainty that this
system “can lead Russia to stagnation reminiscent
of the stagnation of the Brezhnev period in the USSR, when
the political elite lost the chance to conduct modernisation
of the USSR, thus dooming it to disintegration”.
According to Mitrokhin, the task of the
opposition is to offer an alternative to the political course
of the country present leaders, such as building of a modern
state based on democratic institutes and procedures.
Is
Modernisation in Russia Possible? Interview
with Grigory Yavlinsky and Boris Titov by Yury Pronko,
"The Real Time" programme, Radio Finam, May
12, 2010
YABLOKO
proposed to elect PACE via direct vote
YABLOKO
provided aid to children’s orphanage affected by fires
in the Moscow region
We demand to stop unlawful detentions and toughening of
sentences!
YABLOKO welcomes the decision by President Medvedev to suspend
works in the Khimki Forest
YABLOKO
conducted an action against nuclear waste imports into Russia
Rights
activists complain about probe into colleague's murder in
Chechnya 
Court’s
sentence to Sergei Makhnatkin is unjust
Sergei
Mitrokhin demands from Public Prosecutor to file a criminal
case against head of the company felling trees in Khimki
Forest
The
Social Liberalism of D66 
15,000
prisoners can burn alive
Web-site
providing information on fires in the Nizhni Novgorod Region
killed before Governor’s inauguration
Weapons
of mass destruction have no place on the planet! 
Sergei Mitrokhin to President Medvedev: felling of forest
in Khimki is fire hazardous 
YABLOKO’s
activists Olga Ushakova and Andrei Lazaryev conducted picketing
of the Interior Affairs Department of the Moscow Region
where the police took today Yevgenia Chirikova for interrogation.
YABLOKO’s activists demanded to release the ecologist.
Mitrokhin
is facing 15 days of arrest. Russia’s Ombudsman notified of
detentions in Khimki
Sergei
Mitrokhin applied to Prime Minister Putin and Public Prosecutor
General Chaika in view of unlawful cutting of the Khimki
Forest 
Bring
justice to Russian human rights defenders
The
123 Agreement will turn Russia into the world burial of
nuclear waste
Off
with your hands from the defenders of the Khimki Forest!
Sergei
Mitrokhin: President should not become a secret services’
puppet
One-person
picketing against broadening of the competence of secret
services conducted by the Federation Council
Action
in memory of Natalya Estemirova took place in Nevsky Prospect,
St.Petersburg
In
protection of the Khimki Forest and its defenders
YABLOKO’s
activists convicted for a one-person picket against the
new law on secret services 
The
police finally returned impounded soft and hardware to the
Baikal Ecological Wave
Sergei
Mitrokhin: President crossed out the course towards modernisation
The
Federal Anti-Monopoly Service turns 20
Young
YABLOKO activists are facing 15 days of arrest
Activists
of the Youth YABLOKO enchained themselves with handcuffs
by the Russian parliament protesting against the new security
service law
Investigation
of Yuri Schekochikhin’s death should go on
Memory
of the victims of the war is a part of personal genetic
memory
Ombudsman
against the interior and security forces
Russian
and European Integration
YABLOKO’s
activists arrested by the Russian parliament for picketing
against the FSB law finally released, however, are facing
a trial
Svetlana
Kuznetsova, head of the Soldiers’ Mothers faction,
on amendments to the law on the military service submitted
to the Russian parliament 
European
Liberals congratulate their two Dutch member parties with
their fantastic election results
Destruction
of nature has been accelerating 
The
murderer of the leader of the Dagestan YABLOKO sentenced
to 15 years of imprisonment
Ombudsman
Lukin: Rallies can not be “unsanctioned”
Breaking
up of rallies means professional incompetence of the Russian
government
On
the death of Andrei Voznesensky
Nomination
of Kirsan Ilyumzhinov by the Russian Chess Federation for
candidacy of FIDE President means a disgrace for Russia
The
eldest blogger of the Runet turns 85
In
support of Mezhduryechinsk miners
An
unlearned lesson of totalitarian past
President
of Kalmykia Kirsan Ilyumzhinov is reminded of the murder
of Larissa Yudina
“The
present political regime representing oligarchs and monopolies
does not need small businesses in general. Representatives
of the small business demolished as a class should resist
this,” Sergei Mitrokhin, YABLOKO’s leader, said at a rally...
The
United Kingdom Elections 2010
The
Moscow branch of YABLOKO elected its leading bodies and
proposed to change the Moscow Mayor
Yekaterinburg
Mayor tries to get RUR 600,000 from deputy of the Yekaterinburg
Duma Petlin as compensation for criticism
The
first suit against the State Plan of Moscow Development
motioned
Miners’
demands should be satisfied
Is
Modernisation in Russia Possible? 
Finding
a Strategy For Europe
Youth
YABLOKO conducted a flash mob under the slogan “We Do not
Need Such Television!”
An
anti-Stalinist action of the Youth YABLOKO broken out by
police in St.Petersburg
Amendments
to the law on the Federal Security Service constitute a
political provocation against President of Russia
YABLOKO’s
leader Sergei Mitrokhin: The Treaty on the Black Sea Fleet
forms a basis for long-term cooperation between Russia and
Ukraine
YABLOKO’s
Grigory Yavlinsky and Alexander Shishlov discussed the PACE
reform and the Babyev case
Aid
to the victims of nuclear disasters is a moral and political
responsibility of the state
Valery
Borschyov: Any shrinking of the field for trials by a jury
court is unfavourable
The
Courchevel Serfs
On
political reprisals against The New Times
Arrest
of scientists in St.Petersburg discredits presidential policy
YABLOKO
joins the action of the Russian motorists
Presentation
of the book Overcoming Stalin’s Legacy in Voronezh
Condolences
on the death of Polish President in the aircrash
A
rally for “Installing order in the housing and utilities
sector” held in Moscow
The
leaders of YABLOKO and the Russian Medical Association signed
a Memorandum on development of a healthcare reform 
There
is more to modernisation than light bulbs of a new generation
Grigory
Yavlinsky’s master class in Vienna
Presentation
of Alexei Arbatov’s book “The Equation of Security
Sergei
Mitrokhin: Murderers of Chechen farmers should be punished
New
edition of the book Overcoming Stalin’s Legacy published
Grigory
Yavlinsky paid tribute to the victims of bombing in the
Moscow metro
Sergei
Mitrokhin on explosions in the Moscow Metro
YABLOKO’s
rally for protection of the Lake Baikal conducted in Ulan-Ude
Russia’s
Ombudsman Vladimir Lukin sends a letter to Public Prosecutor
in defence of the Khimki forest
Stalin’s
portraits will split the nation on the Victory Day
Election
results in Miass, Chelyabinsk Region
About
500 people came to a rally in Penza
A
mass-scale rally against corruption in the housing and utilities
sector to take place in Saransk, Mordovia
Grigory
Yavlinsky made a report in the Royal Institute of International
Affairs (Chatham House)
Criminal
persecution against three activists of the Youth YABLOKO
in Omsk
YABLOKO
obtains 11 per cent of the votes in Tula. 
Officials
offer apology to YABLOKO’s ecologist
An
Objective View of the START-1 treaty
Portraits
of Stalin and the Anniversary Victory Day
Grigory
Yavlinsky visited the Astrakhan Region
Sergei
Kovalyov has turned 80!
Conference
“Women’s Movement in Russia: Yesterday, Today
and Tomorrow” took place in YABLOKO’s Moscow
office
YABLOKO’s
action in protection of Utrish and Baikal
YABLOKO’s
leader supports the head of Russia’s Foreign Affairs
Ministry
YABLOKO
urges European liberals to work out a new EU strategy for
Russia 
Boris
Vishnevsky receives Russia’s Golden Pen award
The
leader of Gelendzhik YABLOKO is forced to quit his job because
of a rally
Congratulations
to Arseny Roginsky on the award!
On
elimination of visa regime between Russia and the EU
The
authorities chose to support of oligarchs’ interests
and reprisals against public organisations rather than protection
of the Lake Baikal
Governor
Gromov motions a libel suit against Sergei Mitrokhin
Social
orphanage Zhizn (Life) in St.Petersburg needs your support!
Attitude
to human rights activists as a criterion of a law governed
state
Sergei
Kovalev addresses the European Parliament after accepting
the Sakharov Prize. Strasbourg, 16 December 2009
YABLOKO’s
Congress proposes an alternative
Propaganda
of Stalinism should be prohibited
Deputy
head of the Moscow branch of YABLOKO Eugeni Bunimovich becomes
Ombudsman for Children in Moscow
Public
Prosecutor to investigate the case of young YABLOKO’s activist
expelled from the university
Russian
human rights activists get Andrei Sakharov Prize
Grigory
Yavlinsky met with the students of the Evening Party University
Human
rights activists Natalya Estemirova and Maksharip Aushev
awarded medals post mortem
Court
rules out that a thousand of additional votes stuffed in
for progovernmental United Russia is not a satisfactory
motive for recount of the votes
On
political persecution of human rights organisations in Moscow
Five
parties should have got places in the Moscow City Duma!
The real election results.
