Press release, photographs, 28.02.2016
Today, on 28 February, YABLOKO Congress has supported the nomination of Grigory Yavlinsky as a candidate for President of the Russian Federation. 135 delegates voted for nomination of Yavlinsky, one voted against. The guests of the Congress, politicians Vladimir Ryzhkov and Dmitry Gudkov also supported Yavlinsky’s candidacy.

In his keynote speech Grigory Yavlinsky pointed out the basis of the problems which have been following Russia over the past decades. “Today our main obstacle on the way to the future is becoming not even Putin and his system but frustration and apathy. Such rival is as serious as those who sit in the Kremlin and the State Duma. When the majority [of the people] in the country are apathetic, those who are fringes start to run the show, set and dictate the agenda,” YABLOKO founder noted.

Yavlinsky also defined the basic value which will become the foundation of his election campaign: “My key idea is that a person is above any ideology. I insist that the only true national idea for the whole Russia is Respect. Respect for a person,” Grigory Yavlinsky said.

Chairperson Emilia Slabunoba proposed Yavlinsky’s candidature. “He embodies an alternative to Putin and his system, he presents an alternative image of the future, values, priorities which fundamentally differ from Russia’s politics of today. He is the leader who we trust,” Slabunova said.

She stressed that in modern political history Yavlinsky was associated with direct efforts towards the development of true democracy and competitive economy: “Grigory Yavlinsky will become the president whose foreign policy will be the policy of making friends, not enemies”.

Vladimir Ryzhkov said that the opposition must nominate a single presidential candidate. “There is no doubt that this person is fully committed to the values of democracy, liberty, peaceful foreign policy, human right and fundamental rights and freedoms. He proved it with all his life,” Ryzhkov noted.

“I do not want any war, I do not want isolation of our country, I do not want to be the only independent State Duma deputy. Moreover, I want to say the at my first presidential elections, when I was very young, I voted for YABLOKO’s candidate, for Grigory Alekseyevich Yavlinsky,” the only independent State Duma deputy Dmitry Gudkov said.

Lev Shlosberg said that “the party has no opponent represented by the United Russia party, the opponent is the anti-Russian, anti-state, anti-social, anti-national system created by Vladimir Putin in Russia”. “I want to call all the delegates of the Congress, all the party members, all the citizens of Russia to understand one’s personal responsibility for what is going to happen to our country in the near future. Our mission is to make the right decision and bear full responsibility for it,” Shlosberg said. He wished YABLOKO’s candidate strength, self-mastery, will and patience.

Sergei Mitrokhin mentioned the qualities which tell Yavlinsky from other modern politicians. “Yavlinsky is a professional economist who knows how to solve the difficult economic situation in the country. He is an expert on the transitional period, he knows all the mistakes of the reforms of the 90s. Grigory Yavlinsky also has a unique experience in international politics,” Mitrokhin noted.