Press Release, 19.06.2017

Today, Yabloko’s presidential candidate Grigory Yavlinsky came to Ryazan to launch the all-Russian campaign “Time to Return Home.” Today, Yabloko launches collection of signatures in 40 regions of Russia, so that Russia’s federal budget funds are spent on Russia’s domestic development, rather than on foreign policy ambitions and adventures, including the war in Syria.

Yabloko activists offer passers-by to sign for the party initiative in the central streets and squares of 50 cities in 40 Russian regions. In Ryazan, the collection of signatures is held on Pervomaisky Prospekt. This morning Grigory Yavlinsky arrived at the picket and personally answered questions from Ryazan residents about the essence of the programme.

Later he told journalists about this at a press conference: “Russia has a huge number of serious problems. Even if you look through the questions were asked the President during his televised show, you will see this. There is only one answer [to all the questions] – there is no money. But there is money! Even with such [low] oil prices and international isolation there is money. We are used to the fact that money goes to offshores or is spent on residences, but a new direction has opened up – a war, and it is impossible to put up with it.”

Grigory Yavlinsky gave some statistics to prove his point: about 100 billion roubles were spent from the budget for 18 months of the Syrian campaign. This is 12 annual budgets of the Ryazan region, 12 years of life of a large city with about 500,000 redidents! Capital repairs of all housing in Ryazan costs 44 billion roubles, repair of all roads 5.3 billion. This money could be spent on a 30 per cent increase wages for teachers, doctors and nurses in the Ryazan region.

Pavel Senin, head of the Ryazan branch of Yabloko, added that the residents of the city were very interested in the campaign “Time to Return Home” and willingly put their signatures under the initiative.

According to Grigory Yavlinsky, Russia has been trying to solve abstract geopolitical tasks that can not be solved, with the money it is in desperate need of.

“This refers not only to Syria, but Ukraine too. Russia has been supporting with its money almost completely destroyed Donbass, and Crimea has become the most subsidised region, but it has no prospects it in such conditions,” Grigory Yavlinsky said.

He also drew attention of his listeners to Russia’s indirect losses that occur because of sanctions against Russia. These losses reached to 9.5 trillion roubles for the three years, while the consolidated budget of healthcare constituted only 3.5 trillion roubles. “Look where sanctions led Iran: it lost 20-30 years of its development!” Grigory Yavlinsky said. He also stressed that the sanctions were toughened, because, for example, the United States adopted them in the form of a law.

According to Yavlinsky, only people in the elections can change Putin’s policy. “If each of my voters brings ten more people to voting stations – his/her relatives, colleagues or classmates – the situation in the country will change,” Yabloko’s presidential candidate said.
Later, opening the round table “The Environment: a Comfortable City and Cultural Heritage”, Grigory Yavlinsky commented on the Defense Ministry’s message that it would consider all US aircrafts in Syria be “air targets”: “Let us hope that these are just loud statements, and nothing will follow them. But if not, there will be a big war. For what?! For Bashar al-Assad?! A senseless, terrible tragedy, something reminiscent of the First World War may take place then. Yet historians have been unable to figure out exactly why it began.