YABLOKO conducted a picket by the Russian Atomic Energy Agency against construction of nuclear power stations abroad on the Russian federal budget money

Press Release, April 26, 2013

Every year on April 26, the anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, YABLOKO has been conducting an action by the Russian Atomic Energy Agency (Rosatom) to commemorate those who died, express sympathy for those who got sick in this tragedy and remind everyone of the consequences of nuclear energy sector.
The danger of explosion has not been the only issue for the past years, the topic of distribution of budgetary funds by Rosatom has also been touched. This time YABLOKO has protested against Rosatom’s plans to spend billions of dollars of budget money on construction of nuclear power plants’ abroad.
Rosatom plans to invest USD 20 billion in the economy of Turkey to construct and operate the Akkuyu nuclear power plant. Turkey’s economy will receive this colossal amount of money from Russia’s taxpayers without any counter profit for Russia. Rosatom also plans to construct a nuclear power plant in Vietnam which will cost USD 10 billion. India, China, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Egypt and even Bangladesh with its unstable situation and some other countries are next in turn for Russia’s budgetary funds via Rosatom...

Situation in Russia. A Country Report by YABLOKO leader Dr. Sergei Mitrokhin

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

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

Consultations of democratic organisations on the threashold of the Moscow City Duma elections go on

Press Release, April 25, 2013

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

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

The participants agreed to conduct regular meetings so that to coordinate candidates in single-mandate electoral districts and actions targeted at the increase of voter turnout, as well as possible agreements on the general list. A working group comprising one representative from each organisation was formed. The tasks of the working group are to formulate the agenda and possible solutions for the next meeting in an expanded format. The YABLOKO party delegated Galina Mikhaleva, First Deputy Chair of the Moscow branch of the party, to the working group. The first meeting of the working group will be held this Saturday, on April 27...

Mitrokhin about political prisoners: "As long as at least one of them is in jail, any one from us can be the next"

Press Release, April 17, 2013

YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin called to pay close attention to the Russian regions where dozens of people had been persecuted for political reasons. He made such a statement at a rally against the political reprisals that took place in Moscow on April 17.

Sergei Mitrokhin recalled journalist Michael Beketov who was attacked and severely injured in 2008 and died of severe injuries in April 2013. The names of those who ordered this crime were known, but they were not arrested. Also many cases of murdered journalists and public figures remained unsolved, Mitrokhin said.

"What should be done to make our law enforcement system work and so that it stopped being so sluggish and inert, amorphous and unclear? One should simply start to really fight against corruption, as Alexei Navalny has begun doing or Maxim Petlin, leader of the Sverdlovsk branch of YABLOKO, who was imprisoned for disclosing a corruption scheme of Yekaterinburg authorities"...

The court ordered the Department of Justice to register YABLOKO’s branch in North Ossetia

Press Release, April 23, 2013

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

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

The court also ordered the Ministry of Justice of the Republic to register a YABLOKO’s regional branch and pass all the documents required for registration to the fiscal authority...

St.Petersburg Ombudsman Alexander Shishlov reported on protection of civil rights

Press Release, April 18, 2013

Alexander Shishlov, Ombudsperson in St. Petersburg and YABLOKO Bureau member, made his first report in the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg.
On the whole he received 1643 written appeals, complaints and requests from citizens of St. Petersburg in 2012. Most complaints referred to housing problems. Over half of them (52.3 per cent) dealt with failure to get housing from the government’s fund, 22 per cent dealt with housing property title, 10.7 per cent with maintenance of the housing, 9.8 per cent with housing construction and 5.2 per cent with bills on utility services...
The Ombudsman recalled that dozens of people had been detained at different street protest actions in 2012; whereas the authorities explained the fact of their detention with the help of this law. “However, the court did not find any violations in their actions,” Shishlov said...

Democrats discussed the Moscow City Duma Elections

Press Release, April 11, 2013

On April 10, the YABLOKO party held a meeting for representatives of democratic parties and organizations. The meeting discussed YABLOKO’s proposal on compiling of a single list of democratic candidates for the Moscow City Duma elections 2014. Earlier YABLOKO had proposed to give half of places on its party list to the candidates from democratic forces.
Members of the Democratic Choice party and their leader Vladimir Milov, representatives of the Solidarity movement and RPR-PARNAS, activists from Grazhdanskaya Initsiativa (Civil Initiative) and their leader Andrei Nechayev, Gennady Gudkov , member of the opposition's Coordination Council, and Ilya Ponomaryov, deputy of the State Duma, took part in the meeting. Opening the meeting YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin spoke about YABLOKO’s initiative on creating a broad democratic and civil coalition for the Moscow City Duma elections. YABLOKO proposed to conduct primaries, where all the Muscovites could participate; whereas the winners in the primaries would be included into the YABLOKO party list of candidates and in single-mandate electoral districts. Sergei Mitrokhin emphasized that if the parties reached an agreement, YABLOKO would ready to take their representatives on the “party’s” part of the electoral list...

Biographies. Valery Borshchov. Updating

190th Executive takes important political decisions

LI News Bulletin, Issue 327, April 19, 2013

At the Administrative Session of the 190th Executive Committee Meeting, delegates from accorss the words expressed concern about recent developments in Russia and Ukraine and unanimously passed two political resolutions: Condemning the burning of books at Yabloko headquarters and The importance of fighting corruption in Ukraine. The Executive Committee endorsed the cooption of high-level politicians from un-represented regions on the LI Bureau: Kasit Piromya, of the Democratic Party of Thailand (Asia); Ahmed Hariri of the Future Movement/ al-Mustaqbal, Lebanon (MENA); Edgar Hererra, Guatemala (Latin America). One endorsement to full member status and three endorsements to observer member status were also voted. The Republican Party of Georgia is set to become a full member, while four parties -- Alliance Nationale pour les Comores, Comoros; United Democrats, Cyprus; Rassemblement National des Independents, Morocco; Partido de la Libertad Individual, Spain — were validated by the Executive as LI observer members. The status of these parties will need to be verified by the next Congress meeting...

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YABLOKO again attacked by Vladimir Putin’s supporters

Press Release, Video, April 18, 2013

On April 17, another rally organised by Vladimir Putin’s supporters took place by the office of the Krasnodar branch of YABLOKO in the South of Russia. It is already the 15th such rally held under the slogan “Hands off from Vladimir Putin!” taking place by YABLOKO’s office...

Resoulution
On the results of the Conference “Migration: International Experience and Russia’s Problems” conducted by the Russian United Democratic Party YABLOKO and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (the ALDE party)

Moscow, April 6, 2013

The Russian participants of the conference – representatives of the Russian United Democratic Party YABLOKO – basing on the discussions of the conference state the following:

Migration represents a natural development in the globalised world of the 21st century. However, the threat is represented by systemic problems in the states – the shadow economy and corruption, lack of the rule of law, encouragement of nationalistic moods and violation of human rights, - rather than migration in itself.

We are certain the problems related to migration can be resolved in compliance with international conventions, proceeding from such principles as human rights, tolerance, respect for the individual, responsibility, free and fair competition and secularism.

We believe that in the short term Russia must ratify Convention No 143 of the International Labour Organisation “On Migrations in Abusive Conditions and the Promotion of Equality of Opportunity and Treatment of Migrant Workers” (Geneva, June 24, 1975) and International Convention “On the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families” (New York, December 18, 1990)...

Sergei Mitrokhin: “Putin must make them investigate the Mikhail Beketov case

Press Release, April 11, 2013

Civil funeral service in memory of journalist and public activist Mikhail Beketov took place at the House of Journalists today. Mikhail Beketov was a Russian journalist who combated against crime and corruption in the city of Khimki (including defence of Khimki Forest which had to be cut due the construction of the Moscow–Saint Petersburg highway). Beketov was attacked and severely injured by “unidentified persons” in 2008. As a result his leg and fingers on the left hand were amputated, he lost speech and became handicapped. The attackers have not been found. He died in hospital of complications due to brain damage at the age of 55 on 8 April 2013...

“Mikhail Beketov struggled face to face against the crime in Khimki, and there are a few people like him, however, there are a lot of journalists among these few. This list [of murdered journalists] coincides with the list of unsolved murders. The investigators know the name of the person who ordered this crime, but there is no will so that to bring this person to justice. The tragedy of our country is that outright criminals are in power now. Mikhail stood in their way and was murdered. President Putin should have sent not only his condolences, but had to keep up his promise and take the case under his control. What else but death can become a reason for this? May the memory to a great person Mikhail Beketov live forever,” said Sergei Mitrokhin...

Liberals concerned about rise in human trafficking

Press Release, the ALDE party, April 17, 2013

The President of the ALDE Gender Equality Network Flo Clucas and liberal European Commissioner for Home Affairs Cecilia Malmström have expressed their profound concern and disappointment after a report revealed that human trafficking in the EU has increased in recent years and 80% of the victims are women and young girls. They also strongly criticised 21 EU member states for the delays in implementing into national law the EU directive on human trafficking, adopted in March 2011. The European Commission report presented on Monday, the first compilation of data from more than 25 European nations of its kind, showed human trafficking increased by 18% between 2008 and 2010 and that during the same time the number of convictions for the crime fell by 13%.

As EU member states identified human trafficking as one of the priority areas in the fight against organised crime, the ALDE Gender Equality Network is very disappointed and worried that, despite the alarming trends, only a few countries have implemented the anti-trafficking legislation. Flo Clucas, President of the ALDE Gender Equality Network, said: “Even though EU governments have had two years to implement tougher standardised anti-trafficking legislation, only six out of 27 states have done this. Large EU-states, such as Germany, France and Great Britain have not implemented tougher measures in their national legislatures, this is not acceptable...”

Wiretapping scandal in Bulgaria is a matter of European concern

Press Release, the ALDE Group, European Parliament, April 16, 2013

Commenting on the investigation by the Bulgarian Prosecutor General's Office into the allegations of illegal wiretapping of scores of political opposition leaders in Bulgaria, Guy Verhofstadt, President of the ALDE Group has made the following statement:

"Sanctioning of illegal wiretapping of opposition politicians in Bulgaria by state authorities undermines democracy and the fairness of the electoral process. The European Union monitoring mechanism covers adherence to the rule of law matters and therefore the ongoing scandal should be seriously analysed by the European Commission. With less than one month before elections in Bulgaria, citizens need to be reassured that their fundamental rights are protected"...

Urgency Resolution on the burning of YABLOKO's books.

LI 190th Executive Council Meeting, Beirut, Arpil 13, 2013

Book Burning

The Executive Committee of Liberal International, meeting in Beirut recalls the burning of books by Nazis in 1936, rightly condemned by the Free World, and expresses its horror and indignation at the action by ultra-Orthodox thugs who invaded the Headquarter of the Yabloko Party in Moscow on March 15 removing publications and burning them publicly in a Moscow Square.

The Executive Committee notes the failure of the Russian and Moscow Authorities to investigate, prosecute or even condemn this action with its sinister implications for basic freedoms and demands that they do so without delay, guaranteeing the right of all Russians to publish freely.

The Executive Committee calls on the Russian authorities to adhere to their commitment as a member country of the Council of Europe and investigate into the accident and punish those guilty.

The Executive Committee further urges ALDE members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe to sponsor a resolution condemning this action and the failure of the Russian Authorities to take appropriate action.

International conference on migration problems takes place in Moscow

Press Release, April 6, 2013

The way towards an efficient migration policy should go through the solution of major Russia’s problems: separation of business from government, building of a law-governed and democratic state, said YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin at the opening of an international conference on Migration. The conference, organized by the YABLOKO party and the ALDE party was held in Moscow on April 6...

Four panel discussions were held within the framework of the conference: “Migration dynamics and its political, economic and cultural consequences”, “Integration of migrants of the first and further generations: positive and negative experience”, “Restraining and regulatory mechanisms: different countries’ experiences and international cooperation” and “Regulation of migration: the tasks of the state and the society”. The reports were made by Russian and foreign experts and politicians...

YABLOKO nominated 1550 candidates to Saint Petersburg electoral commissions

Press Release, April 11, 2013

The St.Petersburg branch of YABLOKO nominated 1550 candidates to the electoral commissions in all the districts of the city. The registration of documents in the electoral commissions is ending today.
“All of our candidates are well educated and active citizens and their main goal is to ensure compliance with the law at their electoral districts. Unfortunately YABLOKO’s representatives were not welcome at all the territorial electoral commissions” said Olga Pokrovskaya, member of the city electoral commission.

In particular, one of the territorial electoral commissions demanded statements of income from YABLOKO’s candidates (which is not envisaged by the law), another commission demanded that the copies of the work record books should be changed as allegedly they had not been properly notorised...

LI Bureau member Robert Woodthorpe Browne was among the high level speakers on migration and assimilation at Yabloko Conference

LI Press Release, Arpil 6, 2013

LI Bureau member and Treasurer Robert Woodthorpe Browne was among the high level speakers on migration and assimilation at Yabloko (LI Full Member) Conference on 6th April in Moscow, Russia.

The event was opened by Party Leader Sergey Mitrokhin and Dr Astrid Thors, European Liberal Democrats - ALDE Party Vice President and former Migration Minister in the Finnish Government coming from the Swedish People's Party (LI Full Member). Professor Grigoriy Alekseyevich Yavlinskiy addressed the gathering on the subject issues. He was particularly concerned at the potential knock-on effect of the proposed US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2014. Input was provided by speakers from Swedish, Estonian, Moldovan, German and British liberals. LI Treasurer, Robert Woodthorpe Browne, described the UK situation and added an LI dimension...

The authorities in Kemerovo feared Acad. Alexei Yablokov’s lecture

Press Release, April 4, 2013

On April 3 Acad. Alexei Yabloko, Chair of YABLOKO’s Green Russia faction and member of YABLOKO’s Political Committee, delivered a public lecture "Environmental problems of Russia" in the Kemerovo business center and held an informal meeting with representatives of public and scientific organisations during his trip to the Kemerovo region.

Alexei Yablokov’s visit aroused concern of the local authorities: a formal invitation to deliver two lectures on environmental issues in the Kemerovo State University was withdrawn, as the “lecture halls were occupied”. The second public lecture by Alexei Yablokov "Ecology and Health" scheduled at the Business Center for April 4 was cancelled a few hours before it had to begin due to the "collapse of the ceiling in the conference room"...