The leader of Yabloko and its parliamentary faction in the State Duma, Grigory Yavlinsky, said that the actions undertaken by the authorities against Media-Most are virtually destroying the political structure of society. In an interview with journalists on September 20 Yavlinsky expressed his opinion that today society is virtually organised in such a way that “if political parties and politicians are not given an opportunity to speak, they do not exist."

Yavlinsky also noted that now we can speak about “ a liquidation of the base for political parties and civil freedoms, the base that is guaranteed by our Constitution”. “We can see the seriousness of developments”, stressed Yavlinsky.

According to Yavlinsky, “by trying, with the help of a bulldozer, to destroy NTV and the other mass media represented in the holding” the authorities “are virtually performing an act of self-annihilation, i.e.

they are destroy an intellectual product of public importance”. Yavlinsky added: “We have not created anything like that in the field of intellectual property for the past few years”.

He also termed as “absurd” the reproaches that NTV had allegedly adhered to an anti-state policy. According to Yavlinsky, people today who try to eliminate what has been created are acting from an anti-state position. “This resembles Chernobyl and the events around the nuclear submarine “Kursk”, added Yavlinsky.

Today the text of Grigory Yavlinsky’s declaration with respect to the Media-Most holding was distributed in the Duma.

Based on Interfax reports.

See also:

Vladimir Gusinsky's case

The State Duma declined the proposal of the Yabloko faction to consider,

during the meeting on September 20, a State Duma enquiry on President Putin “On the use of the law-enforcement agencies aiming to exert pressure on the mass media”.

This is how the First Deputy Head of the Yabloko faction Sergei Ivanenko

worded his proposal to the Duma. He recalled that in September two prominent entrepreneurs Boris Berezovsky and Vladimir Gusinsky had independently

announced that they had been subject to pressure from the law-enforcement agencies. “It looks as if the state is acting like a blackmailer”, stressed Ivanenko, as he referred to the conflict between the Media-Most holding owned by Gusinsky and OAO Gazprom.

The Deputy Speaker of the LDPR faction Vladimir Zhirinovsky was extremely critical of the Yabloko proposal. He called Boris Berezovsky and Vladimir Gusinsky “emigres” and said that the State Duma must not resolve their problems. Zhirinovsky also thinks that a decision on nationalising the ORT channel should be adopted to establish two state channels – the first and second channels. NTV, stressed Zhirinovsky, must return its debt to Gazprom.

During voting the proposal of the Yabloko faction received the support of only 59 deputies..

Based on Interfax reports.

The deputies of the Yabloko faction Sergei Ivanenko and Sergei Mitrokhin

will forward on September 21, 2000 a deputies’ inquiry to the Public Prosecutor of the RF Vladimir Ustinov, in which they request “a verification of the testimonies of the officials who participated in the blackmail as a means of signing profitable commercial agreements”.

In particular, the deputies have requested clarification of the circumstances behind the signing of the top-secret Appendix No 6 to the agreement of July 20 on the hand-over of the shares of Media-Most to the Gazprom concern. According to the Appendix, signed by Press Minister Mikhail Lesin, the owner of Media-Most, Vladimir Gusinsky, was guaranteed a termination of his criminal prosecution and the possibility to travel abroad in exchange for his shares.

The Yabloko deputies also demanded that the Public Prosecutor on whose orders Mikhail Lesin acted, and also take account of the measures adopted by the Public Prosecutor with respect to individuals “who accorded themselves the exclusive proxies of the Office of the Public Prosecutor of the RF to engage in extortion”.

In accordance with the law on the deputy status, Yabloko deputies expect to receive within 30 days of the date of the dispatch of the inquiry information on the measures adopted by the Public Prosecutor’s Office to

prevent the actions of officials targeted at illegally restricting the rights of citizens and the freedom of the mass media.

See also:

The leader of Yabloko and its parliamentary faction, Grigory Yavlinsky, thinks that if the budget for 2001 obtains additional revenues, they should be used to repay foreign debt. “It would be wrong to use them for anything else,” stressed Yavlinsky in an interview with journalists on September 20, 2000.

Yavlinsky also expressed his opinion that “the budget only reflects part of the economy, only 40 or 50 percent of the total”; and when referring to the “legal” part of the budget, one can state that it “looks quite normal”.

In principle Yabloko’s deputies may support draft budget at its first reading, although only in certain circumstances, noted Yavlinsky. In particular he called for greater transparency of the budget for 2001. “In this draft budget the problem of transparency was not resolved,” added Yavlinsky.

He also pointed out that to date “no serious mechanisms for legalising the shadow economy” have been proposed. In addition, stressed Yavlinsky, the

budget must create the conditions for establishing real federalism in the country. Consequently he noted that “the actions of the President to restrict the political powers of governors were correct”, but the logic of such actions require Moscow “to increase the economic rights of the regions”, which should be reflected in the budget.

Speaking about the general economic situation, Grigory Yavlinsky noted with regret that “this is the third time that a situation favourable for economic growth has not been exploited” in the country. According to Yavlinsky, such chances were lost in 1994 and 1998 and are being lost today. Yavlinsky believes that this is attributable today to the present political situation, which is in such a state that today “it is impossible to talk about any serious investments”, noted Yavlinsky.

He also said that on the expiry of a six month term since the inauguration of President Putin, i.e. by November 7, Yabloko will prepare a serious analysis of the economic and political situation in Russia.

Based on Interfax reports.

See also:Alexei Kudrin notes that the views of the government and Yabloko coincide on many items of the draft budget for 2001