The changes to be made to the Charter of the Yabloko party will make it possible to increase the number of its supporters from the present membership of 11,000 to 55,000. In particular, membership in the party will be declarative and members of the party will not be obliged to actively participate in the work of the party.

This was announced on Wednesday November 28, 2001 at a press conference in Novosibirsk (Siberia) by Grigory Yavlinsky who arrived there to support Yabloko's candidates at the election to the regional council scheduled for December 2.

According to Yavlinsky, while far from all the 18 candidates at the election to the regional council have real chances to win, if several Yabloko members were elected, it would become possible to create an opposition in the legislative body of Novosibirsk region to the present authorities.

Opposition should help the authorities to find solutions, and if the authorities do not want to adopt them make them do so. We are a party of the intelligentsia, but we have strong teeth, noted Yavlinsky.

According to Yavlinsky, during the election campaign to the Novosibirsk regional council, the executive authorities will employ the "administrative resource”, to prevent the appearance of opposition deputies in the legislative body. In particular, Yavlinsky thinks that under the pressure of Novosibirsk administration none of the local television companies agreed to demonstrate Yabloko's election video clips.

Based on Interfax reports.