On June 11 YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin made a speech
at the Executive Committee of Liberal International in Berlin.
As Sergei Mitrokhin’s speech was scheduled in the agenda item
“Human Rights in the Authoritarian States”, he spoke about
police breaking YABLOKO’s picket by the Russian parliament
which was conducted against adoption of the law “on preventive
measures against extremism”, as well as breaking of a peaceful
rally on the Triumfalnaya square in Moscow on May 31.
The participants of the Executive Committee also received
Sergei Mitrokhin’s report “Russia and European Integration”.
In this report YABLOKO’s leader once again stressed the necessity
to work out a single strategy for EU interaction with Russia,
which should be based on integration, rather than confrontation.
According to Mitrokhin, the first step in realisation of this
strategy would be introduction of a visa-free regime between
Russia and the European Union.
Another example of realization of this uniform strategy, runs
the report, may be the Anti-Ballistic Missile Defence system
(ABM) as a joint project of the RF and NATO countries. “Both
the West and Russia will profit from such cooperation and
lose from confrontation, as democracy can not develop in anti-Western
hysteria”, Mitrokhin stressed.
The report also indicates that cooperation between Russia
and the European Union should take place in the field of environmental
safety too.
According to Mitrokhin, “the present political and economic
situation in the country can be characterised as the ongoing
stagnation which began under Putin. Russia’s modernisation
announced by President Medvedev has been taking place in words
only”.
YABLOKO’s leader singled out the following grave problems
which exist in Russia at present: violation of human rights,
deligitimisation of power due to erosion of trust to elections
and election fraud, as well as corruption problem.
“Russia’s problems are very serious. This is connected with
Russia’s history and reforms conducted by pseudo liberals
in early 1990s. However, proposing our initiatives as regards
international security, a visa-free regime, ecology and, most
importantly, the EU strategy we proceed from the fact that
these initiatives represent a way for overcoming Russia’s
problems. And we are calling you to a joint work here”, runs
the report.
See also:
Russia
– EU Relations
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