| On September 6 YABLOKO received the delegation of the
German Free Democratic Party (Freie Demokratische Partei,
FDP) in YABLOKO’s Moscow office. The FDP delegation included
Bundestag members Dr.Reiner Stinner, Marina Schuster, Dr.
Bijan Djir-Sarai and Patrick Kurth, staff members of the FDP
parliamentary faction, Director of the Moscow Bureau of the
Friedrich Naumann Foundation Sasha Tamm and staff members
of the German Embassy. FDP together with the Christian Democrats
forms a coalition German federal government. FDP leader Guido
Westerwelle is currently German Foreign Minister.
YABLOKO was represented by party leader Sergei Mitrokhin,
Executive Secretary of the Political Committee Galina Mikhalyova
and International Officer of the party Olga Radayeva. The
sides discussed some issues of Russia’s foreign and domestic
policies, the specifics and prospects of the work of the YABLOKO
party in Russia.
The representatives of YABLOKO’s sister liberal party showed
interested in Russian party and electoral system, as well
as how parties work with their electorate and mass media.
Sergei Mitrokhin told the guests about the present oligarchic
and bureaucratic regime in Russia replacing democratic institutions
by their imitations and problems such a system creates for
a democratic party.
The guests also asked about expectations of the YABLOKO party
as regards the German liberals. “We are interested in broadening
our contacts with a sister party and consultations on a wide
range of issues, especially as regards acute issues of Russian-German
relations,” Sergei Mitrokhin noted. As an example of such
acute problems he referred to a decision of the German Federal
Land of Saxony to export nuclear waste from Germany to Russia.
Dr.Rainer Stinner describing the specifics of the coalition
policies of his party stressed that the tasks of the FDP were
connected with strengthening of its position and raising of
its rating which had somewhat fallen since the elections.
“However, we do not regard our present coalition in the government
as a kind of a cage, we are ready to consider possible partnerships
with other parties,” he noted.
The German colleagues also displayed interest to the possibilities
for the Russian citizens to study German. “This implies a
keen interest, broadening of contacts, building of firm bridges
between the nations, which can base on abolishing of the visa
regime our party has been speaking about for many years already,”
Galina Mikhalyova noted.
The FDP delegation was presented with YABLOKO’s recent publications
demonstrating the programme work of the party in different
fields.
In conclusion of the discussion both the sides expressed
the intention in a closer cooperation between the parties.
See also:
YABLOKO
Sister Parties
Russia
and EU
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