I believe that the union we concluded long
ago between YABLOKO and Green Russia is very important. I
was an active advocate of such a union. Together we have created
virtually the only political organisation in the country which
has been engaged in comprehensive solution of environmental
problems. No one in this country, except us, has ever raised
the issues of environmental policy as such, and this is a
tragedy of our country. And the worst here is that the government
does not deal with these problems either. The system of environmental
protection has been destroyed in several months after Putin
came to power, and you were the political force which strongly
opposed this. The first steps we have done separately, but
then we joined our efforts protesting against the policy which
was carried out then, or rather, a rejection of any policy
in this field. We very strongly protested against [government’s]
amendments to the forestry laws.
And I should note here that the YABLOKO party
participated in the development of the previous forestry legislation.
A member of our party headed the State Duma Committee on Natural
Resources then. Of course, that legislation was certainly
not perfect, and many of its provisions could have been criticized,
but overall we were not ashamed of that work. However, there
were attempts to amend this legislation, and there was a wave
of amendments that worsened these laws. By the way, we managed
to block one of such amendments then. In 2003 the government
by the end of the State Duma term asked to allow transfer
of forest lands under economic use. We managed to derail the
amendment then, because there was freedom of speech in that
period. We announced during live broadcasting of the Freedom
of Speech television programme by Savvik Shuster that we would
disclose all the names and factions of the State Duma voting
for such an amendment… And the amendment failed.
And after that we were ousted out of the State Duma for such
actions, as we carried out plenty of such actions there. We
gave a very tough assessment to the new Forestry Code. We
warned about the consequences of its adoption and we turned
out to be right. The Code virtually led to a disaster: it
destroyed by the systems of forests protection and fire prevention.
The function of protection was transferred to the economic
entities renting forest lands, that is, the sheep were transferred
under protection of the wolves. [The Code led to such a situation
when] foresters, who were involved in fire prevention, simply
disappeared. However endless reporting to a federal structure
remained. All this is described in detail in the report of
a public commission, which analysed in detail the causes of
forest fires [that were especially severe this summer]. The
initiative to establish such a commission came from YABLOKO,
we were the only political organisation in the country (speaking
in a broad sense, including government’s agencies as well),
which analysed the causes of these fires, and made this in
a systematic and comprehensive way combining the efforts of
many environmental organisations. The State Duma made a sluggish
statement where they did not even name any persons or agencies
liable [for the situation]...
And it is clear why, as all of them [in the Duma] were members
of the ruling United Russia party, whose members ran along
the rows in the Duma pressing the buttons "for"
the new Forest Code. Otherwise they would have to say "sorry,
we can not make laws, and, in general, we're just puppets."
Despite all their patriotic rhetoric and their endless glorification
of the vertical of the power, they have been ruining this
vertical. I am grateful to the authors of the report for quoting
the key figures and what they were saying adopting the Forestry
Code. Both Vladimir Putin and then Economic Minister German
Gref, and head of the Forestry Service, were saying, "We
will now have financial flows in our forestry, and investments
will come to our forests!" And with such an ideology
they destroyed a serious state structure that had existed
in Russia for three hundred years.
The role of YABLOKO in the Russian politics is also painted
in green. Of course, we have both the democratic and the social
role… But other [parties and organisations] have such roles
too but for the environmental protection role. I'm glad that
we are engaged in this together with the Green Russia. And
we are doing this not only on the federal level. Previously,
YABLOKO’s activities in their environmental protection activities
concentrated mainly in Moscow. Now, thanks to the Green Russia
faction, we have a network of such regions already. I was
glad to come and help to Andrei Rudomakha in Tuapse and Sochi
(environmental issues are acute there due to the Olympic construction)
and Galina Boldyreva in Volgograd (we are struggling against
air pollution and try to solve the waste disposal problem
there). I think this activity is extremely important and useful
for the people and the party: we show to the people that we
care about such issues, we are engaged in this and can offer
solutions for such problems and that we can work in the state
power bodies over these problems. And strictly speaking we
are fighting for this. Already now, we can propose candidates
who could lead environmental agencies in many regions so that
to restore the system of environmental protection in our country.
I would like to thank you for your work and encourage you
to work even more actively in the regions under YABLOKO’s
flags. I am ready to render you any personal assistance, as
well as offer help form the party apparat, and personally
come to such actions.
Now about the political situation in the country. At present
we are the only democratic party in Russia.
We are an opposition party, because we are against the system
they began building in 1990s and logically finalised in 2000s.
We call this an oligarchic system. This system represents
a merger of the business and the government, and the goal
of its functioning is to enrich those who are in large-scale
businesses and in power. While the Communist Party of the
Soviet Union strived “to bring happiness to all”, the present
ruling United Russia party wants to derive profit from all.
If we attempt to analyse any of Russia’s problems or troubles,
we shall find out that they are rooted in the pursuit of wealth.
The State Duma adopts laws allowing for large-scale businessmen
together with top state officials to simply make money. This
is the goal of their budget policies, or rather the policies
of their family budgets. In the Russian language we have a
word which is the source of probably half of Russian corruption
- this word is "may". For example, the law stipulates
that the regional legislative authority may examine the use
of funds, etc. It seems normal - to check how officials spend
budget money. But the word "may" destroys the possibility
of such an audit, leaving them freedom to conduct or not to
conduct it (“may” or “may not”). And this refers to any situation.
The number of such norms has considerably grown for the past
ten years, as have mastered the art of wording... Previously
people did not pay much attention to the laws. For example,
they conducted privatisation of 1990s without any laws, as
they had not yet mastered the art of making such specific
legislation. Now they have learned this art in full. And at
present everything is done in accordance with the law.
What has been happening to land? In fact, it goes into the
hands of the oligarchs in different ways and under different
titles and by means of different methods. The land they are
interested in is normally public land, such as parks, historical
city center, lands by the highways, etc… What, for example,
is the main problem behind the fight for Khimki forest? This
is the problem of seizing the land.
By the way, YABLOKO has been supporting the defenders of
Khimki Forest from the very beginning. We have all the information
why has it all begun and how it has happened. The Leningrad
highway (Ed. Now St.Petersburg – Moscow highway) passes across
the Khimki district. In 1985, the plans of that time envisaged
a broad lane for the highway between Moscow and Leningrad.
Later the land reserved for broadening of the highway was
unlawfully given under construction of large malls. Now they
say to the defenders of Khimki Forest, "Well, look what
traffic jams we are having on the highway! Are you against
the development of roads? We have a transport collapse here
and you are making it even worse”.
The land by this highway is the main reason why they have
been felling the forest. The reason number two is that the
lands by the Moscow – St.Petersburg highway can be transferred
under construction of more large molls. And all the fuss there
is around the land, and not because of this highway will be
a paid highway. The latter will pay back God knows when… And
a disproportionately huge area of Khimki forest they are cutting
now is simply a way to capture the land. And this has been
always done under noble pretexts. Take for example, the reopening
of the Baikal Pulp and Paper Mill. Why did they reopen it?
Because [oligarch] Oleg Deripaska, while he was still the
owner of the mill, asked Vladimir Putin not to deprive him
of this income.
...We have a system that allows for about 10% of the population
to live in prosperity, for about 30% to live in more or less
tolerable conditions, while the remaining 60% of the citizens
are virtually surviving. And this system can not function
in a different way, as it has been designed in such a way.
People who created and have been controlling this system think
that this system will suffice for their term of office. And
maybe something will even go to their successors. So they
do not need to develop and diversify the economy and do not
have to get off the oil and gas needle. They want to maintain
their dominance forever. That is why they changed the Constitution,
which now allows for an increase of the real term of office
for the President of up to 20 years. That is why we have high
technologies only as PR slogans or for replenishment of family
budgets.
The most profitable business in Russia – after the sales
of oil and gas – is exploration of budget funds under some
plausible excuses, and their fantasy is never exhausted when
they are inventing new excuses. The budget has already allocated
50 billion roubles under nano-technologies. And now they come
up with [the Russian Silicon Valley of] Skolkovo project...
In any case this situation never changes. We are living under
an oligarchic system, and we have been observing a dominating
trend towards its stabilisation. And it's a terrible thing
for the nature and the environment.
... Now about interaction with different political forces.
There are some forces that are very radical and critical today.
And we are constantly asked why we do not make some sort of
association with them, why we do not participate in their
actions, why we are not joining the ranks with the Solidarity,
RNDS and others. One of the reasons is that the leaders of
these movements are the same people who have been building
this oligarchic system. They were among the top government
officials, headed the State Duma, helped Putin to build this
system under the slogan "Putin for the Presidency!",
"Kiriyenko to the State Duma," and so on. These
are the people who have made the country such as it is now.
Some nasty stories happened to some of them - they were thrown
out of power for various reasons, they got angry, and are
now shouting "Away with Putin!"
Some time ago, they came to us and said publicly that they
wanted to unite with us, enter into coalitions, alliances,
and create a united party, and so on. We were saying to them,
"We are ready to unite with you. But you should at least
admit that your policy was wrong, it was a mistake, as well
as the fact that at you were calling yourselves democrats
but virtually did a lot for turning Russia into oligarchy,
rather than democracy”. They simply glued democracy, like
the fig-leaf, to this oligarchy. Because the oligarchy in
the modern world has no legitimacy of its own.
In ancient Greece oligarchic regimes were recognised together
with a democratic ruling, a tyranny and so on. In the modern
world only democracy is of value, and you'll get recognition
only if you are a democrat. That is why those who want to
install a total power of money will always dress up in disguise
as democrats. And now they under democratic slogans would
like to return to the old times and represent the forces of
oligarchic revenge. That's why we have different ways with
them. This is the main reason. It is hard to explain on television,
it is hard to explain to people who are not engaged in these
problems or do not study them.
Nevertheless, we are not aiming at vengeance. If a person
acknowledges his or her mistakes, then, of course, we are
ready to work with him or her. We have even a special paper
written for them - but they refuse to sign it (Ed. To acknowledge
that their policies were wrong).
See also:
Protection
of Environment
Nuclear
Safety
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