Grigory Yavlinsky at the rally:
“Our goal is to change the system”
Press Release
December 24, 2011
In his speech at the rally on December 24 YABLOKO leader
Grigory Yavlinsky called the coming presidential elections
“the second round” which should be won and lead to making
Russia an open and free European country.
“The [parliamentary] elections of December 4 were the first
round and judging by what we see here now we have not lost
it,” Yavlinsky told addressing a 100,000 rally. “The second
round is presidential election, and we can not vote there
for any candidate”.
“We should have our candidate, we should fight for the second
round, we must make it into the second round! Next year we
should change the political system!” he said.
“Our goal can be reduced to only evicting some persons from
the power, our goal is to change the corrupt, bribable, deceitful
and really illegitimate system,” Yavlinsky noted.
According to YABLOKO’s leader, no one in the new system will
dare to label Russian citizens “a herd of sheep”, “Bandar-logs”
or “the orange pest”.
Russia needs such a political system where “the law would
be the same for everyone, when court would not listen to money
and orders, but only to law, when property would be inviolable,
when everyone will be certain that his or her vote will be
preserved”, Yavlinsky stressed. He also told to the rally
that he knew how to reach this “peacefully and constitutionally”.
The first steps in this way should be dismissal of head of
the Central Electoral Commission Vladimir Churov and punishment
of those who participated in the election fraud, freedom of
speech for mass media, stopping pressure on mass media and
freedom to political prisoners.
In conclusion Grigory Yavlinsky called the authorities to
free one of the organizers of the rallies Sergei Udaltsov
who had been kept under arrest despite his health condition.
“Do not be so cruel, ghoulish and petty, stop torturing him,
release this man,” he said.
