| On Wednesday the officials of the Ministry of
Justice will grant the Yabloko party a certificate of registration.
At the same time a months-long domestic reform of the organisation
is coming to an end. A strong organisational structure has been
established, and Grigory Yavlinsky thinks the party is now ready
to fight for the electorate.
Sergei Mitrokhin, Deputy Head of the Yabloko Party for Party
Development, thinks that the party has been rebuilt based on "the
criteria of maximum efficiency". The members of Yabloko,
headed by leader Grigory Yavlinsky, set a goal of building an
efficient vertical management structure for their party. They
created a new managing body, the Presidium, which consists of
six people and works in an effective day-to-day regime.
Previously Yabloko based itself mostly on the Moscow and the
St.Petersburg branches; now it has decided to pay attention to
Russia's regions and bring people from the regions into the top
of the party leadership. Most of the posts in the leadership of
the party are now occupied by regional party bosses. Each of these
is now responsible for some specific area of work both in internal
party affairs and in public. Previously such responsibilities
were more loosely assigned, as only a few people had a broad range
of responsibilities. After a quarrel between Grigory Yavlinsky
and Vyacheslav Igrunov, this almost led to a split in the party.
The sacred aspect of any political association, the apparat,
also was not forgotten. The deadwood and half of the staff were
reduced. As Mitrokhin told Izvestia, the apparat is now already
"working in electoral campaign regime." The concept
of admitting new members to Yabloko was also changed; now it can
be done on application. On the regional level, Yabloko members
orient their regional organisations to achieving definite results,
they get specific tasks and must report on their implementation.
The party had financial problems for a long time after well-known
media tycoon Vladimir Gusinsky left his business. Now, according
to Yabloko, everything is OK with their sponsors. Soon Yabloko
also plans to introduce membership fees, albeit symbolic, so that
"a person should feel his ties with the party."
Co-operation with the right-wing parties, which was announced
a year ago brought results only in the State Duma, where the factions
develop a common position on some issues. Joint participation
in regional elections did not take place - only "consultations"
were started.
Nevertheless, Yabloko has a chance to get into the State Duma
in the next parliamentary elections. According to the Public Opinion
Fund and VTsIOM (All-Russia Public Opinion Research Centre), Yabloko's
ratings currently vary from four to six per cent; the choices
of middle-aged people virtually don't change.
See also:
Press Release.
May 22, 2002.
| 