| * YABLOKO means 'apple' in Russian.
True YABLOKO members are not that concerned about the attack the 'black
PR'.
YABLOKO beat a record among the party victims of the black PR. This
statement was made by Deputy Chairman of the YABLOKO party Sergei
Mitrokhin at a press conference yesterday. He also provided examples
of other black PR actions targeted against Grigory
Yavlinsky and his supporters. For example, a new political organisation
created by some young people and entitled "YABLOKO without Yavlinsky'
has emerged in Russia recently. This organisation has nothing in common
with the proper YABLOKO party or its former members.
According to Mitrokhin, head of RAO UES Anatoli Chubais is behind the
creation of such an organisation.
Asked why YABLOKO was a target for black PR campaigns more often than
other parties (suffice it to recall the posters picturing a 'union' between
YABLOKO and communists or a wide-scale campaign of publications in the
regional media targeted against YABLOKO), Mitrokhin answered that those
who ordered such campaigns were on one hand dissatisfied with the party's
actions regarding reforms in electricity sector and the housing and utilities
sector in the present variant, and were also scared by the growing popularity
of the party. However, said Mitrokhin, all these actions are conducted
so unprofessionally that YABLOKO only gains from them: "They provide
us with a good pretext to state once again our attitude to the current
reforms and the monopolists trying to push them through," the head
of the elections head-quarters of the YABLOKO party.
See also:
State Duma elections
2003
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