| For the next few years YABLOKO plans to focus on participation
in the regional election campaigns so as to become an 'influential democratic
force". "Control over observation of laws" during regional
elections will become a priority direction of this work. This statement
was made by Grigory Yavlinsky
at a meeting with representatives of political and economic circles in
the FRG and representatives from the German and foreign mass media which
took place yesterday night in the Adlon Hotel in Berlin. The meeting was
organised by an influential non-governmental organization, the German-Russian
Forum, the German Foreign Policy Society and the Bertelsmann Foundation.
YABLOKO thinks its task for the next four years is to perform outside
parliament as a democratic opposition. Yavlinsky stressed that the views
of his party on the variants of economic and domestic political developments
of the country "considerably differ" from the point of view
of the present Russian leadership that "has been trying to create
an inefficient system of state capitalism."
Grigory Yavlinsky noted that the reasons for YABLOKO's defeat in the
December elections to the State Duma, when the party could not overcome
the five per cent barrier, were engrained in a situation where United
Russia and YABLOKO were "different weight categories". Asked
about the mistakes made by his party during the elections Yavlinsky answered,
"We lost the elections.
And that was the only miscalculation. Otherwise we did everything right.
According to Yavlinsky, YABLOKO lost the elections because "the
country had to face abuse of the administrative resource" and because
there were "large-scale falsifications of the results of the election."
Asked why YABLOKO refused to participate in the presidential elections
in March 2004, Yavlinsky noted that "we think that in the present
conditions when equal free election and political competition are impossible
in the country, participation in the elections is on principle impossible
for us." At the same time Yavlinsky expressed his conviction that
in 20-25 years "a Western type of democracy with independent courts,
mass media, and civil control over the authorities" will win in Russia,
as there is "no other alternative."
Yavlinsky also confirmed the correctness of the "conscientious"
choice of his party which refused from merger with the Union of Right-Wing
Forces. "We have different electorates. Our electorate will not vote
for Chubais and other representatives of the SPS who are associated with
the war in Chechnya, default and criminal privatisation." If YABLOKO
and the SPS had merged together, the results would have been considerably
worse.
See also:
State Duma elections
2003
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