Is
Modernisation in Russia Possible? Interview
with Grigory Yavlinsky and Boris Titov by Yury Pronko,
"The Real Time" programme, Radio Finam, May
12, 2010
Photo: Valery Kochnev (second from left) with a support group awaiting the court hearing / Photo by the Novgorod branch of the party
On 28 September, a wave of false reports about mining occurred in Veliky Novgorod. In addition to schools and kindergartens, the work of the Novgorod District Court, where hearings on administrative cases about “demonstration of extremist symbols” against candidates for deputies of the City Duma of Veliky Novgorod from the Yabloko party Oksana Sergeyeva and Valery Kochnev, was also paralysed. The court did not consider Sergeyeva’s case at all, and the hearing of the Kochnev case began an hour after the appointed time and then was also postponed.
I have received a response from the acting Public Prosecutor of the Pskov region to my appeal, in which I asked to dismantle the [recently erected] monument to Stalin in Velikiye Luky, as violating laws, humanism and common sense.
Stalin’s repressions were recognised as a crime by decisions of the highest bodies of power of the USSR and Russia.
Two kilometers from the place where the monument was erected (in front of the entrance to the Mikron plant), on the territory of the Velikiye Luky fortress, there was an NKVD prison before the war, through which hundreds, if not thousands of innocent Soviet people passed through at the behest of Joseph Stalin in the years of the Great Terror and ended their lives in execution ditches and camps.
On 3 October, the Yabloko party office will host a screening of the film “Yablokov”, dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the birth of Alexei Vladimirovich Yablokov, an outstanding scholar, public and political figure, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the leader of the Green Russia Faction of the Yabloko party.
Photo: Satellite image of a column of refugees leaving Nagorno-Karabakh. September 2023 // MAXAR
There is a continuous flow of information from Transcaucasia about the ongoing tragedy. It is not possible to really comprehend what is happening while in Moscow. But some painful conclusions can be drawn.
Ethnic cleansing of local Armenians is taking place in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Photo: Police in the office of the Saratov branch of Yabloko / Photo by the Saratov Yabloko
An official caution on the inadmissibility of actions that create conditions for the commission of crimes under Article 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation (violation of the established procedure for organising or holding a meeting, rally, demonstration, procession or picketing) was received by the Deputy Chairman of the Saratov branch of Yabloko, Kirill Rumyantsev. Two police officers came to the office of the Saratov branch of Yabloko today to warn about the illegality of holding an action of writing letters to political prisoners, which was announced for 30 September. According to the police, the action of writing letters in the office represent a public event about which executive authorities must be notified.
Photo: The Legislative Assembly of St.Petersburg / Photo by the Press Service of the Legislative Assembly
The Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg did not adopt Yabloko’s bill on changes to the law on the budget process at a plenary session on Wednesday, 27 September. Only 14 deputies out of 49 present at the meeting voted for the bill.
On 2 October, The Yabloko Party University will host the fourth lecture by Sergei Mitrokhin, a member of the Federal Political Committee and Candidate of Political Sciences. Mitrokhin’s lecture Russian Political Mentality. The Conditions of Formation and the Key Features” will be held within the framework of the series “Truth Instead of Law”.
Photo: Oksana Sergeyeva and Valery Kochnev / Photo by the Novgorod Yabloko
On 28 September, the Novgorod District Court will hold two trials on administrative cases regarding the “spread of extremist symbols” against candidates for the Veliky Novgorod City Duma Oksana Sergeyeva and Valery Kochnev.
It should be noted that on 29 August, an administrative protocol was drawn up against surgeon Valery Kochnev, a Yabloko candidate for deputy of the City Duma of Veliky Novgorod, regarding the “demonstration of extremist symbols”. The police found a violation of the law in the publication of a video clip for the song “Zombie” by the Cranberries. The video used chronicle footage from the times of Nazi Germany, and was published by Valery Kochnev on his page in 2021.
Photo: Vladimir Dorokhov speaking at the rally / Photo by Dmitry Chebanov
Past weekend, a rally was held against the closure of the radiological unit of the oncology department of the city hospital in the city of Novomoskovsk, the Tula region. About a hundred people gathered at the rally. The organisers managed to get a permission for the rally only upon the second time. The rally was ignored by local journalists. The leader of the Tula branch of Yabloko, Vladimir Dorokhov, spoke in support of the demands of the protesters.
Photo: Yevgeny Yasin /Photo by Maxim Kimerling, Kommersant
On 25 September, economist Yevgeny Grigoryevich Yasin passed away. Chairman of the Federal Political Committee of the Yabloko party Grigory Yavlinsky expressed condolences on the death of Yevgeny Yasin.
Photo: Screenshot of Emilia Slabunova’s page on the VKontakte social media running that her page was blocked by the demand of the Office of the Public Prosecutor General of the RF No 27-31-2022 of 25.03.2022
A judge of the Smolninsky District Court of St. Petersburg ruled out that the VKontakte social media administration was not obliged to open access to Yabloko MP of the Legislative Assembly of Karelia Emilia Slabunova to her blocked page on this social media, even after the user had deleted the posts allegedly containing “unreliable” socially significant information about the special operation on the territory of Ukraine. The politician intends to appeal the decision, despite the position of the Smolninsky District Court.
The political regime that has developed in Russia can be characterised as electoral authoritarianism evolving into a personalistic dictatorship. While the institution of elections was formally preserved, voting lost its true meaning. In the situation of pressure on the institutions of civil society and the apathy of the majority of Russians, election campaigns in Russia do not lead to a change of power, political and personal changes, but formalised the figures chosen by the ruling group, as well as perform the function of “letting off public steam”. However, even under these conditions, elections can still serve as a tool for dialogue between the party and society and a mechanism for citizens to express their opinions.
Borodyanka, Kyiv district, Ukraine. March 2022 // Ales Ustsinau
THE SITUATION TODAY
One and a half years of hostilities have demonstrated that the largest armed conflict in Europe after World War II — the confrontation between Russia and Ukraine — will drag on for years and will be accompanied by never-ending fatalities and more and more destruction. To all intents and purposes this conflict will have no conclusive outcome; this is a no-win situation.
As long as there is no fundamental transformation of the political and economic system created in Russia in the 1990s1, as long as the regime in the country remains authoritarian and immutable, until the Russian Federation actually becomes a democratic state (and unfortunately this is not going to happen any day soon), there will be no material change in the Kremlin’s foreign policy.
Meanwhile the Ukrainian authorities declare that they will not stop and will not back down. Today, however, Ukraine is gradually starting to experience difficulties arising objectively in Western contributor countries: a build-up of budget problems, tension over issues of the combat readiness of the national armed forces and the exacerbation of domestic political differences. Support for Ukraine at current levels is not guaranteed.
In September and early October, actions of writing letters to political prisoners will again be held at the central office of the Yabloko party and in the offices of Yabloko regional branches. As always, anyone who would like to send kind words and wishes to those unjustly imprisoned is invited to participate. Yabloko will help you understand the intricacies of writing such letters, and will also take care of sending letters by mail. You can read brief instructions on how to write a letter for a political prisoner here.
Photo: Police officers blocking the car of Yabloko candidates on 9 September, 2023 / Photo by Ksenia Cherepanova
Yabloko’s politicians were accused of allegedly planning to enter the premises of the precinct electoral commission at school No. 31 on the night of 9-10 September. That night, Anna Cherepanova, Ksenia Cherepanova, and Viktor Shalyakin were blocked in a car near the polling station. All the three candidates, without leaving the car, showed their documents to a policeman. The policeman asked Anna Cherepanova to get out of the car, but she refused. No demands were made against Ksenia Cherepanova and Viktor Shalyakin.
Over 30 years, the Yabloko party has offered people in Russia a different path eleven times: eight times in parliamentary elections and three times in presidential elections. This path would never have led our country to what is happening now. We proposed to build a state of welfare and human dignity, freedom and democracy with life without fear and war.
But even today, in the most difficult conditions, when it became dangerous to campaign for peace and freedom, Yabloko candidates were reaching out to people and told them the truth about the situation in the country. And people only had to vote – secretly, without any risk – for peace and freedom. Every vote was extremely important. But, unfortunately, this did not happen on a serious scale. For the most part, people did not understand that voting was the way to change the situation. And without this understanding nothing can be changed.
Photo: The rally organised by the Tomsk branch of Yabloko /Photo by the Tomsk Yabloko Press Service
The rally was organized by Vladimir Petrov, deputy of the City Council of the city of Seversk from Yabloko. Several hundred people opposed the actions of the administration of the Siberian Federal Scientific Clinical Centre of the Federal Medical and Biological Agency (SibFNKTs FMBA). The centre includes the Seversk Clinical Hospital, as well as the Medical Rehabilitation Centre and the Treatment and Prevention Unit in Tomsk. The centre has been headed by Viktor Avkhimenko since February 2021. The protesters are dissatisfied with the quality of health care and the level of salaries of medical workers.
Photo: Viktor Sheinis /Photo by the Yabloko Press Service
A round table “Viktor Leonidovich Sheinis: Academic, Politician, and Person” was held at the Institute of Scientific Information on Social Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences past week.
The event was dedicated to the memory of Viktor Leonidovich Sheinis (1931–2023), Doctor of Economics, People’s Deputy of the RSFSR and a member of the Constitutional Commission of the Congress of People’s Deputies of the RSFSR (1990–1993), a deputy of the State Duma (1993–1999) and a member of the Political Committee of Yabloko. The participants of the round table spoke about the great contribution of Viktor Sheinis to the creation of the Constitution of the Russian Federation and the electoral legislation of Russia, his scientific works as an economist, historian and political scientist, and his participation in the political life of the country.
On 12 September the central office of the Yabloko party hosted a launch of a collection of lectures from the Yabloko Party University “Russia: History and the Modern Period” delivered in 2020-2022 within the framework of the Yabloko Party University by well-known politicians and academics. Galina Mikhaleva, head of the Yabloko Party University, who prepared the present collection of lectures, and the authors of the lectures participated in the event.
Speakers at the launch were Yabloko party Chairman Nikolai Rybakov, Yabloko Deputy Chairman Boris Vishnevsky, Moscow City Duma deputy Sergei Mitrokhin, Yabloko member Yevgeniy Gontmakher, leading researcher at the Centre for International Security Natalia Bubnova, political and social scientist Olga Popova, Director of the SOVA information and analysis centre Alexander Verkhovsky, President of the Humanitarian and Political Science Centre Strategy Alexander Sungurov, Deputy Director of the Centre for Social and Labour Rights Yulia Ostrovskaya, and Candidate of Juridical Science Arkady Lyubarev. Lectures by these and many other authors are published in the book.
On 14 September, a launch of the books by Eva Merkacheva: “The City of the Doomed. An Honest Report on Seven Penal Colonies for Life-Sentenced Prisoners”, “Who Lives Well in Russia. How Prisons Work in Modern Russia” and “High-Profile Cases. Crimes and Punishments in the USSR” was held in the central office of Yabloko in Moscow. Eva Merkacheva is a Russian journalist, writer and human rights activist. Since 2018, he has been a member of the Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights under the President of the Russian Federation. Yabloko Chairman Nikolai Rybakov, and Valentin Gefter, human rights defender, publicist, and director of the ANO Institute of Human Rights, spoke at the event.
