Is
Modernisation in Russia Possible? Interview
with Grigory Yavlinsky and Boris Titov by Yury Pronko,
"The Real Time" programme, Radio Finam, May
12, 2010
Decision by the Yabloko Federal Political Committee of 24 November, 2023, published on 7 December, 2023
Photo by Pavel Lisitsyn/RIA Novosti
The Yabloko party again and again persistently calls for a ceasefire in Ukraine and peace negotiations.
We are confident that nothing is more important than preserving human lives and their future. Human life is the highest value, it is more important than territories, political or national ambitions. The continuation of large-scale hostilities leads to new huge human victims, irretrievable and irreversible human loss – unlike territories.
The conflict has entered a position warfare stage, when the situation on the line of contact has remained almost unchanged for many months, with only an increase in the number of casualties and the scale of destruction. It is increasingly clear that the winner in this conflict will not be revealed on the battlefield; decisive military victory in such a clash is impossible for either side.
Decision by the Yabloko Federal Political Committee of 24 November, 2023, published on 6 December, 2023
Photo:Anti-Semitic riots at Makhachkala airport on 29 October, 2023 / Photo from social networks
The value of human life has been decreasing against the backdrop of the special military operation in Russia that has been going on for 18 months, and discontent, fear, suspicion and hatred in different social groups have been growing.
Symptoms of a progressing serious disease of the state and society were clearly manifested in recent anti-Semitic actions in Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay-Cherkessia, in the attack on the Makhachkala airport by a crowd motivated by national hatred and anti-Semitic slogans.
What happened is not a regional problem. This is a threat of an all-Russian, national level.
Four candidates Alexander Yefimov, Maxim Kruglov, Nikolai Rybakov and Anna Cherepanova will run for the post of the Yabloko Chairperson. The candidates’ programmes are published on the Yabloko web-site:
This weekend, on 9-10 December, the congress of the Yabloko party will be held in Moscow. The congress will elect new party leadership for the next four years – Chairperson, deputy chairpersons, members of the Federal Political Committee, the Federal Bureau, the Control and Audit Commission and the Party Arbitration.
Four candidates will compete for the post of the party Chairperson. The post of party Chairman has been held by Nikolai Rybakov since 2019. In 2015-2019, the party was led by Emilia Slabunova, and by Sergei Mitrokhin in 2008-2015. From 2001, when Yabloko was transformed from an association into a political party, and until 2008, the Chairman of the party was Grigory Yavlinsky. According to the party By-Laws, the same person cannot lead the party for more than two terms.
Decision by the Yabloko Federal Political Committee of 24 November, 2023, published on 5 December, 2023
Photo: Yabloko Congress, 2019 / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service
After 24 February, 2022, repressions in Russia against those who disagree with the government’s policies sharply intensified.
According to the project “Support for Political Prisoners. Memorial”, there were 426 political prisoners in Russia (343 in connection with the exercise of the right to freedom of religion, and 83 people unrelated to it) at the beginning of 2022, and 615 people (416 and 188 persons, respectively) as of November 22, 2023. According to OVD-Info and Mediazona, since February 24, 2022, at least 19,840 citizens have been detained for expressing an anti-war position; at least 8,122 people have been brought to administrative responsibility under Article 20.3.3 of the Administrative Code (“Discrediting the use of the RF Armed Forces”), and at least 774 people were subjected to criminal prosecution in connection with their anti-war position.
Decision by the Federal Political Committee of Yabloko of 24 November, 2023, published on 1 December 2023
Russia is going through the stage of collapse of post-Soviet modernisation. The cause of the current crisis was the failure of misguided political and economic reforms. The main feature of the current historical moment is the boundless tragedy of the bloody and destructive in all respects armed conflict with Ukraine.
Today, Yabloko is the only political force in Russia standing for an immediate ceasefire and stop killing of people.
Illustration: “Two Women Running on the Beach” by Pablo Picasso, 1922
The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, at the request of the Ministry of Justice, recognised the LGBT movement as extremist and banned its activities in the country. The decision took effect immediately.
The ideology and practices of persecuting people for love and feelings are within the general framework of repression against the dissent, the right to freedom of association and self-expression.
In Russia there is a medieval law prohibiting gender reassignment, which can now be carried out even in Iran and could be done in the USSR. For some, the lack of an opportunity to declare their orientation can cause severe psychological trauma and lead to a suicide.
Photo: MP Gurulyov, a screenshot of the programme “Sunday Evening with Vladimir Solovyov”
The law enforcement agencies “did not identify any violations of the legislation on countering extremist activities” in a statement by State Duma deputy, Lieutenant General Andrei Gurulyov. Earlier, on the Rossiya TV channel, he said 20% of Russia’s population who disagree with Vladimir Putin’s policies were “rot”, which “should be, if not isolated, then at least somehow destroyed”.
Photo: The Legislative Assembly of Karelia / Photo by the Press Service of the parliament of Karelia
The Yabloko faction of the Legislative Assembly of Karelia has made 20 amendments to the draft budget of Karelia for 2024. This was reported by Emilia Slabunova, head of the Yabloko faction in the Legislative Assembly of the Republic of Karelia.
Vladimir Kara-Murza had a trial today: the Ministry of Justice believes that he, Vladimir Kara-Murza, should provide them with a special report on his activities as a “foreign agent” once a quarter.
Straight from the punitive isolation ward: [he must] download a special form from the website, fill it out on the computer and send it to them via the Internet [all this from the punitive isolation ward which deprives prisoners even of personal belongings, to say nothing of Internet or computers]. If not, then it turns into an administrative case. Further three such administrative cases turn into a criminal case.
Photo: Arthur Gaiduk / Photo by the Press Service of the Pskov branch of Yabloko
Artur Gaiduk, a doctor and deputy of the Pskov Regional Assembly from Yabloko, commented on numerous proposals by Russian officials and clergy to limit women’s right to abortion, and also drew the attention of deputies to an almost two-fold decrease in the number of pediatricians in the Pskov region over the past twenty years:
Photo: Vasily Neustroyev / Photo from social media
On Monday, 4 December, the Basmanny District Court of Moscow will hold a hearing on extending the preventive measure against Vasily Neustroyev, a Yabloko member. Neustroyev should take part in the hearing personally, so should be brought to court from the detention centre – and there will be an opportunity to see him in person.
Photo: Heads of the Anti-Corruption Policy Centre Alexei Karnaukhov and Alexei Chumakov / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service
The Anti-Corruption Policy Centre of the Yabloko party launches the “Theory and Practice of Anti-Corruption” training course, which will take place from February to June 2024. The course developers are experts from the Yabloko Centre who have experience in anti-corruption investigations and have background in the field of law, public administration and criminal justice. Yabloko party members and supporters, as well as social activists, are invited to participate.
Statement by the Yabloko Party Gender Faction, 29.11.2023
On 17 November, the Ministry of Justice filed a lawsuit with the Supreme Court demanding that an “International LGBT Social Movement” be recognised as an extremist organization and banned.
The Gender Faction of the Yabloko party believes that this lawsuit by the Ministry of Justice is a new round of inciting hatred, at the state level, towards a certain social group. Officials of the Ministry of Justice know very well that the organisation “International LGBT Social Movement” does not exist. They use this formulation to create a legal fiction with the help of which security forces can persecute any person of non-heterosexual orientation, encouraging another wave of denunciations, interfering in people’s personal lives and controlling their bodies. Persecution and even extermination of people with alternative (non-traditional) sexual orientations was practiced in National Socialist Germany, and is now widespread in the toughest dictatorships – Afghanistan, Nigeria, Somalia, Iran, Yemen, Brunei, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and other countries practicing Sharia.
Photo: Chairman of the local “Combat Brotherhood” Alexei Ivanov at a lesson in a junior class, in Gymnasium No. 4 / Photo by the Young Army Movement on VKontakte
Anna Cherepanova, a deputy of the City Duma of Veliky Novgorod from Yabloko and Chair of the regional branch of the party, appealed to the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Novgorod with a request to conduct an inspection of military education lessons in schools, as well as to the Mayor Alexander Rozbaum with a demand to stop training classes with arms for schoolchildren of primary school. Schools in Veliky Novgorod regularly hold fire training classes (shooting a Makarov pistol, assembling and disassembling a Kalashnikov assault rifle). They are conducted by the Youth Army Movement employee and Chairman of the local Combat Brotherhood Alexei Ivanov. The last such lesson took place at Gymnasium No. 4 on 23 November: pupils of class 4 “B” shoot a Makarov pistol.
Photo: Alexander Yefimov’s page on VKontakte, if accessed without a VPN running “User blocked. This material; has been blocked on the territory of the Russian Federation by the decision of the Public Prosecutor General’s Office No 27-31-2023/Treb198-23 of 28.04.2023.
Alexander Yefimov’s page on the VKontakte social media was blocked without warning from the administration of the social network on 28 November; the decision of the Public Prosecutor General’s Office to block it was made on 28 April. Alexander Yefimov is unaware which of his posts could cause the blocking.
Everyone knows that Russian elections are, to put it mildly, special. Especially in 2024. Therefore, it is not surprising that the Kremlin announced the result already in August of 2023: Dmitry Peskov, Press Secretary of the President, said that Vladimir Putin would win the presidential elections in 2024 with a result of more than 90%. Certainly, they will announce about 75-78% in the end, everything is clear with the Central Electoral Commission.
However, there are more than 100 million voters in Russia. It is they – voters, citizens of the country, people – who should must formulate what they want.
Photo: A tent camp of civil activists opposing the construction of a road across the river / Photo by the regional branch of Yabloko
The Public Prosecutor’s Office of Udmurtia joined in challenging the decision of the Izhevsk Mayor’s Office on the construction of a bridge across the Orlovka River. The supervisory authority, like the leader of the Yabloko branch in Udmurtia, Iya Boronina, considers the Mayor’s resolution permitting the construction to be illegal. The Oktyabrsky District Court of the Izhevsk combined the two cases into one proceeding.
On 4 December, the Yabloko party Moscow office will host the “Live Forever” theatre piece based on an excerpt from Vasily Grossman’s novel “Life and Fate”. The key idea of the play is as follows: one must remain human always and in any conditions and trials. The play is staged by the Moscow independent theatre Baggage.
On Friday, November 24, the Federal Political Committee of the Yabloko party summed up the results of the all-party nomination of candidates for post of Yabloko Chairperson.
The Counting Commission summarised the questionnaires received from party members and regional branches of the party and submitted nine candidates for consideration by the Federal Political Committee.
Thus, based on the results of the rating voting by the Federal Political Committee members, delegates to the party congress will have to choose the party Chairperson from the following four candidates:
