Is
Modernisation in Russia Possible? Interview
with Grigory Yavlinsky and Boris Titov by Yury Pronko,
"The Real Time" programme, Radio Finam, May
12, 2010
Grigory Yavlinsky’s report at the conference “The Uses of Power: Legitimacy, Democracy, and the Rewriting of the International Order” held at the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences in the Vatican on April 14–16, 2026
Grigory Yavlinsky’s web-site, 23.04.2026
The end of an era
The global order created after the end of World War II has gone.
The bloody confrontation between Russia and Ukraine, the critical escalation of the situation in the Middle East, the mounting wide-ranging political crisis in Europe and the politics of the US President Donald Trump — all these factors draw a line on the world order that had existed for almost eight decades.
Globalism is ending together with its inherent institutions, structures and models of political behaviour.
Speech by Grigory Yavlinsky at the conference ‘The Uses of Power: Legitimacy, Democracy, and the Rewriting of the International Order’, held at the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences in the Vatican on April 14–16, 2026
Grigory Yavlinsky’s web-site, 23.04.2026
April 14, 2026 Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences in the Vatican
First of all, I would like to express my respect and gratitude for this extremely important conference to Sister Helen Alford, O.P. (President), His Eminence Peter Turkson (Chancellor), Prof. Ana Marta González (Coordinator of the Plenary Session), and, of course, I would like to express my personal respect and gratitude to Pope Leo XIV for this conference and especially my solidarity and support for his position on global events. Please accept my gratitude for my personal invitation.
Photo: Mario Draghi, Jeffrey Sachs and Grigory Yavlinsky / Photo by Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences
From 14 to 16 April, Grigory Yavlinsky attended the plenary session of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences (Casina Pio IV, Vatican City) at its personal invitation. The session was held on the theme of “The Use of Power: Legitimacy, Democracy and the Revision of the International Order”.
Photo: Grigory Gribenko on 10 April following the crackdown by traffic police
This afternoon in Irkutsk, a search was carried out at the flat of Grigory Gribenko, Chairman of Irkutsk Yabloko. The party’s central office was informed of this by the politician’s wife.
Photo: Maxim Kruglov in the courtroom / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service
The Zamoskvoretsky Court of Moscow has begun hearing the criminal case against Yabloko Deputy Chairman Maxim Kruglov on the merits.
Yabloko leader Nikolai Rybakov, Federal Bureau member Andrei Morev, Moscow Yabloko Chairman Kirill Goncharov, and dozens of Kruglov’s colleagues, family members, friends, and students came to show their support for Maxim.
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Fundamental historical and political problems, such as the nature of the Iranian regime since 1979, cannot be resolved through economic measures. Sanctions or blockades (of the Strait of Hormuz, for instance) are incapable of resolving a deep-seated conflict that has persisted for more than three decades. Nor, as recent events in the Middle East have shown, do military operations without a clear strategic vision of the future and without realistic objectives contribute to resolving such problems. Only by addressing the very root of the matter — the causes of the conflict — through their rigorous analysis and sustained work towards eliminating those causes, does a genuine path to peace exist.
Photo: Lev Shlosberg / Photo by the Pskov Yabloko Press Service
A judge of the Pskov Regional Court upheld, by appellate ruling on 22 April, the sentence handed down on 5 November by a magistrate judge, who had sentenced Lev Shlosberg to 420 hours of compulsory labour. Lev Shlosberg, Yabloko Deputy Chairman, was found guilty of retaining five other people’s videos on his personal VKontakte page. This is the first such case in Russian judicial practice.
Photo: Konstantin Smirnov / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service
The Sovetsky District Court of Ryazan extended the detention of Ryazan Yabloko leader and editor-in-chief of the online media Vidsboku, Konstantin Smirnov, until 26 August on 22 April.
Smirnov has been held in a remand prison since 31 January of 2025 on charges of so-called “extortion”. In reality, he is being prosecuted on political grounds for his opposition to municipal reform: he informed residents of the region about the forthcoming abolition of rural settlements and, consequently liquidation of deputies’ councils there, took part in public hearings on the merger of settlements, and covered the hearings — which were mired in controversy — in the media and online.
We demand an end to the restriction of Russian citizens’ constitutional right to freedom of information and communication
Decision by the Yabloko Bureau, 21.04.2026
Since February 2026, Roskomnadzor (the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media) has been systematically degrading the functioning of Telegram, one of the most important communication platforms. WhatsApp and the video-hosting service YouTube were blocked at an earlier stage. The government is seriously discussing the blocking of AI resources that many Russians use for work and everyday tasks. Large-scale Internet outages are being recorded across the country.
In late April – early May, Yabloko will hold its traditional action of writing letters to political prisoners in Moscow and the regions. According to human rights defenders, there are at present no fewer than 1,534 prisoners of conscience in Russia to whom letters can be written by joining a Yabloko action in different cities.
A judge of the Petrozavodsk City Court has just handed down a decision imposing a fine on Emilia Slabunova, an Honoured Teacher of Russia, former Chair of Yabloko, and leader of the party’s faction in the Legislative Assembly of Karelia. Slabunova has been fined 1,000 roubles under the article on “displaying extremist symbols” (Article 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offences) in connection with a post allegedly published on 20 August 2020 in her Telegram channel. However, no posts from that date exist in Emilia Slabunova’s channel; but the case materials include a screenshot of a post purportedly published on 20.08.2020.
Statement by the Bureau of the Moscow Regional Branch of the Yabloko Party, 21.04.2026
Photo: Vladimir Dorokhov (left), Kirill Goncharov (centre), Nikolai Rybakov and Ivan Bolshakov (background) / Photo by Moscow Yabloko
On 21 April, searches were carried out at the Eksmo publishing group in Moscow, and its director general was detained. We regard this as yet another instance of the arbitrary application of anti-extremism legislation and of pressure on the cultural sphere.
The initiation of a criminal case for the distribution of literature represents a substitution of concepts: the state is using the law as an instrument of censorship, rather than combating genuine threats.
We will soon be launching an Economics and Social Policy stream at the Yabloko Party University. The inaugural lecture will be given by Yevgeny Gontmakher, the stream’s academic lead and Doctor of Economic Sciences.
Photo: Maxim Kruglov at a Moscow City Court hearing in 2025 via a video link / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service
Today, 21 April, the Moscow City Court dismissed the defence’s appeals against the arrest of Yabloko Deputy Chair Maxim Kruglov, leaving the politician in custody.
Photo: Emilia Slabunova / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service
This morning, 21 April, police in Petrozavodsk, Karelia, called on Emilia Slabunova, an Honoured Teacher of Russia, former Chair of Yabloko, and leader of the Yabloko faction in the Legislative Assembly of Karelia. As she was leaving for work, law enforcement officers approached her and informed her that they had to escort her to a police station.
Photo:Alexander Shishlov at the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly / Photo by the Legislative Assembly Press Office
The practices of using absurd administrative proceedings to bar Yabloko leaders from elections continues. Court hearings in the cases against Alexander Shishlov are scheduled for April.
Two administrative offence reports have been drawn up against Alexander Shishlov, Coordinator of the Yabloko Federal Political Committee and leader of the Yabloko faction in the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg.
On 17 April, the fifth hearing of the appeal lodged by Yabloko Deputy Chair Lev Shlosberg against his conviction in the criminal case concerning “foreign agent labels” took place at the Pskov City Court. The parties moved to closing arguments at this hearing.
Photo: Grigory Gribenko / Photo by Irkutsk Yabloko
Today, 17 April, the Chairman of Irkutsk Yabloko, Grigory Gribenko, received the results of a laboratory analysis conducted by the Irkutsk drug treatment clinic to detect the presence of narcotic substances. The analysis had been carried out on 10 April — after law enforcement officers staged an ambush targeting Gribenko and compelled him to undergo a medical examination. On the same day, fearing that the results of the state-administered analysis would be falsified, Gribenko had his samples tested at an independent laboratory.
Photo: “Ten Centuries of Polish Russophobia” exhibition at Katyn / Photo by the Russian Military History Society
Yabloko Party Chairman Nikolai Rybakov has sent a formal letter to Irina Velikanova, Director General of the Central Museum of Contemporary History of Russia, calling for the exhibition “Ten Centuries of Polish Russophobia” to be removed.
In the view of the Yabloko leader, placing this exhibition on the grounds of the memorial complex is unacceptable: it contradicts the memorial’s purpose, its legal status, and the very principles underlying state policy on commemorating the victims of political repression.
In 2026, Moscow “retains risks of deterioration in the COVID-19 situation,” and so a “heightened readiness regime remains in force” across Moscow, with the global risks of infection “assessed as high”. This is stated in a letter from Andrei Zakharov, Deputy Head of the Moscow Department of Regional Security and Anti-Corruption, in response to a formal inquiry from Kirill Goncharov, Chair of Moscow Yabloko.
It should be noted that on 5 March, Goncharov had demanded that the Moscow Mayor’s Office either revoke the “covid” decree — which has been in force in Moscow since 2020 and serves as the formal pretext for banning any public event in the city — or explain the reasons why it remained in effect after six years. The 5 March inquiry was prompted by the Mayor’s Office’s refusal to permit a Yabloko rally against Internet blocking, with the refusal justified on the grounds of the “covid restrictions” in force in Moscow and the risks of viral infection spreading.
