Is
Modernisation in Russia Possible? Interview
with Grigory Yavlinsky and Boris Titov by Yury Pronko,
"The Real Time" programme, Radio Finam, May
12, 2010
The State Duma promised to reduce the download speed of YouTube by 70% in the next two weeks. On stationary computers, the download speed may decrease to 40% by the end of this week, and to 70% by the end of next week. At the same time, this measure will not affect connections via mobile communications. This was reported by State Duma deputy Alexander Khinshtein.
Photo: Viktor Zagorodnikov at the District Electoral Commission / Photo from social media
On 24 July, Viktor Zagorodnikov, a candidate in the by-election for a deputy of the Legislative Assembly of the Krasnoyarsk Territory in single-mandate electoral district No. 10, submitted 3,007 signatures of district residents to the electoral commission in support of his nomination. The commission will decide on the registration of the candidate from Yabloko by 2 August. The district includes Birilyussky, Bolshemurtinsky, Bolsheuluisky, Emelyanovsky, Kazachinsky, and Kozulsky districts and the Pirovsky municipal district of the Krasnoyarsk Territory. The candidate is campaigning under the slogan “For Peace and Freedom!” For a ceasefire agreement!”.
Photo: Centre for Cultural Development in Lyady, April 2024/ Photo from the community “Citizens of the Plussky District”
The Pskov Interdistrict Investigative Department of the Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee for the Pskov region, after an appeal from Yabloko deputy Artur Gaiduk to the Chairman of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation Alexander Bastrykin, carried out an inspection, and, on 5 July, opened a criminal case on the grounds of a crime under of Article 159 Part 4 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (fraud committed by an organised group or on a particularly large scale). Artur Gaiduk was informed about this by the head of the Pskov Interdistrict Investigative Department, Ivan Vasiliyev.
One of the key problems of the Russian economy, and perhaps of entire life in the country, is people’s lack of understanding of the future. Citizens do not have clear ideas about the future. People live for today.
Moreover, even according to official data from Rosstat (which should be treated, to put it mildly, with understanding), 13.5 million people in our country (and this is almost every tenth) lived below the poverty line as of the beginning of 2024. According to international economic analytics, Russia, according to the criterion of “the per capita GDP at market exchange rates”, is approaching 70th place in the world with an income of 1.2 million roubles, being behind such countries as, for example, Trinidad and Tabago (1.6 million roubles) and Guyana (1.8 million roubles).
In the coming weeks, action of writing letters to political prisoners will be held at Yabloko offices all over Russia. Traditionally, everyone is invited to attend.
“Over the past month, we have seen and heard a lot – the verdict to Yevgenia Berkovich and Svetlana Petriychuk, the denial of parole to Pavel Krisevich, the tightening of conditions of detention for Natalya Filonova, threats of violence against 18-year-old Kevin Leek, Mikhail Afanasyev’s birthday in the penal colony… We should not get used to repression, cruelty, and such kind of news as the background of our lives. We must remain human. We need such meetings no less than those who are behind the bars,” the announcement of the meeting in the Moscow Yabloko runs.
Photo: Alexander Yefimov at the electoral commission of the Rostov region / Photo from the regional electoral commission’s Telegram channel
Today, the electoral commission of the Rostov region registered a member of the Federal Bureau of Yabloko, entrepreneur Alexander Yefimov, as a candidate in the by-elections to the State Duma. The Southern single-mandate electoral district No. 152, in which Yefimov is running, includes the Aksai district and the city of Novocherkassk. Yefimov is leading an election campaign under the slogan “For Peace and Freedom! For the ceasefire agreement!”.
Photo: Roman Morozov / Photo by the regional party branch
Roman Morozov, a human rights defender and a candidate for Governor of the Kaliningrad region from Yabloko, failed to pass the municipal filter to register for the elections. Last Friday, he submitted documents to the regional electoral commission without the mandatory signatures of municipal deputies in favour of his nomination. On 22 July, the electoral commission decided to refuse his registration. Roman Morozov led an all-party campaign for peace and freedom.
Photo: Another stage of the St. Petersburg Yabloko Conference, at which some candidates for municipal deputies were nominated / Photo by the regional party branch
Territorial electoral commissions of St. Petersburg refused to register 84 Yabloko candidates for municipal elections. Candidates were not registered territorial electoral commissions refused to recognise the Conference of the regional branch of Yabloko at which the nomination took place. The claims, all written identically, as a copy-paste, assert that the Conference allegedly did not take place at all, because it was convened two years ago.
The required number of signatures for participation in the elections of deputies of the Chelyabinsk City Duma were submitted by the Chairman of the Chelyabinsk Yabloko and lawyer Yaroslav Shcherbakov (district No. 2, Kalininsky district), teacher of Russian language and literature Olga Sazonova (district No. 4, Kalininsky district), Chair of the Gender faction of the regional branch of Yabloko, student Maria Chikulayeva (district No. 19, Sovetsky district) and human rights activist Anna Ilyina (district No. 21, Traktorozavodsky district). The period for collecting signatures in support of the nomination of candidates for deputies of the Chelyabinsk City Duma has ended, and the verification of signatures by the electoral commission will commence soon. All Yabloko candidates are running in the elections demanding the immediate conclusion of a ceasefire agreement and the release of all political prisoners.
The electoral commission of the Berezovsky district of the Krasnoyarsk Territory decided to register Alexander Zagainov, a candidate from the Yabloko party for the district council in single-mandate electoral district No. 10 of Krasnoyarsk. The current deputy of the Esaul Village Council is running in the villages of Ermolaevo, Esaulovka, Terentyevo, the village of Ermolaevsky Zaton and in 20 dacha non-profit partnerships. The candidate campaigns under the slogan “For Peace and Freedom”.
Members of the Soletsk District Electoral Commission unanimously decided to register Ksenia Cherepanova, a candidate from the Yabloko party in the by-elections of deputies of the Novgorod Regional Duma in the Soletsk single-mandate electoral district. Ksenia Cherepanova, the Chair of the local branch of the Yabloko party in Veliky Novgorod, the head of the regional anti-corruption centre and economist, is participating in the elections with the programme “For Peace and Freedom”. The Soletsky municipal district includes Batetsky, Volotovsky, Soletsky and Shimsky districts and constituencies of the Novgorod region.
The Tula regional branch of Yabloko nominated two lists of candidates for the regional and city Dumas (parliaments). The Yabloko team is running in the elections under the slogan “For Peace and Freedom!” and asks for the help of all residents of the region who share the party’s positions and want Yabloko to take part in the elections.
The Chelyabinsk regional branch of Yabloko nominated candidates for elections to the Chelyabinsk City Duma as a party list and in single-mandate constituencies. Yabloko candidates are campaigning under the slogan “For Peace and Freedom!” To be registered in the elections, candidates must collect 5,000 signatures from residents from all over the city to register the party list and 200 signatures for each candidate in the city’s single-mandate constituencies.
Photo: Anatoly Kivva / Photo by the regional branch of Yabloko
The Territorial Electoral Commission of the Ryazan District has registered a candidate for deputy of the Zaborevsky rural settlement from the Yabloko party, Anatoly Kivva. The elections will take place on 6-8 September.
The Territorial Electoral Commission in the Novgorod region registered ten candidates from Yabloko. In total, the regional branch of the party nominated 13 candidates. Registration was denied to Valery Kochnev, and Oksana Sergeyeva will soon be denied registration as well, they were found guilty last year of “demonstrating extremist symbols”. Registration of a candidate for the by-elections to the regional Duma, Ksenia Cherepanova, will take place on 19 July.
Photo: Maxim Kruglov and Sergei Mitrokhin at their meeting with Muscovites / Photo from social media
The refusal [of the electoral commission] to register Maxim Kruglov for elections to the Moscow City Duma was expected. The barrier of [mandatory] collection of voters’ signatures [in favour of a candidate’s nomination] was created against Yabloko from the very beginning. For this reason, the Moscow law does not exempt a party that has a faction in the city parliament from collecting signatures. This norm is provided for in all regions of the Russian Federation, except Moscow, precisely because of Yabloko, which is strong in the capital, but does not have a faction in the State Duma.
Photo: Boris Vishnevsky by the court with his defence attorneys / Photo by the regional branch of Yabloko
The Vasileostrovsky District Court in St.Petersburg held the first hearing on the merits in the lawsuit filed by Boris Vishnevsky, Deputy Chairman of the Yabloko party and MP of the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly, against the Ministry of Justice. Vishnevsky challenges the decision by the Ministry of Justice to include him in the “foreign agents” register.
Photo: Maxim Kruglov after a meeting of the district electoral commission / Photo by the candidate’s headquarters
This decision was made today by the electoral commission for electoral district No. 13, despite objections filed by Maxim Kruglov’s headquarters to the protocol of verifying signatures. Yabloko is preparing a legal complaint.
According to the candidate’s legal team, only 166 signatures out of 5,664 signatures could be considered invalid, that is, 2.9% of the total; whereas the law allows to register candidates with 5% of defective signatures. Meanwhile, the electoral commission said on Monday evening that it considered 1,037 signatures – 18.3% – as “invalid”. However, it should be noted that not a single signature was recognised by the commission as unreliable (falsified).
Photo: Alexander Yefimov / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service
The Volzhsky City Court, in a retrial, once again fined Alexander Yefimov, a member of the Federal Bureau of the Yabloko party, 15,000 roubles under the charges of “participation in the activities of an undesirable organisation” (Article 20.33 of the Administrative Code) because of his interview to the Golos project. The decision was made on 17 July. Yefimov intends to appeal it.
Photo: Maxim Kruglov’s team before submitting signatures to the district electoral commission / Photo by the candidate’s headquarters
Maxim Kruglov, a Yabloko candidate for the Moscow City Duma and the current deputy of the Moscow City Duma, told about the decision of the electoral commission to invalidate about a thousand signatures out total 5,660 signatures required for his registration in the Moscow City Duma elections. Lawyers from Maxim Kruglov’s team are preparing objections to the commission’s decision and will defend the signatures in court if necessary.
