Decision by the Yabloko Federal Political Committee No 157 of 20 October 2022, published on 1.11.2022

Photo by Anatoly Zhdanov, Kommersant

A military conflict between Russia and Ukraine with a huge potential for escalation up to the use of nuclear weapons is going on. At the moment, there is no reason to believe that the end of the armed conflict is approaching. What is happening is a disaster for our country on the scale of a national catastrophe.

Referendums and the annexation of the territories of the self-proclaimed the Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR), the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), as well as the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions represents a qualitatively new stage in the development of the tragic situation, which promises even more blood and destruction. The Yabloko party did not recognise the annexation of Crimea, nor does it recognise the current annexation, just like the vast majority of UN member states.

Massive strikes on infrastructure facilities in Ukraine, announcement of partial mobilisation in Russia, and continuation of hostilities – mean the death and suffering of people every day. “Partial mobilisation” is only the beginning of the process of involving the entire 140 million Russian people in the war, demonstrating the potential for further escalation.

One of the main problems of the country, which led to the catastrophe, is the gap between society and the state, people’s disbelief (which is objective, justified by knowledge of the system and the rules of its real functioning) in the possibility of changing something and influencing the government. As long as the military clash continues, the situation will only get worse. The socio-economic situation of the country and the life of the people will only get worse. Human losses will increase. We can forecast, – against the background of disappointment and growing poverty, – the development of militant nationalism, turning into National Socialism, further “search for enemies”, and repressions against the dissenting.

The goal of the regime, which is no less significant than the imperial territorial acquisitions, is the separation of Russia from the West and the imposition of anti-Europeanism on the Russian people by drawing them into a real military conflict with half the world. The consequence will be the growth of Russia’s dependence on totalitarian China, its connection with such regimes as the Iranian, which has already become a supplier of weapons for Russia.

A special issue is the real threat of a nuclear conflict. The Russian authorities, having played with the reconstruction of the external signs of the USSR, are striving to reproduce the situation of the Caribbean crisis, that is, to impose direct negotiations with the United States. However, the current crisis has very little in common with the events of sixty years ago. An alliance with odious regimes like Iran and North Korea is fraught with a dangerous qualitative transition – one of the two largest nuclear powers joins the destructive forces seeking to destroy the existing world order, regardless of the cost.

Last year, Russian society, despite the fact that the military threat was obvious and the six-moths-long political campaign of the Russian United Democratic Party Yabloko aimed at preventing it, already underestimated the reality of the war. Repeating this mistake is unacceptable.

The large-scale military conflict in the east of Europe, launched by Russia, is coupled with the extremely unsatisfactory state of global and international politics. Political entropy acts destructively and continues to expand the scale of negative influence. This means that militarism, staking on force, military spending, and the subordination of political and state thinking to the schemes of thinking of the military-industrial complex and the military have been growing and will continue to grow. All this creates colossal additional threats to the future; whereas Putin’s Russia will act along the lines of division, exacerbate them, use global faults, a possible “change of leadership” (transition from the United States to China), and populism that is growing in world politics.

Putin has already achieved a certain result: Russia is plunged into an armed conflict, and the whole world is plunged into the logic of preparing for a military confrontation, an arms race and the expansion of military blocs. His purpose is the opposite to achieving peace. He still wants:

– expansion of territories under its control;

– restrictions on the sovereignty of Ukraine;

– destabilisation of the situation in the West.

The Federal Political Committee of the Russian United Democratic Party Yabloko confirms the relevance of the measures proposed in our statement No. 155 “On urgent measures to prevent a possible nuclear conflict” dated September 28, 2022. The main thing is to stop the hostilities.

Before it is too late, we must overcome the situation of society’s immersion in the war, the escalation of the war must be stopped. It is necessary to preserve the humane in people, and resist dehumanisation. The system that gave rise to the war is fed by hatred, revanchism, and a complex of envy and bitterness. The responsible part of Russian society should stop playing on the field of hatred, revenge, and the search for enemies.

Grigory Yavlinsky,

Chairman of the Federal Political Committee of Yabloko