Decision by the Yabloko Federal Political Committee No 160 of 20 October 2022, published on 1.11.2022

Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

Yabloko is the only socio-political institution left in Russia that opposes war, totalitarian transformation of the state, and disintegration of society.

Over the three decades of post-Soviet Russia, we have many times offered meaningful alternatives to the erroneous and corporate-selfish decisions that brought our country to the current situation. There was an opportunity to choose an alternative in all 11 federal election campaigns in which Yabloko participated.

We warned of the danger of war and fought against war — virtually alone. In 2021, society did not make use of the elections and the opportunity to support the only anti-war party to stop the [imminent] war.

After 24 February, the understanding – who was right and what should have been done – came to many people, but the problems remained the same: the call of Yabloko to immediately stop hostilities as the main goal of the opponents of the war not only fell on deaf ears, but was attacked. In fact, critics from different sides reiterate the position of Anatoly Chubais, who in 1999 said that calls for peace [during the war] in Chechnya represented “a knife in the back of the Russian army”.

However, after all, the only alternative to calls for peace and stopping the bloodshed, is an escalation of the war, an increase in its scale, and new victims.

In the current conditions, the most important political tasks of the Party are as follows:

– cessation of hostilities, cessation of bloodshed;

– analysis and public explanation of the reasons for the failed post-Soviet modernisation;

–  creation of a “road map” for the modernisation of Russia, determining positive prospects for the development of the country after the catastrophe, and provision of social and political support for the country’s movement into the future;

– raising public awareness of the need of a European way of development for Russia;

–  the need to help people.

The socio-political analysis of the failures and critical mistakes of the reforms of the 1990s and professional political and economic alternatives existing then is of particular importance. If the desire to learn lessons is present in the political and public space, then there is a sense in the stance that we have occupied in society for three decades. Otherwise, all that remains is to admit that Russia has suffered a historic failure and look for the guilty instead of trying to understand the systemic reasons for the failure.

Our task is to fill the agenda and socio-political discussion with real political content striving to overcome the split in society, its fragmentation and disintegration.

The goal of the Yabloko party in the current tragic and unpredictable circumstances should be to develop and offer society a serious professionally developed strategy and political position based on an understanding of the lessons and mistakes of the past, and on an accurate and uncompromising assessment of the present of the country which is aspiring to the future.

Russian society needs a deep and comprehensive evolution of values, affirming at the ethical level the unacceptability of authoritarian rule, imperial aspirations, nationalism and chauvinism, repression and war. However, nothing like this has been done for the 30 post-Soviet years, and that is why we are where we are now. There are those in Russia who believe that a new country should be built with a machine gun in hand, and the current leadership of the country belongs precisely to this direction.

True, we do not have our own media today, we do not have wealthy allies who would promote the agenda we propose, but our party has a stance, knowledge and understanding of our country and a desire to make the life of its citizens qualitatively better.

Whom can we address? Today, it would be a big mistake to say that our current supporters are our audience, and everyone else is “outside”. People again, as back in the Soviet times, do not say what they think, but they are becoming more receptive to serious reflection because of what is happening. But such reflections resulted in a request for change in late 1980s. But precisely because the elites and the post-Soviet intelligentsia – those who were supposed to think and give food for thought, and work with society – were carried away by self-admiration, unprofessional fantasies and the struggle for enrichment, all this led to the tragic failure of post-Soviet modernisation. That is why we need to talk to the majority. We do not separate ourselves from the majority of the Russian population and consider a significant number of our compatriots to be our potential audience.

At the same time, we certainly realise the limitations and dangers associated with the promotion of our ideas and political concepts, but we fundamentally refuse to focus on the agenda of a very narrow Internet audience.

It is important to bear in mind that already long ago there arose a need for a fundamental, essential political disengagement with those who can be defined as fans of the SPS (the Union of the Right-Wing Forces) political party that has gone into the past, Alexei Navalny’s propagandists and the closed Ekho Moskvy radio station. The moment of truth has come – we can no longer waste energy on meaningless discussions with those whose political position, outwardly presented as a struggle for liberalism and democracy, directly led to what is happening now in Russia, due to their incompetence and self-interest.

The desire to please this audience is not and cannot be justified by any considerations in the present conditions. This is not a new situation and we must finally make a choice. This choice is well known in the world political history. The methods and forms of our daily work remain the same – publications in the media, active work with people, party members and especially with young people, conducting polls, continuous communication with citizens in different forms, explaining what is happening and explaining its reasons, campaigning, participation in elections (with a full understanding of their specifics), humanitarian actions and help to people.

Voting for Yabloko in the past municipal elections was a demonstration of people’s ability to think and state their own opinion. However, the circle of people to whom we appeal is not limited to those who voted for us. In order to have a real influence on social processes, we can no longer remain the “party of the intelligentsia”. Since we have been professionally and politically right for the past thirty years, we have every reason to become the party of the people. It is very difficult to implement such a political stance in practice, but otherwise there is no point in our existence at present. We need to work hard for the sake of freedom and our principled belief in our values.

By and large, we now represent the interests of all citizens of Russia – because it is not just about the future of the country, but about its very existence.

Grigory Yavlinsky,

Chairman of the Federal Political Committee of Yabloko