Statement by the Yabloko Bureau, 15.02.2023

Photo: City views of Mariupol during the so-called “special operation” / Photo by Alexander Chernykh, Kommersant

Throughout its political history, YABLOKO has been a party of peace, since the war in Chechnya, when in December 1994 [when the RF authorities started a war in Chechnya], a group of State Duma deputies from YABLOKO (Grigory Yavlinsky, Valery Borshchyov, Anatoly Golov, Alexei Melnikov and others) went to Grozny and returned several Russian servicemen from captivity.

On 24 February, 2022, the Federal Political Committee of the YABLOKO party demanded an end to the outbreak of hostilities and stressed that they were destroying the future of Russia.

The peaceful stance of YABLOKO has been repeatedly confirmed, including in the Memorandum of Political Alternative, the resolution of the 21st Congress of Yabloko “On the priority steps to bring to an end the killing of people in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict” of April 16, 2022, and public speeches of the party leaders.

The key element in our stance is the demand for a ceasefire agreement addressed primarily to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

This stance, in particular, was described by Grigory Yavlinsky in detail in his article “Just Stop!” and caused heavy criticism from both the sides.

Both the side of pro-government politicians and propagandists in Russia, and the side composed of a number of opposition figures who emigrated, – both of them demand the continuation of hostilities until a victorious end desired by each of them.

For all of them, it does not matter what price, including human lives, will be paid for the realisation of their desires.

Other people will have to die, and both the pro-government “party of war” and the opposition “party baying for blood” are indifferent to their lives: neither the first nor the second risk their lives and are not even going to.

We categorically condemn the insane calls of the “party of war” for the use of nuclear weapons on federal TV channels and note that the attempts of the “party baying for blood” to ignore the growing nuclear threat are absolutely irresponsible.

We will not engage in polemics with those who are not satisfied with the blood already shed, as well as those who hate YABLOKO much more than they do Putin.

But we consider it necessary to consistently explain to the citizens of Russia the essence of our proposals.

The demand for a ceasefire agreement, which we insist on, does not mean an offer to Ukraine to “accept territorial losses”, “fix the status quo” or “lay down arms and surrender”.

It means only one thing: to make sure that every day does not bring reports of new victims, destruction and broken human lives.

We are sure that every extra day of advancement along the military path means new victims and new losses.

No attempts to negotiate a settlement of the situation are possible while military actions go on.

A bilateral ceasefire is a necessary, basic condition for starting talking about finding a political way out of the impasse.

This is not a question of territories, borders and terms of a truce or peace.

This is a matter of ceasing killing people whose lives can not be redeemed. This is what to begin with.

YABLOKO calls on the citizens of Russia to support the demand for a ceasefire agreement, declare their stance in any legal way and apply to the President of Russia and the Federal Assembly with this demand.

Nikolai Rybakov,

Yabloko Chairman