Press Release, 13.06.2023

The Yabloko Party University hosted a lecture by Sergei Mitrokhin, MP of the Moscow City Duma, Chairman of the Yabloko party from 2008 to 2015 and candidate of political sciences. The lecture was devoted to the tradition of constituent assemblies and their role in the future revival of Russia.  The lecture was timed to Sergei Mitrokhin’s anniversary, as on 20 May he turned 60. Mitrokhin spent exactly half of his life at Yabloko. At the beginning of the lecture, he received congratulations from all the other chairpersons of the party: Grigory Yavlinsky, Emilia Slabunova and Nikolai Rybakov.

The first Chairman of Yabloko, Grigory Yavlinsky, noted that Sergei Mirokhin is an intellectual, and an absolutely selfless and very honest person, who “either speaks up what he thinks or keeps silent”. He recalled Mitrokhin’s proposal a compensatory property tax for the property obtained through criminal privatization in the 1990s. It was Mitrokhin who first proposed this idea in 2003. Yavlinsky also recalled how several Yabloko MPs, including Sergei Mitrokhin, went to Grozny, Chechnya, in 1994, trying to prevent the war and managed to release several soldiers and officers of the federal troops from Chechen captivity and bring them back.

The third Yabloko Chair, Emilia Slabunova, noted that there had always been many disputes between them. She also said that Mitrokhin loves Russia and its people and is a defender of Moscow and its residents.

The current Сhairman of the Yabloko party, Nikolai Rybakov, notes that no matter what injustice happens in Moscow, people go to Mitrokhin for help. “Every day he tries to help people and protect them from the state machine rolling over them. But at the same time, Mitrokhin understands that if you want to help change the situation, this can only be done through political changes in the country as a whole. And this is exactly what his lecture is about,” Rybakov said.

Sergei Mitrokhin’s lecture was devoted to the founding tradition that was born in 1613, when the people of Russia determined their fate for the next 300 years. In 1918, it was destroyed, as it was an obstacle to the usurpation of power by Bolsheviks. As a result, all subsequent changes in the political system bore the stamp of usurpation. Restoring the tradition of constituent assemblies is necessary to establish a sustainable democracy in Russia with a reliable margin of legitimacy.

Sergei Mitrokhin

is a deputy of the Moscow City Duma,

a member of the Federal Political Committee of the Yabloko party,

Yabloko party Chairman in 2008-2015

Candidate of Political Sciences