Yabloko collected over 85,000 signatures for the withdrawal of Russia’s troops from Syria
Press release, 05.09.2017

Less than a third of Russians support the idea of continuing Russia’s participation in the Syrian war, the Interfax news agency reports referring to the latest survey by the Levada Centre, which was held in 48 regions of Russia on 18-22 August.

About half of the respondents (49 per cent) think that Russia should withdraw from the military operation in Syria. Less than one third of them (30 per cent) claim that Russia should continue its participation. 32 per cent of the respondents fear that military intervention into the Syrian war may grow into “a new Afghanistan”.

The evolution of public opinion on the issue represents a great interest. According to the polling agency VTsIOM, 34 per cent of the respondents supported the idea of Russia’s withdrawal for the war in Syria in April. 25 per cent of respondents approved of the measure in 2016.

In the meanwhile Yabloko collected over 85,000 signatures for Russia’s withdrawal from the military operation in Syria as part of The Time to Return Home anti-war campaign, which was launched in 40 regions of Russia. The campaign is still being carried out in Moscow and the Krasnodar Territory at the moment. The Time to Return Home is the initiative of Yabloko and Grigory Yavlinsky, whom Yabloko is intending to nominate as a candidate for the president of Russia.

Alexander Gnezdilov, Yabloko Deputy Chair:

“Nearly half of Russians support our initiative. Yabloko is the only large party that represents and shares the opinion of these people. We feel this huge support during the campaign. You know that the propagandists tell us, the citizens of Russia, about our victories in Deir ez-Zor from the screen. But their voice hushes when it comes to reporting the death of two Russian militant (and it happened on the land, not in the air).

Russia has all the necessary facilities to begin the withdrawal of the troops in October. A new president, who will be elected in March 2018, should make new steps – find a new sustainable structure for Syria (together with other key countries), which will prevent a new round of the civil war and develop a common international counter-terrorism policy and – what is equally important – eradicate the conditions for its immanence.

A new president also has two more tasks. The first one is countering terrorism in Central Asia because a threat for the lives and safety of Russia’s citizens, which is becoming more and more noticeable these months, is coming form there (let us remember the act of terror is St.Petersburg metro or the latest reports of the Federal Security Service on their prevention of acts of terror in Moscow).

The second task is restoring a single legal framework, single educational and cultural space, equal protection of the citizens’ rights and freedoms in all the regions of Russia, as well as implementing the principals of democracy, of a social, secular state governed by the rule of law as assigned by the Constitution in practice.

Any extremist fundamentalism, not only jihadism, must meet with a tough and decisive rebuff on behalf of the state. This way we will be able to protect the lives of our soldiers, secure the safety of our citizens, pay due attention to the internal development of our country, it social well-being, which is also one of the protective devices from extremist moods within the society.”

Yabloko claims that Russia must withdraw from the civil war in Syria immediately, allot federal budget funds to the development of Russsia’s economy, city infrastructure, education, healthcare and increase benefits and pensions.

Yabloko Chair Emilia Slabunova sent an appeal to Finance Minister Anton Siluanov with the demand that the data on the state expenditure on the military operation in Syria must be published. However, the Finance Ministry refused to do it claiming that this was a classified budget item.
According to Yabloko’s calculations, over 140 billion roubles were spent on Russia’s military operations in Syria as of July 2017.