Press Release, 24.01.2016

On 23 January YABLOKO held this year’s first meeting of its Federal Political Committee (FPC). The meeting was devoted to the upcoming second phase of the party Congress that has to take place in February. The FPC considered the electoral programme and the coalition policies.

The key factor determining the nature of the programme will be the fact that for the first time since 1996 elections will take place in a situation of economic recession, decline in living standards of most of citizens, social and economic crisis. This is stated in the basic principles of the electoral programme adopted by the FPC. The programme will address all the citizens of Russia. YABLOKO will propose a “coherent and compelling economic, social and humanitarian alternative” for the country. The party states, that Russia needs a radical change of the course conducted by President Vladimir Putin.

Grigory Yavlinsky Chairman of the FPC, spoke about the price paid by Russia for this course. According to Yavlinsky, “the most striking in our economic situation is not even the exchange dollar/rouble and euro/rouble rate or the energy prices, but fast growing economic isolation of Russia.”

The gap between Russia and developed countries has been abruptly growing, – what German Gref, ex Russian Minister of Economics, called “downshifting” in his speech in the recent meeting of Gaidar’s Forum, and what Grigory Yavlinsky called “de-modernization” in his book of the same title in early 2002. Grigory Yavlinsky emphasized once again that there would be no developing countries in the world in a few decades, there would be only developed and undeveloped countries. According to Yavlinsky, at the present economic and political course it would be impossible to pull Russia out of the zone irreversible backwardness.

Yavlinsky also noted that the crisis in the US and Europe demonstrated changing of the global cycles – technological, economic, financial and social. “No one knows how they happen exactly, but it is known that the Russia does not participate in this. The issues of alternative energy or private space, or virtual currencies, or related technologies are unknown to Russia,” Yavlinsky said. “A new economic paradigm of human development has been emerging, but Russia stands apart saying that it wants to remain there, and invents some distant provincial-peripheral place for itself.”

Grigory Yavlinsky, also spoke about the growing gap between the society and the state. According to him, diametrically opposite positions on a huge number of issues developed between the state and the society, as well as within society: who ordered the murder of Litvinenko; whether top officials of the law enforcement, their relatives and children were involved in corruption; whether Russia conducted a war in Ukraine; who ordered the murder of Boris Nemtsov, etc. “The worst things happen when the gap on such issues increases and leads to a great split,” Yavlinsky said. “There is only one way out of this – creation of the alternative [to the present economic and political course], ad while the country sees no alternative to Putin, there is no hope,” Chairman of the FPC stressed.

Emilia Slabunova, Chair of the party, made a report at the Federal Political Committee. The report was devoted to the preparation for the Party Congress that would be held in late February and the key principles of the programme and coalition politicies. The Congress will launch a two-year election campaign for YABLOKO, which will include not only the September elections to the State Duma, but also the presidential election of 2018.

The party will be form the Programme Committee and the Council for the Federal, Regional and Local Elections.

The Coalition Proposal adopted by the FPC designated principles that YABLOKO would use for building a coalition with all the potential partners. Such coalition partners can not include the present parliamentary parties, as well as Stalinists, nationalists, fascists, militarists, xenophobes and other left and right radicals. The ruling United Russia, the Communist Party, the Just Russia and LDPR were referred to as “the instruments for implementation of Vladimir Putin’s course,” and YABLOKO stated its intention to fight against these and similar parties in the elections.

YABLOKO regards PARNAS and the Civil Initiative parties as competitors, but at the same time YABLOKO is ready to tactical cooperation with these parties “on the basis of multual tolerance and mutual abolishing of criticism”.

YABLOKO invited politicians and civic activists sharing democratic values, supporting the European way of Russia’s development and ready to sign the Memorandum of Political Alternative and to support the candidacy of Grigory Yavlinsky for President of Russia to joint YABLOKO party list of candidates, as well as to run from the party in single-mandate electoral districts. On the same principles YABLOKO is also ready to agree on the candidacies with self-nominated candidates and representatives of other parties so that they would not compete against each other.

The Political Committee among its members also formed a group that would negotiate interaction in the elections with other democratic forces. The group included Sergei Ivanenko, Sergei Mitrokhin, Victor Sheinis and Lev Shlosberg. Lev Shlosberg became Coordinator of the group.