Press Release, 11.03.2016

One fifth of the Russian News Service radio audience supports YABLOKO’s stance on Crimea and a quarter is ready to vote for Grigory Yavlinsky in the presidential election. Such are the results of a telephone survey conducted during broacasting of an interview with Sergei Mitrokhin, member of YABLOKO’s Federal Political Committee and leader of the Moscow branch of YABLOKO.

Sergei Mitrokhin said that he did not see a rival to Grigory Yavlinsky in the opposition. He noted that nomination of Yavlinsky would united the opposition around this political figure.

Mitrokhin said that Grigory Yavlinsky’s advantages over other Russian politicians were good knowledge of the economic and the international situation, his large experience in the state governing, his negative attitude to totalitarianism, nationalism, etc. According to Mitrokhin, the main advantage of YABLOKO’s candidate was that Grigory Yavlinsky was a world renown economist.

“We have a very hard situation in the economy today, and there is no light at the end of the tunnel, we are in such total dependence on oil and gas prices, that we really need a very strong professional economist – not just an adviser, an expert or even a Minister, but exactly the head of the state who should take over the responsibility for withdrawing the country from the economic dead end,” Mitrokhin said.

Mitrokhin also stressed that Grigory Yavlinsky had high moral qualities, impeccable reputation and did not resort to populism.

The online voting for Grigory Yavlinsky showed that 24 per cent of radio listeners supported his candidacy.

Sergei Mitrokhin was asked about the party’s position on Crimea. The politician called inclusion of the peninsula into Russia an annexation, as de facto the territory was annexed, but de jure a small number of states recoginised the Russian Crimea.

Mitrokhin noted that the terms stipulated by the UN charter and other international documents had not been met during the so-called referendum in Crimea. Treaties between Russia and Ukraine had been violated and the referendum had been held in the presence of a significant number of the armed forces.

Sergei Mitrokhin also said that YABLOKO proposed to hold a series of negotiations with Ukraine, the EU member states and the USA so that to discuss all the existing problems: Crimea and Donbas, the implementation of the Minsk agreements and others.

“We proposed that package of international documents should be formed, and part of it should be the consent of Ukraine and other countries to conduct an internationally recognized referendum abiding all the rules and with unhindered participation of observers, the right to campaign “for” and “against” in the state media – all these formalities must be fulfilled, ” he said. This referendum should be recognised by all countries, Sergei Mitrokhin stressed.

A telephone voting demonstrated that YABLOKO’s stance was supported by 20 per cent of the radio station listeners.

Commenting on the results of telephone surveys conducted by the radio station known for its critical attitude towards the opposition, Sergei Mitrokhin said that such a high percentage of support for YABLOKO suggested shifts in the attitudes of a large part of the society and that people came to understand that it was time to change the political system.

It should be noted that the Chairperson of the National Media Group the radio station belongs to is Alina Kabaeva, retired rhythmic gymnast and ex MP from the ruling party. Director General of the radio station is odious media manager Aram Gabrelyanov, the creator of the yellow tabloid Life, the LifeNews website and the LifeNews television channel. In late February, the site editor of the radio station made a headline of the interview with YABLOKO Chair Emilia Slabunova which completely distort the Party’s position on Crimea and, thus, caused a loud scandal.

Voting on the candidacy of Grigory Yavlinsky for President of Russia was held on other radio stations – Kommersant FM and Ekho Moskvi where the YABLOKO leader received the majority of the votes.