Press Release, 28.10.2019

The delegates of the 40th congress of the pan-European party Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE), held past weekend in Athens, Greece, unanimously supported the resolution submitted by Yabloko, the British Liberal Democrats and the FDP on the situation in Russia. Yabloko Chair Emilia Slabunova took part in the Congress. Yabloko has been a member of ALDE since 2006.

Here is the text of the resolution in English and in Russian:

Free political prisoners in Russia and ensure 
free and fair elections

The Congress of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE)
Party convening in Athens, Greece, on 24-26 October 2019:

Notes:
• the success of the ALDE full member party Yabloko in the recent local
and regional elections in Russia;
• that the Yabloko Party gained mandates despite obstacles and unequal
campaign conditions, non-registration of many Yabloko candidates in
the campaign to the Moscow City Parliament as well as large-scale
electoral fraud in municipal elections in St. Petersburg;
• the formation of the so far biggest Yabloko faction in the Moscow City
Parliament despite all aforementioned obstacles, reprisals and
interference.

Expresses great concern about:
• the persistent refusal to permit peaceful rallies and demonstrations by
regional governments;
• detentions and arrests in the course of the “Moscow riots case” which
resulted from violent dispersals of peaceful demonstrations against the
rigging of the Moscow parliamentary elections of September 8 and
brutal arrests of peaceful protesters and passersby during peaceful
demonstrations in Moscow on July 27 and August 3 by the police;
• the use of pressure by investigators against people who were detained
in the course of the fraudulent “Moscow riots case” in order to make
them “confess” to non-existent guilt;
• the brutal handling of peaceful protesters and unjustified violent beating
of unarmed peaceful people by Russian law enforcement;
• unprecedented reprisals against, searches of homes and the
imprisonment of peaceful protesters in Moscow and other Russian
cities, who demanded fair elections and the registration of independent
candidates;
• the use of law enforcement and the judiciary as a tool for reprisal
against dissenting voices;
• searches and reprisals against human rights organisations such as the
search of the Committee for the Civil Rights on October 22, reprisals
against the Memorial Human Rights Center and imprisonment of its
regional heads as well as recent attempts to close the “For the Human
Rights” movement and others;
• the defiance of human rights, freedom of speech and freedom of
assembly by Moscow’s authorities and other Russian regions as well

as general disrespect of international obligations under the European

Convention on Human Rights, other international treaties the Russian
Federation is part of as well as standards for free and fair elections.

Urges:
• Russian authorities to consolidate democracy, ensure free and fair
elections, end reprisals against dissenting voices, revoke unlawful court
decisions and close criminal cases against political prisoners and
immediately release all political protesters of the summer protests and
stop pressure and imprisonment of citizens who bear no guilt but
demand from the state to obey to its obligations;
• Russian authorities to punish those guilty of police violence, pressuring
and imprisoning citizens who bear no guilt but demand from the state
to obey to its obligations, and rigging the elections;
• Russian authorities to restore the reputation of the Russian Federation
as a democratic state while upholding the right to elect and be elected,
the right to freedom of assembly and freedom of speech as basic
democratic values.