Press Release, 24.01.2020

On 24 January, leaders of the Yabloko party received deputies of the Bundestag of the Free Democratic Party of Germany (FDP) at the Moscow office of the Yabloko party.

Two Chairmen of the democratic parties – Nikolai Rybakov and Christian Lindner – took part in the meeting.

Photo: Christian Lindner and Nikolai Rybakov

Yabloko was also represented by Ivan Bolshakov, Deputy Chairman of the party, Maxim Kruglov, head of the Yabloko faction in the Moscow City Duma, Olga Radayeva, head of International Relations and Galina Mikhaleva, Chair of the party’s Gender Faction. Girgory Yavlinsky, head of the Federal Political Committee, also greeted German democrats. Four deputies of the German parliament participated in the meeting on behalf of the FDP – Christian Lindner, leader of the FDP group in the Bundestag, Michael Link, Renata Alt, and Bijan Djir-Sarai. The meeting was also attended by Rainer Adam, head of the regional office of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation in Sofia, Julius von Freitag-Loringhofen, head of the Moscow Bureau of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, and others.

Photo: Christian Lindner

Yabloko Chairman Nikolai Rybakov told the guests from the FDP that Yabloko formed the Public Constitutional Committee, which would work on a package of amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation. According to Nikolai Rybakov, the amendments proposed by Yabloko will become a democratic alternative to the Russian President’s amendments. He also spoke about the party’s participation in the struggle for the release of political prisoners in Russia.

Photo: Nikolai Rybakov

Also the topic of settlement of the conflict in the Russian-Ukrainian relations was raised at the meeting. Ivan Bolshakov, Deputy Chairman of Yabloko, said that Yabloko had been advocating an international conference on Crimea and Ukraine from the very beginning of the conflict. He invited the German Democratic Party to join this initiative and, as a first step, start a dialogue at the level of liberal parties in Germany, Russia, Ukraine and other European countries.

Photo: Ivan Bolshakov

Maxim Kruglov, head of the Yabloko faction in the Moscow City Duma, told the guests about the difficult election campaign for the Moscow parliament, which resulted in Yabloko’s return to the Moscow City Duma with four mandates. Kruglov also spoke about the main directions of work of the Yabloko faction in the Moscow City Duma.

Photo: Ivan Bolshakov, Olga Radayeva, Maxim Kruglov, Julius von Freitag-Loringhofen, Rainer Adam, and Christian Lindner

At the end of the meeting, the two leaders of the democratic parties wished each other success and spoke about continuing partnership in the future.

Both the parties – Yabloko and the FDP – are members of international associations of liberal parties: the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) and Liberal International.