Statement by the Yabloko branch in Altai, 21.12.2020

Increasingly more people in Russia are beginning to understand that the policy of the ruling regime has led the country to a dead end, depriving the people of the future.

The multi-day voting “on stumps” on an amendment to the Russian Constitution, in order to reset the presidential terms of Vladimir Putin, during the Covid-19 pandemic, demonstrated the authorities’ disregard for the lives and health of Russian citizens.

The worst pandemic in the past hundred years has shown the difference in the attitude towards people in the democratic and the authoritarian countries, to which Russia belongs.

If in countries with developed democracies about 20% of the country’s GDP was allocated to support people and businesses in 2020, the support of the Russian authorities, which turned down Yabloko party’s anti-crisis plan, amounted to only about 2% of the GDP.

Instead of supporting small businesses and  people, the Russian government used the coronavirus pandemic to pass repressive laws that infringe upon the rights and freedoms of citizens.

The stagnation in the economy and the authorities’ abandoning of real support of the people are most noticeable in the subsidised regions, such as the Altai Territory, where real incomes of the population have been falling for seven years in a row.

The rise in prices and tariffs for housing and utilities services and the increase of consumer prices leads to the impoverishment of the residents of the region.

The “optimization” of the spheres of education and culture of the region led to a decrease in the quality of life and human capital, continuing outflow of the population from the Altai Territory, and the “optimisation” of health care led to a sharp increase in mortality.

The so-called opposition parliamentary parties (the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, A Just Russia and the LDPR) support the ruling party on virtually all key issues both at the federal and regional levels and, in fact, in our opinion, have become the branches of the ruling party.

The events [demonstrations] in Belarus and in the Khabarovsk Territory in Russia have clearly demonstrated that the patience of the people is not unlimited.

Elections to the Altai Regional Legislative Assembly in 2021 provide an opportunity for democratic forces to change the political and economic situation in the region.

We offer individual civic activists, political, environmental, human rights and other public organisations and movements in the region, true patriots, who are deeply worried about the future of cities and villages of the Altai Territory, who share democratic and liberal values and regard the observance of human rights and freedoms and the European way of development of Russia as a top priority to create a coalition of democratic forces in the elections to the Altai Regional Legislative Assembly, the representative bodies of municipalities, town councils, and elections of heads of municipalities.

In 2016, our party won more than 3% of the vote in the elections to the Altai Regional Legislative Assembly, so we are exempt from collecting signatures for regional and all municipal elections in the Altai Territory and are ready to become a platform for uniting all democratic forces.

We are aware that the elections in our country are dishonest, but today there is no other possibility of changing the government in the country, including at the regional and municipal levels.

Altai democrats unite!

We urge all the democrats to join the future coalition electoral association: “Yabloko – United Democrats” of the Altai Territory.

Adopted by the Regional Council of the Altai branch of Yabloko