Decision by the Federal Political Committee of Yabloko No. 152, dated 15 April, 2022

Published on 21 April, 2022

Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

A great disaster on the scale of a national catastrophe, threatening the very existence of Russia, happened to our country.

An authoritarian government acting according to Bolshevik models plunged Russia into this disaster.

A fundamental misunderstanding of modern world realities and historical prospects led to an anti-European course, a senseless confrontation with the West and a claim to the right to arbitrarily limit the sovereignty of neighboгrs in the post-Soviet space. This course naturally led to a dead end.

Unwilling to admit its strategic miscalculations, the Putin regime launched large-scale actions on the territory of Ukraine, the meaning and content of which were obvious, regardless of the proposed names.

This whole undertaking represents [the policies of] a distant past, and it is not only about actions against Ukraine, but about understanding what a modern state, politics, and, finally, Russia is. Today’s imperial-militarist episode is a relapse and continuity of the primitive Bolshevik policy that led to the collapse of the USSR.

Our country is in a very hard situation: on the eve of economic degradation and backwardness, in serious international isolation, with unrecognised borders, and without reliable allies and partners.

In such conditions, there is no more talk not about growth, but also about maintaining the living standards of the absolute majority of Russians, especially the middle class. Citizens will pay with their well-being, and the prospects of their children for the ambitions and miscalculations of the government that is completely separated from them.

Politically, Russia is an authoritarian, repressive, fully consolidated system lacking the basic institutional elements of a modern state, in particular the separation of powers.

Society is actually in a state of war, and the point is not only in new formal rules and restrictions, but in the impact of what is happening on people’s minds.

The already extremely severe restrictions on the freedom of assembly, speech, and opinion have been sharply tightened. A few media outlets that could broadcast a point of view that differed from the official one have been closed and stopped their work.

This is a special, qualitatively new situation, and continuing working in it requires well-thought-out, fully conscious and very responsible decisions.

In the conditions of modern Russia, there is absolutely no room for the work of a political party of a parliamentary type. In fact, the space for the work of a party of the European parliamentary model has been severely and consistently limited by the authoritarian system during the past 20 years.

However, now the entire state-political system is being consolidated from above to serve the authoritarian regime. Everything that does not fit into this consolidated system will be suppressed and destroyed.

It can hardly be expected that in the near and even medium term there will be elections in Russia that even resemble real ones. Legislation continues to shift towards the absolute government over the electoral process (an unlimited expansion of the use of “electronic voting”), and new legislation in the field of distribution of information virtually eliminates the possibility of any serious oppositional political election campaign. The mechanism of formation of power and decision-making is absolutely authoritarian, public opinion, as well as the professionally verified stance of opponents, are not taken into account and will not be taken into consideration.

The Federal Political Committee is aware of the exceptionally difficult conditions, including financial ones, in which we will have to exist, but proceeds from the fact that the Party considers itself responsible to the millions of people who share our values ​​and voted for us, and by and large – in front of all the citizens of our country and for its future.

Those who share our values ​​and view of the current situation should have a foothold, a centre of consolidation. Even in today’s situation, up to a fifth of our compatriots do not support the Kremlin’s “special military operation”, and, therefore, to some extent share our political stance in relation to what is happening. This is about 20 million of our fellow citizens. At the same time, there are not only those who have been traditionally supporting us among these people – new serious people are coming to the Party. Judging by what they say, it is important for them to declare their belonging to our Party. On 24 February, what many people considered unthinkable did happen, and Yabloko was the only political force that warned society about the reality of the tragic prospects.

People must have a connection with reality, there must be a future for them. The point is not even to convince those who believe in propaganda, this is a separate task. The main thing now is that people who do not believe in propaganda, who are not ideological supporters of the “special operation”, realise that they are not alone. In a practical sense, this means attracting to the Party its official supporters registered in accordance with the Charter of the Party. Today, the number of such supporters of the Party is approximately 860,000. The political task is to use the domino effect to raise the number of official conscientious supporters to several million people. From such position, we will be able to advance our political agenda much more effectively.

Such an institution as Yabloko is also important for saving and protecting people who disagree with the actions of the authorities.

It is important for the future of our country that people who are able to understand the causes of what has happened are politically united and become the basis of the political force that can, through persistent dialogue, supported by millions of [our] official supporters, stop the tragic development of events and prevent repeating of the tragedy in the future.

Now not only the development, but also self-preservation of Russia will be possible only through the refoundation of the state, the overcoming of Bolshevism, the institutionalisation of European values, a radical economic transformation, and the reform of the entire political and social system. The meaning of the existence of the Yabloko party in the current conditions is in the science-based preparation of practical projects and proposals in all these areas (work on some of them is already underway), persistent political progress towards putting them into practice at the first opportunity in the future.

In practice, for example, this means political struggle for the following:

– immediate conclusion of a ceasefire agreement, a truce and bona fide peace negotiations;

– abolition of censorship;

– complete change of leadership and anchors of major TV channels and programs;

– creation of real public television and radio. State television can be represented by only one channel on which any propaganda must be prohibited, it should become an exclusively informational channel;

– decisive demilitarisation of society and the debunking of historical myths;

– release of all political prisoners;

– abolition of all restrictions in elections and simplification of registration of parties and candidates, electronic and multi-day voting must be cancelled;

– strictest control over the honesty and transparency of parliamentary and presidential elections;

– the prospects of elections and convening of the Constitutional Assembly.

The key political task of the Party, as before, is to carry out economic and social reforms for the majority and, on this basis, radical overcoming of poverty in Russia.

It is obvious to us that it will take years to solve such problems, but Yabloko must become a party that does what needs to be done, and not just what can be done.

We understand that our party can be liquidated at any moment, nevertheless we will go on working for the sake of our fellow citizens and our country.

Grigory Yavlinsky,

Chairman of the Yabloko Federal Political Committee