Decision of the Federal Political Committee of Yabloko adopted on 2 December 2025, published on 17 December 2025

Photo by Vladimir Trefilov, RIA Novosti

The Russian authorities have declared the majority of European Union countries “unfriendly states”, employ offensive and aggressive rhetoric towards these countries and their leaders, accuse them of seeking to weaken and destroy Russia, reject European values as hostile, and accordingly shape public opinion within the country. The destruction of ties with Europe is accompanied by a reorientation of economic interaction towards China’s economy, which is rapidly growing and many times larger than Russia’s, towards manifestly disadvantageous strategic partnerships with countries such as North Korea, Iran and Venezuela.

The mirror image of this confrontational approach is the perception, disseminated by many European leaders and media outlets, of Russia as an existential threat. The consequence is a policy of increasing armaments and building a new “Iron Curtain” dividing the space of Greater Europe.

The most dangerous part of such a policy today is the de facto support for the continuation of hostilities in the Russo-Ukrainian conflict and plans to transform Ukraine into a “protective buffer” separating Europe from Russia, which is supposed to help in a supposedly inevitable future military clash with it.

At the same time, European leaders are not proposing any realistic plan for a ceasefire and the subsequent construction of a new European security system.

Understanding that the development of confrontation has both deep-rooted origins and contemporary causes, and recognising our responsibility for the future, the Yabloko party believes that continuing such a policies is futile and dangerous.

Russia is part of Europe. Perhaps for some this sounds like a declaration of a long-term goal. But even now we cannot fence ourselves off from one another geographically, politically, culturally or informationally, and we must ensure peaceful coexistence and the prospects of creating an architecture of common security.

Attempts to build a new “Iron Curtain” are irresponsible and dangerous for the future, and not only Europe’s future. What is at stake is the future of all human civilisation.

It is difficult to expect a return to the old system of pan-European security, which has proved ineffective. We need to seek new approaches and build a new configuration based on the experience of the Council of Europe and the Helsinki Process.

The tragedy in Ukraine has clearly demonstrated that an effective European security structure must include Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.

The foundation of a new approach can be a return to centre of policies of humanistic values, traditionally called European values.

The most promising, and perhaps the only realistic, concept of the Europe of the future that will preserve the essence and significance of European civilisation is a Europe from Lisbon to Vladivostok, united around a central idea: the protection of human life, freedom, rights and dignity.

The key points of a programme for moving towards a new model of Europe’s future are set out in detail in Grigory Yavlinsky’s article “There Is Only One Solution”, published in September 2025.

The proposed model serves not only Russia’s interests; it serves the interests of the European Union countries, which are experiencing a multidimensional crisis. A new vision of the future, based on placing people at the heart of politics, can become the foundation of a renewed European centre, comparable in scale to centres based on Chinese techno-totalitarianism and American technocracy. It is precisely together with Russia that Europe will be able to overcome its growing technological lag behind North America and China.

In current conditions, Russia’s European integration would be a continuation of the path that was begun by European countries after the end of World War II.

After the end of the Cold War, real opportunities opened up for Russo-European integration. However, the concept of unification underlying the European Union did not receive qualitative development, and this has become one of the causes of today’s crisis.

Today the common task of Russia and Europe is to bring universal human values and the institutions connected with them to a new qualitative level, corresponding to the real world of the 21st century and meeting the challenges of new digital technologies and artificial intelligence, and growing threats of extremism and terrorism.

Russia’s difficult historical legacy in the 20th century, the failure of post-Soviet economic and political reforms, and the contemporary authoritarian-corporatist system of governance are substantial obstacles on the path to Russia’s integration into the pan-European project.

However, refusal of integration means a new arms race, the saturation of Europe with nuclear weapons, and the formation of a buffer zone between Russia and Europe in the form of a war-ravaged Ukraine. All of this is a direct path to nuclear war.

Today people in Russia live in fear and are enveloped in aggressive propaganda. Overcoming today’s crisis in Russia is only possible if there is a positive prospect.

For Russia, the prospects of European integration would mark a path towards creating a state whose main goal is the realisation of human potential, human development and the protection of human dignity. Rapprochement with European countries is necessary for Russia as a values-based reference point, as an image of the future capable of uniting Russian society, which has been divided and traumatised by the tragic events of the past 110 years.

Grigory Yavlinsky,

Chairman of the Federal Political Committee of Yabloko