Basic guidelines for 2011-
2016. Approved by the 16th Congress of the party on
September 10, 2011
OUR GOAL. The main goal of the YABLOKO
party is to build via peaceful and constitutional
methods a modern law-based democratic and socially
oriented state serving the needs of the people and
ensuring Russia’s dynamic development...
WHY ARE WE RUNNING FOR PARLIAMENT?
YABLOKO is participating in the elections to the State
Duma in order to represent the interests of Russia’s
citizens, adopt laws that will bring the country closer
to a law-based democratic and socially oriented state
and abolish all legislation that obstructs such a
goal...
A “memorial action of the deceased
fair elections” has begun by the Central Electoral
Commission Moscow office and in other cities. The
action was launched by YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin
by laying flowers to the Central Electoral Commission
Moscow office at noon...
Today YABLOKO activists have been
laying white carnations to electoral commissions in
Ufa, Saransk, Kazan, Izhevsk, Voronezh, Kirov, Penza,
Pskov, Ryazan, Smolensk, Tula, Vladimir, Vologda and
Novgorod.
The Central Electoral Commission (CEC)
has not realized what happened in the parliamentary
elections on December 4, 2011. It was not the YABLOKO
party which stole the votes, votes were stolen from
the YABLOKO party. This is how YABLOKO leader Sergei
Mitrokhin commented on the statement from the CEC
press service running that if YABLOKO did not recognize
the results of the voting, then it would be "logical"
for YABLOKO to refuse state financing [allotted to
all the political parties in Russia that obtaining
over three 3 per cent at the elections].
Sergei Mitrokhin compared such a proposal on behalf
of the CEC for YABLOKO to give up state financing
with a situation when a police would suddenly demand
money from a robbery victim as they can not find the
robbers.
YABLOKO leader also noted that the
party had filed hundreds of complaints to courts,
but they had been rejected, despite obvious evidence
of violations – election carousels, stuffing
of fraudulent ballots into ballot boxes, ousting of
observers from polling stations and faking of final
voting protocols.
Mitrokhin also said that he applied
to Gennady Zyuganov, Communist Party leader, in April
2012 with a proposal to file a joint lawsuit demanding
cancellation of the elections. "Only a few days
are left until this plan can be realised," Mitrokhin
said...
YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin proposed
to commemorate the death day of the most important
democratic procedure – fair elections –
on the one-year anniversary of the parliamentary elections
of 2011...
The Tula regional branch of YABLOKO
also calls on all supporters of fair elections bring
white carnations to the 6th entrance of the Government
of Tula Region office, where the Electoral Commission
of the Tula region is located. The action will be
held on December 4, from 12:00 to 13:00.
The Vladimir branch of the YABLOKO
party will lay flowers to the office of the Oktyabrsky
District Administration in Vladimir on December 4.
The territorial electoral commission is located in
this building. On December 4, 2011, this commission
adopted and counted six thousand fraudulent votes
from the "Ladoga" resort complex. All the
votes were cast for the ruling United Russia party.
Sergei Mitrokhin’s blog
at the Ekho Moskvi Radio Station web-site, November 28, 2012.
December 4 marks a mournful date.
A year ago our country suffered a terrible loss: elections
to the State Duma which took place on this day hammered
the last nail in the coffin of fair elections.
Deeply regretting this and we are
urging all of you to commemorate the death day of
the most important democratic procedure.
We invite all those grieving with
us to participate in the mourning ceremony. Let us
honor the memory of the deceased – please bring
white carnations to the main entrance of the Central
Electoral Commission office (Bolshoi Cherkassky pereuluk,
9, Moscow).
If access to the main entrance is blocked, the flowers
can be left anywhere by the Central Electoral Commission
office.
YABLOKO activists plan to lay flowers starting from
11:00 a.m., I will come to the ceremony at 12:00...
...MK: Yes, the protest movement was
preoccupied mainly with creativity: a competition
of funny banners and photoshopped pictures. It was
too busy with this to think about elections.
GY: Because the people who took on
the role of organisers of the protest movement were
developing the form without filling it with content.
That is why the rallies demonstrated an abundance
of inventions, funny posters and performances. But
by the spring the main "faces" of the protest
have already partially changed. The new “faces”
have quickly realized that it was necessary to leave
the glamour and creativity – it was a deadlock.
They tried to make camps by the fountain at the Pushkin
square, breakthrough to the Manezh square, put forward
incredible demands to the authorities and socialize
at the boulevards. But this was also development of
one form only, without any content, including the
“Occupy Abai” action (Ed. “Occupy
Abai” was a camp in the centre of Moscow by
the monument to Kazakh poet and philosopher Abai Kunanbayev).
It was clear what “Occupy Wall Street”
was about. Wall Street is the personification of the
type of living the “occupants” protest
against. And what does “Occupy Abai” mean?
Again, it is an interesting form of protest but not
filled with so much needed political content.
MK: A transition from the ideological
to the physical opposition was a natural development
of the protests. Is not is how they should grow -
from coming to rallies to creation of permanent camps
of the dissenting? from peaceful methods and slogans
to violent clashes?
GY: No, it isn’t. Because in
case of physical and violent confrontation with the
authorities the protest movement would immediately
lose and in general can be even permanently destroyed.
The organisers of rallies must understand that this
is unacceptable. In addition, if you invite people
to an [officially] permitted rally, they should not
get into trouble - people can not be victimized. If
one is professionally engaged in the organisation
of mass-scale peaceful protests and wants precisely
this, this can be done. If one has other goals, than
it will be the other way.
MK: Do you think ‘the other
way” prevailed during protests on May 6?
GY: The desire for exploring "another
heroic way" has been there for all these months.
However, after the first attempt on December 5, this
thrust was marginal, inferior to the general belief
in the power of peaceful mass protests. But the protest
did not yield immediate results as tangible concessions
from the government, or provided a coherent perspective
that could have been indicated by the political leadership.
Thus, the lead was taken by the left, nationalists
and supporters of the thesis “you cannot make
an omlette without breaking eggs”. The question
of responsibility for the health and lives of people
was either redirected to the government or simply
removed from the agenda. They said that under the
current conditions the true organisers of mass actions
were Twitter and FaceBook...
...Kirill Goncharov, leader of the
Moscow Youth YABLOKO, and his colleagues Gleb Sitnikov
and Oleg Rumyantsev were detained at a protest action
against smearing of the public mass-scale protests
against elections fraud in a film produced and broadcasted
by the NTV channel. Goncharov, Sitnikov, and Rumyantsev
were taken to police stations.
According to the police, about 100 people were detained
at the action. about 100 people. Valery Borshchyov,
member of YABLOKO Bureau and head of the Moscow Public
Observers' Commission condemned the police actions...
YABLOKO leaders Sergei Mitrokhin and
Grigory Yavlinsky spoke at a rally in Novy Arbat prospect,
Moscow. Sergei Mitrokhin gave his time for the speech
to Alexei Sklyarov, Editor-in-Chief the Pulse television
company in Azov. It is the only independent television
company in southern Russia, however, local authorities
began pressing the company after Alexei Sklyarov headed
the League of Voters in Azov.
"We together
with the League of Voters conducted monitoring and
control over voting [at elections] across the country.
And once again I would like to state that the elections
of March 4 were rigged. We are not going to make speeches
today, we would like to give the time allotted for
our speeches to a unique person - Alexei Sklyarov.
He is the head of the only free, independent television
company in the southern Russia. His television company
has been attacked because he together with YABLOKO
monitored the elections," Sergei Mitrokhin told
to the protesters...
Grigory Yavlinsky addressed the participants
of the rally with n a brief speech, "Friends,
I am glad to meet you again. It is already my sixth
speech at a rally for the past three months. I remember
every word I said. We will accomplish all this. The
road is long and difficult. The victory in the fight
will not come soon, but it will come. Russia will
be free. Russia demands changes!"
Grigory Yavlinsky said that the main
objective of all the opposition forces in Russia should
be radical change in the socio-political system rather
than simply a replacement of top officials. He said
this during a meeting with representatives of the
European Parliament's Liberal Group (ALDE). The sides
discussed the political situation in Russia after
the presidential elections and prospects for further
development.
The meeting was held on March 5 in
YABLOKO’s office. Guy Verhofstadt, leader of the liberals
in the European Parliament and ex Prime Minister of
Belgium, Renaldas Vaisbrodas, Political Adviser, ALDE,
Sergei Mitrokhin, YABLOKO Chairman, Galina Mikhalyova,
Executive Secretary of the Political Council and head
of the Gender faction and Olga Radayeva, International
Secretary...
YABLOKO leaders Sergei Mitrokhin and
Grigory Yavlinsky spoke at the rally For Fair Elections
which took place at the Pushkin square, Moscow.
Sergei Mitrokhin said that statements
made by Vladimir Churov, head of the Central Electoral
Commission, that elections was fair was a blatant
lie. The hot line organised jointly by YABLOKO and
the Voter’ League got thousands of calls from observers
and voters on violations.
Mitrokhin also reiterated that the
December slogan “Churov must go!” emerging after parliamentary
elections of December 2011 was still on the agenda.
The participants had unanimously chanted this slogan
together with Mitrokhin...
A meeting of leaders of registered
political parties with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev
has just finished. The key issue of the meeting was
discussion of the political reform. The YABLOKO party
was represented by Sergei Mitrokhin, YABLOKO Chairman,
and Sergei Ivanenko, Political Committee member.
Sergei Mitrokhin handed to President
Medvedev a list of demands put forward by participants
of the demonstration and rally of February 4, including
the general resolution of the rally, the resolution
demanding registration of Grigory Yavlinsky in the
presidential election campaign and the list of political
prisoners...
The Moscow City Court overruled the
decision of Kuntsevsky District Court and declared
removal of Aslan Artsuyev, member of electoral commission
from the YABLOKO party with a deliberative vote, from
polling station No 2451.
Aslan Artsuyev worked at the parliamentary
elections and was member of the PEC No 2451 with a
deliberative vote, was removed from the polling station
15 minutes before its closure...
Press Release, Videos, Photographs.
February 4, 2012.
...Grigory Yavlinsky, party founder,
spoke at the rally on behalf of YABLOKO:
"They wish to oust us all from
elections. This won't go! This
is our right and we are defending the future of our
country.
We have gathered here so that to see
that there many of us, that we are not alone, that
a friend’s shoulder is by your side. We are different,
but we all have three colours in common – the colours
of the Russian flag.
All together we are defending the
future of the country, the Constitution, freedom,
life according to laws rather than arbitrary rule.
It is important for us and we will never surrender.
Now the most important thing I would
like to tell you is that life does no end on March
4 [the voting day of presidential elections] or March
5. This is only the beginning.
And our opponents and foes will see
and realise – may be they realise – soon that it is
a beginning for us, and an end for them.
This year we will create thousands
of committees for the political reform, join us!
This year we will make them abolish
censorship in the mass media.
This year we will make an extremely
important thing – politically we will really unite.
We will prove that morals and ethics
can be the main force both in politics and in Russia.
We love our country and we will not
surrender it to thieves, fascists, Stalinists or other
parasites...
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty,
February 4, 2012.
Except from Russian transcript by
Radio Liberty:
14.25. Eugenia Chirikova [ecologist
and head of the Movement in Defence of Khimki Forest]
proposes to vote for a resolution in support of candidacy
of Grigory Yavlinsky on the post of Russian President.
“We demand that the decision of the Central Electoral
Commission to refuse Grigory Yavlinsky registration
in the presidential election campaign should be revoked.”
“We demand to immediately register Grigory Yavlinsky
candidate on the post of President of Russia.” The
rally supports this resolution with a roar of approval.
14.20. The rally greets YABLOKO founder
Grigory Yavlinsky with applause. Yavlinsky thanks
all for support. “They wish to oust us from elections…
This won’t go. We feel a friends’ shoulder. We are
different, but we all have three colours in common
– the colours of the Russian flag. We defend the future
of the country and the Constitution – we defend them
by lawful means… Now the most important thing I would
like to tell you is that life does no end on March
5 [the day after presidential elections in Russia].
This is only the beginning – for us and it is an end
for them… We will prove that politics can be moral…
For freedom and justice! For our Russia!”
YABLOKO participates in the demonstration
and rally For Fair Elections of February 4. The participants
should gather at 12:00 at Bolshaya Yakimanka (Oktyabrskaya
metro station).
YABLOKO’s activists and supporters
form the second column (out of total six). The demonstrators
should gather by lamp-posts Nos 4 and 5 (out of total
nine numbered lamp posts). You will be able to easily
locate YABLOKO column by YABLOKO flags. Also you will
be able to find information about the location of
the column from activists wearing green YABLOKO uniform
jackets.
The demonstration will start at 13:00.
The columns will go along Bolshaya Yakimanka and Maliy
Kamenniy bridge to Bolotnaya square. The rally at
Bolotnaya square will begin at 14:00...
On February 2 – 3, on the threashold
of the march and rally For Fair Elections, YABLOKO
activists will distribute leaflets calling to join
the action. Leaflets will be distributed by seven
Moscow metro stations.
Tomorrow YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin
(who is also member of the organisational committe
of the action) will be distributing leaflets by Novokuznetskaya
metro station from 3 to 4 p.m.
Picketers will also distribute leaflets
by Pushkinskaya, Arbatskaya, Chistiye Prudi, Mayakovskaya,
Sretenskiy Bulvar, Tretyakovskaya and Novokuznetskaya
metro stations from 4 to 7 p.m.
Also leaflets can be obtained in YABLOKO
Moscow office (Pyatnitskaya ulitsa, 31/2 bldg 2) from
10 a.m. to 8 p.m...
...Thus, an observer’s protocol (certified
by the Chair of the Precinct Electoral Commission)
ran that the Just Russia party obtained 290 votes
(201 vote according to the Central Electoral Commission).
The discrepancy in votes for Vladimir Zhirinovsky’s
LDPR party amounted to 32 votes (142 against 108 votes),
15 votes for the Patriots of Russia (29 against 14
votes), the vote for the Right Cause was worsened
by half (from 14 to 7 votes). However, the ruling
United Russia improved its total vote (from 506 votes
on the protocol of the observer to 651 vote, according
to official data of the CEC). The votes for the Communist
Party and YABLOKO remained unchanged.
"Probably, the election committee members thought
that YABLOKO and the Communist Party can go to courts
only if their interests are affected. And they decided
to "modify" the results of other parties,"
said YABLOKO’s lawyers. There are also discrepancies
in the numbers of canceled and absentee ballots...
Public prosecutor
of Moscow requires the YABLOKO party to provide information
about the organization, where the web-site server
of yabloko.ru is physically located. Investigators
are interested in the actual location of the organization,
its legal address and contact telephone numbers.
The request of the
prosecutor's office was given to the party this morning.
Further, the information must be provided to Zamoskvoretskaya
Interdistrict Prosecutor's Office as early as 15:00.
The requirements put
forward during the audit were launched upon request
to the prosecution by the Central Electoral Commission’s
chief Vladimir Churov. The latter appealed to the
prosecutors after YABLOKO published on its website
the so-called "Churov list" - a list of
leaders of local electoral commissions, where protocols
of voting were falsified or the observers were removed
without any reason on the parliamentary elections
voting day December 4, 2011...
Fire resulting from an arson fire
has completely destroyed the office of "Vechrniy
Krasnokamsk" weekly this night. The founder and
editor-in-chief of the weekly is Olga Kolokolova,
leader of the Perm YABLOKO branch and deputy of the
City Council in Krasnokamsk. Olga believes that it
is a revenge by Yury Chechyotkin, the city Mayor,
for journalists’ investigation into his embezzlement
of budget funds allocated for housing repairs in the
city...
In April 2011, unknown persons assailants
beat Olga Kolokolova’s father – deputy of the Krasnokamsk
City Duma Arkady Kolokolov. He helped the crew of
the "Riphey-Perm" television company, which
investigated the circumstances of the repairs in the
TSZh Parkovoi. The contractor hired by the managing
company providing services for the house received
4.5 million rubles, but the works were not completed...
The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats
for Europe (ALDE) of the Parliamentary Assembly of
the Council of Europe unanimously condemns the latest
developments in Russia which severely compromise the
possibility for free and fair presidential elections
on 4 March 2012...
YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin expressed
his indignation at the refusal of the Moscow authorities
to coordinate and give a permission to the march scheduled
on February 4. The march continues the actions launched
after parliamentary elections of December 4 that had
demonstrated unprecedented fraud.
"The decision of the Moscow
Mayor’s office provokes tension,” Mitrokhin said.
“Neither broad pubic [gathering for the march via
Internet] nor we can agree to the route they proposed
to us (from the Luzhniki Stadium to the Krimskiy bridge),”
he noted...
Picket in favour of registration of
Grigory Yavlinsky at presidential elections took place
at the Teatralnaya square in Nizhny Novgorod on January
23, 2012.
The participants of the action held
placards “YABLOKO for Fair Elections!”, “YES to Elections!
NO to Churov*!” and “Elections Without Yavlinsky Means
Elections Without Choice!”
The picketers chanted “Yavlinsky Is
Our President!”, “Honesty to the Central Electoral
Commission and the “Magician”** , Go to the Circus!”
and “Let elections be fair!”...
Grigory Yavlinsky, YABLOKO leader
and head of the YABLOKO faction in St.Petersburg Legislative
Assembly, proposed to St.Petersburg Legislative Assembly
to create a commission for investigation of election
fraud at parliamentary elections of December 4, 2011.
19 deputies out of 50 voted for this
proposal. The United Russia and the LDPR factions
did not participate in the voting. Thus, the decision
on creation of such a commission failed...
Grigory Yavlinsky’s Live Journal,
January 11, 2012
I am offering you this article without
any changes. Today my understanding of the essence
of our sociopolitical crisis and programme for its
overcoming are virtually the same. These ideas result
from long work and much reflection. This is a search
for an alternative…
LIES AND LEGITIMACY
...
People take flight
The Russian political regime today,
which emerged after 1991 and was formed over the past
decade, has still not created a modern state.
As a result, we are witnessing today
an unremitting chasm that is deepening and is being
transformed into an insurmountable rift between the
authorities and the people, the state and society.
This is not a temporary credibility
gap, but rather a systematic problem. The high ratings
of the country’s leader do not attest to public support
for the powers that be. The vast difference in the
public trust shown in these individuals and all other
state institutions attests to the ultimate instability
and fragility of the entire Russian state construct...
Such a decision by the Moscow authority
was announced to the organiser of the rally that have
to take place this Saturday and introduce the so-called
“Churov List” (Ed. The list includes the names of
people engaged in the parliamentary elections fraud).
It was planned to conduct the rally by Griboyedov
Monument at Chistiye Prudi.
Earlier the bureaucrats had refused to allow a rally
at this place under a pretext of paving the square...
According to the Levada-Center poll,
37.6 percent of the participants of the rally at the
Sakharov Prospect voted for the YABLOKO party. One
out of four is ready to support YABLOKO, even if the
leaders of unregistered opposition movements manage
to create their own parties by the next elections.
YABLOKO leader Grigory Yavlinsky was the most popular
politician for the participants in the rally (24.4
percent). Every third participant of the rally for
fair elections would be ready to support his candidacy
at the forthcoming presidential elections. These are
the results of the public opinion poll conducted by
Levada-Center...
In his speech at the rally on December
24 YABLOKO leader Grigory Yavlinsky called the coming
presidential elections "the second round"
which should be won and lead to making Russia an open
and free European country.
"The [parliamentary] elections
of December 4 were the first round and judging by
what we see here now we have not lost it," Yavlinsky
told addressing a 100,000 rally. "The second
round is presidential election, and we can not vote
there for any candidate".
"We should have our candidate,
we should fight for the second round, we must make
it into the second round! Next year we should change
the political system!" he said.
"Our goal can be reduced to only
evicting some persons from the power, our goal is
to change the corrupt, bribable, deceitful and really
illegitimate system," Yavlinsky noted...
In conclusion Grigory Yavlinsky called
the authorities to free one of the organizers of the
rallies Sergei Udaltsov who had been kept under arrest
despite his health condition. "Do not be so cruel,
ghoulish and petty, stop torturing him, release this
man," he said.
The Krasnodar branch of the YABLOKO
party expresses its protest in view of dismissal of
Elena Kovalyova, Director of cinema theatre “Russia”
in Tuapse. YABLOKO stated that Kovalyova was fired
in violation of the Labor Code, but the real reason
behind the dismissal was her principled stand against
election fraud.
YABLOKO members are going to apply
to the Ministry of Culture and the Department of Culture
of the Krasnodar Area with a statement running that
such violations of the labour law are inadmissible...
The Saratov branch of YABLOKO stated
mass-scale fraud at elections to the State Duma in
the region. Comparison of the data from the protocols
given to observers at local electoral commissions
with the data published by the Central Electoral Commission
demonstrated a discrepancy amounting to thousands
votes. Votes given for different parties were ascribed
to the ruling United Russia party.
Thus 6,433 votes were added to United
Russia at 23 Saratov polling stations, which raised
the result of the ruling party by 41.62 per cent.
These votes were stolen from other parties: YABLOKO
lost 574 votes (i.e. 41.02 per cent of its vote).
For example, 110 votes were
stolen from YABLOKO at polling station 128: the Central
Electoral Commission web-site indicated that only
12 votes were given for YABLOKO instead of 122 votes
as of the protocol...
Last week YABLOKO submitted the first
eight suits to eight Moscow courts demanding to cancel
the results of the voting at eight polling stations.
The YABLOKO party began compiling
the ‘Churov List’. The list will contain names of
heads (chairs, deputy chairs and secretaries) of electoral
commissions with documentary evidence of grave violations
of the law...
“It should become shameful to be engaged
in an election fraud. The circle around those engaged
in fraud should tell them that such actions are a
disgrace. Our list is aiming at formation of such
a climate,” said YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin...
...The decision of the Congress runs
that YABLOKO does not recognize the results of the
parliamentary elections, considers the State Duma
formed via rigged voting illegitimate and demands
recognition of the elections void. Delegates of the
Congress also indicated that collection of signatures
for participation in election campaigns for non-parliamentary
parties should be abolished, also the threashold for
passing into the State Duma should be reduced to 3
per cent. It was also stressed that all the political
organisations wishing to take part in elections should
have access to elections and public organizations
should get the right to nominate observers for elections...
Despite massive fraud, the results
of the party demonstrated sufficient increase of its
support: even according to the Central Electoral Commission
data, YABLOKO was supported by 2.3 million voters.
This support was the highest support in the large
cities (as of the official data below): over 10 per
cent in St Petersburg and Petrozavodsk, over 8 per
cent in Moscow and Pskov, over 7 per cent in Yekaterinburg,
Arkhangelsk, Tver, Perm and Tomsk, over 6 per cent
in Irkutsk , Murmansk, Yaroslavl, Tula, Novosibirsk,
Chelyabinsk, Vladivostok, over 5 per cent in Rostov-upon-Don,
Vologda, Kaluga, Krasnoyarsk, Samara, Novgorod, Volgograd,
Ivanovo, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, the Khanty-Mansiysk, Vladimir,
Omsk , Khabarovsk, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Ryazan
and Kostroma. In the 31 regions the party won over
3 per cent.
Grigory Yavlinsky submitted to the
Central Election Commission (CEC) the documents on
his nomination to run in presidential elections in
Russia in March 2012. The decision on nomination of
Grigory Yavlinsky, the founder of the YABLOKO party,
was adopted by the party congress on December 18.
Now, the CEC must within five days
register authorized representatives of the party and
its candidate and give them a permission to open the
electoral account. Printing of lists for collection
of 2 mln of signatures in favour of Grigory Yavlinsky
required for his registration of a candidate in presidential
campaign will be paid from this account...
The majority (106 out of 109) delegates
of the YABLOKO Congress nominated Grigory Yavlinsky
candidate for presidential elections in Russia.
"The result of the [State Duma]
elections leaves us no doubt that we have far more
than two million supporters needed for the party to
register in the presidential elections," Grigory
Yavlinsky said.
He also said that the election campaign
is not a purely political procedure, it is "a
discussion with the citizens of a possibility and
a need of different policies that should be conducted
on different moral grounds".
"The result of the State Duma
elections demonstrated that alternative policy is
in demand in the society. And this should be moral
and programmed based policies," he added...
We know that the enemy is using dirty
tricks, that he is stronger and that the judges are
bribed. But we will still go all the way and will
fight honestly.
And no one will be able to reproach
us that we threw the towel on the ring before the
fight, got frightened and refused to fight.
YABLOKO will participate in the presidential
elections. And I ask all of you to support us. If
a fighter feels support from the stands, his strength
is doubled, and I know that from my own experience...
A rally for fair elections and against
election fraud have just ended at Bolotnaya square,
Moscow. The rally organised by the YABLOKO party have
gathered 5,000 people. Grigory Yavlinsky, Vladimir
Milov, leader of the Democratic Choice movement, Vladimir
Ryzhkov, co-chair of PARNAS, representatives of Just
Russia Dmitry Gudkov and Ilya Ponomaryov, Boris Nadezhdin,
head of the Moscow region branch of the Right Cause,
leaders of public organisations and movements and
citizens who acted as observers at the election of
December 4 spoke at the rally.
The resolution of the rally was read
by Grigory Yavlinsky. The participants of the rally
demanded immediate release of all those detained during
protest actions against election fraud, abrogation
of the results of the voting, investigation of the
fraud and punishment of those guilty of fraud...
Konstantin Smirnov, one of the leaders
of the Ryazan branch of Yabloko (LI full-member) was
arrested for 7 days for allegedly “disobeying the
lawful orders of the police” for participation in
the “For Fair Elections” rally organized in Ryazan
on December 8. Such an act was clearly politically
motivated as a video of Simonov's detention shows
that he did not disobey police orders. This follows
the biggest protests organized since the collapse
of the Soviet Union over the highly disputed Parliamentary
elections in the country which took place last week.
The leader of Yabloko, Sergei Mitrokhin, has asked
the Head of the Central Electoral Commission, Vladimir
Churov, to voluntarily leave his post saying “it is
Churov who is personally responsible for the scope
of the fraud that took place in the country on the
voting day.” LI Vice-President on the Bureau and Chair
of LI Human Rights Committee, Abir
Al-Sahlani MP, was part of an OSCE election observer
mission in Russia and witnessed first-hand the mass
violations committed during the electoral process.
Rally “For Free and Fair Elections”
will take place at Bolotnaya square tomorrow on December
17 at 1 p.m. The rally is organised by the YABLOKO
party. “We applied for a permission to conduct a rally
right after we realized that votes of our electorate
were stolen at these elections,” Sergei Mitrokhin
explained. According to Mitrokhin, the goal is to
“join together civil activists and new people who
are showing their civil will towards changes”.“We
have to discuss all together how we will fight for
a new Russia,” he stressed.
The speakers at the rally will be
Grigory Yavlinsky, Eugeniya Chirikova, Vladimir Milov,
Ilya Ponomaryov, Gennadi Gudkov and Lev Ponomaryov.
The rally will be monitored by Sergei Mitrokhin. Such
public and political organisations as the White Ribbon,
Blue Buckets, the Federation of Automobile Owners,
the Party of People’s Freedom, the Democratic Choice,
the Left Front, Memorial and the Moscow Helsinki Group
will participate in the rally.
Telephone terrorists again try to
hamper work of YABLOKO's office blocking party telephones
on the threashold of tomorrow’s rally against election
fraud...
The calls are coming in a chain, as
soon as a telephone hook is pressed there comes a
new call. The caller can not be identified.
The new attack is connected with tomorrow’s
rally against election fraud which will take place
at Bolotnaya square at 1 p.m...
The Russian United Democratic Party
YABLOKO demands to immediately stop a cruel and potentially
deathful treatment of Sergei Udaltsov.
The police actions are threatening
his health and life.
The decision of the court of the first
instance on his 15 days arrest bases on trumped-up
pretests and does not take into account the medical
condition of Sergei Udaltsov.
Sergei Udaltsov must be immediately
released so that to give him an opportunity for proper
medical treatment.
We emphasize once again, the question
at issues is human life.
Today a Ryazan court of the first
instance passed a verdict on a seven days arrest to
Kostantin Smirnov, one the leaders of the Ryazan branch
of YABLOKO and a journalist from oppositional Novaya
Gazeta, arrested for 7 days.
The verdict based on the Article “Disobeying
to the lawful orders of police” for participation
in the For the Fair Elections rally which took place
in Ryazan on December 8.
The verdict was obviously politicized
as the video of Simonov’s detention demonstrated that
he did not disobey to the police orders. After voicing
of the verdict in the court Smirnov gave to the judge
a mask saying that “now you should be ashamed to show
undisguised in the streets, the mask will help you
to hide your face”.
Another journalist from Novaya Gazeta
Sergei Yezhov was sentenced to 9 days of arrest by
court.
You can sign a petition in support
of arrested journalists at the Ryazan web-site of
Novaya Gazeta...
The second phase of the 16th Congress
of the YABLOKO party will take place on Sunday, December
18. The Congress will adopt a decision on YABLOKO
participation in the presidential election...
The congress will begin its work at
12-00.
The congress will be opened by YABLOKO
leaders Sergei Mitrokhin and Grigory Yavlinsky.
A briefing by the party leaders will
begin at 16-00...
A civil rally will take place at Bolotnaya
square, Moscow, on December 17, 2011, at 1 p.m. The
key question put forward before the Russian civil
society: what to do next?
The YABLOKO party organizing the rally
is calling all the civil activists and organisations
to gather together so that to answer this question.
As of today the following organisations
have already confirmed their participation: The White
Ribbon movement, the Moscow Helsinki Group, the Memorial
society, For the Human Rights movement, Eugenia Chirikova
and her Movement for Protection of Khimki Forest,
The Left Front, Solidarnost, PARNAS and the Democratic
Choice...
Civil rally "For Fair Elections!"
scheduled on December 17 at 1 p.m. will take place
in Moscow, Bolotnaya square (not at the Pushkin square
as announced earlier).
At his speech in the Central Electoral
Commission on December 9, 2011, YABLOKO leader Sergei
Mitrokhin asked head of the Central Electoral Commission
Vladimir Churov to voluntarily leave his post. “It
is you who are personally responsible for the scope
of fraud taking place in the country [on the voting
day],” Mitrokhin told to Churov. He specially stressed
that YABLOKO was going to demand dismissal from head
of the Central Electoral Commission “in the State
Duma and other state bodies”.
“If you, our respected Central Electoral
Commission, do not announce re-counting of the votes
all over the country today, than it will take place
in the streets,” Mitrokhin concluded.
YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin in
his speech at the rally at Bolotnaya Square, Moscow,
said the number of participants of the rally allowed
to speak with the authorities on behalf of Russia's
people. "We are here to say to the ruling group:
stop stealing votes at elections, stop stealing power
from us," Mitrokhin said...
Grigory Yavlinsky, YABLOKO top candidate
and founder of the party, thanked all who voted for
YABLOKO and promised that the party would protect
the votes of all the people who had come to elections.
Yavlinsky said that YABLOKO had already
forwarded a complained to the Central Electoral Commission
demanding to cancel the results of the voting. “However,
the Central Electoral Commission did not take our
complaint saying that the campaign is over. It is
not true! It’s only the beginning of the campaign!”
he added.
The YABLOKO party considers prosecution
of Vassily Popov, [leader of the Karelian branch of
YABLOKO], be politically motivated. This is an obvious
consequence of YABLOKO’s victory in the elections
to the Legislative Assembly of the region and a high
regional vote for the party in the elections to the
State Duma, this provocation means an attempt to discredit
someone who was able to get such high support from
the population.
On December 6 Vassily Popov, member
of YABLOKO’s Political Committee and leader of the
Karelia regional branch of the party, became a victim
of a provocation. During a staged road accident a
small dose of drugs was stuffed into his car. People
(non-residents of the area) who provoked the accident
and witnessed that the drugs allegedly fell from Popov’s
pocket were not checked by the police. Medical examination
showed that Popov had not used drugs, however, the
case was transferred to the court of the first instance...
Sunday’s parliamentary elections in
Russia in which the share of the vote for the ruling
United Russia party fell to below 50% and the protests
that have been taking place the last few days in which
increasing numbers of people have been making their
feelings known about the lack of free and fair elections
provide signs of hope for the free and democratic
future of Russia, not only that Russian people are
fed up with the current regime, but also that they
are willing to be more out spoken and to show their
displeasure with the way the elections were conducted.
However, the voting and counting procedures
themselves were riddled with claims of fraud, corruption
and intimidation. ELDR member party YABLOKO was the
only democratic opposition party allowed to participate
and, as such, its activists and voters were subjected
to high levels of intimidation and restrictions. Election
observers faced a similar set of circumstances and
the OSCE has reported fraudulent procedural violations
and instances of apparent manipulations, including
serious indications of ballot box stuffing...
OTTAWA— Liberal Leader Bob Rae made
the following statement today on the recent election
in Russia: "The people of Russia have voted and
have sent a strong message rejecting the kind of one-party
political domination that United Russia has been trying
to implement. The election results and the subsequent
protests demonstrate the need for the Russian political
process to be opened up to allow for the creation
of an effective opposition that would provide voters
with a meaningful alternative rather than the ideological
alternatives of communists and nationalists. The Liberal
Party calls on authorities to ensure that a viable
political space is opened up for an opposition that
is fully committed to democracy."
Liberal Foreign Affairs critic Dominic
LeBlanc continued: "The
recent election results, with incredible outcomes
of more than 90% of the population voting for United
Russia in some regions, have demonstrated how much
more needs to be done to build an effective democracy
in Russia. A strong commitment to making democracy
work from all the major political forces in Russia
can lead to positive change for the Russian people.
We are also concerned with the
tactics being used to deal with political demonstrations.
As we have seen on repeated occasions this year legitimate
protest cannot be effectively stifled by force. We
believe that it is important that Russians be given
the opportunity to express their commitment to building
a democratic Russia"...
Returning from an OSCE election observer
mission in Russia, LI
Vice-President on the Bureau, Abir Al-Sahlani,
expressed a great concern about the way in which the
recent Parliamentary elections were conducted in the
country. She commented saying "democracy is not
only about the election day itself but also about
the process before, during and after the elections.
The situation is worrisome and it will require closer
attention, especially with the upcoming presidential
elections in March 2012." Yabloko (LI full-member)
leader, Sergei Mitrokhin, also dismissed the election
results as illegitimate due to the mass violations
committed during the electoral process. Based on these
results Yabloko obtained only around 3 % of the popular
vote thus falling 4% short of making it to the State
Duma or the Russian Parliament. Mitrokhin was detained
by the Russian riot police at an opposition rally
in Moscow but was later released after showing his
certificate of candidate to the State Duma (until
the official announcement of the election results
candidates can be detained only with a Prosecutor's
order).
BERLIN. Anlässlich der Festnahmen
von hunderten Demonstranten in Russland erklärt die
Sprecherin für Menschenrechte und humanitäre Hilfe
der FDP-Bundestagsfraktion Marina SCHUSTER:
Das Vorgehen russischer Sicherheitskräfte
gegen friedliche oppositionelle Demonstranten verurteilt
die FDP-Bundestagsfraktion auf das Schärfste. Die
vorübergehenden Festnahmen des früheren Vize-Regierungschefs
Boris Nemzow, des Oppositionspolitikers Sergej Mitrochin
von der liberalen Jabloko-Partei sowie die Inhaftierung
von Journalisten und Menschenrechtlern sind eine weitere
Stufe der Unterdrückung von menschenrechtlichen Grundprinzipien
in Russland. Während Putin noch vor und während der
jüngsten Wahl zur Duma versucht hatte, mit zahlreichen
Manipulationen und Einschüchterungen die "Wahlen"
zu seinen Gunsten zu entscheiden, bekämpft er nun
mit offener Gewalt die Bestrebungen der Demonstranten
für mehr Demokratie und Rechtstaatlichkeit.
Die Kader der Regierungspartei Einiges Russland mit
Putin und Medwedew an der Spitze zeigen ihr wahres
Gesicht und bekämpfen die Rechte auf Meinungs- und
Versammlungsfreiheit sowie körperliche Unversehrtheit
durch Festnahmen und Repressionen. So schaffen Putin
und Medwedew weder Stabilität noch Vertrauen in Russland,
sondern zeigen wie hoch nervös sie in Wahrheit sind.
Sie fürchten den berechtigten Zorn der Bürger... MORE
Three hours after his detention YABLOKO
leader Sergei Mitrokhin was released without any charges.
However, studying of the law “On Elections” stipulating
the candidate to the State Duma may be detained only
on Prosecutor’s order took the police three hours.
At 7 p.m. Mitrokhin and YABLOKO activists
came to Triumfalnaya square so that to participate
in the protest action against election fraud and breaking
of a rally of December 5...
On December 17 YABLOKO plans to conduct
a sanctioned rally against election fraud. The action
will be held in the centre of Moscow by Pushkin monument.
YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin is
detained at a rally at Triumfalnaya square, Moscow.
Now he is in the OMON (riot police) bus together with
30 other detained.
Kirill Gontcharov, leader of the Youth
YABLOKO, is also in one of the buses together with
20 other detained. They have not yet arrived to any
police department as the police have been calling
their bosses asking where to take the detained. It
should be also noted that passers-by who did not participate
in the rally were also detained and are in the same
bus with Kirill. Journalist Bazhena Rynska who was
sent to Triumfalnaya square by her paper is in same
bus with Kirill.
Protesters are still coming to the
square. According to different estimates, there were
about 2,000 people as of 8 p.m., however, it is difficult
to give a precise assessment as supporters of the
opposition are "split" by police into smaller
groups and ousted to the neighbouring streets. Police
does not allow the protester to come to the square.
However, the police and OMON (riot police) are defending
the rally of the Nashi, pro-Kremlin youth movement,
and supporters of the ruling United Russia chanting
"Medvedev, Victory!" ...
YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin is
detained at a rally at Triumfalnaya square, Moscow.
Now he is in the OMON (riot police) bus together with
30 other detained...
Kirill Gontcharov is also detained.
Journalist Bazhena Rynska is in same bus with Kirill.
The square is at present circled by
young supporters of the ruling United Russia party.
They are chanting “Medvedev, Victory!” and hold placards
with Medvedev’s photograph.
Mitrokhin pointed out to policemen
an obvious violation of the law – the actions of United
Russia supporters that can be qualified as an unsanctioned
rally and these young people should be detained.
Several hundreds supporters of the
opposition who have already arrived to the rally can
not get to the square, but they are chanting their
slogans. People are squeezed on the pavements between
exits from the metro station and the square. Policemen
oust people to Tverskaya-Yamskaya square, tearing
someone out of the crowd and taking them to police
cars...
The Russian United Democratic Party
YABLOKO thanks all who has voted for Russia’s democratic
future.
Looks like the answer to the significant
question of the voting day has been given by television
before the real counting of the votes: there will
be no democratic faction in the State Duma. Passing
into the Duma of the old Russian nomenclature factions
was predetermined and the redistribution of mandates
between them is not that important...
These elections persuaded us once
again that our duty is to continue movement towards
democracy – a real democracy which Russia has not
had.
The first step will be strengthening
of YABLOKO’s links with active citizens who came to
us during the campaign for determination of the strategy
and tactics how to oppose the arbitrary rule and violations
of the law that, without doubt, will only increase
and built new networks of civil political action.
Do not loose hope or loose your heart!
Time is with us! Russia needs our
victory! Russia demands changes!..
Local electoral commission had to
recognize YABLOKO’s victory at Moscow polling station
No 1707 where YABLOKO won with 25.38 per cent.
Throughout the night observers and
YABLOKO’s candidates opposed members of the electoral
commission who did not want to sign the final protocol.
According to the protocol (which was
hanged on the wall of the polling station) YABLOKO
obtained 235 votes (25.38 per cent), followed by the
CPRF with 217 votes (23.65 per cent) and the ruling
United Russia came third with 192 votes (20.73 per
cent). However, members of the electoral commission
refused to sign such protocol as final (the observers
had to get the copies of this protocol)...
Natalya Yarigina, observer from the
COPRF (the communist party) in polling station No
2637 in Moscow, was detained by the police after she
refused to redistribute YABLOKO’s votes between United
Russia, CPRF and Just Russia parties and then called
head of the electoral commission a “groveller”, Yarigina
told to Gazeta.ru.
“Head of the commission Nadezhda Gazina
attacked me with fists when I asked her if she like
to be a groveller. Then her husband joined her. They
were pulled off by the students who were with us at
the polling station. Gazina complained on me at the
police stating that I had allegedly beaten her, now
I am taken to the police department and they are going
to file a criminal case against me,” Yarigina said.
According to Yarigina, head of the
electoral commission offered a bribe to all the members
of the electoral commission in exchange for their
“help” in counting of the votes given for YABLOKO
in favour of other parties passing into the State
Duma. “She explained us that everything had been determined
already and nothing depended on us, and this made
me revolt. At our polling station YABLOKO obtained
19.2 per cent. However, they probably do not have
it now already,” added the detained...
Nine hours after the voting at polling
station No 2648 at Ramenki street, Moscow, was finished,
policemen who refused to give their names, ousted
observers with a consultative voice from the polling
station, Alexandra Borisova, one of the observers,
told to Gazeta.ru.
“Throughout all this time we have
been preventing stuffing in of [faked] 182 ballots
in favour of the [ruling] United Russia. Consequently,
after Svetlana Makskova, head of the local electoral
commission, called the police Sergei Ovchinnikov,
representative of a territorial electoral commission
came and ordered the police to throw us behind the
door,” Borisova told. According to her, after the
first counting of the votes, the first place is taken
by the CPRF, the second is shared by United Russia
and YABLOKO, but the electoral commission refuses
to approve the final results of the voting. “Now they
are preparing to stuff in [faked bulletins in favour
of the ruling party]. In addition to 182 bulletins
we have detected, we suspect that they are ready for
a mass-scale fraud. There are 2,017 voters registered
at the polling station, and 1,800 bulletins were taken.
According to our estimations, 958 people have voted
since the beginning of the voting. And only 294 bulletins
were left, the question is where over 400 bulletins
are gone,” Borisova said...
YABLOKO’s head quarters will be opened
for journalists from 12:00 on December 4 until morning
December 5.
Address: Pyatnitskaya ul 31/2 bldg
2 (metro stations Novokuznetskaya and Tretyakovskaya).
Journalists will be able to observe
the work of 30 hot line operators. Table with violations
(from all the regions) will be broadcasted on a large
screen.
Also dozens of mobile groups comprised
of lawyers, candidates to the State Duma and journalists
will work in Moscow. Mobile groups will visit the
most problematic electoral districts with reported
violations.
The first briefing will take place
in the headquarters at 15:00. At this briefing YABLOKO
leaders will report the observed violations and answer
questions.
The second briefing will take place
at 23:00. At this briefing YABLOKO leaders will report
the observed violations and draw preliminary results
of the elections...
The YABLOKO party will participate
in the presidential elections scheduled on March 2012.
YABLOKO’s candidate to run in the elections will be
Grigory Yavlinsky, YABLOKO founder and member of the
party Political Committee. Such a statement was made
by YABLOKO Chair Sergei Mitrokhin at his press-conference
in Vladimir.
According to Mitrokhin, such a decision
was adopted by the Political Committee.
However, Mitrokhin also noted that
YABLOKO would be ready to discuss other candidacies
from the democratic opposition. “We are not imposing
our candidate, but we offer to discuss all the candidacies
during primaries, and we invite all the democratic
parties, organisations and movements in spite of the
fact whether they were registered or not to participate
in such primaries,” Mitrokhin said...
Grigory Yavlinsky: Corruption and
lawlessness reached such a scope that the gap between
the society and the state became only broader. And
in Russia revolutions and coups d’etat happen exactly
when the gap between the society and the state becomes
deep, not during wars or famine or epidemics. Such
was the case in 1917 and 1991. A disruption and a
disaster. And not one comes into the streets to protest
when the state disappears. And then a republic emerges
on the place of an empire. And everyone is happy.
And then the republic is taken over by bandits who
set a dictatorship for 80 years.
Question: And is radicalisation of
the views and a new coup d’etat possible today?
Grigory Yavlinsky: No, there will
be no coup d’etats. A collapse is more likely. The
regime cannot help getting weaker. When a wall is
falling down you can try and prop it, but when all
the bricks are falling down – it can not be helped.
YABLOKO expresses protest in view
of intimidation of Golos, an independent association
engaged in election monitoring. The ruling United
Russia party, A Just Russia party and LDPR launched
an intimidation campaign against Golos asking Prosecutor
General to suspend Golos monitoring of violations
during this parliamentary election campaign and on
the voting day December 4.
“It is not surprising that the [ruling]
United Russia party does not like the activities by
Golos… Speaking about participation of LDPR and A
Just Russia parties in this disgusting campaign against
Golos, this completely unmasks the hypocrisy of these
parties advocating fair elections in words only, but
actually servicing to the ruling party helping the
latter to intimidate the most respected Russian public
organisation engaged in elections control,” runs YABLOKO’s
statement.
“YABLOKO will continue its cooperation
with Golos and will continue supporting this organisation
by all legal means,” Sergei Mitrokhin said.
Today, on November 29, Galina Mikhalyova,
Executive Secretary of YABLOKO Political Committee,
met with CIS observers for the Russian parliamentary
elections: Vladimir Garkun, head of the mission and
First Deputy Head of the CIS Executive Committee,
and Eugeny Sloboda.
The observers told about the tasks
of the CIS mission comprising over 200 observers...
Campaign ads by opposition parties
have been banned on state television by order of the
head of the Central Elections Commission, who has
no authority to do so, Vedomosti reported Monday.
Vladimir Churov's actions prompted a mutiny among
the commission's working group, whose job is to review
such videos, but which was only asked to do so after
they were banned, the newspaper said.
State-owned broadcaster VGTRK announced last week
that it was banning videos by Yabloko, A Just Russia
and the Liberal Democrats following a letter from
Churov, who said he suspected the ads promoted extremism
and targeted other parties...
The head of the Moscow metro ordered
election ads for the opposition party Yabloko to be
removed from stations and then threatened to cancel
a long-term contract with the advertising company
involved, the political group claimed.
In a statement posted on its web site Friday, Yabloko
— Russian for apple — said stickers reading: "Tired
of vegetables? Vote for YABLOKO" that were posted
Nov. 2 to 3 at the entrances to 85 stations were removed
just days later.
The removal followed a letter from metro chief Ivan
Besedin to the advertising company Avto Sell, saying
the notices "grossly violated" conditions
on political advertising, which require prior approval
by metro officials and City Hall's media department...
ELDR congress convening in Palermo,
Italy, on November 23-25, elected Sir Graham Watson,
one of the leaders of British liberal democrats, new
President of the European Liberal Democrats and Reformers
party. Sir Graham has been member of the European
Parliament since 1994. In 2002-2009 he headed the
liberal faction in the European Parliament and during
Russian elections in 2003 visited Russia as guest
of the YABLOKO party. "It is our job as Liberals
to explain how we offer a real, principled and economically
responsible alternative to the behemoths of conservatism
and socialism,” said Sir Graham...
Mrs.Svetlana Ivanova, YABLOKO candidate
to the MPs of the Perm region, was attacked in the
Kondratovo village near Perm two hours ago. She was
taken to hospital with cerebral contusion and thighbone
fracture. Doctors assess her condition as critical.
At 22:30 Svetlana Ivanova was leaving
the building where she met with activists. An unknown
person approached her from the back, hit her on the
head and disappeared. None of her personal belongings
was missing.
Olga Kolokolova, leader of the party
list in elections to the Legislative Assembly in Perm,
and number four on YABLOKO federal list, connected
the attack with Ivanova’s political activities. Kolokolova
said that a large-scale campaign against YABLOKO was
launched in the region. Leaflets with libel against
YABLOKO candidates regularly appear in the streets.
However, printing of YABLOKO campaign materials is
hampered...
About a quarter (23.7 per cent) of
Russian Internet users vote for the YABLOKO party
at the Russian parliamentary elections. Such data
were obtained via analysis of the polls of several
dozen largest Russian web sites. Over 300,000 people
participated in the polls.
About 60 700 people voted at the Izbircom2011.ru
voted; whereas 17.1 per cent out of the total gave
their votes to YABLOKO. The Rosbalt web site polled
about 55,000 voters. According to these polls, YABLOKO
obtained 15 per cent. The third largest poll took
place on the Sobesednik web-site (35,000 people).
According to this poll YABLOKO enjoyed 27 per cent...
Unknown persons plan to disrupt a
rally “Chelyabinsk for the Changes!” organised by
YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin and Eugenia Chirikova,
leader of Movement in Protection of Khimki Forest,
in Chelyabinsk.
The city is full of flyers allegedly
on behalf of the YABLOKO party inviting the residents
to come to the rally for a fee of 1,500 roubles. Also
several YABLOKO activists and supporters got SMS where
they were warned of a possible fight between anarchists
and neo-Nazis that may take place at the rally...
ST. PETERSBURG. Nov 16 (Interfax)
- Active involvement of voters in elections can be
a barrier to the attempts to distort the results of
the State Duma elections, said Grigory Yavlinsky,
YABLOKO party key figure.
"If the turnout is high, the
percentage of falsifications and manipulations will
be much smaller," he said at the Interfax press
conference in St. Petersburg on Wednesday.
He added that the result for his party
will also depend on the turnout - the higher the turnout,
the more votes and seats YABLOKO will be able to count
on.
"In case of turnout over 60 per
cent, we can count on a good result," he said.
Speaking of the party ticket in St.
Petersburg, Yavlinsky said that in the city his party
can count on higher support than average in Russia.
"We can collect 15-17 per cent in St. Petersburg,"
he said...
Interview with YABLOKO leader Sergei
Mitrokhin by Maxim Glikin, Irina Novikova
Question: The so called tandem of
Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin lasted three years.
Do you think this model was
efficient?
Sergei Mitrokhin: It was effective for the participants
in the tandem themselves. As a PR stunt, it was superb.
For Russia, however, it turned out to be a waste because
it availed Russia nothing at all. This show was a
success only for the showmen themselves. It accomplished
its purpose. Part of society was deceived and pinned
its hopes on Medvedev. Time was wasted, time that
could have been spent more productively, in search
for a genuine alternative to Putin that would have
consolidated society.
Question: And did Yabloko have faith in Medvedev as
an alternative to Putin?
Sergei Mitrokhin: Never. We were constantly asked
who we liked more, Medvedev or Putin. We always replied
that we liked
neither because there was no difference between them...
MOSCOW. Nov 10 (Interfax) - A high
turnout in the upcoming parliamentary election in
Russia will cut the scale of possible falsifications,
Yabloko party top candidate Grigory Yavlinsky told
a Thursday press conference at the Interfax main office.
"The higher turnout is and the
more people take part in the ballot, the lesser falsifications
will be," he said.
Yabloko is practically the only alternative
to the incumbent authorities, Yavlinsky said. "Unfortunately,
no other democratic parties or groups are registered
- we have always said that the denial of their registration
is a violation of civil rights - and there are no
other representatives expressing European modern democratic
political views on the voting papers. There is no
one else but Yabloko," he said...
Interview with Grigory Yavlinsky,
YABLOKO leader of election list, by Andrei Lipsky
and Andrei Kolesnikov
Novaya Gazeta: But will the non-democratic
protest electorate not vote for the Communists and
the LDPR (Liberal Democratic Party of Russia)?
Yavlinsky: Yes, they will. They certainly
will, and that is the problem. Open the Radio Liberty
website. There is a poll: "Whom would you vote
for next Sunday?" It goes approximately like
this: 30% for YABLOKO, 28% "I will not vote,"
but 20% for the Communists.
Novaya Gazeta: The picture is approximately
the same on our website.
Yavlinsky: That is the way it is going...
Novaya Gazeta: What is the nucleus
of YABLOKO's electorate today and what additions can
you count on from among other political forces?
RUSSIA DEMANDS CHANGES!
Electoral Program for 2011 Parliamentary Elections.
Announcement
Basic guidelines for 2011-
2016. Approved by the 16th Congress of the party on
September 10, 2011
OUR GOAL. The main goal of the YABLOKO
party is to build via peaceful and constitutional
methods a modern law-based democratic and socially
oriented state serving the needs of the people and
ensuring Russia’s dynamic development...
WHY ARE WE RUNNING FOR PARLIAMENT?
YABLOKO is participating in the elections to the State
Duma in order to represent the interests of Russia’s
citizens, adopt laws that will bring the country closer
to a law-based democratic and socially oriented state
and abolish all legislation that obstructs such a
goal...
...But the government needs to punish
the attackers to prove it is serious, said Beketov's
supporters, including Yabloko party leader Sergei
Mitrokhin and Yevgenia Chirikova, who heads the campaign
in defense of the forest.
"If they can give Misha back
his leg and the third of his brain that got smashed
away, I'm all in favor," an indignant Chirikova
said Tuesday, according to Gazeta.ru.
"But if this is just a way of
saying, 'Oh, what a nice Misha!' by the people who
have created the system that crippled him, then this
is cynicism, pure and simple," she said.
Mitrokhin said by phone that he was
sad the authorities didn't think about Beketov until
it was too late.
"The government didn't care about
him when he was lying there dying in a Khimki hospital,"
said Mitrokhin, who helped to transfer Beketov to
a better medical facility after the attack...
The thesis in liberal political circles
that there is insufficient democracy in Russia is
something that is obvious in itself. But the main
problem, on the contrary, is the absence of aristocratism
and elitism, the blending of genres, persons, and
institutions.
Everything is subordinated to a kind
of uniform standard based on the power of money. On
this altar scientific conscientiousness, the talents
of journalists, and political reputations are sacrificed.
And when some kind of moneybags ascends on the political
horizon, a significant part of the political community
begins to shake its little wings in excitement, in
the hope that the golden dust will settle on them.
In point of fact, it was in this that
the main content of the "Prokhorov phenomenon"
and other similar appearances of big money in Russian
politics lay. This is why the general picture is painted
in a single colour with different hues -instead of
freely flourishing complexity, we have the emulation
of plebeianism in the very worst sense of this word...
...Petlin, now 38 and the only Yabloko
member in the 28-seat city Duma, kept battling the
shopping center. On Aug, 26, his freedom was revoked
and he was taken to pretrial Detention Center No.
1, which is so overcrowded, Bashkov said, that each
cell holds twice its capacity. People sleep on the
floor, or take turns on the beds. Tuberculosis and
hepatitis are rampant. "We are talking about
innocent people who haven't been tried," he said.
A few days ago, with prosecutors still
unprepared to try him, Petlin's detention was extended
until Dec. 22.
"I think he had an idea about
the scale of the corruption," said Petlin's wife,
Tatyana, "but none of us could even imagine this"...
The Central Electoral Commission held
a draw for the allocation of seats on the ballot for
the parliamentary elections on October 28.
Representatives of the registered
parties were pulling lotto balls with their numbers
in the voting ballot. YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin
pulled a ball with number five. Thus, YABLOKO will
be listed as number five in the voting ballot...
Boris Nadezhdin, one of the leaders
of the Right Cause party has been calling voters to
vote not only for his party, but also for YABLOKO.
He explained to the Firstnews
that voters often said that they did not wish to vote
for the Right Cause [after the scandal when the party
split against tycoon Mikhail Prokhorov who had chaired
the party]. "I normally answer that then they
have to support YABLOKO," Nadezhdin noted...
The Central Electoral Commission has
registered YABLOKO's list of candidates for the parliamentary
elections. The party has been formally acknowledged
a participant in the forthcoming election campaign.
YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin, Alexei
Yablokov, number three in the party election list
and head of YABLOKO’s Green Russia faction, Svetlana
Kuznetsova, head of Soldiers' Mothers faction, Valery
Borschyov Co-Chair of the Human Rights faction, Boris
Misnik, member of Political Committee and Valery Goryachev,
Executive Secretary of YABLOKO Bureau. Head of the
Central Electoral Commission Vladimir Churov handed
them parliamentary candidates cards.
Speaking before the Central Electoral
Commission Sergei Mitrokhin expressed his "hope
that these elections will be free and fair".
He recollected the situation when YABLOKO did not
get a single vote in favour of the party at the polling
station where Mitrokhin and his family voted for YABLOKO
during Moscow parliamentary elections in 2009. "I
hope there will be no way for such accidents at over
100,000 Russia’s polling stations any more,"
Mitrokhin said.
YABLOKO’s list contains 353 candidates
in 78 regional groups. The list is topped by Grigory
Yavlinsky, YABLOKO's founder, Sergei Mitrokhin, the
current leader and Alexei Yablokov, head of YABLOKO's
Green Russia faction...
Such a decision was adopted at the
Council meeting which took place in Moscow on October
20.
In addition to the issue of determination of their
political spectrum the participants of the Council
also discussed preparation to the Moscow International
Women’s Festival “The Femme Fest”, as well as their
interaction with partner organisations.
The Council adopted two political
decisions: on the attitude to the People’s Front and
on the position as regards the parliamentary and the
presidential election campaign...
The fact that the security services
work at the proposed meeting site of [of the President
with the students] does not cause problems. The question
is, what they do: whether they ensure safety or a
nice television picture. Protesting students presented
no danger to the head of state, and, judging by the
information in the media, what was written on their
placards was in line with the law.
These students may be a problem and
a headache only for the ruling United Russia election
headquarters (their electoral list is topped by the
President), rather than for security services. And
certainly, this "problem" should not be
solved by means of detentions and preventive conversations
in the police. I think that any distraction of the
Federal Security Service from its main function is
bad. It is harmful to the state.
YABLOKO list of candidates for elections
to St.Petersburg Legislative Assembly has been registered
by St.Petersburg Electoral Commission. "We are
satisfied by the decision of the Electoral Commission,"
says Maxim Reznik, leader of St.Petersburg branch
of YABLOKO. "For the first time in nine years
residents of St.Petersburg will be able to support
democratic opposition at the election to the city
parliament. This is a big chance for changes for the
better in every day lives of the city residents. We
will do all we can so that not to miss this opportunity,"
Reznik adds.
YABLOKO had to collect about 40,000
voters' signatures for registration in the election
campaign...
Today, on October 17, YABLOKO submitted
to the Central Electoral Commission voters’ signatures
required for party registration in the parliamentary
election campaign. Party activists and YABLOKO leader
Sergei Mitrokhin brought to the Central Electoral
Commission 14 carton boxes decorated as wooden boxes
with apples (as “YABLOKO” means “apple” in Russian).
The boxes contained files with 157,471 signature and
the accompanying documents. “I am certain that YABLOKO’s
list will be registered,” Sergei Mitrokhin said.
The initial inspection of the financial
report lasted for over an hour. Only after this the
Central Electoral Commission permitted to take the
boxes with signatures into the Central Electoral Commission
office and launched recounting of signatures. The
next stage will be a random draw of several files
with signatures that will be checked by the Central
Electoral Commission experts. The Commission should
conduct an audit of at least 20 per cent of signatures.
The results of the audit will be announced
within ten days in compliance with the law...
The Power Vertical: When you announced
your return to politics you said you said that this
was one of those moments when change was truly possible.
That was before United Russia held its congress on
September 24 and Vladimir Putin announced his intention
to return to the presidency. Do you still see a opportunity
for change?
Grigory Yavlinsky: I see an even greater
opportunity. People now see that if there isn't a
change things will be just like they are now for another
25 years. People want the situation to change. I think
Putin's return and Putin's [United Russia] congress
showed people the necessity of change even more than
before. The reaction in society and in the elite shows
this. For example, after the congress the number of
people who want to work with me and with Yabloko rose
sharply. Even those who were more moderate or indifferent
are now in a different mood. They have been under
pressure from these conditions for such a long time.
What does [Putin's return] mean? It means the preservation
of the previous style and the previous agenda. It
means the same faces on television. It means everything
will remain the same. People can't take this anymore...
...The panel examined the absence
of rule of law in Russia. The keynote speaker Grigory
Yavlinsky distinguished this absence by the lack of
independent justice, the influence of the political
elite and of money. He identified three root causes
of the problem: the 1917 state coup in which “a criminal
group of people were taking power in Russia,” the
privatization process of the 1990s, and the support
of the international community for the political and
economic reforms of the 1990s. Mr. Yavlinsky also
stated that “Russia’s corruption is a joint venture
with the West.”
William Browder then spoke on the possibility of international
action putting pressure on the Russian political elite
to interrupt this joint venture. While Grigory Yavlinsky
later reiterated the importance of initiating change
from within Russia, stating that Russian “politicians
all know, personally, that it is [their] task to change
the system.” Vadim Klyuvgant followed with an analysis
of the Russian “dictate of law.” He insisted on individual
human rights as a foundation for rule of law.
Bobo Lo continued the discussion with a distinction
between the notions of “rule of law” and “rule by
law” which prevails in Russia. He defined this concept
as the “use and abuse, particularly, of laws and administrative
regulations to support power rather than justice.”
The panel recognized the validity of Yavlinsky’s view
that “there is no rule of law in Russia and we must
implement it.”...
YABLOKO has finished its campaign
for collection of signatures required for registration
in the election race. On Monday, October 17, YABLOKO
will submit 150,000 signatures to the Central Electoral
Commission for registration in the parliamentary election
campaign. According to the Russian law parties have
to submit signatures to the electoral commission by
6 p.m. of October 19.
The law on parliamentary elections
is very tough: it envisages that non-parliamentary
parties have to collect at least 150,000 voters’ signatures;
whereas a region can not give more that 5,000 signatures.
Also the signatures should be collected in at least
half of Russian regions.
YABLOKO’s campaign for collection
of signatures lasted three weeks (from September 21)
in 74 Russia’s regions which allowed to collect 203,000
voters’ signatures in favour of YABLOKO. Over 4,000
collectors of signatures took part in the campaign...
Head quarters for verification of
the lists of signatures were established in YABLOKO’s
Moscow office. For the past two weeks 40 people have
been working there from morning till night receiving
lists with signatures brought from all over the country,
as the Central Electoral Commission can announce signatures
void due to minor inaccuracies of the subscribers...
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty,
October 12, 2011.
I caught up with Yabloko founder Grigory
Yavlinsky, who was in Prague this week to participate
in the Forum 2000 conference, for a brief on-the-record
chat.
We discussed a range of issues including
Vladimir Putin's decision to return to the presidency,
the possibility of change in Russia today, and how
his strategy of working within the system differs
from Boris Nemtsov and other members of the so-called
"non-systemic opposition"...
Another action in support of YABLOKO’s
list of candidates to the Russian parliament took
place by the Moscow State University in Moscow. Activists
made a show performance and also collected signatures
required for YABLOKO’s registration in the election
race.
YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin
participated in the forum of civil activists The Last
Autumn taking place in the Moscow region. In his speech
YABLOKO’s leader analysed Russia’s political
system. According to Mitrokhin, a specific part of
the society spent time on find the differences between
Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev instead of searching
for the alternatives. Those calling to vote for any
party other than the ruling United Russia fell into
another extreme, Mitrokhin said...
Party activists collected signatures
for the registration of YABLOKO in the parliamentary
elections campaign during the Forum. Alexei Navlany,
a blogger famous for his anti-corruption investigations,
put his signature in support of YABLOK. Also about
110 participants of the Forum signed for YABLOKO.
Sergei Mitrokhin’s blog
at the Echo Moskvi web-site, October 2, 2011
A game depicting an alleged conflict
between Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev went on
for a long time and was very exciting. A huge number
of people were persuaded that the President was an
alternative to the Prime Minister. Political scientists
also tried to look clever saying very “smart”
things. There even emerged such organisations like
the Institute of Contemporarily Development, INSOR,
[by Igor Yurgens] that built their modernisation concepts
on such "differences" [between Vladimir
Putin and Dmitry Medvedev]...
I'm not going to campaign for the
YABLOKO party here, which also has never been a Kremlin’s
project and has been in opposition to Vladimir Putin
since 1999. I just would like to say that in case
of mass-scale voting for us, the government would
receive a very clear signal that the society does
not need any "strong hand", but needs simply
a DEMOCRATIC LAW-GOVERNED state.
The "strong hand” is not
an alternative to Vladimir Putin, but a European-style
democracy is such an alternative.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty,
September 21, 2011.
Yabloko founder Grigory Yavlinsky,
who stepped down as party chairman in 2008 and pretty
much disappeared from public life ever since, made
a high-profile return to the political stage this
month.
He will lead Yabloko's party list
in the December 4 Duma elections. He has been getting
a surprising amount of media oxygen lately. And with
two Kremlin-friendly projects, the pro-business Right
Cause and the ostensibly center-left A Just Russia,
on the skids, there might just be an opening for him
to lead his party into the Duma.
"Indisputably there is one beneficiary
that will gain from the [Right Cause] scandal. It
is the Yabloko party, the constituency of which may
be joined by part of the Right Cause consistency,"
political analyst Dmitry Orlov told Interfax. "My
forecast is that the scandal will result in a certain
increase in voter support for Yabloko party which
in the future may come very close to clearing the
barrier"...
Yabloko:
“Putin-Medvedev Presidency Tandem Chooses Stagnation”
LI News Bulletin, Issue 252, September 29, 2011
Sergei Mitrokhin, the leader of Yabloko
(LI full member) commented on the news that President
Medvedev is going to head the United Russia party
at the parliamentary election in December 2011 while
Prime Minister Putin will run at the presidential
elections in 2012 as ”nothing unexpected.”
Describing the recent statement of Putin and Medvedev
as simply a “rotation in the tandem”,
Mitrokhin characterised the proposal as “a way
towards a new stagnation rather than modernisation,
and this stagnation may lead the country to the same
deplorable outcome like the stagnation of Leonid Brezhnev's
era.” Mitrokhin's concerns were echoed by Yabloko's
top parliamentary candidate Grigory Yavlinsky, who
warned that the announcement should be viewed as the
emergence of a “new political reality”
and that the system “created during Putin's
presidency implies that it should be maintained for
another 12 years, and perhaps 24 years, that is, until
2036.” Emphasising that a return to valid elections
at all levels is the only solution, the Yabloko leaders
called on citizens to voice their disapproval at the
parliamentary elections in December...
YABLOKO managed to collect about 80,000
signatures out of 157,000 required for registration
of the party in the parliamentary election campaign.
The law envisages the number of signatures
from a region should not exceed 5,000. Three YABLOKO’s
regional branches (in St.Petersburg, Saratov and Kirov
regions) have already accomplished this task.
Over 4,000 thousands were collected
in each of the four regions: Voronezh, Tomsk, Omsk
and Kurgan regions...
Grigory Yavlinsky's blog.
Video. September 27, 2011
...Because if this system does not
change, then it will impossible to amend or rebuild
it a few years. And we can influence the developments
only within a very short period - in 2.5 months through
elections to the State Duma. Whatever they are! And
at presidential elections that come in six months...
We should show that there is an alternative for the
country at these elections. And yet – I am stressing
the word “yet” here - we can do it! And
YABLOKO offers such an alternative...
Eugenia Chirikova, leader of the movement
in protection of Khimki Forest, supported YABLOKO’s
list of candidates to the Council of Deputes of Khimki.
According to YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin,
there were negotiations with Eugenia Chirikova on
her joining YABLOKO’s list, however she refused
to participate in the coming elections in principle...
...“President’s statements
that on Prime Minister’s post he will engage
in modernisation are hard to believe. As modernisation
means renewal of governing rather than rotation in
the tandem,” Mitrokhin added.
According to Mitrokhin, “this
joint proposal by Putin, Medvedev and the United Russia
party is “a way towards a new stagnation rather
than modernisation, and this stagnation may lead the
country to the same deplorable outcome like the stagnation
of Leonid Brezhnev’s era ended for the USSR.”
“They want to leave everything
as it is for another 12 years. This means for ever.
It is for people to decide whether they agree with
this or not. Anyway, we have elections, whatever they
are now, ahead,” such a comment on the decision
of the ruling United Russia’s congress to nominate
Vladimir Putin for presidency and Dmitry Medvedev
for Prime Minister’s post was made by Grigory
Yavlinsky, YABLOKO’s founder, in Twitter.
...Yabloko’s programme will
focus on three issues. "Fight against corruption,
introduction of an article into the Criminal Code
envisaging punishment for unlawful enrichment, and
firing of all state functionaries unable or unwilling
to explain their personal fortunes,” Yabloko’s
leader Sergei Mitrokhin said. “Also [we are]
for return to elections at all levels, public control
over secret services, and transition to professional
military service."
According to Mitrokhin, at present
Yabloko is about to publish a large number of copies
of its electoral programme, that will be delivered
to the voters by party activists. And before that
Yabloko had organised a number of actions and pickets,
and Kirill Gontcharov, leader of Youth Yabloko, had
even served several days of imprisonment in the Gelendzhik
prison for the action by the centre of the Russian
Orthodox Church [in Gelendzhik], also called “Patriarch’s
country cottage”.
Mitrokhin said that all the political
parties were Yabloko's political rivals adding that
Yabloko would criticize United Russia and its leader
Vladimir Putin. Yabloko’s leader was the first
and the only politician who dared to criticize Vladimir
Putin: “We have absolutely definite claims on
Prime Minister’s performance: namely, creation
of a resource-based economy, huge corruption and virtual
liquidation of political competition”...
YABLOKO began its campaign for collecting
signatures by the State Duma and the Kremlin. Sergei
Mitrokhin also participated in the action in Moscow.
The activists managed to collect 150 signatures from
people from over ten Russian regions within an hour.
This was not an easy task as most of the people there
were guests from other countries and Russian citizens
were reluctant to give their passport data required
by law.
The police did not interfere this
time, as after the threats from the policemen to stop
“an unsanctioned picket” YABLOKO’s
leader Sergei Mitrokhin had sent a telegramme to head
of the Central Electoral Commission Vladimir Churov
informing the latter of such grave violation of the
law by the police. Churov had to explain to police
that collecting of signatures for parties registration
in the parliamentary campaign does not require any
permissions from the authorities.
YABLOKO has to collect 157,000 signatures
(whereas the number of signatures per each region
should not exceed 5,000) to get registered in the
State Duma election campaign. However, YABLOKO is
going to collect 200,000 signatures in 50 regions
so that make sure the party is registered even if
the Central Electoral Commission finds some signatures
faulty...
According to YABLOKO, draft federal
budgets for 2012 and 2013-2014 published by the Russian
Finance Ministry require principled changes. The draft
budgets will be submitted to the parliament after
they are examined by the Russian Government.
“It is obvious that it is an
electoral budget aiming at maintaining high level
of expenditures on the items most significant for
2012 so that to ensure a certain electoral result,”
said Grigory Yavlinsky, member of YABLOKO’s
Political Committee. After 2012 it is planned to abruptly
and absolutely unreasonably change the federal budget
priorities.
Thus, expenditure on education will
be maintained at 4.6 per cent for 2012, but it will
be reduced to 3.9 per cent in 2013 and 3.3 per cent
in 2014. The same dynamics of federal budget expenditure
is envisaged for healthcare: 4.2 per cent for 2012,
3.5 per cent for 2013 and 3.0 per cent for 2014.
The YABLOKO party considers such abrupt
cuts on education and healthcare inadmissible...
On September 20, leaders of the Moscow
branches of YABLOKO, CPRF, LDPR, Just Russia and the
Patriots of Russia signed Memorandum on Coordination
of Actions in Organisation of Cross-Party Work of
Observers at the State Duma elections in 2011. Signing
of the document and a press-conference took place
in the House of Journalists in Moscow...
Tomorrow, on September 20, leaders
of the Moscow branches of YABLOKO, CPRF, LDPR and
Just Russia will sign Memorandum on Coordination of
Actions in Organisation of Cross-Party Work of Observers
at the State Duma elections in 2011. Representatives
from the Patriots of Russia and the Just Cause parties
are also invited to sign the memorandum.
Heads of regional branches of political
parties indicate that it is necessary to join efforts
so that to ensure transparent and legitimate counting
of votes free from violations and fraud.
The parties state their determination
to spare no efforts so that to ensure presence of
their observers at absolutely all Moscow polling station.
In accordance with election law, the parties are going
for the first time collect evidence (including photo
and video evidence) of all violations of the law...
The Central Electoral Commission of
the Russian Federation attested YABLOKO’s list
of candidates for elections to the State Duma of the
Russian Federation...
YABLOKO’s federal list is topped
by Dr.Grigory Yavlinsky, party founder and member
of YABLOKO’s Political Committee, Sergei Mitorkhin,
party Chairman and Alexei Yablokov, head of YABLOKO’s
Green Russia faction.
“We are setting a tough goal
– creation of a faction in the State Duma. This
implies overcoming a seven per cent barrier, but we
should do this with a higher margin. A benchmark for
us is ten per cent,” Mitrokhin told journalists
on Monday.
Yabloko:
Abstention from elections not an option
LI News Bulletin, Issue 250, September 15, 2011
During its 16th Party Congress in Moscow,
LI full member Yabloko, prominent party figures expressed
their concerns regarding public calls for abstention
in the parliamentary elections scheduled for December
4th. Saying that the voters need to express their
opinions through voting, party founder Dr. Grigory
Yavlinsky said '…today Yabloko is the only registered
independent political party that will always stand
in defense of liberty, equality before law and the
inviolability of private property ... We are convinced
that these values are consciously shared by the majority
of our fellow citizens and it would be a betrayal
on our part if we deprive them of chance to make their
choice,” he said, adding: “Systematic
discrediting of elections is as dangerous as election
fraud. Because if you do not vote, then why should
you fight fraud?' Yavlinsky's views were confirmed
by party leader Sergei Mitrokhin, who added that “Yabloko
is a responsible political force,that is why it will
participate in the coming elections to the Russian
parliament”.
Yabloko party co-founder Grigory Yavlinsky
will come out of political retirement to head the
party's list in the State Duma elections, the party
announced Sunday at a Moscow congress. Yavlinsky,
59, handed over the reins of Yabloko, which he co-founded
in 1993, to Sergei Mitrokhin in 2008 but kept a seat
on the party's political committee. Now the duo will
occupy the top two spots on the party's federal list
in the December vote, Interfax reported.
The third spot will go to Alexei Yablokov, a noted
environmentalist and corresponding member of the Russian
Academy of Sciences. Also running on the party ticket
will be Novaya Gazeta editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov;
Anatoly Leirikh, a senior member of Delovaya Rossia,
a business lobby group; and Andrei Rudomakha of Environment
Watch North Caucasus, a nonprofit group known for
reporting about a Black Sea mansion of unclear ownership
dubbed "Putin's Palace"...
Grigory Yavlinsky: “Do
not wean people away from elections”
Systematic discrediting
of elections is as dangerous as election fraud
Dr.Grigory Yavlinsky, one of the founders
of the YABLOKO party topping the party list at parliamentary
elections, made a programme statement at the 16th
Congress of YABLOKO. The first round of the Congress
finished on Sunday in the Moscow Region.
Addressing in his final speech "colleagues,
associates and opponents" of YABLOKO Grigory
Yavlinsky noted that the coming elections to the Russian
parliament (December 4) are "widely considered
being a sham and people are called for various forms
of boycotting". "We understand this position,
and we respect it, as well as many other political
positions, but we do not share it,” he stressed...
The 16th Congress of the YABLOKO party
began its work in the Moscow region.
YABLOKO’s congress started with
a minute of silence in view of air accident taking
the lives of the players of the Locomotive team.
YABLOKO’s Chairman Sergei Mitrokhin
opened the congress. In his report Mitrokhin gave
assessment to the present Russia’s political
and economic system and marked the priorities of the
work of the faction in the State Duma. According to
Mitrokhin, Russia had become a hostage of inefficient
state and inefficient economic system.
“YABLOKO is a responsible political
force, that is why it will participate in the coming
elections to the Russian parliament,” he said.
According to Mitrokhin YABLOKO’s
goal at the coming elections is formation of its faction
in the State Duma.
“Only YABLOKO due to the specifics
of its ideology and programme can challenge the monopoly
of corrupted bureaucracy merged with business,”
Mitrokhin stressed. He also noted that this monopoly
is supported not only by the ruling United Russia,
but also by other factions of the parliament proclaiming
themselves as the “opposition”...
...“From the economic point
of view, the programme is targeted at creation of
conditions for unprecedented growth of domestic demand,”
Mitrokhin said. This envisages gratuitous and mass-scale
transfer of [federal] lands to the citizens under
their housing construction and development of infrastructure
(water, gas and electricity supply), as well as construction
of roads at the expense of the federal budget, i.e.
the reserves accumulated for the recent years due
to high oil and gas prices.
“The effect from this programme
can not be overestimated from both social and political
aspects. A possibility to obtain a plot of land free
of charge from the state, e.g. 50 hundred square meters
of land and built 150 square meters of housing there
for half of its cost, - this will constitute a real
breakthrough from Russia’s economic stagnation,”
he added. Mitrokhin also noted
that, according to the estimates of party experts,
implementation of such a programme will create at
least 10 mln additional jobs and will ensure economic
growth by at least 3.5 percentage points...
...Sergei Mitrokhin began his speech
saying that the “forthcoming elections represent
an opportunity to implement Russian modernisation
plans” voiced by the President earlier. “Political
modernisation first of all means provision of equal
possibilities for political competition. And this
should take place during elections,” Mitrokhin
stressed. According to YABLOKO’s leader, “today
the State Duma with dominance of one political party
is the most powerful anti-modernisation factor”.
Mitrokhin also stated that this party represents the
interests of bureaucracy and large business connected
with the latter. “As it is this party which
controls the parliament, it can not protect the society
from bureaucrats’ arbitrary rule and corruption.
Therefore a corrupted system based on the laws adopted
by bureaucracy and for the sake of bureaucracy via
the State Duma has been built in the country,”
Mitrokhin said...
The Russian United Democratic Party
YABLOKO expresses its sincere and deep regret in view
of the fact that Platon Lebedev [ex-head of Menatep
imprisoned on the YUKOS case] was not released on
parole.
Courts in our country often apply
release on parole to killers and rapists who after
their release turn into serial pedophiles. However,
when absolutely non-dangerous for the citizens and
publicly important figures such as Platon Lebedev
are concerned, than private or group interests of
the authorities prevail under the mask of law. The
leadership of the country did not take any special
decision on Lebedev’s release on parole in an
exceptional order which is not surprising in the context
of the political developments around Platon Lebedev
and Mikhail Khodorkovsky case...
Unfortunately all the loud statements
by President Medvedev on modernisation of judicial
system have remained unrealized. That is why the Russian
citizens do not believe in fair justice, moreover
the society alienate from the Russian state.
We have been thinking and still think
that Platon Lebedev and Mikhail Khodorkovsky must
be released, this would become an important and humanistic
step and at the same time would serve to improvement
of our public climate. We shall spare no effort for
this...
Leader of the YABLOKO party Sergei
Mitrokhin arrived to Novosibirsk on July 20 so that
to intensify the work of the regional office on the
eve of the State Duma elections. According to Mitrokhin,
Oleg Donskikh can head the party branch in Novosibirsk.
Donskikh is at present the authorized representative
of the party in the region, reports Taiga-Info correspondent
on July 20...
...How will the people of St Petersburg
remember Valentina Matvienko’s eight-year tenure
as governor? She is undoubtedly clever, resolute,
has a way of winning people over and at a pinch can
make a good impression even on her opponents. But
being an authoritarian politician, she hates being
criticized and sees the opposition not as people whose
point of view needs to be taken into account, but
as an enemy that should be destroyed if it doesn’t
surrender. It is no wonder that protests in St Petersburg
are broken up, opposition members are made ineligible
to run for public office and the results of elections
are often rigged...
Press-conference "Persecution
of Political Opposition with the Help of the Criminal
Code" will be held in the Independent Press Centre,
Moscow, July 7, at 2:00 p.m.
The following speakers will participate
in the press-conference: Andrei Babushkin, Chair of
the For the Civil Rights Committee, Zoya Svetlova,
member of Public Observation Commission, Anna Karyetnikova,
member of Public Observation Commission, and Irina
Fedotova, author of the book on lawyer Stanislav Markelov
murdered in Moscow in 2009. Presentation of the report
“Too loose interpretation of Articles 282, 280
and 205-2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation”
will also take place.
Address: Moscow, Prechistinka, 17/9,
1st floor, Independent Press Centre
A rally against the ruling
United Russia party was organised by the local YABLOKO
branch in Yaroslavl. YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin
also participated in the action...
“We ourselves are to blame that we
are robbed of,” he said. “We resemble the people who
have burglars in their house but do not want to catch
them under the pretext that they are tired,” Mitrokhin
added. He also said that if such a trend went on,
the country would simply cease to exist and called
everyone not to miss but vote in the coming elections...
YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin
expressed his disappointment with the presidential
initiative to reduce the barrier for parties to the
Russian parliament from 2016. “It
is unclear why, if the President recognizes the present
seven per cent barrier as obviously too high, why
it is impossible to introduce amendments into the
law already now so that to reduce the barrier for
the forthcoming elections to the State Duma in December
2011,” Sergei Mitrokhin told Interfax on Thursday...
“We are pessimistic about all
these public statements by the head of the state,
realizing that he either does not want or can not
implement his often correct words into real actions,”
he stressed...
On June 22 a meeting
of the working group created by the Bureau of the
party on behalf of the 15th Congress of YABLOKO was
held. The group has to summarize proposals, comments
and amendments to YABLOKO’s programme.
Opening the meeting, Boris Misnik, head of the working
group, the coordinator of the Political Committee
of the party, spoke about the progress in further
development of the party programme and proposals made
by party members. "A large number of party members
and supporters were involved into such work. In total
the web-site of the party received over thirty-five
written proposals and critical remarks, many of them
will be reflected in a draft election platform of
the party," he said...
YABLOKO’s leader
Sergei Mitrokhin expressed his indignation with the
decision of the Justice Ministry to deny registration
to People’s Freedom Party (PNS).
“I am expressing indignation
with the actions of the registrator. We do not share
many of the political views of PNS, but we believe
that this movement reflects the ideas of a particular
part of society and has already proved being a political
organisation,” he told Interfax on Wednesday.
According to Mitrokhin, “the
denial to register PNS means not only a denial of
rights to its members, but also to those who support
them”.
“I hope that in case PNS goes
to court, an objective decision will be taken and
the party will be registered and be able to participate
in the parliamentary elections,” Mitrokhin concluded...
The party will continue collection of proposals of
YABLOKO electoral programme until June 15. "Both the
common sense and the calendar of the election campaign
dictate that we have to discuss all the proposals
not only in the working group, but also in the Bureau
and the Political Committee by the August congress
of the party. So after June 15 we have to gather our
working group and start writing the document," - Boris
Misnik, head of the working group told to Rossyiskaya
Gazeta.
