A rally in support of hundreds of deceived farmers to take place in Mozhaisk, the Moscow region

Press Release, November 30, 2012.

On Saturday, December 1, a rally in support of hundreds of deceived farmers organised by the YABLOKO party will take place in Mozhaisk, the Moscow region. YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin will participate in the action.
In 1992, 827 workers of the farms Pavlishchevo and Klementevo received documents confirming their right of collective share on land. Each of the workers received 6.64 hectares of land.
In 2001, the companies management persuaded about 600 farmers (mainly elderly people) to give their documents to the Registration Chamber allegedly for mandatory registration of their rights. According to the victims, the deputy head of the rural settlement who had the right to notarize documents forged the powers of attorney and transferred the land to the companies without any pay to the farmers. Head of the Registration Chamber was bribed and signed the deal...

Sergei Mitrokhin: December 4 marks commemoration of fair elections

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...

Aung San Suu Kyi Meets with US President Obama in Burma

LI News Bulletin, Issue 309, November 28, 2012

LI Prize for Freedom Laureate and Leader of the opposition National League for Democracy, Aung San Suu Kyi, met with US President Barack Obama in Burma earlier this week which further solidified the remarkable democratization progress that the country has been undergoing for the past year. Her welcoming speech to the President was marked with concern as she clearly stressed that while the on-going reforms by the Burmese government are certainly encouraging one should use caution and remember that many prisoners of conscience still remain behind bars...

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Members of the YABLOKO faction in St.Petersburg parliament voted against the law on the St. Petersburg budget for 2013

Press Release, Video, November 28, 2012.

According to Grigory Yavlinsky, leader of the YABLOKO faction in St.Petersburg Legislative Assembly, the city budget was implemented only by 51 per cent for the first nine months of 2012. This had been announced by St.Petersburg government on the eve of discussion of the budget in the parliament. This means that many social facilities, roads, etc. were not built.

According to Yavlinsky, failure to implement the budget in 2012 demonstrates the overall work of the government. "This non-implementaiton of the budget shows that the government of St. Petersburg fails in solving its main task. If this non-implementation goes on, then what is the point in the social obligations declared by the city government? If these tasks are never fully implemented? What's the point in the continuous discussions that there is no enough funding for this or that thing? If the money is in the treasury, then what it is spent on? What's the point in raising taxes, excise taxes, etc.? " Yavlinsky said...

Ombudsman Lukin: Hunger strike over in the Kopeisk prison

Interfax, November 27, 2012.

The situation at Prison No.6 in Kopeisk near Chelyabinsk, and in the region as a whole, has returned to normal, Russian human rights commissioner Vladimir Lukin told Interfax.

"We have just talked with our colleagues who said that all prisoners have started accepting meals and voluntarily gathered for a roll-call," Lukin said on Tuesday.

Law enforcement officials earlier denied reports that inmates had gone on a hunger strike, but human rights activists claimed some of the inmates had rejected food...

A picket in support of Suren Gazaryan held in Kazan

Press Release, November 27, 2012.

On Saturday activists of the YABLOKO held a picket in support of YABLOKO’s Suren Gazoryan facing several years of imprisonment for standing up against Governor Tkachyov’s unlawful seizure of public lands in the Black Sea Coast.

About 15 people participated in the picket in Kazan. Nailya Biktimirova, representating of the Social-Ecological Union, said that this summer she met with Gazaryan in Moscow at the award ceremony of the Presidential Council for Civil Society Development and Human Rights. At that time Gazoryan was sentenced to three years of probation for graffiti and “damaging” of the fence around Governor’s cottage built on public land. However, a new case against Gazaryan may lead to his imprisonment, as accordikng to the investigators, YABLOKO’s activist had allegedly threatened to kill the three guards of the so-called Putin’s Palace.

"I think any environmental activist may be imprisoned now, as the authorities have been trying to defend the territory they did not have any right to sale and develop,” said Naila Biktimirova...

Sergei Mitrokhin: Governor of the Krasnodar Territory Alexander Tkachyov much be charged with negligence in the case of a flood in Krymsk resulting in many victims

Press Release, November 27, 2012.

YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin said that not only officials from district and city governments, but also officials from the Krasnodar Territory Administration and Governor of the Krasnodar Territory Alexander Tkachyov much be charged with negligence in the case of a flood in Krymsk resulting in many victims.

“I am satisfied with the fact that a charge was brought against the local authorities, but this is not enough. We have convincingly shown that the regional authorities have failed to implement their duties, however, none of the officials incurred the responsibility. Why Governor Tkachyov guilty of criminal negligence should remain in his post for another five years endangering the population of his territory? “ Mitrokhin said...

Convergencia remains largest force in Catalan elections

Press Release, the ALDE party, November 26, 2012
Convèrgencia i Unió (CiU) continues to be the leading political force in the Catalan parliament with 50 seats after last Sunday's elections. While Party leader Artur Mas will have to form a coalition agreement in order to hold a parliamentarian majority, he does “not regret his decision to call for new elections, since it was necessary to find out where the majorities were,” according to Mas. With a strong economic programme to propel Catalonia out the financial crisis and a pledge to call for a referendum on the future status of Catalonia, CiU is expected to lead the future coalition government...

YABLOKO faction formed in the Municipal Council of the Presnensky district, Moscow

Press Release, November 27, 2012.

The YABLOKO faction has been formed in the Municipal Council of the Presnensky district, Moscow. It consists of three municipal deputies: Ekaterina Kalatskaya, Sergei Bocharov and Yuri Novikov.

Despite the fact that municipal deputies decided to create a faction immediately after the elections in March 2012, they have managed to implement this only now. Normally formation of a faction does not require a decision from a municipal council, however, YABLOKO’s deputies had to face resistance from the chairman and some deputies of the Council...

Women demanded from the State Duma to protect women from domestic violence

Press Release, Photographs, November 25, 2012.

An action against violence against women was held in Moscow on November 25. The participants demanded from the State Duma to urgently adopt a law protecting women from domestic violence.

YABLOKO’s Gender faction had been conducting such actions for the third year already on the first day of the UN campaign "16 Days of Activism Against Violence Against Women"...

To investigate the reasons behind the prison riot in the Chelyabinsk region

Statement by YABLOKO Chairman, November 26, 2012.

The Russian United Democratic Party YABLOKO demands investigation of the events that led to the riot in the Penal Colony ? 6 in the city of Kopeysk, the Chelyabinsk region, on November 24, and unjustified cruelty in suppressing of the riot and use of riot police (OMON) for dispersing prisoners’ relatives and human rights activists who gathered by the prison.

So far, the Russian society has not received any coherent explanation from the prison administration and the heads of the Federal Service for Execution of Punishment. However, there is no doubt that such a large-scale confrontation between prisoners and the prison administration can not occur all of a sudden. Unfortunately, Penal Colony No 6 has been notoriously "famous" for a series of scandals involving the deaths and tortures of prisoners. Information coming from the administration and the Federal Service for Execution and Punishment of "an unlawful demand of 250 prisoners on weakening of the regime" does not look credible. We see the prisoners’ calls for help, excessive use of force by the riot police against prisoners’ relatives and human rights activists...

The authorities want to put YABLOKO’s candidate to the Mayor of Krymsk into prison

Press Release, November 23, 2012.

Yugeny Vitishko, a renowned environmentalist and civil rights activist, member of the Regional Council of the Krasnodar branch of YABLOKO and member of the North Caucasus Environmental Watch, is running for the post of head of the Krymsk District in South Russia (the district which suffered from a large flood this summer) from the YABLOKO party. The elections will be held on December 9.
This summer, Vitishko was sentenced due to fraudulent evidence to three years probation for the "damage to the fence" around the Governor Tkachyov’s cottage. The lands under the cottage and the fensed beach nearby still registered as public are virtually in the Governor’s property. Now new charges are invented so that to withdraw a strong candidate from the election campaign. The authorities threaten to replace a suspended sentence by a real imprisonment...

Stop discrediting Russia!

Statement by YABLOKO Chairman, November 22, 2012.

The campaign of mobbing of renowned human rights organisations - the "Memorial", Transparency International, the Moscow Helsinki Group, the Foundation for Economic and Legal Development USRF and "For Human Rights" movement - unleashed by pro-Kremlin youth movements is unlawful and immoral.

Similar actions are taken in respect of the YABLOKO party. On November 19 a second rally by the pro-Putin organisation called "Social Justice" was held by the Krasnodar office of the YABOKO party. Vladimir Putin’s supporters try to make our party to "publicly apologize for the insulting leaflets against the elected President"...

A second action in support of Vladimir Putin takes place in front the Krasnodar office of the YABLOKO party

Press Service by the Krasnodar branch of YABLOKO, Videos, November 21, 2012.

On November 19, a rally of public non-governmental organisation Social Justice (supporting Vladimir Putin) took place in front of the in front the Krasnodar office of the YABLOKO party.
The organizers of the rally tried to make the Krasnodar YABLOKO "publicly apologize for the insulting leaflets against the elected President".

This is already the second action against YABLOKO organised by Krasnodar supporters of Vladimir Putin. The first action in a form of a pocket was held in front of the office of the Krasnodar branch of YABLOKO on November 1. The pro-Putin rally gathered about 50 participants who carried slogans "The Krasnodar Territory supports Putin" and "Social justice." The overwhelming majority of the participants were elderly women. Several supervisors registered those who came to the rally so that to give them remuneration for participation in the rally...

YABLOKO activists, in turn, spread among the protesters different materials about Putin, including the booklet "The Black Sea Palaces and Their Hosts" and "Life of the Galley Slave" and other booklets (‘anti-government’ from the point of the view of the organizers of the rally). The booklets went like hotcakes, despite of active counteraction of the organizers who tried to snatch the booklets from the hands of their own activists. But the participants of the pro-Putin rally turned out to be interested in alternative information about Putin and carried away about 100 "anti-government’s" booklets...

Grigory Yavlinsky: education and health care should be among the priorities of the state policy

Press Release, November 14, 2012.

Such a statement was made by Grigory Yavlinsky, founder of the YABLOKO party and leader of the YABLOKO faction in the St.Petersburg Legislative Assembly, during an open lesson on social studies for senior students in St.Petersburg School No 526 on November 13, 2012.

According to Yavlinsky, health care and education are the most fundamental sectors for the future of Russia. He criticised the policies of the present Russian government, "Recently Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said that the expenditures on education in the coming years will be the same as expenditure on the defence. First, this is not quite true, consolidated defence expenditures are considerably higher. Second, these things can not be compared. Indeed, the security of the country virtually bases on the high quality of education"...

YABLOKO and Muscovites inspected Ostankino park

Press Release, November 19, 2012.

Activists of the YABLOKO party, led by party leader Sergei Mitrokhin, together with the residents of the Ostankino district, Moscow, held a public inspection of natural and historical park Ostankino.

The inspection revealed a large number of violations of environmental legislation in the interests of unknown businesses and officials from the administration of the park and the city authorities...

Women on Boards: Liberals and Democrats back EU gender quota plan

Press Release, ALDE, November 14, 2012

Liberals and Democrats in the European Parliament (ALDE) firmly support Commissioner Reding with regard to her EU-wide gender quota plan to increase the number of women in leadership roles presented today. In March 2012 ALDE called for such binding measures to reverse the insufficient progress made towards better gender-balance in corporate management boards. The liberals acknowledge that quotas are a very blunt instrument but a necessary evil at the same time because voluntary measures have proven unsuccessful in addressing the equality gap. The legislation put forward today includes clear quotas to increase female representation in companies' boards to 40% by 2020...

Natalia Yevdokimova and Andrei Babushkin become members of the Human Rights Council

Press Release, November 12, 2012.

Prominent YABLOKO’s activists Natalia Yevdokimova and Andrei Babushkin have been appointed members of the Presidential Council for Civil Society Institutions and Human Rights. They were recommended to the Human Rights Council basing on the results of an Internet voting. Presidential decree on the appointment of new Council members has been signed and published today.

"The Council has been an effective mechanism, it has revealed to the public many violations of civil rights," said Andrei Babushkin, Chair of the "Committee for Civil Rights" and YABLOKO Bureau member.

"I am convinced that such a large number of human rights activists in this body, its openness to the public, and, I hope, President's attention to this body can help in work of protection of human rights. The Council I will do the same thing [I have been engaged with for many years] - development of the law on public control [over the governments] and spread of the institute of amending judicial errors. We will seek so that the removal of judicial errors would became a part of the Criminal Administrative Code and subordinate legislation and regulations," noted Babushkin.

"Hopefully, it will be easier to work for us because we feel a friend’s shoulder,” says Natalia Yevdokimova, Executive Secretary of the Human Rights Council of St. Petersburg and YABLOKO member. “The Council joins together many well-known human rights activists, and for us it is an opportunity to cooperate with them and discuss things with experienced people"...

Do not write on a non-existing fence

Gogol.tv, November 19, 2012

Suren Ghazaryan, PhD, is a speleologist and biologist studying bats in the Institute of Ecology of Mountain Territories of the Kabardino-Balkar Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, member of the Northern Caucasus Environmental Watch non-governmental prganisation. His and Yegeny Vitishko’s participation in the public campaign against the seizure of forest and coastline at the Black Sea (near the village of Dzhubga) by Governor of the Krasnodar Territory Alexander Tkachyo resulted in criminal prosecution against Ghazaryan and Vitishko and three years of a suspended sentence for the "damage to property" ("This is our forest", "Alexander is a thief!" was written on the fence around the Governor’s cottage).

However, earlier environmentalists had got several answers from the Public Prosecutor’s Office where the latter had been denying the existence of any fence around the Governor’s cottage located at unlawfully seized public lands...

Sergei Mitrokhin made a speech in the Houses of Parliament in London

Press Release, November 12, 2012.

In his speech in the Houses of Parliament in London YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin stated that policies of the Russian government towards an anti-European way of development had been changing the situation in the country. In his speech Mitrokhin touched upon such topics as political reprisals, toughening of the laws, clericalisation of the state and the problems of the opposition.

“A conflict with the West has become more apparent and moreover demonstrative. Cultivation of xenophobia and hostility to the outside world allows the regime to feel more confident when rejecting accusations of election fraud, destruction of an independent judiciary, and so on,” Mitrokhin stressed.

Sergei Mitrokhin’s briefing was held on the initiative of Lord John Alderdice. The meeting was hosted Simon Hughes MP, Deputy Leader of LibDems, and Lord Alderdice, immediate past LI President. British MPs from the Liberal Democratic Party and their supporters and students from the London School of Economics and other British Universities participated in the meeting...

LI Public Dialogue with Yabloko's Mitrokhin
LI News Bulletin, Issue 308, November 16, 2012

Continuing the series of LI Public Dialogue events, the leader of the Russian liberal party Yabloko (LI full member) Sergei Mitrokhin addressed the assembledaudience in London focusing on the current trends in Russian politics and the perspectives of future democratic development of his country. In his speech Mitrokhin warned that Russia had 'a similar situation exactly 100 years ago', and continued: 'Today we observe a new wave of reprisals in Russia against opposition activists and all dissenters against the backdrop of the curb on human rights and freedoms; suppression of the freedom of speech; use of the law enforcement and the judiciary as a tool for reprisals.'' Hosting the event in the Houses of Parliament Simon Hughes MP, Deputy Leader of LibDems (LI full member) and Lord Alderdice, immediate past LI President, expressed concern about the ongoing deterioration of civil rights and liberties in Russia. They praised Mitrokhin and Yabloko for their peaceful, but decisive actions in fighting to safeguard the freedoms of the Russian people, guaranteed by the international European instruments that Russia has ratified.

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A Russian Deja-Vu. The Political Development and the Objectives of the YABLOKO party

Sergei Mitorkhin's lecture in the British Parliment. London, November 12, 2012

...Soon it will turn a year since the beginning of mass protest rallies in Russia. For many people these rallies meant hopes for rapid democratic changes. Frankly speaking, I have never shared such an optimistic point of view.

For me, it was clear that Vladimir Putin would consider the awakening of the society as disorders and side-affects of the "liberalization" carried out by ex President Dmitry Medvedev. And this meant that Putin’s only possible response to the mass protests could be "tightening the screws" or, in other words, increase of reprisals.

This is how Vladimir Putin’s regime tries to avoid the fate of his Middle Eastern counterparts. Obviously, Putin has been very concerned of the fates of his colleagues from the Arab world, and this makes him take up preventive measures against the Arab Spring scenario in Russia...

Sergei Mitrokhin and Liberals in Russia

Politicus, November 12, 2012

Being a Liberal in Russia is a risky vocation, as putting one’s head above the parapet politically is an invitation to harrassment, arrest, criminal proceedings and heafty fines or imprisonment. High profile anti-establishment activists such as Pussy Riot get lots of foreign media attention and noises of sympathy from the outside world, of course, but even in their case that did not stop two of their number being sentenced to two years detention each in different gulags. Alas, as the leader of Russia’s Liberal Party Yabloko, Sergei Mitrokhin, detailed in a speech at Westminster this lunchtime, the long arm of President Putin’s law is getting firmer. He highlighted three aspects of particular concern regarding the current political situation in Russia and the crackdown against Liberal forces...

On YABLOKO’s initiative the Congress of European liberals condemned reprisals against Russian opposition

Press Release, November 10, 2012.

The Congress of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) adopted an urgency resolution “On reprisals against YABLOKO activists and dissenters in Russia”.

The resolution was submitted by YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin who was delegate of the Congress.

ALDE (the earlier name ELDR) joins together all the European liberal and democratic parties. The Russian United Democratic Party YABLOKO has been full member of ALDE since 2006. The ALDE Congress is held in Dublin, Ireland, on November 8-10, 2012.
The resolution marks a new wave of reprisals in Russia against opposition activists and all dissenters against the present government’s policies against the backdrop of the curb on human rights and freedoms; suppression of the freedom of speech; use of the law enforcement and the judiciary as a tool for reprisals”.
The ALDE Congress called on the ALDE groups to raise the issue in the European Parliament and the Council of Europe and draw the attention of the Russian government to the inadmissibility of persecutions for criticism...

On reprisals against YABLOKO activists and dissenters in Russia
Urgency Resolution submitted by the YABLOKO party and adopted by ALDE Congress on November 9, 2012

ALDE

Noting

- a new wave of reprisals in Russia against opposition activists and all dissenters against the present government’s policies against the backdrop of the curb on human rights and freedoms; suppression of the freedom of speech; use of the law enforcement and the judiciary as a tool for reprisals;

- persecution against YABLOKO activists and candidates to the regional parliament Suren Gazaryan and Yenegy Vitishko, who have been charged with a criminal offence that could lead to their imprisonment for criticising Krasnodar Region Governor Alexander Tkachev for his unlawful seizure of public lands and their fight for human rights and environmental safety in the region

Calls

- On the ALDE groups to raise the issue in the European Parliament and the Council of Europe and draw the attention of the Russian government to the inadmissibility of persecutions for criticism, in violation of Russia’s obligations relating to its membership of the Council of Europe and in direct contrast with the statements of the Russian authorities on adherence to democratic values;

- On the Russian government to stop the reprisals against Gazaryan and Vitishko and revoke the unlawful court decisions against them and punish those guilty of giving false evidence and prosecutions.

Antrag der Fraktionen der CDU/CSU und FDP
Durch Zusammenarbeit Zivilgesellschaft und Rechtsstaatlichkeit in Russland starken

Deutscher Bundestag Drucksache 17/11327
17. Wahlperiode 06. 11. 2012

Der Bundestag wolle beschliessen:

I. Der Deutsche Bundestag stellt fest:
Russland ist ein zentraler Partner fur Deutschland und Europa. Als standiges Mitglied des Sicherheitsrates
der Vereinten Nationen, als Mitglied der G8 sowie des Europarates und der Europaischen Menschenrechtskonvention, strategischer Partner Deutschlands und wichtigster Energielieferant Europas
ist Russland von besonderer Bedeutung; regionale und globale Herausforderungen konnen nur mit und
nicht gegen Russland bewaltigt werden. Russland ist unabdingbar fur eine gesamteuropaische Friedensordnung...

Liberal International adopted YABLOKO’s resolution on combating rise of extremism and xenophobia among youth
Press Release, November 1, 2012

The 58th congress of Liberal International which took place in Abidjan, Cote-d’Ivoire, on October 17-21, adopted YABLOKO’s resolution "Combating Rise of Extremism Among Youth". The resolution was submitted to the congress by the YABLOKO party, LI full member.

The resolution expresses deep concern of a global rise of extremism and xenophobia among youth stating that liberals must tackle these challenges “basing on liberal values of human rights, individual freedoms, rule of law, respect for the individual, tolerance and civil and moral responsibility of each person”.

Form now on the resolution prepared by YABLOKO Bureau members Ivan Bolshakov and Alexander Gnezdilov and Dmitry Ilyushin, Federal Council member, will become a guidance for the liberal parties all over the world.
Earlier the resolution had been approved by a joint YABLOKO-ELDR conference, which took place in Moscow on April 21, 2012.