Yabloko is positive about the results of the discussion of the education reform at the meeting of the State Council and proposes a mechanism for school financing
Press release, August 27, 2001
“Yabloko is positive about the results of the discussion of the education reform, held at a meeting of the State Council on August 29,” said Deputy of the State Duma from the Yabloko faction, Deputy Head of the Duma Committee on Education and Science Alexander Shishlov.

Yabloko is positive about the results of the discussion of education reform at a meeting of the State Council
RIA Novosti, August 29, 2001
...“atention paid by the President and governors to education issues leads us to hope that the state recognises the importance of the resolution of the problems in education for the development of our country.” Now, noted Shishlov, we “need practical, comprehensive and visible steps, so that talks about the priority of education could be transformed into real deeds.”

Biografies of I. Artemyev and V. Kuschenko updated

State Duma to pass government's variant of the draft budget for 2002 in first reading
RIA "Novosti", August 29, 2001
The State Duma will pass the government draft of the federal budget for 2002 in the first reading and approve the key budget parameters and macroeconomic indicators. This opinion was expressed by Sergei Ivanenko, deputy head of the liberal Yabloko faction in the Duma. As he said to RIA Novosti, in the present composition of the State Duma "there is a stable political majority which supports the government."

Yuri Solonin gains support of Yabloko
Journalist Investigation Agency, August 29, 2001
The political council of the St. Petersburg branch of Yabloko decided to support Yuri Solonin, Dean of the philosophy faculty of St. Petersburg State University, at the by-elections [to the State Duma] in the 209th electoral district of St. Petersburg. Yabloko became the fifth political structure to support the member of the Unity party Solonin at the by-elections to the State Duma.

St. Petersburg branch of Yabloko to discuss supporting a single candidate from Fatherland, Unity, the Union of Right-Wing Forces (SPS) and Petersburg’s Volya (“Petersburg’s Liberty) at the elections in the 209th electoral district of St. Petersburg
RIA RosBusinessConsulting, August 28, 2001
The head of the political council of the Unity Alexander Mikhailushkin informed journalists that today RPC Yabloko (the Russia’s Party of the Centre Yabloko) plans to conduct a meeting of the political council where the party will consider the address received from Unity in support of the candidacy of Yuri Solonin at by-elections [to the State Duma] in the 209th electoral district of St. Petersburg.

St. Petersburg Youth Organisation of Yabloko fights against racism
Rosbalt Information Agency, August 28, 2001
“...If in the street, in the lobby of your house or in another public place you see graffiti that incites ethnic conflicts, please inform us of their content and precise location (street, house number, definite place of location of the graffiti)...”

Yabloko welcomes the cutback in expenditures on “lobbyist items” in the federal budget for 2002
Samotlor-Express, August 29, 2001
The Yabloko faction of the State Duma welcomes the reduction in financing for so-called “lobbyist items” in the draft budget for 2002, declared the First Deputy Head of the Yabloko faction Sergei Ivanenko on Monday August 27, 2001. He also said that one of the positive aspects of the draft budget concern the reduction in financing for “lobbyist items”, in particular agriculture, industry and investment programmes.

The Tyumen Oil Company and administration of the region decide how to divide the profit from the oil extraction
Samotlor-Express, August 29, 2001
The Siberian Research Centre on behalf of the Tyumen Oil Company submitted to Tyumen administration a draft production-sharing agreement for extraction of oil in Uvatsk area. The item on the division of profit is one of the key items in the agreement. The investor gets 80% (The Tyumen Oil Company in this case), and 20% go to the federal and regional budgets, as well as the budget of Uvatsk area (the proportion in this case has still not been defined). The Economic Department of the regional administration forwarded their conclusions to the Deputy Governor Vladimir Yakushev, writes the “Tyumenskaya Liniya” information agency.

Draft budget for 2002 is about five thousand pages long
Press release, August 27, 2001

Yabloko welcomes the reduction in the “lobbyist items” in the budget for 2002
Press release, August 27, 2001
The Yabloko faction of the State Duma welcomes the reduction in the so-called “lobbyist items” in the draft budget for 2002, said First Deputy Head of the Yabloko faction Sergei Ivanenko in an interview with journalists on Monday August 27, 2001. According to Ivanenko, one of the positive aspects of the draft budget concerns the reduction of financing in “lobbyist items”, in particular, agriculture, industry and investment programmes.

Vladimir Lukin is critical of NATO’s operation in Macedonia
Press release, August 27, 2001
Deputy Speaker of the State Duma from the Yabloko faction Vladimir Lukin thinks that from the viewpoint of the UN Charter the legitimacy of NATO’s operation in Macedonia is “doubtful”. Lukin noted that foreign troops could be brought into the country only on invitation by its government and only for self-defence.

Situation in the Balkans section updated

Sergei Ivanenko: Yabloko drafts “finetuned” budget
By Olga Tropkina, Nezavisimaya Gazeta, August 16, 2001
...The government budget is a result of different “compromises”. In view of the sober ideas, for example, in the present budget, it obviously represents a result of aggregate pressures from different ministries, lobbyists, economists of different schools and political forces at federal and regional levels. When, however, we draft our version of the budget (something Yabloko has been doing annually since 1994), we proceed exclusively from economic viability, from real economic requirements, irrespective of the various external pressures. This is a “finetuned” budget, if you like, targeted at implementation of the economic policy that we believe to be necessary...

Budget-2002

Arbat traffic stops for waste debate
By Ana Uzelac, The Moscow Times, June 4, 2001
Nuclear Power Minister Alexander Rumyantsev showed up at a downtown restaurant Sunday for a cup of tea, a slice of cake and a debate with Yabloko head Grigory Yavlinsky on a controversial plan to import spent nuclear fuel. Yavlinsky and Rumyantsev were guests of the "Bender Show" on Ekho Moskvy radio, which is broadcast live from a restaurant on Arbat and named after Ostap Bender, the charming con-man hero of the classic 1920s novel "Twelve Chairs." Cracking jokes and assisting in the writing of a silly poem about nuclear waste, an unrelenting Rumyantsev maintained that earning billions of dollars by importing spent nuclear fuel was the only way for Russia to clean up areas contaminated by nuclear tests and storage leaks.

Russian Security or NATO Expansion?
By Alexei Arbatov
The project of restructuring the European political system after the Cold War is full of contradictions, a source of intellectual confusion and political uncertainty. Radical changes in the military-strategic situation on the old continent have created great temptations for countries to take hasty, short-sighted steps which could permanently damage the development of a new system of collective security. At the same time, those changes have generated new possibilities for more constructive relations between states. How, then, can we take advantage of these opportunities while resisting the temptations?

The Yabloko faction in the State Duma urges the continuation of the federal comprehensive programme for developing small and medium towns of Russia
Press release, August 17, 2001
The Yabloko faction in the State Duma of the Russian Federation calls for the Russian government to reject plans to end the federal comprehensive programme “Development of Small and Medium Towns of the Russian Federation under Conditions of Economic Reform”. This declaration was made by Sergei Mitrokhin, deputy of the Yabloko faction and Deputy Head of the Duma Committee on Local Government.

Russia to import nuclear waste
BBC, June 6, 2001
Russia will import, store and reprocess other countries' nuclear waste, following the approval of the third and final reading of a controversial bill by the Russian lower house of parliament. Once passed by the upper house and signed by the president, the bill will earn Russia's Atomic Energy Ministry up to $20bn over a 10-year period...

Grigory Yavlinsky on the developments of August 19
Moscow, August 17, 2001
Ten years ago the communist form of rule ceased to exist in our country: the central committees, regional and district party committees and the communist government...

Mikhail Zadornov: privatisation-2002 programme will raise serious debate in the Duma
Press release, August 16, 2001
Deputy Head of the Budget Committee of the Duma and member of the Yabloko faction Mikhail Zadornov thinks that there is nothing unusual in the governmental programme to privatise state enterprises for 2002. At the same time he thinks that the total price (18 bln roubles) of the enterprises is greatly understated.

Mikhail Zadornov: no threat for Russia in the depreciation of the dollar
Press release, August 16, 2001
The depreciation of the dollar against the EURO and Japanese yen in the near future, i.e. by the end of this year, will not affect Russia’s economy and the rouble/dollar rate. Such an opinion was expressed by Mikhail Zadornov, Deputy Head of the Budget Committee of the Duma and member of the Yabloko faction, in an interview with journalists on Thursday, August 16, 2001.

After meeting with Condoleezza Rice, Grigory Yavlinsky declared that the US had acknowledged the urgent need to create a non-strategic Russian-European ABM
Press release, July 26, 2001
America acknowledges the acuteness of the creation of non-strategic Russian-European anti-ballistic missile defence (ABM) system involving the US, said the leader of the Yabloko party and its parliamentary faction Grigory Yavlinsky in an interview with the Interfax agency on Thursday.

Mikhail Zadornov: Amendments to the law “On the Central Bank of the RF” may be adopted by the end of the autumn session of the Duma

Press release, August 16, 2001
Amendments to the law “On the Central Bank of the RF” may be adopted by the State Duma and approved by the Federation Council by the end of the autumn session of the Duma, thinks Mikhail Zadornov, Deputy Head of the Budget Committee of the Duma and member of the Yabloko faction.

Yabloko will prepare alternative draft budget for 2002
Press release, August 14, 2001
The Yabloko faction will develop and submit to the State Duma an alternative draft federal budget for 2002; one of the key aspects of Yabloko’s draft will be the financing of military reform. This statement was made for the press by Sergei Ivanenko, Deputy Head of the Yabloko faction in the State Duma.

New Technologies: Yabloko will control Russian elections through the Internet
Alliance Media, July 19, 2001
The usage of Internet technologies in the organisation of elections has been discussed for a long time [in Russia] already. Now the Yabloko party will hold a conference “Internet at Elections” on July 12–14 looking at this beneficial topic.

Grigory Yavlinsky's answers to the questions from the English Forum
August 14, 2001
...We are constitutionalists. Yabloko considers its goal to be the protection and implementation of the provisions of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, in particular in the field of freedoms and liberties of citizens. Yabloko is a European party. We consider Russia to be a European country. Russia must become within 15-20 years a constituent part of Europe politically, strategically, economically and environmentally. For centuries Russia has played a special historic role - it involved the whole of Eurasia in European civilisation. And I think that this is our historic mission for the future too...

The Yabloko faction is likely to support in first reading the draft laws aiming at conducting pension reform in Russia
RIA Novosti, July 13, 2001
The Yabloko faction in the State Duma is likely to support in first reading the draft laws aiming at conducting pension reform in Russia. Such an opinion, says the RIA Novosti correspondent, was expressed at the press conference by Sergei Ivanenko, First Deputy Head of the Yabloko faction, which took place in the State Duma on Friday.