| April 30, 2010 |
| Renowned
human rights activists, ecologists and residents of
the Rechnik village to participate in the March of
Changes
Press Release, April 30, 2010
The May 1 March of Changes organised
by YABLOKO will end by a rally. The head of the Moscow
Helsinki Group Ludmila Alexeyeva, the leader of the
movement For the Protection of the Khimki Forest Eugeniya
Chirkova and leaders of the initiative group of the
Rechnik village will speak at the rally.
The participants of the march will
gather by the Maly Theatre at 10:30 a.m. The march
towards the Lubyanka Square will begin at 11:00 a.m.
A rally by the Solobetsky Stone at the Lubyanka Square
will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. The participants
of the action will get a budge “I what changes!”
The rally will end by a concern of the Moscow rock
group Sobaki Kachalova. |
| YABLOKO:
organisers of the Day of Wrath are provocators
Press Release, April 30, 2010
...The information disseminated via
mass media with a reference to Mr.Udaltsov, Coordinator
of the Left Front Movement, that YABLOKO will participate
in the Day of Wrath is incorrect.
“The “professional revolutionaries”
who organise the “days of wrath” have
always acted as provocators in our history, which
is confirmed today when they disinform the society
of YABLOKO’s participation in their actions,”
said YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin. “Their
methods are the same as the methods of the authorities
they so ardently fight against. That is why we have
nothing in common with them,” Mitrokhin added...
|
| April 29, 2010 |
| Grigory
Yavlinsky at Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev
trial
www.yavlinsky.ru, April 24,
2010
...For three days Khodorkovsky was
comparing the real development of the company with
the bandit slang of the prosecutors. What the investigators
called “criminal schemes” all the world
has been learning in business school and paying high
fees for that and also reading in the Economics textbooks,
i.e. the entire world but for the prosecutors...
|
| Grigory
Yavlinsky's interview to Vladimir Pozner
The First Channel, programme
"Pozner", April 20, 2010 (transcript Part
3) |
| April 28, 2010 |
| On
May 1 YABLOKO to conduct the March of Changes
Press Release, April 23, 2010
A VIDEO and a SCHEME added
On May 1 YABLOKO will conduct the
March of Changes. “Russia has been plunging
deeper into the mash of corruption and stagnation.
The President has been speaking about modernisation,
however these are only words. The country requires
real changes, not words!” run YABLOKO’s
leaflets distributed among Muscovites.The
participants of the march will gather by the Maly
Theatre and will march along Teatralny Proyezd to
the Lubyanka Square. A rally will take place by the
Solovetsky Stone at the Lubyanka Square. YABLOKO’s
leaders and renown human rights activists, including
Ludmila Alexeyeva, head of the Moscow Helsinki Group,
will speak at the rally...
|
| On
the need to maintain and develop labour protection
system in Russia
Statement by the YABLOKO party,
April 28, 2010
...Most of violations of the labour
rights are connected with non-observance of the labour
protection law. Direct loss from occupational traumatism
in the Russian Federation is 250 times higher than
in the US and the EU countries. Also the Russian labour
law has many gaps leading to mass-scale lawlessness
of the workers.
For example, the Russian Labour Code
does not contain a notion of labour contract. The
Code does not envisage the responsibility of the employer
to provide work to the employee. The owner of the
company is not liable by his income or property for
the company’s performance and damage to the
health and life of the workers. Thus, the employers
are, on one hand, often interested in bankruptcy of
their companies and even prepare such bankruptcies,
on the other hand, they neglect labour protection
norms considering them unprofitable... |
| April 27, 2010 |
| YABLOKO’s
leader Sergei Mitrokhin: The Treaty on the Black Sea
Fleet forms a basis for long-term cooperation between
Russia and Ukraine
Interfax, April 27, 2010
“I think that this treaty is useful
and profitable for both the countries. This is a step
forward towards integration creating a basis for further
long-term cooperation,” YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin
told to Interfax on Tuesday.
However, considering the fact that
Russia simultaneously lowered gas price for Ukraine
by 30 per cent, Mitrokhin noted that this was “a high
price paid by Russia”. |
| Amendments
to the law on the Federal Security Service constitute
a political provocation against President of Russia
Statement by the YABLOKO party,
April 27, 2010
The YABLOKO party demands from the
State Duma to decline the draft law envisaging broadening
of competence of the Federal Security Service (FSB)
connected with the so-called “special preventive
measures” against extremism.
The draft law stipulating that the
FSB has the right to announce to the Russian citizens
official warnings for the actions that can allegedly
cause extremism and arrest them for 15 days for non-obeying
to the lawful demand by the FSB officer creates grounds
for violation of the law by the FSB staff and is targeted
against the dissenting.
Taking into account the lack of transparency
and control of the Russian secret services and an
extremely wide interpretation of the notion “extremist
activity”, as well as systematic bans on rallies
and pickets the draft law initiated by the Russian
government provides unlimited prospects for security
services’ arbitrary rule.
The sanction for non-obeying the warning
distorts the legal liability principle, as the liability
takes place in case of a definite wrongdoing. The
proposed norm envisages in some cases (e.g., for participation
in the actions that are not agreed upon with the authorities)
even tougher liability for the same violations than
envisaged in the present law... |
| April 26, 2010 |
| YABLOKO’s
Grigory Yavlinsky and Alexander Shishlov discussed
the PACE reform and the Babyev case
www.yavlinsky.ru, April 26,
2010
The key issues on the agenda of discussions
between YABLOKO members Grigory Yavlinsky and Alexander
Shishlov meetings and PACE politicians are the reforms
in PACE and the Council of Europe and drawing public
attention to the Babayev case (leader of the Dagestan
YABLOKO and candidate to the State Duma Farid Babayev
was murdered in 2007, the trial has been still going
on).
On April 26-27 the founder of the
YABLOKO party Grigory Yavlinsky and member of YABLOKO’s
Bureau and ex First Vice Chair of the ALDE Group,
PACE, Alexander Shishlov will be in Strasburg on the
invitation of one of PACE’s factions - the Alliance
of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Group (ALDE).
Grigory Yavlinsky and Alexander Shishlov
will propose a number of changes to the charter documents
of PACE and CE. “The reforms are necessary so
that to prevent PACE’s turning into a kind of
small UN,” Grigory Yavlinsky stated at a press-conference
earlier today...
|
| Grigory
Yavlinsky's interview to Vladimir Pozner
The First Channel, programme
"Pozner", April 20, 2010 (video and transcript
Part 2) |
| YABLOKO
commemorated the victims of nuclear disasters by the
Rosatom building
Press Release, April 26, 2010
Today, on April 26, on the Memory
Day of Nuclear Disasters Victims, YABLOKO held an
action commemorating the victims of nuclear disasters
by Rosatom (Russia’s Atomic Agency). The
police and security guards refused to let YABLOKO’s
activists to the territory of Rosatom, therefore the
activists fixed the placard “Memory of nuclear
disasters victims” on the fence around the building
and laid flowers to it.
“Rosatom is a legal successor
of the Atomic Ministry and bears full responsibility
for the disasters,” said YABLOKO’s leader
Sergei Mitrokhin, who also participated in the action.
According to Mitrokhin, the victims of these tragedies
“have not got due compensations yet”,
moreover, even “not all the victims have legal
right to such compensations”... |
| Aid
to the victims of nuclear disasters is a moral and
political responsibility of the state
Statement by the YABLOKO party
on the Memory Day of Nuclear Disasters Victims, April
26, 2010
Today we are commemorating the victims
of nuclear disasters, the innocent victims of Novozemesky
and Semipalatisnky nuclear testing sites, those who
got under the radioactive cloud from Chernobyl, dozens
of thousands of Chernobyl liquidators who passed out
prematurely, submariners who died in the accident
with the Komsomolets submarine and other submarines,
and the victims of the disaster and pollution from
the Mayak plant and other nuclear facilities.
The state has been trying to forget
and avoid responsibility for the life and health of
hundreds of thousands Russian citizens living in the
territories with radioactive pollution, such as Bryansk,
Tula, Oryol, Kaluga, Tomsk, Chelyabinsk, Novosibirsk,
Irkutsk and other regions, Yakutia, Altai, Matitime,
Baikal and Krasnoyarsk areas, as well as to forget
about the consequences of dozens of underground “peaceful”
nuclear tests conducted in Russia.
We can not agree with the ideas that
“it is high time to forget Chernobyl and the
consequences of the cold war” neither from moral
grounds nor from academic views: all these consequences
of nuclear pollution will affect the health of several
further generations. These policies led to the situation
when many thousands of involuntary hostages of the
nuclear sector can not get just compensations... |
| Action
commemorating the victims of nuclear disasters
Press Release, April 25, 2010
Today, on April 26, an action commemorating
the victims of nuclear disasters organised by the
Youth YABLOKO will take place by Rosatom (Russia’s
Atomic Agency).
The activists will hold placard “Memory
of nuclear disasters victims”. They will also
lay flowers by Rosatom’s building... |
| April 23, 2010 |
| Grigory
Yavlinsky to visit PACE
www.yavlinsky.ru, April 24,
2010
On April 26-27 Grigory Yavlinsky will
have a number of meetings in PACE.
Grigory Yavlinsky’s schedule
includes meetings with Mr Thorbjørn Jagland,
Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Mr Melvut
Çavusoglu, President of the PACE, rapporteurs
of the Monitoring Committee on Russia, Mr Andreas
Gross and Mr Gyorgy Frunda, Mr Dick Marty and rapporteur
on the North Caucasus, as well as a speech at the
meeting of the Alliance of Liberal and Democrats for
Europe (ALDE).
The Spring session of PACE will take
place in Strasburg on April 26-30 and will be devoted
to the consequences of the economic crisis, the war
between Georgia and Russia and other issues...
|
| The
residents of the Rechnik village handed a letter of
appreciation to Sergei Mitrokhin
Press Release, April 23, 2010
Yesterday, on April 22, the meeting
of the Regional Council of the Moscow YABLOKO discussed
the situation in the Rechnik village.
Ludmila Gaiduk, the leader of the
initiative group of the residents of the village which
had had suffered reprisals from the Moscow authorities,
made a speech at the meeting. She expressed gratitude
to YABLOKO for protection of the village and its residents.
Gaiduk handed to Sergei Mitrokhin
a letter of appreciation. “Thanks to your speech
at the State Council meeting and in the mass media,
organisation of picketing in protection of property
rights and multiple statements by YABLOKO’s
activists we managed to get attention from the country
leader to our problem and pulling down of houses was
stopped,” runs the letter... |
| On
May 1 YABLOKO to conduct the March of Changes
Press Release, April 23, 2010
On May 1 YABLOKO will conduct the
March of Changes. “Russia has been plunging
deeper into the mash of corruption and stagnation.
The President has been speaking about modernisation,
however these are only words. The country requires
real changes, not words!” run YABLOKO’s
leaflets distributed among Muscovites.
The participants of the march will
gather by the Maly Theatre and will march along Teatralny
Proyezd to the Lubyanka Square. A rally will take
place by the Solovetsky Stone at the Lubyanka Square.
YABLOKO’s leaders and renown
human rights activists, including Ludmila Alexeyeva,
head of the Moscow Helsinki Group, will speak at the
rally...
|
| April 21, 2010 |
| Grigory
Yavlinsky's interview to Vladimir Pozner
The First Channel, programme
"Pozner", April 20, 2010 (video and transcript)
|
| The
residents of the Rechnik village to award Sergei Mitrokhin
a certificate of honour
Press Release, April 21, 2010
The upcoming meeting of the Regional
Council of the Moscow YABLOKO will discuss the situation
in the Rechnik village. The residents of the village
are going to express their gratitude to Sergei Mitrokhin
for protection of their rights and are going to award
him a certificate of honour.
Also the Regional Council of the Moscow
YABLOKO will introduce amendments into the provisions
on the Public Consultative Council of Political Parties
with the Moscow City Duma. These amendments have to
considerably broaden the proxies of the Council...
|
| Valery
Borschyov: Any shrinking of the field for trials by
a jury court is unfavourable
Svoboda Radio, April 21, 2010
Valery Borschyov is ex deputy of the
State Duma, member of the Moscow Helsinki Group and
Secretary of the YABLOKO Bureau.
Valery Borschyov: Any shrinking of
the field for trials by a jury court is unfavourable.
It is very bad that cases connected with terrorism
and extremism and many other issues connected with
this notion have been removed from the jurisdiction
of the jury court. Obviously, there is a problem,
that, for example, it is impossible to have a trial
on terrorists in Chechnya, Ingushetia or Dagestan
by a jury court. However, Russia is a large country,
and certainly [such cases] can be examined by a jury
court in a different federation subject, or by a higher
court and not necessarily in the Northern Caucasus,
if the terrorist comes from this region. There were
concerns voiced that the jury court may acquit terrorists.
However, what is the essence of a trial by jury? The
jury acquits the accused when investigation has failed.
|
| Sergei
Mitrokhin to participate in a rally
Press Release, April 21, 2010
A rally “For Installing Order
in the Housing and Utilities Sector” will take
place in Yaroslavl on Saturday, April 24. YABLOKO’s
leader Sergei Mitrokhin will participate in the rally.
The population of Yaroslavl is outraged
by unprecedented growth of tariffs on utilities set
by monopolists – Yaroslavl Sbit Company.
“I am planning to forward an
address to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on the results
of the rally with a demand to install order in calculating
payment tariffs for utilities,” Mitrokhin said...
|
| April 20, 2010 |
| An
action “For St.Petersburg Without Matviyenko”
started in the Internet
Press Release, April 20, 2010
Web-site “For St.Petersburg
without Matviyenko” (http://www.piter-bez-matvienko.ru/)
collecting signatures in favour of resignation of
St.Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko has been
launched.
“We, citizens of St.Petersburg,
demand resignation of Governor Valentina Matviyenko;
for six and a half years she has been in power we
have been clearly shown that the policies conducted
by her administration is hostile to the interests
of the citizens and represents a consistent violation
of their rights,” runs the address to the citizens...
|
| The
Courchevel Serfs
By Alexei Melnikov for Gazeta.ru,
April 19, 2010
The oligarchs' formula for modernization:
the citizens should work more, get less payment, and
not complain when they are dismissed without compensation.
People usually name the confrontation
between the civil society and a corrupt state be the
key political conflict in modern Russia. The latest
statement by [tycoon] Mikhail Prokhorov, who voiced
the position of the Russian Union of Industrialists
and Entrepreneurs (RUIE) on labour legislation, showed
the people that there is one more serious conflict.
It is called ‘open social confrontation’.
Between business and hired labour. The statement by
RIUE sis very important.
Maybe for the first time for the past
years the society has been openly shown that large
business has its own interests; separate from both
the "state" and the "public" interests.
During the heady "noughties", the large
business dressed up in the clothes of bureaucratic
patriotism and its face demonstrated a grin of "social
responsibility" when in public...
|
| April 19, 2010 |
| The
Russian authorities should take up responsibility
for prevention of violence in Kyrgyzstan
Statement by YABLOKO's Chairman, April 19, 2010
The Russian United Democratic Party
YABLOKO expresses its extreme concern by the growth
of havoc and violence in Kyrgyzstan, which also led
to the acts of violence and robbery against Russian
citizens and ethnic Russians living in Kyrgyzstan.
In the situation of abrupt weakening
of the power and virtual negligence by the law enforcement,
nationalistic bashing can end in multiple victims.
The duty of the Russian authorities is to prevent
murders of our compatriots, as well as the citizens
of Kyrgyzstan and all other nations that are left
without protection.
We are calling President of Russia
and Prime Minister of Russia to take under their personal
control the issue of preventing mass killings in Kyrgyzstan,
make corresponding public statements and use all the
leverages so that to influence the situation...
|
| Sergei
Mitrokhin demands that Interior Minister should investigate
the corruption scandal with Daimler
Press Release, April 16, 2010
YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin
applied to Rashid Nurgaliyev, Russia’s Interior
Minister, demanding to file a criminal case on bribes
received by federal and regional bureaucrats by Daimler.
This loud corruption scandal around
Daimler led to publication in the Internet of some
documents from the US Ministry of Justice relating
to the case. The documents provide detailed information
what officials and of which Russian ministries received
the bribes and how much. The overall amount of bribes
received by Russian bureaucrats from Daimler is assessed
at about Euro 5 mln...
|
| April 16, 2010 |
|
Top Russian judge killed in Moscow
LI News Issue 179, April 16,
2010
A senior Russian judge who presided
over the high-profile trial of a gang of racist killers
was assassinated in Moscow on April 12 2010. Eduard
Chuvashov, who was shot on the way to work on Monday
morning is suspected to have been killed by ultranationalists
as revenge, after he jailed three skinheads last week
for racially-motivated murders. The Moscow City Court
judge has previously sentenced a gang of skinhead
youths for similar crimes and also worked on cases
involving Russian officials accused of corruption
and embezzlement. Sergei Mitrokhin, leader of LI Full
Member YABLOKO, commented on the murder that took
place in broad daylight in Moscow: “We think
that this blatant murder of a federal judge who has
been conducting the most resonant cases against nationalists
and chauvinists represents a challenge both to the
judiciary and the civil society… [it is an attempt]
on behalf of nationalistic and fascist forces to frighten
and split our multiethnic society over nationalistic
issues.”
MORE
NEWS
LI
talks with Singapore's democratic opposition
Indonesian governing Democrat Party and LI to foster
ties
LI President meets DPP leadership in Taipei
Deputy President Minoves debates international energy
policies
Political internationals debate at the WMD General
Assembly
Clegg wins the first historic TV election-debate
Liberal leaders mourn Polish plane crash victims
David Ford elected Justice Minister for Northern Ireland |
| April 15, 2010 |
| YABLOKO
joins the action of the Russian motorists
Statement of YABLOKO's Chairman, April 14, 2010
The YABLOKO party supports the action
of the Federation of Russia’s Motorists targeted at
introducing amendments into the traffic rules regulating
the use of special signals on officials’ cars.
The recent developments on the Russian
roads, in particular, a scandal with Presidential
Advisor (the post represents virtually a kind of honourable
discharge) abusing his right of preferential passage
shows the importance of this action and its public
importance...
|
| Arrest
of scientists in St.Petersburg discredits presidential
policy
Statement of the YABLOKO party, April 15, 2010
The Russian United Democratic Party
YABLOKO calls to release St.Petersburg scientists
Eugeni Afanasyev and Svyatoslav Bobyshev.
Considering the “practices” of work
of the Federal Security Bureau in the recent years
we have all the grounds to state that the accusations
set against the scientists in their alleged transfer
of state secrets to China are groundless.
Any investigation that the law enforcement
consider necessary can be performed without bringing
the scientists in custody. We consider such measure
of restraint as excessive and demonstratively repressive
by nature...
|
| On
political reprisals against The New Times
Statement of the YABLOKO party, April 15, 2010
The Russian United Democratic Party
YABLOKO expresses its support to The New Times magazine
in connection with an attempt of the law enforcement
to conduct unlawful inspection of documents in the
editing house. We think that these actions represent
an act of punitive censorship which has to produce
a chilling effect on Russian journalists in case they
wish to publish articles inconvenient to top military
and police officials.
We hope that this event will not interfere
with functioning of the editorial house and conducting
of serious journalist investigations by the magazine...
|
| April 13, 2010 |
| Presentation
of the book Overcoming Stalin’s Legacy in Voronezh
Press Release, April 12, 2010
Executive Secretary of YABLOKO’s
Political Committee Galina Mikhalyova presented the
book Overcoming Stalin’s Legacy in Voronezh
on April 10, 2010.
Over 20 people participated in the
discussion: members of the Regional Council of the
YABLOKO party, heads of the Voronezh branch of the
Memorial society, history teachers, representatives
of youth human rights movement, independent students’
paper Perekhod and the Young Europe international
network, those who suffered Stalin’s reprisals
and representatives from other parties and movements.
Chair of Voronezh YABLOKO Inna Kudryashova stressed
that communists were trying to revive Stalin’s
cult in Voronezh as well as in other Russia’s
cities...
|
| April 12, 2010 |
| Interregional
conference “Women’s Movement in Russia” took place
in Voronezh
Press Release, April 12, 2010
Interregional conference “Women’s
Movement in Russia: the Present and Socio-Political
Prospects” and the meeting of the Council for Consolidation
of Women’s Movement in Russia will take place in Voronezh
on April 9, 2010. The conference marked the 10th anniversary
of the Voronezh regional movement Women’s Unity.
Co-organisers of the conference were
the Council for Consolidation of Women’s Movement
in Russia and the Russian Academy of State Service...
|
| A
rally for “Installing order in the housing and utilities
sector” held in Moscow
Press Release, April 10, 2010
A mass rally for “Installing order
in the housing and utilities sector” organised by
the YABLOKO party was held at the Pushkin square,
Moscow, on April 10. About 600 people participated
in the rally, including initiative groups of Muscovites
from different Moscow districts...
“Ten years ago YABLOKO proposed a
principally new reform of the housing and utilities
sector, where tough control over monopolies had to
play the key role. However, our proposal was turned
down and the reform developed toward monopolization:
the vertical of power began deriving super profits
via raising tariffs for the citizens,” Sergei Mitrokhin
said at the rally...
|
| Police
considers Sergei Mitrokhin’s calls to Governor Gromov
to resign as extremism
Press Release, April 10, 2010
Mass rally took place in Tuchkovo,
the Moscow region, on April 10. The election of the
new head of Tuchkovo was conducted under tough pressure
from the city administration composed our of United
Russia members. The election results have not been
recognised valid yet, as the residents of the area
voted for Viktor Alksnis who was in opposition to
United Russia...
The police considered Sergei Mitrokhin’s
calls to Governor Gromov to resign as extremism and
summoned Viktor Alksnis as organiser of the rally
to the local police department for explanations. Sergei
Mitrokhin and Viktor Alksnis gave their explanations
in the police department...
|
| YABLOKO's
representatives lay flowers to the Polish Embassy
Press Release, April 12, 2010
YABLOKO's leader Sergei Mitrokhin,
Secretary of YABLOKO's Political Committee Galina
Mikhalyova, deputy head of the Moscow YABLOKO Ivan
Bolshakov and other activists laid flowers to the
wall of the Polish Embassy. |
| April 10, 2010 |
| Condolences
on the death of Polish President in the aircrash
April 10, 2010
The Russian United Democratic Party
YABLOKO expresses sincere condolences to the people
of Poland and all the next-of-kin of the victims of
the aircrash by Smolensk.
On this hard moment of pain we are
wishing you strength so that you may overcome it with
courage so characteristic of the Polish nation.
The memory of the Katyn tragedy and
of those killed in the aircrash will make our nations
even closer.
We are sharing your pain and joining
you in mourning over the victims.
Sincerely,
Sergei Mitrokhin,
Chair of the YABLOKO party
|
| April 9, 2010 |
|
Liberal Democrats gear up for 6 May UK elections
LI News Issue 178, April 9,
2010
On Tuesday, the British parliament
was dissolved and a general election was called for
6 May. LI Full Member, the Liberal Democrats will
play a decisive role during the elections, as British
voter confidence in ruling Labour party and the opposition
Conservative party is in a state of flux. Liberal
Democrat Leader Nick Clegg presented his party as
the only real force for change in a speech on Wednesday:
“In the campaign over the next four weeks you
will hear a lot about political reform. David Cameron
will talk about cutting the cost of politics. Gordon
Brown will talk about reforming the Lords. Their words
are a smokescreen for the truth. Only the Liberal
Democrats can be trusted on political reform. [They]
talk about it. We will make sure it happens.”
Mr. Clegg will have a chance to face his opponents
Brown and Cameron during the first televised national
debate on 15 April.
MORE
NEWS
LI
President addresses Thai Parliament during Red Shirt
siege
Liberal International strengthens its relations with
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DA: Our rights and our future are indivisible
Liberal leaders not satisfied with Serbian Srebrenica-declaration
Liberal Democrats gear up for 6 May UK elections
Egypt riot police break up pro-democracy rally
Verhofstadt supports nuclear arms treaty
Italian liberals broadcast Dahrendorf seminar live
on internet |
| Verhofstadt:
Historic signature in Prague but a dinner summit without
the European Union
Press Release, April 8, 2010
...On the occasion of the forthcoming
meeting between President Barack Obama and Russian
President Dmitry Medvedev to sign an agreement on
a landmark nuclear arms reduction treaty, ALDE leader
Guy Verhofstadt offered his words of support: “The
agreement reached represents a break with the past
and makes a major contribution to the ambition of
building a safer world without nuclear weapons. I
am strongly encouraged by the US-Russia agreement
on nuclear arms reduction. I expect it to serve as
a basis for the forthcoming summits in Washington
D.C. and New York that will frame international consensus
on tackling nuclear proliferation. President Obama
will find strong supporters within the European Union
in addressing this challenge...”
|
| April 8, 2010 |
| A
rally in Tuchkovo, the Moscow Region, to demand resignation
of the Governor
Press Release, April 8, 2010
A rally that will be held with YABLOKO’s
support in Tuchkovo, the Moscow region, on Saturday,
April 10, will demand resignation of the Governor
of the Moscow Region Boris Gromov and will ask the
President to install order and lawfulness in the region.YABLOKO’s
leader Sergei Mitrokhin and deputy head of the Moscow
Region branch of YABLOKO Dmitry Ilyushin will participate
in the rally.
For three years the Moscow Region
has been deep in debt and ex Finance Minister of the
region has been under criminal investigation, YABLOKO
notes. Bureaucrats from the United Russia party has
been pressing small and medium businesses, and business
has been leaving the region and the number of unemployed
has been steadily growing. Housing and utilities sector
has been falling to pieces while tariffs on housing
and utilities skyrocketed...
|
| The
leaders of YABLOKO and the Russian Medical Association
signed a Memorandum on development of a healthcare
reform
Press Release, April 8, 2010
The leaders of YABLOKO and the Russian
Medical Association (RMA) signed today a Memorandum
on state policies in healthcare and a healthcare reform.
“The positions, approaches and
the concept of the healthcare reform proposed by the
RMA completely coincide with YABLOKO’s approach,”
Sergei Mitrokhin said opening the press-conference.
According to Mitrokhin, the party will reinforce its
programme in the part of healthcare measures and will
get a possibility to work with Russia’s medical
community.
“Our common task is not only
formulate a concept of a healthcare reform and translate
medical and research tasks into a political language,
but also to protect doctors and patients,” added
Galina Mikhalyova, Executive Secretary of YABLOKO’s
Political Committee.
“The slogan of our party has
been “Freedom and Justice”, Mitrokhin
reiterated. “However, the main drawback of the
present healthcare system is the lack of both of them.
And YABLOKO and the Russian Medical Association completely
agree in their vision of this problem,” he said...
|
| April 7, 2010 |
| Grigory
Yavlinsky’s master class in Vienna
ICEUR, Vienna, April 4, 2010
Yavlinsky’s master class sparks buoyant
discussion, generates new ideas
ICEUR's
first master class starring reform economist and opposition
leader Grigory Yavlinsky was held on 26th March, 2010,
at the International Press Club Concordia in Vienna.
It was attended by a select audience including diplomats,
journalists, members of the scientific community and
students. At the beginning of the session which held
the participants in suspense for almost three hours,
Yavlinsky analyzed the current situation in Russia
and identified six preconditions for reform which,
in his mind, could lead Russia out of the present
impasse. A successful economic reform, he argued,
was impossible without the realization of property
rights, a functioning local administration, an independent
justice and a new relationship between citizens and
authorities...
|
| Press
conference by YABLOKO and the Russian Medical Association
on the healthcare reform
Press Release, April 7, 2010
A press conference by YABLOKO and
the Russian Medical Association (RMA) on the healthcare
reform will take place in the Independent Press Centre,
Moscow, on Thursday, April 8. YABLOKO and RMA will
tell in detail about the Memorandum on the State Policies
of Healthcare and the Healthcare Reform that will
be signed by YABLOKO and the RMA. The draft document
was adopted at YABLOKO’s Political Committee meeting
on March 27, 2010. YABLOKO’s
Chairman Sergei Mitrokhin and RMA President Ashot
Sarkisyan will sign the Memorandum at the press conference.
The press conference will begin at
12-00.
Address: Prechistinka, 17/9, ground floor
|
| YABLOKO
commemorated the victims of bombings in the Moscow
metro
Press Release, Photo Report,
April 6, 2010
On the ninth day after the acts of
terror in the Moscow metro YABLOKO’s activists
and students of Moscow universities commemorated the
victims of the tragedy. |
| April 6, 2010 |
| There
is more to modernisation than light bulbs of a new
generation
Kommersant, April 6, 2010
...In his turn Grigory Yavlinsky,
co-chair of the Council of ZaModernozatsiyu.Ru and
member of YABLOKO’s Political Committee, stated
that that "discussing enforced modernisation
would be a waste of time and effort”. "History
shows us that a totalitarian regime can transform
an
agrarian state into industrial, however an industrial
state can not be transformed into a post-industrial
in such a way." “We have a country of total
literacy, however why should we seriously discuss
Skolkovo (Kommersant: creation of the Russian Silicon
Valley there),” Yavlinsky said. “This
is like growing corn which we all witnessed once (Mr.Yavlinsky
is speaking here about countrywide cultivation of
corn initiated by Secretary General of the Communist
Party Nikita Khrushchev in early 1960s)! The same
thing has been happening with nanotechnologies. Why
should we discuss this on a national level?!”...
|
| A
rally for “Installing order in the housing and utilities
sector” to take place in Moscow
Press Release, April 6, 2010
A mass rally for “Installing order
in the housing and utilities sector” organised by
the YABLOKO party will take place at the Pushkin square,
Moscow on Saturday, April 10. The Moscow authorities
gave a permit to conduct a rally for 300 people.
The participants will speak against
growth of tariffs on housing and utilities services,
creation of false servicing companies and deceit with
capital repairs of the buildings, as well as speak
about some other problems of the sector affecting
all the Muscovites...
|
| Students’
march in memory of the victims of the acts of terror
to take place in Moscow
Press Release, April 6, 2010
Today on April 6, on the ninth day
since the acts of terror in the Moscow metro, the
Youth YABLOKO organisation initiates a students’
march in memory of the victims of the acts of terror
will take place in Moscow.
The demonstrators will meet at 6 p.m.
by the Lubyanka metro station (the station where the
first explosion took place) and will march to the
Park Kultury metro station. The action will be conducted
without party symbols and placards. The demonstrators
will light candles and lay flowers by the entrances
to the metro stations.
|
| April 5, 2010 |
| The
Youth branch of YABLOKO calls to introduce a visa-free
regime between Russia and EU during its action by
EU representation in Moscow
Press Release, April 5, 2010
An action by the Youth branch of the
YABLOKO party “To Europe without Visas”
took place by EU representation in Moscow today, on
the day on coming into force of the Visa Code of the
EU. Young YABLOKO’s activists
were holding flags of Russia and the European Union
and were chanting slogans “Russia is a part
of Europe!”, “To Europe without visas!”
and “No wasting time in queues by the consulate
departments!” “A
visa-free entrance of the Russian citizens to Europe
conditions Russia’s becoming an integral part
of Europe,” Maxim Kruglov, one of the leader
of the Youth YABLOKO said. “Young people would
like to get education in Europe, to travel there and
to see how Europeans live,” he added.
YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin
also came to the Embassy to support the young activists.
Mitrokhin said that the initiative of elimination
of visa barriers between Russia and EU belongs to
YABLOKO. For the first time this idea was proposed
by the Yabloko faction of the Russian parliament in
1995. “This idea was supported by Russia’s
Foreign Ministry after a long period of our talks
and negotiations with them,” Mitrokhin said.
YABLOKO's leader also raised the issue of a visa-free
regime the congress and meetings of the ELDR party
(of which YABLOKO is a fully-fledged member), as well
as the meetings of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats
for Europe Group (ALDE), the third largest group of
the European Parliament...
|
| Presentation
of Alexei Arbatov’s book “The Equation
of Security
Press Release, April 5, 2010
Presentation of a book “The
Equation of Security” by Dr.Alexei Arbatov,
member of YABLOKO’s Political Committee, head
of the International Security Centre with the Russian
Academy of Sciences, took place in YABLOKO’s
Moscow office today. YABLOKO’s leader Dr.Sergei
Mitrokhin and member of Political Committee and the
founder of the party Dr.Grigory Yavlinsky participated
in the presentation.
The book offers an assessment of the
international security system and the place of the
Russian Federation in the present changeable concept
of international relations. Some of the key postulates
of the book lie in the decision of YABLOKO’s
Political Committee “On Russia’s Foreign
Policies”... |
| Conference
“Women’s Movement in Russia: the Present
and Socio-Political Prospects”
Press Release, April 2, 2010
Interregional conference “Women’s
Movement in Russia: the Present and Socio-Political
Prospects” and the meeting of the Council for
Consolidation of Women’s Movement in Russia
will take place in Voronezh on April 9, 2010. Chair
of YABLOKO’s Gender faction and Co-Chair of
the Council for Consolidation of Women’s Movement
Galina Mikhalyova will make a report at the conference
“The Political Prospects of Women’s Movement
at the Present Stage”... |
| April 2, 2010 |
| The
leader of Sverdlovsk branch of YABLOKO win the libel
case initiated by Yekaterinburg Mayor
Press Release, April 2, 2010
Today, on April 2, Yekaterinburg district
court turned down the libel claim motioned by the
city Mayor Arkady Chernetsky against deputy of the
city Duma and leader of the local branch of YABLOKO
Maxim Petlin. The court charged the Mayor RUR 20,000
(about USD 700) for compensation of the legal costs
incurred by Maxim Petlin.
Chernetsky started a legal case against Petlin after
the latter said in the TV programme that Chernetsky
had “sold half of kindergartens buildings”.
The Mayor called this phrase a libel and motioned
a libel case against Petlin. The second defender in
the court was Rossiya television channel which had
broadcasted Petlin’s interview and showed an
item on alienation of large number of kindergartens
in favour of Chernetsky’s family members... |
| April 1, 2010 |
|
Liberals condemn attack on Moscow Metro
LI News Issue 177, April1,
2010
Sergei Mitrokhin, Leader of LI Full
member YABLOKO, was quick to express his condolences
after the deadly attacks on the Moscow Metro on Monday
morning. “On behalf of the YABLOKO party I am
expressing our deepest condolences to all the relatives
of the victims of today's acts of terror, and our
support and compassion to all the victims.”
He added that Russians should thoroughly investigate
the incidents, saying “I demand an objective
and urgent investigation of these crimes. I find it
necessary that not only the organisers of these acts
of terror but also the heads of the security bodies
who did not draw any lessons out of the previous crimes
of this kind in Moscow and other cities in different
parts of the world [will be interrogated].”
LI President Hans van Baalen MEP issued a statement
earlier this week condemning the attacks: “These
cowardly attacks once again show the need for increased
international cooperation in the fight against terror.
Russia can not defeat terrorism alone. Putin and Medvedev
need to reconsider their opposition to NATO and foster
stronger relations with its member and partner countries
in order to provide better security to its citizens.”
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President at first Arab liberal parliamentary reunion
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Election law “unfair and unjust” say Aung
San Suu Kyi
ALDE calls for long term solutions to euro stability
LI 184th EC - Call for Resolutions |
| Sergei
Mitrokhin: Murderers of Chechen farmers should be
punished
Press Release, April 1, 2010
YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin
forwarded to the head of the Investigative Committee
at the Public Prosecutor’s Office Alexander
Bastirkin a second address demanding to start criminal
persecutions on the murder of Chechen farmers gathering
herbs by the Arshty village in Ingushetia on February
11-12...
Mitrokhin’s letter based on
the facts obtained during investigation of the Memorial
human rights centre. Memorial proved that the versions
voiced by the top officials that the militants had
allegedly used the civilians as a shield and that
people had been killed due to the air strikes were
incorrect...
“I realise that after yesterday’s
statement by Umarov [where he took the responsibility
for the acts of terror in the Moscow Metro] the Investigative
Committee may have psychological difficulties with
the adoption of such a decision, however, this body
has to be guided by lawful interests of the citizens
protected by law rather than by bandits’ provocative
statements,” runs Mitrokhin’s letter...
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| Condolences
from ALDE Group, the European Parliament
March 30, 2010
Outrages act of murder that took place
in the Moscow Metro and that killed dozens of people
dead and injured does not leave unnoticed. On behalf
of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe
allow me to express my condolences and solidarity
in the face of this tragedy.
Terrorism has no excuse or justification. On this
Monday morning in Moscow it has shown its ugliest
face. A hideous crime was committed without concern
or consideration for human life. We deplore in strongest
terms and call to justice all of the perpetrators
of this massacre. Fighting terrorism requires determination
and cross-border partnership. European Union stands
prepared to extend its hand in finding sustainable
solutions in persecuting and eliminating terrorism.
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