Home pageAdvanced searchIndexSend a letterAdd to favorites

May, 2009

November 2004
October 2004

September 2004

August 2004

July 2004

June 2004

May 2004

April 2004

March 2004

February 2004

January 2004

December 2003

November 2003

October 2003

September 2003

August 2003

July 2003

June 2003

May 2003

April 2003

March 2003

February 2003

January 2003

 

December 2002

November 2002

October 2002

September 2002

August 2002

July 2002

June 2002

May 2002

April 2002

March 2002

February 2002

January 2002

 

2001

2000

1999

1998

Press-archive

 

September 2004

August 2004

July 2004

June 2004

May 2004

April 2004

March 2004

February 2004

January 2004

 

Desember 2003

November 2003

October 2003

September 2003

August 2003

July 2003

June 2003

May 2003

April 2003

March 2003

February 2003

January 2003

 

December 2002

November 2002

October 2002

September 2002

August 2002

July 2002

June 2002

May 2002

April 2002

March 2002

February 2002

January 2002

2001

2000

1999

home page

map of the server

news of the server

press-service

forums

people

Yabloko's Views

publications

New items of the server - April 2010
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 Malaysian parties
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.”

MORE NEWS

LI President at first Arab liberal parliamentary reunion
Honduran El Heraldo echoes Hans van Baalen
Emma Bonino gives strong showing in Lazio election
“We need a new kind of federal leadership” – says LPC’s Ignatieff
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...

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.

 

e-mail: english@yabloko.ru