Here below the letter of Sergei Mitrokhin, Chair of the YABLOKO party, Russia, sent out after the European Elections:
I am happy to congratulate you on your success at the European Parliament elections. At the start of the new Parliament, where the influence of the liberals will rise, I would like to draw your attention to the relations between the European Union and Russia.
The European Union has seen another election. In Russia, elections have, however, been steadily loosing their meaning with every new campaign, as the very basis of free and fair elections has been ruined - in the absence of an independent court, independent media or independent campaign fundraising. The government has been simply neglecting the law. For example, they used to announce that the signatures required for registration in the campaign were fraudulent, thus barring our candidates from the election (in spite of the fact that the voters personally confirmed the authenticity of their signatures) or even faked election protocols. And this is not emotions or exaggerations, once again this is confirmed by the recent facts from the St.Petersburg municipal election (March 2009).
However, despite these circumstances YABLOKO continues its work - protects human rights (including via picketing and rallies), develops proposals on key issues, and maintains its intellectual and organisational potential. YABLOKO remains a large Russian party with a developed network of local organisations in Russia's regions and even our opponents recognize our influence and potential.
Last week YABLOKO's leaders met with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. We handed to President Medvedev our proposals on key Russian issues, in particular, anti-crisis measures. YABLOKO finds it necessary to correct Russian foreign policy encouraging European orientation of our country. I am sure that it would also be for the benefit of Europe to have a democratic and predictable Russia sharing the same humanistic values as the European Union.
Our meeting with the President once again demonstrated the fundamental difference between YABLOKO's and the Russian government's approach. President Medvedev justified the creation of a "vertical power" in Russia and stated that the lawlessness of our citizens was rooted in the lack of tradition in asserting human rights. We, Russian liberals, have the opposite view: it is the state that has to develop mechanisms for protection of its citizens from arbitrary rule.
President Medvedev also said that the Russian parliament was elected via fair election. Our experience, and the experience of other opposition parties and candidates demonstrate the opposite - we don't have fair elections in Russia today.
We are certain that liberal values are key to finding a way out of the present economic crisis and establishing mutually beneficial Russia-EU relations.
The success of populists and nationalists at the European Parliament elections was to be expected as many people are waiting for simple explanations and fast solutions. However, it will soon become obvious that the present problems can not be solved in such a way. There is always a temptation of adopting such simple and "pragmatic" decisions in Russia - EU relations too. For many people (from both sides) such relations are reduced mainly to trading in oil and gas, but we are certain that steady and mutually beneficial relations are impossible without mutual trust and shared values. And liberals have to decide what should lie in the foundation of their relations with Russia - either the oil and gas trade or shared values. Speaking about YABLOKO, we are sure that common liberal values help in finding mutually beneficial economic schemes; whereas the policies rooted in unprincipled pragmatism will finally fail. This was demonstrated in the bitter lessons of recent years: the gas crises and the crisis in the Caucasus in 2008.
We propose to our liberal friends and colleagues in Europe to think about joint large-scale European political initiatives - from the humanitarian sphere (for example, transfer to a visa-free regime) to the military-political area (for example, joint Russian-European-US anti-missile defence). In our view, liberals have everything for intellectual leadership, Russia-EU relations included.
