The second session of the 15th Congress of the YABLOKO party
took place on December 19-20, 2009.
YABLOKO’s Chairman Sergei Mitrokhin opened the Congress with
a report on organisational tasks of the party. He called the
Congress to concentrate on the tasks of the coming elections
to the State Duma focusing attention on the control over elections
at all the stages. Also by-elections to the Bureau took place
on the first Congress day.
Reports of the political leaders of the party were on the
Congress agenda on the second day.
“The regional elections we had in October 2009 demonstrated
that degradation of the Russian political system shifted to
a new stage,” Mitrokhin said. According to Mitrokhin, the
country has been returning to the initial point of late 1980s
– early 1990s, the point of passive social dissatisfaction
under the conditions of authoritative power.
“The democratic project is over, the society turned it down,”
such was Mitrokhin’s conclusion. He called the delegates of
the Congress to review the basic approaches which discredited
democracy in the eyes of the majority and launch a broad-scale
discussion in the society which should lead to formation of
a new democratic project for Russia.
Grigory Yavlinsky, member of YABLOKO’s Political Committee,
made a detailed report on the political situation in the country
and the tasks of the party.
According to Yavlinsky, “Russia’s political system has stopped
being imitational as nobody believes in imitation any more.”
“If the citizens of the country do not believe that they are
choosing the authority, this means that both the President
and the Government, and the Parliament put themselves in a
very unstable position,” he said.
Yavlinsky also noted that such a situation developed in the
country for a long period ahead: “the system that has developed
in the past ten years is constructed in such a way that it
is impossible to change it by means of orders”. In such a
situation, YABLOKO’s task is to develop a comprehensive alternative
which should take into account all that has happened in our
country since 1990.
According to Yavlinsky, the development of a new alternative
represents a task of development of a new democratic idea
in the country which should enjoy public support.
The first goals in the implementation of this task should
be introduction of the freedom of speech, development of local
self-governing, civil and human rights organisations, and
trade unions. It is necessary to move towards abolishing of
censorship, return to direct elections, gradual and complete
refusal from interference of the state into the parties’ affairs,
change of election laws and freedom in party financing.
Speaking about the economic component of YABLOKO’s alternative
and proposals for overcoming the crisis Yavlinsky spoke in
detail about the programme “Houses – Roads – Lands” he had
proposed about a year earlier.
The programme is targeted at boosting of domestic demand
with the help of mass-scale housing construction and infrastructure
development. According to Yavlinsky, the state should allot
to these goals at least 70% of financial resources and at
least 50% of investments should go to construction of housing.
Yavlinsky told that implementation of this programme is impossible
without legislative guarantees of private property rights.
“This is the main and virtually the sole mechanism which will
put the whole of the Russian economy into motion. It will
allow not only to overcome the crisis but also to improve
welfare of the multimillion nation”.
Yavlinsky also said that the second key problem of the country
was reforming of the interior, which would be impossible without
civil control.
Another important problem, according to Yavlinsky, was growth
of prices proceeding from the collusion of the market agents.
Igor Artemyev, Yavlinsky’s colleague in the Political Committee
and head of the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service, added here
that market agents were in collusion not only with each other
but with authorities too.
According to Yavlinsky, modernisation of Russia means movement
towards a modern European state, human dignity and observance
of human rights. All this is incompatible with restoration
of Stalinism which culminated in public celebration of the
130th anniversary of Joseph Stalin. Yavlinsky said that Stalinist-Bolshevik
system of governing had been maintained in Russia. It was
conducted under the slogan “the goal justifies for the means”.
In conclusion Yavlinsky called the Congress to form a special
commission which would develop the party programme with regard
to this strategy.
Grigory Yavlinsky’s proposals were incorporated into the
draft resolution “On the Political Situation in Russia and
the Urgent Tasks of the Party” which was supported by the
majority of the Congress.
The Congress also adopted a resolution on the tasks of the
party in view of preparation to the State Duma election campaign.
The Congress obliged the regional branches of the party to
prepare observers for the parliamentary election and the governing
bodies of the party should develop a methodology for monitoring
and control at elections of all levels.
Also the Congress discussed the September agreement between
Russia and China on cooperation for 2009-2018. The Congress
noted that the agreement is consistent with the general course
towards making Russia’s Far East and Siberia a raw appendix
for China. The agreement was labeled as “betrayal of Russia’s
interests”.
The party will try to convince the authorities to review
the agreement. The draft resolution was submitted to the Bureau
by Alexei Yablokov, leader of the Green Russia faction. Yablokov
also initiated another draft resolution of the Congress –
on the anti-environmental policies of the Russian authorities.
The Congress also adopted a resolution demanding to restore
elections in Russia. The October election was called “significant
events in the way of counter-reforms of the electoral system
and degradation of the institute of elections.” This is “an
extremely dangerous process with unpredictable consequences”.
Free and alternative elections require a deep reform of the
political system. The Congress specially marked the need to
change the principle of formation of electoral commissions,
revision of conditions for registration, reduction of the
barrier and transfer to direct elections of the Federation
Council by the electorate.
In addition the Congress adopted a resolution on the situation
in the Northern Caucasus, submitted by the leaders of the
regional party branches in the Northern Caucasus. YABLOKO’s
resolution expresses its concern by the present political
and economic situation in the region and demands from the
President to stop arbitrary rule of the law-enforcement bodies,
extrajudicial executions, to restore operation of the Russian
laws and use the potential of the civil society for peaceful
resolution of the situation.
The Congress also approved a number of resolutions submitted
by the regional organisations and adopted a decision “On the
Ban of Dual Membership” submitted by member of Political Committee
Sergei Ivanenko.
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