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The Yabloko Association greets the delegates of the constituent
congress of the SPS and the congress successful work. We observe
with great attention and interest the transformation of the Union
of the Right-Wing Forces into a political party.
Yabloko confirms its readiness to develop cooperation with the
SPS and create a coalition of two strong independent democratic
parties. In our opinion it is extremely important to consolidate
all the democratic forces in Russia on the basis of freedom, the
observation of human rights, supremacy of law, orientation on
the European economic model and support of civil society.
Today we see a real threat to democratic rights and freedoms.
The habituation of society to war and murders on a daily basis,
the imposition of conformity of opinions and persecution of the
mass media that are not state-controlled, the lack of real economic
growth and, as a consequence, the extremely low living standards
of most citizens in Russia - these are the signs of a regression.
We call on the SPS to join in our efforts to resolve the most
acute problems facing Russia today.
We propose to jointly try and attain the following:
1. The economic and social reforms conducted in the interests
of the majority of the citizens of Russia, instead of a prosperous
minority;
2. Guarantees of freedom of speech and information, creation
of conditions for the development of a mass media which is independent
from the state and the transfer of state-owned mass media to public
control;
3. Implementation of judicial reform aimed at creating in Russia
an independent judicial system and real legal protection for the
interests of citizens;
4. Organisation of civil control over the secret services;
5. Adoption of urgent measures to reduce the tax burden, protect
entrepreneurs from the arbitrary rule of bureaucrats and state
racketeers, support small and medium-sized businesses;
6. Creation of a real competitive environment, guarantees of
the observation of private property rights and activisation of
anti-monopoly policies, tough controls over the tariffs for natural
monopolies;
7. Decision to raise in a non-inflationary manner the incomes
of the population, first of all pensions and wages in the budget
secret; increase in the minimum wage and pension to the subsistence
level;
8. Transfer of the Armed Forces on a professional contract basis
and the abolition of army conscription beginning from spring 2002;
9. Political resolution of the conflict in the Chechen Republic;
10. Prevention of attempts to permit the burial of imported nuclear
waste in Russia.
Yabloko and the SPS have not always agreed on all these issues.
And there may be discrepancies in future. But in our opinion this
does not create an obstacle to the development of a coalition.
Most importantly both our parties are trying to transform Russia
into a democratic European state, whose citizens are free, protected
from arbitrariness and confident about their future.
If we pool our efforts we will be able to achieve all these
goals much more rapidly.
Chairman of the Association Grigory Yavlinsky
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