Will Putin Go Against the Foreign Policy Flow?
By Vladimir Frolov, The Moscow Times, December 29, 2003
Voters understandably care much more about domestic problems when making their choices in a parliamentary election. Wages, pensions and housing costs are always more salient campaign issues than international affairs.

Zyuganov, Zhirinovsky Won't Run for President
By Oksana Yablokova, The Moscow Times, December 29, 2003
Two staples of all post-Soviet presidential elections -- Communist Party chief Gennady Zyuganov and ultranationalist Liberal Democratic Party leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky -- have decided at party congresses not to run in the March election.

Grigory Yavlinsky: You Cannot Raise Funds for the Campaign Without the Consent of the Regime
By Mikhail Vinogradov, Izvestia, December 24, 2003
Grigory Yavlinsky - leader of the Yabloko party, which is not represented in the new Duma - will not take part in the presidential race. In this interview, the Yabloko leader explains the reasons for his decision. Yavlinsky doesn't view this as a disaster; he intends to try to preserve and strengthen his party, looking ahead to the next elections.

SPS and YABLOKO searching for ways of joint revival
RIA "OREANDA", December 25, 2003
The primary task of the Joint Council was to choose a single candidate to run for RF President from the democratic forces. Now this task is not in the agenda.

The Joint Democratic Council Begins Thinking for Two Parties
By Anatoli Yegorov, Nezavisimaya Gazeta, December 24, 2003
The Union of Right-Wing Forces (SPS) and Yabloko launched their new joint project yesterday: the Joint Democratic Council.

Yabloko Won't Stand In Presidential Poll
By Valeria Korchagina, St Peterburg Times, December 23, 2003
"Our biggest mistake was we should have understood earlier that to win 5 percent in Russia, 20 percent of the vote must be gathered de facto," Yavlinsky was quoted by Interfax as saying.

Grigory Yavlinsky: "He should do it, by he won't."
Politburo, December 22, 2003
The President should create over the next four years an independent court, independent mass media and, first and foremost, public television, stop the interference of his administration in elections and adopt decisive measures to reduce admnistrative pressure at elections at all levels.

Putin's Loneliness
By Elena Luybarskaya, pravda.ru, December 22, 2003
Even though he needs to win in the first round, the victory should be legitimate in the eyes of Russians. The elections are not considered legitimate when none of the serious candidates are present.

Yabloko won't take part in presidential elections
RosBusinessConsulting, December 22, 2003
The Yabloko party will not nominate its candidate for the presidential elections in March 2004, because it believes that, in the present political situation in Russia, fair and equal elections are impossible, Grigory Yavlinsky, the leader of Yabloko, said after the party's congress at the weekend.

Yabloko refuses to back Putin's nomination for presidency.
By Natalya Panshina, ITAR-TASS, December 21, 2003
This amendment was specially included on Sunday in the text of a
decision where the Yabloko congress confirmed that the party would not be participating in the forthcoming presidential elections scheduled for March 2004.

Yabloko to concentrate on local elections for next four years
By Natalya Panshina, ITAR-TASS, December 21, 2003
The Yabloko Party will concentrate on regional and municipal elections for the next four years in order to lay the a foundations for "a big democratic party," Yabloko leader Grigory Yavlinsky told the press during a break of the party congress.

Russian liberals scorn the forthcoming presidential elections
Ekho Moskvy, December 21, 2003
Mitrokhin:...This mass use of the administrative resource, the obvious ballot rigging during the counting of votes, the lack of a free media which could give all candidates equal conditions as well as the lack of any judicial system where something can be proved, transforms the forthcoming presidential elections into a farce.

YABLOKO to boycott 2004 presidential elections
RIA "Novosti", December 21, 2003
"The party will not nominate a presidential candidate," Yavlinsky reported after the Yabloko congress. Previously the Yabloko leader had been nominated for the presidency three times.

YABLOKO congress to discuss election camapign issues
RIA "Novosti", December 20, 2003
The Yabloko party will hold its congress on December 20-21, to define the format of its participation in the presidential elections, a spokesperson for the party's press center told RIA Novosti.

Differences in Arithmetic between the YABLOKO party and the Central Electoral Commission
Interview with Galina Mikhalyova, Head of the Analytical Department of YABLOKO by Olga Kitova, Russkiy Kurier, December 19, 2003
In any case, we are already convinced that the count was not fair.

The Union of Right-Wing Forces is afraid that YABLOKO may be siding with the Kremlin
By Anatoly Kostyukov, Nezavisimaya Gazeta, December 19, 2003
Needless to say, the prospect of a boycott frightened the Kremlin - and Yavlinsky may have been summoned in the hope of persuading the YABLOKO leader to abandon a protest action that could jeopardize the necessary voter turnout.

Nuclear Power Ministry and Green Cross in the Same Team.
By Sergei Leskov, Izvestia, December 19, 2003
The President discussed with the representatives of the nuclear department and the ecologists the problems of burying spent nuclear fuel, where opinions were divided irreconcilably.

Communists and Yabloko call into question the voting results.
ITAR-TASS, December 19, 2003
December 19 (Itar-Tass) - On Friday the Central Electoral Commission of the Russian Federation officially summed up and validated the results of the December 7th Duma elections.

No Volunteers: Leaders of political parties refuse to challenge Putin
By Vitaly Ivanov, Vedomosti, December 19, 2003
"Why establish a party if it doesn't participate in the elections?" Alexander Veshnyakov of the Central Electoral Commission said yesterday.

The United Russia as a Collective Putin of the Duma
By Pavel Voshchanov, Novaya Gazeta, December 18, 2003
The victorious centrists, who (for ideological considerations, of course) cannot move a single step away from the Kremlin, suddenly threw up their hands and cried out in grief: Oh dear, however did we end up with this imbalance?! And they immediately set about planning to rebuild the right-wing liberal movement in Russia.

Fair game: Communists and YABLOKO question the parliamentary election results
By Orkhan Dzhemal, Novaya Gazeta, December 18, 2003
Sergei Mitrokin, one of Yabloko party's leaders, has stated that according to available information, Yabloko did cross the 5% threshold in the Duma elections - but the party's vote total was artificially lowered just enough to prevent it from getting into the Duma.

YABLOKO decides not to nominate any candidate for presidency
By Natalya Panshina, ITAR-TASS, December 21, 2003
Yavlinsky stressed that the party's main task for the next four years would be the formation of "a large impressive democratic party" which would operate outside the legislature as "a democratic opposition".

Russia's liberals threaten boycott of 2004 presidential vote
AFP, December 21, 2003
They had argued for years over joining forces -- both being the emblems of the post-Soviet struggle to introduce Western economic reforms and introduce new values on human rights -- but have failed.

Demoralised Russian liberals boycott presidential race
AFP, December 21, 2003
The walkout by liberal forces is likely to be embarassing for Putin, affecting the international legitimacy of the poll, but analysts say the two small parties themselves will suffer the most from their political exclusion.

Russia: Opposition Parties Mulling United Boycott of Presidential Elections
By Valentinas Mite, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, December 22, 2003
Yavlinsky, a two-time presidential candidate, said fair elections are impossible in Russia under existing conditions. He said Russia has no independent national media outlets and no independent legal system.

Communist Party Wants 11 Recounts
The Moscow Times, December 19, 2003
Communist officials said their alternative tally, based on voting protocols taken from 93.1 percent of polling stations together with Yabloko and the Union of Right Forces, revealed discrepancies in dozens of polling stations.

3 Parties Consider Boycotting Election
By Simon Saradzhyan, The Moscow Times, December 18, 2003
Leaders of the liberal and communist opposition said Wednesday that they may form a rather unusual alliance to boycott the March presidential election, which incumbent President Vladimir Putin is widely expected to win in a first round.

Democrats Set To Hang Together
Mikhail Zadornov in an interview with Dmitry DOKUCHAEV, Moscow News, December 18, 2003
Mr. Zadornov talks about his partys dismal performance and the democrats strategy in the new Duma

Young, Educated and 'Against All'
By Anna Dolgov, The Moscow Times, December 18, 2003
In the vote for single-mandate candidates, where choice in each district was limited to representatives of only a handful of parties competing for State Duma seats, the vote "against all" was substantially higher than in party-list balloting.

Tricks of Vote-Fixing Trade
By Boris Kagarlitsky, The Moscow Times, December 18, 2003
But where the elections themselves are concerned, Stalin's inspired principle remains in force: The important thing is not how they vote but how we count.

Yavlinsky does not plan to participate in the presidential elections
Interfax, December 17, 2003
According to Yavlinsky, "As there is no court independent of the presidential administration, as there are no independent mass media or independent sources of financing [of the parties], there can be no real political competition which is the essence of any election."

The Tortuous Tale of the Genesis of Rodina
By Valery Stroyev, The Moscow Times, December 17, 2003
The plan to bring down the Communist Party was conceived long before the election. Everyone understood the necessity of such a plan. The prospect of an uncertain competition between United Russia and the Communists for first place in the polls didn't suit Vladislav Surkov, deputy presidential chief of staff or the Kremlin as a whole.

SPS, Yabloko Look for a Third Man
By Francesca Mereu, The Moscow Times, December 17, 2003
Putting their failed State Duma bids behind them, the Union of Right Forces, or SPS, and Yabloko are struggling to unite to push forward a single candidate for the March 14 presidential election.

The Race Is On For the Kremlin
By Caroline McGregor, The Moscow Times, December 17, 2003
Whether there will be a democratic candidate in the race is still an open question, since parties outside the Duma have less than a month after they name a candidate to gather 2 million supporting signatures. The deadline for submitting them is Jan. 28.

Who Is Mr. Putin: Successor or Reformer?
By Alexei Pankin, The Moscow Times, December 16, 2003
Television coverage of the election was not objective and the government machine once more played its part, yet because the outcome was guaranteed by Putin's popularity, this election was marred by far fewer excesses than in years past.

YABLOKO to determine the format of its participation in the presidential elections on December 19-20
RIA "Novosti", December 16, 2003
Earlier, Yabloko leader Grigory Yavlinsky spoke about the talks with the Union of Right-Wing Forces on the nomination of a single candidate. The presidential elections are scheduled for March 14.

Liberals Got to Get Their Act Together
Editorial, The Moscow Times, December 15, 2003
The evidence is that a large section of the liberal-minded electorate chose either not to vote at all or voted against all, because they were so disillusioned or disgusted with the spinelessness and vacillation of the two parties. The liberal electorate according to various estimates is 15 percent to 20 percent.

New or Old Russia?
By Andrew Kuchins, The Moscow Times, December 15, 2003
Nobody really expected that both of the real liberal democratic parties, Yabloko and the Union of Right Forces, would fall short of the 5 percent threshold needed for party representation in the Duma. Similarly nobody really expected that the most nationalist parties, LDPR and Rodina, would between them garner more than 20 percent of the vote.

Liberals Face Tough Trade-Off in Duma
By Caroline McGregor and Oksana Yablokova, The Moscow Times, December 15, 2003
The seven deputies from the Union of Right Forces and Yabloko know they have to fight for influence in a State Duma where they are massively outnumbered. In deciding which alliances are in their interest, they face a tough trade-off between pragmatism and principles.

The Dangers of "Managed Democracy"
By Michael McFaul, RFE/RL Russian Political Weekly, Vol. 3, No. 49, 12 December 2003
Under the control of the more moderate, Western-oriented Putin, the increasingly centralized, less pluralistic political regime in Russia today has not been deployed to carry out massive repression against the Russian people or threaten countries on Russia's borders. But who takes power after Putin?

Sergei Mitrokhin demands annulment of the voting results in the Babushinsky electoral district of Moscow
Rosbalt, December 11, 2003
"After we received the signals on these multiple violations, the commission began releasing information that Shirokov was the leader of the election, noted Mitrokhin. - YABLOKO thinks that the results of the election were falsified and should be annulled, and that a new vote should be carried out."

The Right by Quotas
By Anfisa Voronina, Vedomosti, December 11, 2003
United Russia plans to set up a separate deputy group of "the right" in the lower house. Thirty-five lawmakers are required.

Today saw the launch of the presidential election campaign in Russia
RIA Novosti, December 11, 2003
Potential presidential candidates can start the nomination procedure today. Parties must nominate a candidate at their congresses no later than 25 days after the beginning of the election campaign. Russian citizens can nominate candidates themselves by forming initiative support groups.

Deadly costs of journalism
By Seamus Martin, Baltimore Sun, December 15, 2003
While conspiracy theories abound in Russia, it is not difficult to understand the suspicions about Shchekochikhin's death. Strange things have happened to journalists from Novaya Gazeta and members and supporters of Yabloko.

Talk Persists Over Russian Amendment
By Vladimir Isachenkov, Associated Press, December 13, 2003
" With such a majority, Putin will do whatever he wants," said Grigory Yavlinsky, the leader of the liberal Yabloko faction, which failed to win the votes to get into parliament.

Civil Rights Advocates Rue Duma
By Irina Titova, St Peterburg Times, December 11, 2003
"If the election results were falsified - then we'll have to fight," Grigoryants said. "If not then we'll be facing up to long and hard work with the souls of those people who've been indifferent to what's going on."

A Funeral For Russian Democracy
By Vladimir Kovalyev, St Peterburg Times, December 11, 2003
A big and, maybe the best part of the population, the intelligentsia, young free-minded people - literally millions of Russian citizens supporting basic democratic values - were thrown aside by a crowd of the blind majority that was so easily "managed" and ready to do whatever it was told to do.

Communists Say Vote Count 'a Scam'
By Anatoly Medetsky and Francesca Mereu, St Peterburg Times, December 11, 2003
"We can't accept the results of a vote that is 100 percent a scam. We're demanding a recount of the ballots by hand," Zyuganov said at a news conference.

The Right-Wing Start Negotiating Integration
RIA "OREANDA", December 10, 2003
The list of presidential contenders and coalition members is rather large. Yabloko's leader Grigory Yavlinsky expressed his plans to enroll Mikhail Gorbachev for the coalition and exclude Mikhail Khodorkovsky from possible presidential nominees.

Communists say Duma vote was rigged
Gazeta.ru, December 10, 2003
According to the results of the parallel count of votes carried out by the Communist Party observers, approximately 1.5 per cent was stolen from both YABLOKO and the Union of Right-Wing Forces. The Motherland bloc also lost around 1 per cent during the relay of the results from the voting to Moscow, although this loss wasn't as critical for Sergei Glazyev and Dmitry Rogozin as it was for the liberals.

Communist Party's calculations indicate that Yabloko actually entered the State Duma
RIA "OREANDA", December 10, 2003
The simultaneous counting is still being carried on, but it is already clear from the data that have been obtained that the Yabloko Party passed the 5% threshold, collecting 5.7% of votes. The alternative figure indicating voter participation also differs from the official figures.

Grigory Yavlinsky on National-Socialism in Russia
RIA "OREANDA", December 10, 2003
"National socialism is a great overstatement. I do not think that this could happen in the Russian Federation", Yavlinsky stated at a press conference on 9 December 2003.

YABLOKO begins negotiations on a single candidate for the presidential elections
By Natalia Panshina, ITAR-TASS, December 9, 2003
YABLOKO has begun negotiations with democratic forces on the nomination of a single candidate for the president elections in 2004, said the YABLOKO leader Grigory Yavlinsky at a press conference on Tuesday.

Absence of the Union of Right-Wing Forces and YABLOKO from State Duma toAffect the Economic Reforms
RIA "OREANDA", December 9, 2003
The absence of representatives from the Union of Right-Wing Forces and the YABLOKO party will have an ambiguous impact on the economic reforms of the country.

Communists Accuse United Russia of Counterfeiting the Parliamentary Poll
RIA "OREANDA", December 9, 2003
The Russian Communist Party (KPRF) accuses United Russia bloc of counterfeiting the parliamentary poll regarding the "Yabloko" bloc and the Union of Right-Wing Forces (SPS).

YABLOKO Doubts Duma Poll returns
RIA "Novosti", December 9, 2003
Yavlinsky criticised the pre-election campaign. "The ruling party had sixteen times more air time on the television than YABLOKO," he pointed out.

Why Liberals Did Not Lose The Elections
By Yulia Latynina, Moscow Times, December 10, 2003
For huge numbers of Russians, however, democracy remains a prized ideal. The "none of the above" party took 4.8 percent of the vote on Sunday, and it was supported by democrats. Voters in favor of a strong hand and Holy Rus had plenty of parties to choose from. The democrats had no choice whatsoever.

Yavlinsky Doggedly Promises to Soldier On
By Oksana Yablokova, Moscow Times, December 10, 2003
"We will have to build a party that will be able to work outside parliament," Yavlinsky said. "That will be quite a difficult and unusual thing to do."

Putin Revels in Election; Others See Flaws
By Steven Lee Myers, NYTimes, December 9, 2003
"We now have, again, a one-party Parliament," said Mr. Yavlinsky, who leads Yabloko and has been the public face of Russia's democrats for the last decade. "Russia has had no such Parliament since Brezhnev."

Veteran Russian liberal says election was rigged
By Andrei Shukshin, Reuters, December 9, 2003
The leader of Russia's liberal Yabloko party Grigory Yavlinsky accused the Kremlin on Tuesday of rigging the results of last week's parliament vote but said no legal action would ever succeed in the country's courts.

United Russia Party has aclear lead after 7.59 per cent of the votes are counted.
ITAR-TASS, December 7, 2003
Central Electoral Commission officials said at the same time the progress of vote counting from the Far East towards the European regions of Russia revealed a growing percentage of the ballots cast against all candidates.

YABLOKO: The Central Electioral Commission did OK in the pre-election campaign.
RIA "Novosti", December 7, 2003
The Central Election Commission was, on the whole, a success with preparing grounds for pre-election campaigning and the actual campaign, says the democratic political party, YABLOKO.

Grigory Yavlinsky: Yabloko's refusal from alliance with the Union of Right-Wingn Forces was correct
ITAR-TASS, December 7, 2003
"We are different parties and our voters are different. It was a conscious choice," Yavlinsky said on Channel 1.

Veteran Russian liberal says election was rigged
By Natalya Panshina, ITAR-TASS, December 5, 2003
Russia's right-wing parties, the SPS and Yabloko and the Communist Party have agreed to jointly monitor progress in the voting when Russia on Sunday, December 7 will be electing the lower house of parliament.

Grigory Yavlinsky: We Shall Solve People's Problems
Interview with Grigory Yavlinsky By Irina Medvedyeva, Moskovskiy Komsomolets, December 5, 2003
Stability is good; but when prices are constantly rising faster than pensions, that is bad. When neither the state nor insurance companies pay for essential health care, and good quality medical treatment is out of people's reach, that is very bad. When you face constant bribery, constant misappropriation of public monies, and court decisions constantly favour the authorities - there is nothing to be happy about.

Results of elections in the CIS and foreign countries
ITAR-TASS, December 8, 2003
MOSCOW. Four or five candidates running in one-seat constituencies from the Union of Right-Wing Forces and YABLOKO will get seats in the new Duma. YABLOKO leader Grigory Yavlinsky did not run in a one-seat constituency and his colleague Vladimir Lukin, who was deputy speaker in the previous Duma, lost in the elections. YABLOKO candidates who were elected are Sergei Popov, Mikhail Zadoronov, Galina Khovanskaya and Mikhail Yemelyanov.

Chubais predicts dark times
By Ilya Zhegulev, gazeta.ru, December 8, 2003
An alliance with YABLOKO still remains one of the priority tasks on the SPS agenda, Chubais said. However, the YABLOKO leader Grigory Yavlinsky on Sunday evening again ruled out any form of alliance with the SPS.

Only three Yabloko members win Duma seats
Interfax, December 8, 2003
Only three members of Yabloko have managed to enter the State Duma after winning single-mandate districts in yesterday's elections, said Yevgenia Dillendorf, press secretary for Yabloko leader Grigory Yavlinsky

Alternative vote count: YABLOKO and SPS make it into the Duma
By Asya Ryazanova, Utro.ru, December 8, 2003
So the data from the CPRF (on the party web-site during the whole post-election night) demonstrate a picture which somewhat differs from that provided by the Central Electoral Commission, slightly, and not in the CPRF part, as one could presume, but in the part of YABLOKO and SPS. According to independent observers, these two parties obtained more than the required five per cent by at least 0.5 per cent. This is a small thing, but this changed the division of forces in the lower chamber of the Russian parliament in principle. How do you like this?

Putin's Victory
By Vitaly Ivanov, Svetlana Ivanova and Alexander Bekker, Vedomosti, December 9, 2003
Yesterday, YABLOKO leader Grigory Yavlinsky looked very confident. He didn't miss any opportunity to say that YABLOKO "is ready to take responsibility for democratic forces in the new Duma."

YABLOKO conducts negotiations with the democratic parties on proposing a single candidate at the presidential elections
Interfax, December 9, 2003
"It will be important for our party to participate in the forthcoming presidential elections," added Ivanenko.

United Russia, Rodina, YABLOKO preferred by voters in Moscow
ITAR-TASS, December 8, 2003
The following are the results of the elections to the State Duma in Moscow after 95 percent of the ballot papers were counted.

Putin Calls Elections Fair Despite Observers' Criticism
By Steven Lee Myers, NYTimes, December 8, 2003
Two groups that sent election observers, the Council of Europe and the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe, said in a report that the results also reflected "the extensive use of the state apparatus and media favoritism to benefit the largest pro-presidential party."

Gorbachev warns Russia's leaders against "Soviet Communist-type situation"
AFP, December 8, 2003
The former Communist leader attributed United Russia's success to "a certain tendency to the consolidation of society" and to "the enormous role of the use of administrative levers."

Denunciation swift, celebration muted after Russian poll
AFP, December 8, 2003
"The administration has greatly affected the election's outcome," agreed liberal Yabloko leader party leader Grigory Yavlinsky.

TABLE-Russian election results at 1200 GMT
Reuters, December 8, 2003
A party needs to get at least five percent of the vote to win seats in the Duma. Votes won by parties that fail to cross the threshold are divided between the winners.

Complaints of Fraud And Ballot Stuffing
By Catherine Belton and Timur Aliev, The Moscow Times, December 8, 2003
"At this polling station only 200 people voted, or about 10 percent," said Ruslan Khadashev, an observer for single-mandate independent candidate Salambek Maigov. "I don't know where they got 70 percent from."

Singular TV Diet on Election Day
By Anna Dolgov, The Moscow Times, December 8, 2003
Judging by the two channels' coverage, a viewer unfamiliar with Russian politics might not even be aware that other parties, such as liberal opposition Yabloko and the pro-reform Union of Right Forces, or SPS, were running in the election.

United Russia Grabs a Gigantic Lead
By Caroline McGregor, The Moscow Times, December 8, 2003
If United Russia's striking margin of victory was the top story of the day, the strength of two nationalist parties, Liberal Democratic Party of Russia and Homeland, was the second. The weakness of the liberals, the Union of Right Forces and Yabloko, was the third.

Russian Politics: "No News Is Good News"
Grigory Yavlinsky, head of the opposition Yabloko Party, Business Week, December 8, 2003
It's certainly necessary to do a lot of positive things, but they can't be done at the moment. They can be done only after the Presidential election -- if the President is prepared to move in this direction.

Deputy Speaker of the Duma advises Georgia not to pursue pro-US policy
ITAR-TASS, December 4, 2003
"The situation that has developed in Georgia is such that only Russia can provide active assistance in uniting the country," stressed Lukin.

Yabloko, SPS, Communists Team Up
The Moscow Times, December 4, 2003
"Authoritarian tendencies are growing stronger in the country. An analysis of the election campaign shows that equal opportunities are not being provided to all candidates," the parties said in a statement.

Grigory Yavlinsky obtains the Prize for Freedom of the Liberal International
Radio Liberty/ Radio Free Europe, December 3, 2003
We believe that they are developing the kind of broad liberalism which we believe Russia needs if it is to move from a society in transition to a society in which civil rights are truly respected, a society in which there are free media, a society in which there is true separation between the judiciary and the legislative power - all of these are classical liberal things which Grigory Yavlinsky has been advancing tirelessly and courageously here in Russia.

Almost 22% of Russian Citizens Hesitate over Choice of Political Party during Forthcoming Elections
RIA "Oreanda", November 28, 2003
According to the Social Opinion Fund, this information was obtained from a poll of the population in 200 cities in 63 Russian regions.

Stop Elbowing!
By Georgy Ilyichev, Izvestia, November 28, 2003
Galina Mikhalyova, head of YABLOKO's analytical center, couldn't restrain herself: "It is strange to be forced to tell this audience, for the 225th time, that the SPS and YABLOKO are different parties, with different voters and different positions.

President Putin Conducts a Nuclear Safety Meeting
RIA "Novosti", November 28, 2003
Russian President Vladimir Putin held a working meeting on matters of nuclear safety.

Kurchatov Institute nuclear waste disposed - Putin.
Itar-TASS, November 28, 2003
The ratification of the multilateral nuclear environmental programme at the State Duma is "a serious step forward in the resolution of the problem of nuclear waste disposal in Russia," President Vladimir Putin said at a Friday conference on nuclear security.

Putin chairs meeting over nuclear safety
Itar-TASS, November 28, 2003
Yavlinsky noted that the local population there was suffering greatly. A decision to resettle them had been made 50 years ago. "We reached common ground with the Nuclear Power Ministry on the financing of the project," he said, "but safety remains the key issue."

St. Petersburg Governor and YABLOKO Will Fight Corruption Together
By Yelena Rotkevich, Izvestia, November 28, 2003
Yavlinsky held several meetings in St. Petersburg on November 26; his conversation with Matviyenko lasted one-and-a-half hours rather than the scheduled 30 minutes, focusing primarily on cooperation between the party and the new municipal administration, as well as joint efforts to "overcome the bane of corruption" which has taken shape in St. Petersburg in recent years.

Vladimir Putin Held Working Meeting Devoted to Nuclear Security Issues
RIA "OREANDA", November 29, 2003
According to the RF President's press-service, Vladimir Putin touched upon the multilateral nuclear ecological programme ratified by the State Duma. The programme foresees mutual work with foreign partners to liquidate Russian nuclear submarines.

Russian election video for Yabloko
BBC Monitoring, ORT Channel, November 26, 2003
"...I said: Yes, Vladimir Vladimirovich [Putin], about 90 per cent of Russian voters vote for you - it is true - and only 10 per cent for me. But these 10 per cent are so valuable that without them your 90 per cent will not be able to do anything."

Russia's gloomy lawmakers admit decade of Kremlin domination
AFP, December 3, 2003
Arbatov said he had few doubts that Putin's aides were orchestrating the election's results and brushed aside suggestions that Russia has made major progress toward a Western-style democracy since the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991.

Yukos Takes a Bite Out of Yabloko's Party List
By Francesca Mereu, The Moscow Times, December 3, 2003
Yabloko, like the Communist Party, has a stable core of support. The bulk of its electorate is composed of well-educated people who believe in democracy and a market economy but have been left behind by the changes of the past decade.

From High Drama To Rubber Stamping
By Anna Dolgov, The Moscow Times, December 3, 2003
"It is clear to everybody that the Duma is controlled by the Kremlin," said Nikolai Petrov, a domestic politics analyst at the Carnegie Moscow Center.

The Parties to Keep an Eye On
The Moscow Times, December 2, 2003
These lists represent the nine parties that have the best chance of securing seats in the next State Duma.

Putin Rivals, Observers Charge Election Tactics Are Unfair
By Gregory L. White, Wall Street Journal, December 2, 2003
The Kremlin is pushing hard to boost its support in the lower house of parliament. Government officials insist the push is aimed at easing the passage of President Vladimir Putin's program of economic and other overhauls

Liberal Candidates Suffer "Administrative" Pressures
By Vladimir Kovalev, St. Petersburg Times, December 2, 2003
Irina Khakamada, Union of Right Forces co-leader and a candidate in the St. Petersburg electoral district No. 209, and Anatoly Golov, Yabloko's candidate in the No. 210 district, on Monday complained they face serious administrative pressure in the election campaign.

The Elections and the Great Schism
By Stanislav Belkovsky, The Moscow Times, December 2, 2003
As election day approaches and media attention grows, it is becoming increasingly apparent that the State Duma elections are a political non-event. Why?

Deputies Pass Raft of Bills on Duma's Last Day
By Anna Dolgov, The Moscow Times, December 1, 2003
In the chamber, which emptied through the day as deputies left to go on the campaign stump, a handful of opposition lawmakers were drowned out by a chorus of self-congratulation from pro-Kremlin lawmakers.

Yavlinsky Slams Kremlin Stance
By Irina Titova, St.Petersburg Times, November 28, 2003
"The government should be interested in having an independent legislative organ," he said. "Otherwise, it will lead to weakening of the Russian power."