| Moscow, August 1, 2003. In an interview with Rosbalt correspondent,
Deputy Head of the YABLOKO party Sergei
Mitrokhin said that the press conference "YABLOKO without Yavlinsky"
conducted in Moscow on Thursday represented a "banal black PR campaign
". "We are investigating who ordered this campaign," said
Mitrokhin.
Mitrokhin sees a connection between the campaign and the forthcoming
gubernatorial elections in St. Petersburg. YABLOKO's candidate Mikhail
Amosov will run for governor. At the press conference on Thursday
the leader of the movement "YABLOKO without Yavlinsky", Igor
Morozov, deputy for one of the municipal councils of St. Petersburg stated
that people voting for YABLOKO "don't like Grigory
Yavlinsky's zest for power and populism and this pushes away the electorate."
That is why the party "cannot overcome the five per cent barrier
in the State Duma elections". The initiators of the movement stated
that Yavlinsky should leave the party; whereas Boldyrev, Grachov, Dmitriyeva,
Travkin, Mizulina, Zadornov and Igrunov, who had left the party, should
return to YABLOKO. The founders of the movement confirmed their intention
to collect signatures in the Russian regions to make Yavlinsky leave the
post of party leader.
Mitrokhin is inclined to think that "the head of the RAO UES Anatoli
Chubais personally ordered this campaign and Mr. Gozman and Trapeznikov
are the executives". According to Mitrokhin "they choose unprincipled
quasipolitical individuals to carry out the campaign." It is quite
characteristic, noted Mitrokhin, that the "action represents hack-work."
Mr. Morozov has never been connected to YABLOKO, stated Mitrokhin. He
also pointed out to the journalists that the organisers of this provocation
failed to find a single YABLOKO member who would agree to take their money,
which confirms the strength of the party ranks." Such actions, according
to Mitrokhin, only benefit YABLOKO. "We shall speak about their fight against us, the huge
amounts of money involved and the influential parties behind this campaign."
Commenting on the statement of the organisers of the press conference
that the pretext for the campaign was YABLOKO's involvement in the YUKOS
conflict. Mitrokhin explained that "here we are dealing simply with
hack-like provocation. Consequently I see no point in analysing the fantasies
of absolutely unprofessional people."
See also:
State Duma elections
2003
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