Here is the answer to Chubais courtesy of Yavlinsky's Press Secretary Yevgenia Dillendorf.

"There are three points in Chubais' letter. "Point One - consolidated actions are needed. "A Coordinating Council under Ivanenko and Nadezhdin [leaders of factions - Novaya Gazeta] has been working in the Duma for three years. Our representatives meet and discuss laws every week. We cooperate on a lot of matters. Boris Nemtsov attended our rally yesterday.

"Point Two concerns a common candidate. "The matter of a common candidate was actually settled by the democratic conference a long time ago. A joint programme of actions should precede the nomination of a single candidate. We will be able to elect an individual to implement such a programme when it is adopted.

"Point Three concerns physical unification of our parties. "All lists have already been submitted to the Central Election Commission. There is no point talking about developments after the elections. Unification is possible in theory when the country is under attack from an external enemy or, for example, when the outcome of the election is rigged on a major scale.

"Of course, our parties do share some common things. We do not believe that it is necessary to jail a person for economic crimes, when the person in question does not pose a social threat even if he failed to pay his taxes in 1917. We believe that only a court may convict a person.

"On the other hand, our positions, say, on NTV differed. We did not think that the company should be closed, but they certainly thought so. We differ in our attitudes towards the war in Chechnya. We never wanted the war to begin while they claimed that it was a must because the Russian army was reviving there.

We differ on the subject of privatization. Had it been a single party nowadays, it would have split over YUKOS. We trace the roots of privatization back to the methods of privatization. This is something the Union of Right-Wing Forces will never recognise. That is their position, and Chubais admitted it in his interview. He admitted that we built a criminal capitalism in the country.

"We differ on freedom and we differ on human rights. "The Union of Right-Wing Forces insists on unification because it considers the idea popular. A year or two ago it thought it would absorb us because our party was in trouble right after the election. The Union of Right-Wing Forces failed then and is offering us its hand now. But this is a hand bearing a stone. Simultaneously with Chubais' letter, we read articles in the media on methods of combating YABLOKO.

We do not refuse to unite because of personal antipathies. We refuse because we are different parties and 95% YABLOKO voters will never back Chubais and Kokh. They will merely vote with their feet."

See also:

YABLOKO and SPS

Novaya Gazeta, November 11, 2003