Pensioners from St. Petersbourg are going to appeal to the European Court for Human Rights in Strasbourg
Rosbalt, January 29, 2004
According to Popov, “their decision is based on the fact that the Constitutional Court of Russia has acknowledged as lawful today norms of pension legislation that exclude from the labour term the years of study and years spent by a woman nursing a baby.

Deputies of the State Duma fail to prove any faults in Russian pension legislation
Rosbalt, January 29, 2004
We should note here that the present pension legislation excludes many periods from the labour term: the years of study in colleges and universities, military service, service in the police, years spent by a woman nursing a baby, time on unemployment benefit and some others.

Boris Vishnevsky: No one has seen the picture “St. George’s Dialogue with a Serpent”
Zaks.ru, January 27, 2004
At the federal level Vladimir Putin, who is deeply resenting the values of freedom and democracy, represents the main consistent opponent of democratic parties, and at the level of St.Petersburg Valentina Matviyenko represents such an opponent. Both she and the president represent the same clan and the same vertical of power.

St. Petersburg. “SPS+YABLOKO” faction created in the Legislative Assembly
Regions.ru, January 28, 2004
According to the Press Service of St. Petersburg’s YABLOKO branch, the faction includes four representatives from each faction. Coordinators of the faction are Igor Artemyev (YABLOKO) and Vitali Martynenko (SPS).

State Duma prefers misers
By Aliya Samigullina, Gazeta.ru, January 28, 2004
The Central Electoral Commission and the Bank of Russia have released the financial results of the State Duma elections. It turned out that the SPS, which failed to make it into the Duma, spent the most on its electoral campaign.

Free, but Not Fair
By Olga Redichkina, Gazeta.ru, January 27, 2004
This is how Europe is expected to describe the elections in Russia.

"The Orchestra Greatly Impressed all Davos"
Interview with Grigory Yavlinsky, Gazeta, January 26, 2004
If we speak about Tchaikovsky, Gergiev and the Mariinsky Theatre, then the interest is huge here. Politics and economy do not represent any interest.

Those Who Failed to Pass into the Duma are Fortunate
Elena Bonner about the recent parliamentary and forth coming presidential elections, Novaya Gazeta, January 22, 2004
History, and the "Veshnyakov-style" elections, have given YABLOKO and the Union of Right-Wing Forces a real opportunity to unite with the nation under the boycott slogan, anyway, to unite with a considerable part of the electorate. It would be a great mistake if they did not avail themselves of this opportunity.

Members of Right-Wing Parties Offered Jobs
By Vera Sitnina, Vremya Novostei, January 23, 2004
We now have some confirmation of President Vladimir Putin's statement in December that the losers in the parliamentary campaign should not despair, as jobs in the executive branch will be found for them. Economic Development Minister German Gref is expected to have a new deputy minister soon: YABLOKO deputy leader Igor Artemyev.

Russian Democratic Party YABLOKO, We are impeding the rapid development of a Potyomkin Village in Russia
Statement, Novaya Gazeta, January 22, 2004
The present developments are such that the YABLOKO party should not participate in the presidential elections. It is impossible to conduct an independent and free election campaign today.

Pulling for Putin, Russia's upcoming presidential election is no contest
By Christian Caryl and Frank Brown, Newsweek International, January 26, 2004
"There are no elections in Russia anymore, period," contends liberal politician Grigory Yavlinsky, whose Yabloko party is boycotting the poll. "Over the past four years Putin has destroyed all the autonomous elements in Russian society."

Lies, Damn Lies and Police Statistics
By Vladimir Kovalyev, The Moscow Times, January 22, 2004
When the State Duma passed amendments to the Criminal Code's section on self-defense in February 2002, it seemed as if a big step had been taken toward developing civilized legislation in the country. Just a few new lines in the code meant more than 2,000 people who were jailed for killing their assailants in self-defense were freed.

Authoritarianism Deposing 'Clan Democracy'
By Alexander Lukin, The Moscow Times, January 21, 2004
What's happening in Russia today could be described as the consolidation of an authoritarian regime, or in more popular jargon, the rise of a dictatorship.

A Coming Out Party at Davos
By Lynn Berry, The Moscow Times, January 23, 2004
Later, when asked to speak again to the whole group, Saakashvili borrowed a sound bite first spoken by his Russian dinner partner: "He [Shevardnadze] needed Russia as an enemy, I need Russia as a friend."

Yabloko Party to Appeal to Court over Violations in Parliamentary Elections
Trud, January 22, 2004
The Communist party reportedly conducted a parallel vote-counting and announced that both Yabloko and the Union of Right-Wing Forces (SPS) parties had overcome the necessary barrier (5%) and that two-thirds of the protocols used in the election’s state automated system had no legal force.

Zyuganov and Yavlinsky Will Meet in Court with United Russia
By Rustem Falyakhov and Denis Yermakov, Gazeta, January 22, 2004
Until the end of the week YABLOKO and the CPRF will sign an agreement and begin work over an application to the Supreme Court. The parties seek to secure a revision of the results of the parliamentary elections held in December 2003.

Grigory Yavlinsky will participate in the meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos
Special for www.yavlinsky.ru web-site, January 22, 2004
On January 21-25, 2004, the leader of the Russian Democratic Party YABLOKO will for the 13th time participate in the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos.

The leader of the Russian Democratic Party YABLOKO Grigory Yavlinsky participates in the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum which is taking place in Davos on January 21-25, 2004
Special for www.yavlinsky.ru web-site, January 22, 2004
The official part of Griogry Yavlinsky's schedule contains speeches at two sessions of the forum devoted to further development of European integration and Russia's place in the united Europe, as well as resistance the state's attack on human rights.

Racism Case Investigated
The St.Petersburg Times, January 20, 2004
The City Prosecutor's Office has initiated a criminal case against Yury Belyayev, head of the Party of Liberty and editor of newspaper Express Khronika for allegedly publishing an article inciting attacks on ethnic Caucasians, Interfax reported Monday.

Who "Dropped" Yavlinsky and Why Grigory Yavlinsky is ranked eleventh by independent pollsters
By Olga Kitova, Russkii Kurier, January 20, 2004
Interfax cited a poll by VTsIOM-A, the independent polling agency headed by Yuri Levada, in which pollsters approached 1,600 respondents between January 9 and 13. Even Valentina Matvienko and Aman Tuleev are on the list - but not the Yabloko leader.

Did We All Vote So Amicably?
By Orkhan Jemal, Novaya Gazeta, January 19, 2004
At the end of last week representatives from the YABLOKO Party confirmed that their party was ready to contest in court the results of the [parliamentary] elections. Their vote recount, an alternative to that of the Central Electoral Commission, demonstrated that in reality YABLOKO obtained 6% and the SPS 5.12% of the votes.

YABLOKO Party to Contest Parliamentary Election Results
RIA "OREANDA", January 19, 2004
In addition the party confirmed its intention not to announce any candidate for the RF Presidential Elections planned for March 14, 2004.

YABLOKO will contest the results of parliamentary elections
Grigory Yavlinsky's website, January 19, 2004
The YABLOKO party is going to contest in court the results of the parliamentary elections which took place on December 7, 2003. The party thinks that the public should be informed about incidents of election fraud, and those responsible for the falsification of the results of the elections should be punished.

Yabloko Defiant in Wrap-up of December Vote Results
Rosbalt, January 18, 2003
Yabloko, the political party, has issued a stinging critique of the Russian political system, a Rosbalt reporter was told by the party's press service after a meeting of the party's national presidium wound up very late Thursday night.

YABLOKO says Duma elections were rigged, threatens to go to court
Gazeta.Ru, January 16, 2004
The liberal YABLOKO party intends to file a lawsuit in connection with numerous violations committed at the recent State Duma elections.

YABLOKO will prove in court that "votes were stolen" at the parliamentary elections
Gzt.Ru, January 16, 2004
"Within one or two months we shall finalise the work - the analysis of protocols of electoral commissions - and shall accumulate an ample critical mass of protocols to conduct the fight in court," said Ivanenko on Ekho Moskvi radio station.

Boris Vishnevsky: YABLOKO is not going to help those providing services to Vladimir Putin
ZAKS.RU, January 15, 2004
"The self-proclaimed nomination of Irina Khakamada as a presidential candidate represents provocation by the Kremlin. The only person to benefit is Vladimir Putin, as he has to create the impression that democratic forces are participating in the presidential campaign, a campaign which will obviously be dishonest and not free,"

More candidates appear
IA MiK, January 15, 2004
Chairman of Sverdlovsk regional branch of the Russian Democratic Party YABLOKO Yuri Kuznetsov has proposed himself as candidate for the [by-elections]of deputies of the State Duma in Verkh-Isetskiy single-mandate electoral district No 162.

Russia: A President without Rivals
By Sergei Borisov, Transitions Online, 13 January 2004
Most Russians have never doubted that Putin will be re-elected on 14 March. And after the overwhelming victory of the pro-Putin United Russia Party in the parliamentary elections on 7 December, their conviction turned into a certainty.

The state comes first for Vladimir Putin
Interview with Grigory Yavlinsky by Claudia von Salzen, Tagesspiegel, January 12, 2004
All elements of society are concentrated in the same hands which resemble the 1930s. This is a semi-Soviet system.

Yavlinsky Fears Totalitarian Slide
Reuters, January 12, 2004
Yavlinsky, speaking Thursday evening, said Russia has effectively reverted to a Soviet-style one-party parliament after the December elections. The pro-Kremlin United Russia party controls two-thirds of seats in the State Duma, and Yavlinsky said the other three parties there were indistinguishable from it on all major issues.

Kremlin brings in unknowns to spice up 'one-sided' poll
By Julius Strauss in Moscow, The Sunday Telegraph (UK), January 12, 2004
In a practice not seen in Russia since Soviet times, the Kremlin has put forward its own men to run against Vladimir Putin in presidential elections in March.

Grigory Yavlinsky: A Western type of democracy will win in Russia in 20-25 years
By Igor Deyev, ITAR-TASS, January 9, 2004
Yavlinsky stressed that the views of his party on the variants of economic and domestic political developments of the country "considerably differ" from the point of view of the present Russian leadership that "has been trying to create an inefficient system of state capitalism."

In Russia, Everything Is Just Getting Started
Interview with Grigory Yavlinsky, Vedomosti, December 29, 2003
...it turned out to be exceptionally difficult to demonstrate that there is a difference between real democrats and those who only call themselves democrats. For example, people think Boris Yeltsin was the main democrat. And it's been impossible to explain that he wasn't a democrat at all.

Grigory Yavlinsky: a Potyomkin village has been systematically built in Russia.
Novaya Gazeta, December 25, 2003
The reason is that elections have ceased to be even relatively democratic - honest, equal, or fair. With no judiciary independent from the administration, no independent mass media, no independent sources of funding, there cannot be real political competition - and that is the essence of elections.

Democratic forces in full retreat. Putin's autocracy infects the body politic.
By Robert Service, Los Angeles Times, December 21, 2003
Yavlinsky had stood up for universal human rights, for incorrupt politics and administration, for the rule of law and social justice. Although he never came close to winning the presidential races against either Boris Yeltsin or Vladimir Putin, his participation at least meant that decent values were conserved in the country's discourse.

10 Candidates in a One-Horse Race
By Francesca Mereu, The Moscow Times, January 9, 2004
Nine candidates, including SPS leader Irina Khakamada and Rodina leader Sergei Glazyev, met a year-end deadline to register to run against President Vladimir Putin in the March presidential election. But many of the challengers are Putin allies or are running at the Kremlin's request, so the election is shaping up to be a one-horse race, political analysts said Thursday.

Russian liberal fears slide to authoritarian rule
By Mark Trevelyan, Reuters, January 9, 2004
Russia's most prominent liberal says March's presidential election is a sham, and the country risks sliding towards totalitarianism under the unchallenged grip of Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin.

Will Putin Run for Presdiency Against Unknowns?
By Sergei Yuriev, Komsomolskaya Pravda, December 30, 2003
...Putin will apparently run for president against nobodies like Viktor Anpilov and Herman Sterligov, and Putin's own supporter Federation Council Speaker Sergei Mironov.

The Kremlin gets loyal lawmakers and business gets reliable lobbyists
By Vitaly Ivanov, Vedomosti, December 30, 2003
It is hard to say now what the Kremlin was really aiming to achieve when it sought absolute control over the Duma. Experts usually list four factors as possible motives. Firstly...

SPS Puzzled over Irina Khakamada's decision
RIA "Novosti", December 30, 2003
Anyway, it depends on the next party congress, on January 24, to decide whether the Union of Right-Wing Forces will back her.

Presidential Poll Eclipses 2003 Events
By Vladimir Kovalev, St.Petersburg Times, December 30, 2003
"A majority of people went to the polling stations and consciously voted to turn the country back [to the state] it was 20 to 30 years ago," Vishnevsky said last week in an interview.