| MOSCOW, January 18. 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. The meeting adopted a resolution,
where the leadership reaffirmed the platform adopted by the party's convention
in December.
In its critique the party states that it will go to court to challenge
the official results of the December 7 elections and that it will not
take part in the elections for president of Russia, as 'it has no wish
to participate in the next political imitation.' The statement declares
that possible presidential candidates include 'obviously farcical figures
dreamed up by the puppet masters of the Kremlin.'
The party also refused to support Vladimir Putin in the race on the
grounds that "over the past four years, the necessary steps have
not been taken to extricate the country from the dead-end model of oligarchil,
peripheral capitalism, nor have the central problems of education, security
and the armed services been resolved."
'We are witnessing not only a consolidation of administrative-police
arbitrariness in Russia, but also the revival of elements of totalitarianism,
and the fake struggle with the oligarchy threatens to lead to the establishment
of an all-powerful collective oligarchy of the bureaucracy and uniformed
services,' states the document.
The leadership session also reviewed the party's cooperation with the
Union of Right-Wing Forces (SPS) through the United Democratic Union.
It approved the decisions of regional Yabloko organizations, in conjunction
with the SPS, to nominate two candidates-one Yabloko and one SPS - for
by-elections to the St Petersburg legislature and for four district by-elections
to the Moscow Duma (two candidates from each party). For the elections
to the Sverdlovsk Regional legislature it was decided to create a single
electoral bloc with SPS. The presidium also considered the forthcoming
election in the Altai district (for governor and mayor of Barnaul) and
a by-election for the State Duma seat from the 207th district (St Petersburg).
See also:
State Duma elections
2003
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