| The elections are over, as is the flow of black PR, lies
and dirt. The author of an article published in Moskovskiye Novosti Elena
Dikun, until recently the Press Secretary of the Union of Right-Wing Forces
(SPS) has revived this issue again. As is typical in this genre her tale
(Moskovskiye Novosti No 14, 2004) is based on anonymous sources.
The title of the article (YABLOKO Is Packing its Suitcases) obviously
mirrors the wishes of the author, instead of reality. The author could
have easily obtained information about what the party has been doing,
say, over the past two months.
The position of the party on the presidential elections was broadly
discussed and was finally supported by most democratic forces.
YABLOKO’s representatives continue participating in regional elections.
At the recent municipal elections on March 14, 2004, 37 YABLOKO members
were elected (St.Petersburg, Sverdlovsk region, Minusinsk and Neftekamsk).
YABLOKO created a precedent of mass-scale protection of the franchise:
lawsuits on the falsification of the results of the parliamentary elections
were filed in 44 federation subjects. At present the courts in 16 regions
have already accepted such appeals, which will now go to trial. On YABLOKO’s
initiative, a coalition was created to monitor the elections from the
representatives of different public organisations.
YABLOKO has been working with its representatives in the State Duma,
the government and the Plenipotentiary for the Human Rights of the Russian
Federation (Ed. Ombudsman). YABLOKO has also prepared the creation of
public reception rooms on the basis of its regional organisations to cooperate
with the ombudsman. The Expert Council of the party is still operational
and not a single expert left.
And YABLOKO initiated and organised the protest action against the law
prohibiting public meetings, drew attention to these developments and
led to a change in the legal statu. On YABLOKO’s initiative amendments
to the Forestry Code of the RF were collected, summarised and agreed with
the ecologists and handed over to the Minster of Natural Resources. Consequently,
the adoption of the Forestry Code was postponed due to YABLOKO’s
arguments. On May 1 a democratic march was held, entitled “Civil
Society Against a Police State”: the idea was backed by many civil
organisations and individual politicians.
YABLOKO negotiated and prepared a regular YABLOKO’s leaflet, which
was attached to one of the federal newspapers. The first such publication
will take place at the end of April.
That is all there is to say about the party. Now let us turn separately
to Grigory Yavlinsky’s
private life, a topic which was of such great interest to the SPS during
the elections. In her article, consisting of three abstracts, Dikun managed
to write lies about Yavlinsky’s foreign trips, his alleged new appointment
and bodyguards allegedly paid for from party finances, etc.
This means that neither Moskovskiye Novosti, nor Dikun realised that
one of the reasons for the failure of the SPS at the elections (in all
parameters it lost against YABLOKO) was this disgusting dirt: the Yabloko
without Yavlinsky campaign, intrusion into his private life, attacks against
his relatives, provocations, etc.
The newspaper sheds crocodile tears on the fate of democracy in Russia.
Through such publications it split, quarreled and marginalised everything
[the democratic forces]. However, the prospects of the forces behind the
implementation of such policies are very poor, as we can see.
See also:
SPS and YABLOKO
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