| Question: YABLOKO has never resorted to extremist
methods such as smearing memorial plaques with paint before. Are you looking
for new methods of political struggle?
Melnikov: Politics
has now been taken to the streets, as a free parliament has been destroyed
by Putin and his stooges. As it has been taken into the streets it has
naturally become more radical. Yet this cannot be called extremism because
then the term "extremist" would also have to be applied to those
who defended the Russian "White House" in 1991, manning the
barricades.
But here we must not lose track of the ultimate objective - putting
in place a ruling authority that would be responsible to the people; a
political setup where the mass media in the country are really free, the
courts and local governments independent while the FSB is under effective
public control.
Radicalism in this country has various forms and manifestations. But
the fact that protest actions come from young people does not make them less significant. In 1968 the student unrest
in France drastically changed the relationship between the political establishment
and society in Europe.
Question: Are you ready to unite with other opposition movements?
Melnikov: We cannot possibly go along with such movements
as the NBP [the National Bolsheviks Party]. We have no wish to protest
for the sake of totalitarian goals. Our protest is for the sake of freedom.
Question: Why did YABLOKO fail to stage a protest when the
party was in the parliament?
Melnikov: I would not say that it failed. A lot of
what we undertook was a success.
Question: Could you give an example?
Melnikov: OK, when I was in the State Duma, I dealt
with the case of Alexei Pichugin (according to the Prosecutor's Office,
he is considered to be the principal accomplice of Leonid Nevzlin, a major
shareholder of YUKOS, charged with organising a contract killing of a
former city hall official. - MN). There was evidence that psychotropic substances had been used on him to obtain certain information, I am saying
this because the FSB and the Prosecutor General's Office blocked an independent
medical examination of Pichugin; there is documentary evidence of this.
I realised that the "murder case" was a set-up. Today I am sure
of this. The "murder case" has come in handy today
- to show something now that the formal case against YUKOS has effectively
collapsed. The political establishment has made a new attempt to justify
itself in the eyes of world public opinion: "Are you going to protect
the company? Remember that you are protecting a gang of killers."
I am certain that this plan will fall through as well.
See also:
YUKOS Case
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