On behalf of the Memorial organisation,
I would like to thank the European Parliament for
its high accolade – the Sakharov Prize.
We at Memorial see this award as relating
not only to our organisation. We take the view that,
through us, the prize is being bestowed on the whole
human rights community in Russia, and indeed more
widely – on the entire section of Russian civil
society sympathetic towards defenders of human rights.
For forty years now – first in the Soviet Union
and then in Russia – human rights defenders
have been standing up for ‘European’,
that is to say, universal values. This struggle has
never been easy; in recent years it has become tragic,
as it increasingly claims the lives of the best, the
most active and the most fearless.
I am sure that, in awarding the Sakharov
Prize to the Memorial organisation, the European Parliament
had them in mind, first and foremost – our dead
friends, comrades-in-arms, kindred spirits. This prize
belongs by right to them. And the first name I should
cite is that of Natalya Estemirova, human rights defender
and fellow member of Memorial, murdered this summer
in Chechnya.
I cannot go on without mentioning
other names too: the lawyer Stanislav Markelov and
journalists Anna Politkovskaya and Anastasia Baburova,
murdered in Moscow, ethnologist Nikolai Girenko shot
in St Petersburg, Farid Babayev, murdered in Dagestan,
and many others – sadly, it is a list that could
go on for a long time. I ask you to honour the memory
of these people by standing.
A solemn ceremony of awarding the
Sakharov Prize took place at the session of the European
Parliament in Strasburg on December 16. The laureates
of the prize were Russian human rights activists Ludmila
Alexeyeva, Sergei Kovalyov and Oleg Orlov. Human rights
activists called the European legislators “not
to turn a deaf ear” to Russian lawlessness,
and President of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek
expressed his hope that the murderers of Anna Politkovskaya
and Natalya Estemirova will be hold for court.
European legislators welcomed the
laureates with a storm of applause. Sergei Kovalyov
in his speech expressed his gratitude to the European
Parliament for a warm welcome, and asked the audience
to hold a minute of silence in memory of Natalya Estemirova,
human rights activist from the Memorial human rights
centre, killed in Chechnya in July 2009. “Europe
should not keep silence when human rights are violated
in Russia,” Kovalyov said. President of the
European Parliament Jerzy Buzek in his turn expressed
his hope that the prize will encourage human rights
activists to continue their fight against lawlessness
and protect the values that “we have been promoting
– freedom and democracy”.
According to the zaks.ru correspondent,
the Youth YABLOKO organisation in St.Petersburg conducted
an action devoted to the Constitution Day. Today the
activists decided to conduct a theatrical action.
One of the YABLOKO’s activists wearing
a mask of RF President Dmitry Medvedev publicly introduced
amendments into the articles of the Constitution written
on placards.
On December 8, 2009, the award ceremony
of the Russian Ombudsman Medal “Hurry Up to Make Good
Deeds” took place in Moscow. Human rights activists
Natalya Estemirova and Maksharip Aushev awarded medals
post mortem.
Both were members of the Expert Council
with the Ombudsman of the Russian Federation. Natalya
Estemirova had been investigating abdications of civilians,
executions and tortures since the First Chechen War.
She worked in the Memorial human rights centre. Maksharip
Aushev actively engaged in the protection of human
rights after his son and nephew abdicated in Grozny
in 2007 had been released.
Liberal International Newsletter,
December 10, 2009
In Russia, LI Full Member Yabloko
continues its battle against alleged widespread fraud
during last month's local elections. The Russian liberal
party has filed a suit for cancellation of the results
of the voting at two electoral districts in the Moscow
area. According to official data ruling party United
Russia obtained 1,002 votes more in those districts,
than indicated in the protocols given to the observers.
At a recent bureau meeting of Yabloko, party leader
Sergei Mitrokhin, commented on the flawed outcome
of the recent elections and the consequences for democracy
in Russia: “It has become clear after voting
on October 11 that elections as a legitimate institution
which could be trusted by society has been completely
ruined in Russia. This means that the democratic project
of the country's development initiated in the late
1980s has been completely closed now — and not
only by the ruling elite, but by society as well.”
Acad.Alexei Yablokov’s
blog at the Echo Moskvi web-site
December 7, 2009
I was wondering why our government
suddenly made a complete ban on incandescent electric
bulbs its prime concern (Law of the RF No 261-FZ “On
Energy Saving and Raising of Energy Efficiency and
on Introduction of Changes into Some Legislative Acts
of the Russian Federation” of November 23, 2009).
And recently I have heard the news
that Europe has been closing production of incandescent
electric lamps of the first generation (luminescent,
with mercury) – the very lamps that have to
replace our incandescent electric bulbs. And these
environmentally unfriendly productions are offered
cheaply to those who would be eager to buy them. Let
us make a simple calculation...
A meeting of the Council for Consolidation
of Women’s Movement joining together a number
of important interregional and nation-wide women’s
organisations took place on November 19, 2009.
The meeting discussed the events to
be conducted in the short term, where the Council
and most of its members will take part.
The most important events are as follows:
- Round table discussion in the Public
Chamber devoted to the 30th anniversary of the Convention
of the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
Against Women (November 25);
- Conference of the Orthodox Women “Women’s
Mission in the Spiritual and Moral Development of
the Fatherland” with participation of the Patriarch
of Russia (December 3-4, Moscow)...
By Galina Mikhalyova, Executive
Secretary of YABLOKO’s Political Committee
kommentarii.ru, November 14, 2009
The [Constitutional Court’s]
decision will broaden the rights of members of our
mostly authoritatively constructed parties only to
a small extent… However, while it is allowed
to have “locomotives” (Ed. well-known
persons topping party election lists and bringing
a large number of votes for the party and resigning
right after the election), this decision will not
be able to cardinally change the situation. The key
problem lies not only in our legislation but also
in the law enforcement practices. The laws on parties
and on elections are abundant with excess regulations
complicating performance for the parties, especially
for the opposition parties, however, the laws lack
a clear framework that would make the parties to abide
by democratic procedures (e.g., a ban on dismissal
and appointing of the governing bodies).
Special for YABLOKO’s web-site
by Ksenia Vakhrusheva, November 17, 2009
Alexander Gudimov, President of the
St.Petersburg branch of the Youth YABLOKO and Ksenia
Vakhrusheva, International Officer of the St.Petersburg
branch of the Youth YABLOKO, took part in the annual
General Assembly of the International Federation of
Liberal Youth, held on 12-15 November in the Hague,
the Netherlands. The GA joined together over130 young
liberals from 35 countries, who are ready to stand
for liberal values in there home countries and in
the world, who shared their experience
The key points of the agenda were elections of the
new executive board, voting for amendments to the
Manifesto and resolutions... On the initiative of
Youth Yabloko the General Assembly developed and adopted
a resolution on condemning elections fraud in Russia.
The resolution was approved by a majority.
By Galina Mikhalyova, Executive
Secretary of YABLOKO’s Political Committee
Special for YABLOKO’s web-site , November 17,
2009
The logics of the development of a
"fake democracy," i.e. an authoritarian
state with a formal presence of democratic institutions,
relates to deconsolidation of democratic institutions
and their delegitimisation in public opinion. Election
results become predictable in general and are, in
principle, not changeable. The ruling group creates
a system of shielding mechanisms and includes a propaganda
machine so that to strengthen its position. This results
in reprisals of the people who represent real or potential
(even insignificant) danger for the ruling system.
To ensure compliance of representatives of the political
and business elite, the authorities organize "staged"
reprisals and create external and internal enemies
to justify for such actions. Such actions are authorised
by a state controlled judicial authority. At the same
time, blocking legitimate ways of regime change leads
to intensified latent conflicts and an increased pressure
on a society and stimulates emergence of still very
weak forms of resistance.
Statement by the Russian United
Democratic Party YABLOKO, November 4, 2009
The 4th of November is officially
announced the Day of National Unity in Russia. However,
it is this day when the streets of Russian cities
turn into arena for skin-heads, Nazis and racists
provoking ethnic hatred. “Russian Marches”
conducted on permission of local authorities and multiple
unsanctioned nationalists’ actions will take
place in 16 Russian cities.
According to the analytical centre
SOVA, 50 people died and 280 people were wounded due
to xenophobia since January 2009.
The YABLOKO party states that provoking
of ethnic hatred, as well as assistance in the organisation
of nationalists’ actions, is prone of very serious
consequences, including shedding of blood and disintegration
of the country.
Sergei Mitrokhin’s blog
at the Echo Moskvi web-site, November 3, 2009
The 56th Congress of the Liberal International
(LI) where I took part, finished its work on Saturday
night in Cairo.
The congress adopted basic resolution
World Today, which, in my view is a very interesting
document. It provides liberal assessment of the situation
in different countries and regions of the world.
In terms of examples:
The congress approved election of
Barack Obama noting that he had won under the slogans
of “active civil position, tolerance, dialogue,
rights of individuals, freedom and democracy”.
[The congress also noted that] Honduras
had been “going through a period of serious
disturbances provoked by the violation of its Constitution
by the President of the Republic”.
Here comes information from the polling
stations where Dmitry Medvedev, Vladimir Putin and
[Mayor of Moscow] Yuri Luzhkov voted:
United Russia — 36,7%; CPRF
—28,4%; YABLOKO — 14,9%;
Just Russia — 9,2%; LDPR — 6%
What the electoral commissions shall
do now?! Internet is full of gags and jokes and this
is the evidence of the mental health of the nation.
However, jokes end sooner of later. In the end Russia’s
future is in stake. The stage of a saving sense of
humour will end in a year or two. Then the people
will either oust the bosses who lost their honour
or vise versa this team will drive the people to a
“stall”. The latter is more likely: such
people never give up power voluntary, moreover with
such a load of unlawful acts on their back...
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Moscow-based
NGO Memorial has walked away with the EU's 2009 Sakharov
prize for freedom of thought after a bloody year for
human rights activists in Russia.
"We hope to contribute to ending
the circle of fear and violence surrounding human
rights defenders in the Russian Federation,"
European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek said while
announcing the decision on Thursday (22 October).
The Pole and former anti-Communist
campaigner added that he felt "personal satisfaction"
over the award as "a man who comes from Solidarity
and who saw Poland fighting for truth and freedom,
which it finally won in the 1980s."
Three Memorial staff, Oleg Orlov,
Sergei Kovalev and Lyudmila Alexeyeva, will be invited
to collect the prize, which comes with a ˆ50,000 cheque,
at the EU parliament on 16 December.
By Sergei Mitrokhin
Sergei Mitrokhin, who served as a State Duma deputy
from 1994 to 2003 and a Moscow City Duma deputy from
2005 to 2009, is chairman of the Yabloko party.
The level of falsifications in the
Oct. 11 Moscow City Duma elections was unprecedented
in modern Russian history. Officials did everything
in their power to prevent opposition candidates from
registering, and Yabloko was obstructed by local authorities
and siloviki structures as early on as the signature
collection stage.
On Oct. 10, the eve of the elections,
almost every electoral district had run out of ballots.
According to Yabloko representatives, the Strogino
election committee handed out a total of only 149
ballots for the entire district. Instead, we witnessed
the so-called “carousel” system
busloads of passengers who travel from district to
district to cast their votes repeatedly.
Liberal International. Newsletter
No 157, October 16, 2009
The Moscow City Duma elections that
took place on 11 October saw multiple violations despite
the reports of the Moscow Electoral Commission that
“no grave violations” took place. Independent
election observers and opposition parties noted the
multiple violations such as ballot box stuffing and
inhibiting access to polling stations. Sergei Mitrokhin,
leader of LI member in Russia, YABLOKO, said: “Stemming
from both direct and indirect data, we can say that
YABLOKO obtained about 12% of the votes. Fraud took
almost two thirds of our votes. Many YABLOKO voters
found out that ‘someone' had already voted for
them, and they were not allowed to vote. There was
an Anti-election propaganda throughout the whole elections
and no information on where to vote was available
to the public. Russian President Medvedev described
the elections as ‘well organized' and ‘in
accordance with the law'.”
LI Deputy President decorated
by Indonesia
FNF hosts event on German elections
Moscow Regional Elections saw multiple violations
We need to power Canada on clean energy – say
LPC’s Ignatieff
Argentine Senate passes controversial media bill
Graham Watson supports Taiwan’s bid to take
part in UN agencies
Liberal Matters “The Global Economic Crisis”
now online
Cairo Congress
Electoral district No 1702, Danilovsky
district, Moscow,
All who has seen election campaigns
of the recent years mark an unbelievable scope of
fraud at yesterday’s election (Moscow City Duma
election on October 11, 2009).
Here comes only one example of election
fraud...
United Russia simply “got”
550 additional votes from nowhere. 550 is a beautiful
figure.
See the screenshots of the protocols
below. The first screenshot represents the protocol
of the Moscow Electoral Commission.
The second screenshot is the protocol
obtained by the observer.
ELDR, European Liberal Democrats,
October 12, 2009
... The BBC and other international
media outlets reported about the concern that such
violations of democratic principles happened also
elsewhere across Russia.
ELDR supports the strong commitment
of its democratic member parties Yabloko and the People’s
Democratic Union in their strenuous resistance in
defense of transparency and democracy in Russia.
ELDR commits itself for raising European awareness
around the democratic character of elections in Russia
in general, and in particular in the Moscow city Duma
elections in order to examine closer the position
of the Russian observers and the unclear results.
At the ELDR Congress in Barcelona
on 19 and 20 November, European Liberal Democrats
will discuss a resolution on the topic of citizen’s
access to the electoral system in Russia.
Grigory Yavlinsky’s
interview to the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper,
October 8, 2009
Grigory Yavlinsky has been keeping
silent for 18 months. He neither gave interviews,
nor made prognoses and assessments, however, he did
not leave politics. Political scientists and journalists
forecasted top posts for him and speculated about
his contacts with President Medvedev, discussed prospects
of his return to the post of YABLOKO’s leader.
But he kept silent.Today MK
publishes his first after a long period interview
with Grigory Yavlinsky.
MK: A month and a half ago you met
with President Medvedev. What were you talking about?
Yavlinsky: We discussed political
problems, the economic crisis and the danger of social
protests.
MK: And the President invited you
so that to discuss their probability?
Yavlinsky: I began the discussion
of the protests, as I think this very important. However,
I think that the protest will not take shape of mass-scale
actions. Now we may face disturbances at the VAZ [automobile]
plant, but this is a special story. In fact people
in Russia do not protest when they are in dire straits.
This takes a different form in our country. Our protest
is criminalization of behavioral patterns of the population
on a mass-scale level. People do not hope to influence
the authorities, and therefore they try to solve their
problems as they can – in criminal ways.
MK: And what was President’s
reaction in face of such prospects?
Leader of the YABLOKO party Sergei
Mitrokhin sharply criticized the actions of the Nashi
movement against journalist and human rights activist
Alexander Podrabinek.
“Mobbing of Alexander Podrabinek organized by
the Nashi movement and accompanied by bullying calls
that he should leave Russia is disgusting, and considering
the present Russian situation is even dangerous,”
Sergei Mitrokhin told Interfax on Thursday.
According to Mitrokhin, “a broad-scale hatred
campaign was organised against a citizen of Russia.”
Alexei Melnikov’s blog
at the Echo Moskvi web-site,
September 30, 2009
Those who consider the Nashi (Ours)
youth movement and other divisions of Putinjugend
being something like the Youth of Russia (Rossiya
Molodaya) which resembles the pioneers organisation
of the Soviet times or Hilterjugend or Chinese Red
Guards are wrong. The aforementioned organisations
in their classical period had their views and convictions,
they were driven by the fire of the totalitarian ideology.
Putinjugend does not have any views, they have only
hypocrisy. This is the most flaring phenomenon for
those who would like to single out the key feature
of Russia’s authoritarian regime.
Here we can see its bare hypocrisy everywhere: from
preposterous colours, actions, slogans and words.
If the “successors” and all their system
represent a parody of Soviet times, the Putinjugend
is a double parody.
Yesterday they raged by the Estonian Embassy and today
they put out posts by the flat of journalist Podrabinek
chasing him, tomorrow they may run to the Poland’s
mission to express their protest against comparing
the communist and the Nazi symbols.
September 29 was the expiration date
for submitting documents to the post of the head of
the Tula administration. Sergei Filatov, coordinator
of the Tula regional branch of YABLOKO and deputy
of the Tula City Duma, is one of the candidates for
the post.
In his interview to the Tula Information
Service agency Filatov told why he had adopted such
a decision to run for the head of the city administration.
By Olga Demidova
www.dw-world.de, September 28, 2009
In his interview to the Deutsche Welle
the leader of the Russian opposition party YABLOKO
Sergei Mitrokhin congratulated a “sister liberal
party” – the German FDP party - with their
success at the parliamentary election on September
27. “I think this represents a major break-through
of the liberal movement not only in Germany, but also
worldwide,” he said.
Grigory Yavlinsky’s
interview to the Radio Liberty
www.svobodanews.ru
September 22, 2009
Radio Liberty: Many Russian politicians
are enthusiastic about Barack Obama abolishing the
plans of deployment of the elements of the American
ABM system in Central Europe. Do you share such feelings?
Grigory Yavlinsky: No, I don’t,
as these missiles and the decision of deployment of
the ABM system adopted by President Bush did not threaten
Russia in any way. It had a symbolic meaning. What
Barack Obama did, was done because he was amending
an error made by george Bush, rather than yielding
to Russia, as President Bush’ decision was absolutely
inefficient - technically, economically and strategically.
He had enough courage to shelve the erroneous plan
created by George Bush.
R.L: How do you assess the reaction
of the Russian politicians who are speaking about
this as of a large diplomatic victory of Moscow then?
G.Y.: As immature, it stirs pity.
Such a reaction can not serve as a basis for further
development of reasonable, earnest, and, if we further
elaborate on this thought, grownup relationships with
the developed countries. In general this is a trade-in
approach – if you give something to me, then
I give something to you, if you take away your missiles,
we shall help you or will not help you somewhere in
Iran – such an approach to the world politics
is extremely primitive. Such approaches proved leading
to deadlocks and inefficient, but, unfortunately they
have been widely spread not only in Russia, but in
the West too...
Sergei Mitrokhin’s blog
at the Echo Moskvi web-site,
September 18, 2009
Yesterday I made a speech at the State
Duma hearings devoted to the problems of city building.
The main idea of my speech was
as follows: the notorious “vertical of power”
is the main source of corruption today.
The modern state President Medvedev
is dreaming about does not imply only the vertical
of the executive power, it should also imply horizontal
of control over the executive by the legislative and
the judicial power.
When such a horizontal is lacking,
we have an archaic and weak state, or a corrupt state,
to put it shortly, instead of a modern and strong
state. I told this to Dmitry Medvedev during our meeting
on June 11.
The term “modern state”
shifted from that discussion to the topic of the conference
in Yaroslavl. The term shifted, however, the mechanisms
of democratic governing I was speaking about did not.
Sergei Mitrokhin’s blog
at the Echo Moskvi web-site,
September 15, 2009
...No fair elections, no division
of powers, no freedom of manifestations, meetings,
etc. And monopoly on power for one party. The conclusion
was that we do not have democracy as a modern state
system, and modernization of Russia’s economy
(Dmitry Medvedev’s dream) is impossible without
this in the 21 century. By the way, I told this to
Dmitry Medvedev during our meeting on June 11.
As all the foreigners spoke about
their theories at the section, I also could not help
speaking about my theory. Here it comes in a nutshell.
Belated modernization is prone of disintegration for
countries with vast territories. The USSR lost a favourable
moment for modernization as early as in 1970s (in
contrast to China). That is
why perestroika and the beginning of Boris Yetlsin
governing represented stages of disintegration rather
than its causes. A catastrophic governing may take
place both in the democratic and the authoritarian
governing.
Yesterday’s meeting of the Moscow
City Duma Commission on Staff Issues adopted a decision
to develop and submit to the Moscow Duma in accordance
with the Moscow law “On the Ombudsman in Moscow” two
candidacies for the post of Moscow Ombudsman: city
Mayor Yuri Luzhkov proposed ex-Prefect of the Central
District of Moscow and ex-minister of the Moscow government
for information and public affairs Alexander Muzikantsky,
and the YABLOKO faction of the Moscow City Duma proposed
member of the Bureau of the YABLOKO party, Chairman
of the Board of the Social Partnership Foundation
and renown human rights activist Valery Borschyov.
Activists of the Youth YABLOKO organisation
of St.Petersburg conducted an action to commemorate
five years since abolishing of gubernatorial elections
in Russia, writes Zaks.ru correspondent. Activists
wearing masks of governors Valentina Matvienko, Yuri
Luzhkov, Valery Serdyukov, President of Chechnya Ramzan
Kadyrov and a mask of “Vladimir Medvedev” (a photoshop
merging Vladimir Putin and Dmrity Medvedev) showed
a theatrical performance.
The YABLOKO party states that the
resumed investigation of the murder of Galina Starovoitova
gives hopes that those who ordered this crime will
be identified.
“We would like to hope for the
better, and that there is political will in this case
so that not to close the case when those who implemented
the crime are found, but to find those who ordered
the murder, maybe not the very top persons, but still
those who ordered and organised the crime,”
Mikhail Amosov, member of YABLOKO’s Political
Committee told Interfax
An inscription praising Joseph Stalin
at a refurbished metro station in Moscow has sparked
a new controversy over the Soviet political and architectural
heritage.
Passengers at the Kurskaya metro station,
unveiled after the repairs, have been surprised recently
to see it decorated with a powerful symbol of the
past. A restored inscription contains a line from
an old version of the Soviet national anthem...
Sergei Mitrokhin, leader of the liberal
YABLOKO party called on the management of the Moscow
metro to remove the inscription that “insults
the memory of millions of victims of political repressions.”
About two dozens of people gathered
in Chernishevsky Garden in St.Petersburg on August
22 so that to pay tribute to the memory of Natasha
Estemirova. It was the 39th day since Natasha’s
death, which, according to the Muslim tradition, is
a commemoration day.
Sergei Mitrokhin’s blog
at the Echo Moskvi radio station web-site
August 18, 2009
All the technogenic disasters in all
the countries have some common roots (natural calamities,
human factor, etc), however, Russia’s disasters
have some specific traits rooted in our policies.
This refers to abrupt and ill-conceived commercialisation
of the spheres that had to be governed with professionalism
and rational conservatism. Thus, for example, there
was not a single professional power engineer in the
RAO Unified Energy System of Russia board since 2002,
the board had only specialists in financial flows.
The lists of candidates to the deputies
of the Moscow City Duma submitted by the YABLOKO party
to the Moscow Electoral Commission were attested and
certified at the Commission meeting on Monday.YABLOKO's
list of 49 candidates was approved by the party conference
of the Moscow branch of YABLOKO on July 22. The list
is topped by Moscow City Duma deputies Sergei Mitrokhin,
YABLOKO's leader and Chair of the Moscow branch of
YABLOKO, and Eugeni Bunimovich, Deputy Chair of the
Moscow YABLOKO.
Galina Mikhalyova specially
for YABLOKO's
web-site, July 24, 2009
Women constitute 43% (21 women out
of 49 candidates) in the list of candidates to the
Moscow City Duma approved by the conference of the
Moscow branch of YABLOKO’s on July 22.
The ELDR Party, deeply shocked by
the murder of Natalya Estemirova, Russian journalist,
award winning human rights activist, and moral successor
of Anna Stepanovna Politkovskaia, urgently demands
a comprehensive investigation into this criminal act
which has its roots in censorship of information and
lack of freedom in Russia.
Liberal International, Newsletter
No 143, July 13, 2009
During the visit of US president Barack Obama to Russia
this week, Sergei Mitorkhin, the leader of Russian
LI Full Member party Yabloko had an opportunity to
meet with the American president to speak about a
variety of issues, primarily discussing cooperation
in constructing a joint Russian-American anti-ballistic
missile system (ABM).
Fontanka.ru, June 30, 2009
The Soviet Union collapsed due to “ecological horror
stories” of 1980s that provoked “artificial schizophrenic
attitudes”: thus, a fear of salmonellosis led to a
situation when Soviet citizens stopped eating chicken
and the corresponding ministry responsible for provision
of poultry collapsed, and a “horror story” on nitrates
filling vegetables grown in the USSR killed our agriculture.
After this the country was crammed with US poultry
and imported fruit and vegetables.
ITAR TASS, July 8, 2009 00:09
US President Barack Obama admits that deployment of
the US ABM system in Europe is prone of conflicts,
said Sergei Mitrokhin, leader of the YABLOKO party,
after today’s meeting of Barack Obama with the Russian
oppositions.
Inopressa.ru after ABC.es,
July 6, 2009
ABC.es, Spain, published an interview with economist
and member of the liberal Yabloko party Grigory Yavlinsky.
Interview with Grigory Yavlinsky
by Natalia Bekhtereva, Radio Russia, June 15, 2009
On the threashold of a state holiday – the Day of
Russia – President Medvedev met with representatives
of non-parliamentary political parties – The Right
Course, Patriots of Russia and YABLOKO. All these
parties naturally have their own views of how Russia
should develop further. The United Russian Democratic
Party YABLOKO certainly has its own point of view
here, YABLOKO’s founder professor Grigory Yavlinsky
is our guest today.
November
2004
Supreme
Court Begins Reviewing Election Annulment Case
MosNews, November 15, 2004
Sergei Ivanenko, who is the assistant head of Yabloko
and a member of the 2008 Free Choice Committee, thinks
that this trial is crucial for the future of Russia’s
democracy. “The most important thing is for
this trial to be a normal and lawful legal trial,”
he said.
Governor's
Son Eyes VTB Post
By Vladimir Kovalyev, The Moscow Times, November 15,
2004
"It is unlikely that the merging of the administration
and business could be tied up so closely if it was
outside the family circle," said Boris
Vishnevsky, a Yabloko faction member in the Legislative
Assembly.
Duma
Gives the Nod to Party Bill
By Oksana Yablokova, The Moscow Times, November 11,
2004
The State Duma on Wednesday approved a Kremlin-backed
bill requiring political parties to have 50,000 registered
members, an increase from 10,000...
Yabloko says it has 85,000 members, while SPS claims
about 35,000 members.
Putin
Creates Civil Society Council
By Francesca Mereu, The Moscow Times, November 11,
2004
In an apparent attempt to boost Kremlin control over
civil society, President Vladimir Putin has dissolved
the Human Rights Commission and replaced it with the
Council for Developing Civil Society Institutions
and Human Rights.
Soldiers'
Mothers To Form Party
By Oksana Yablokova, The St. Petersburg Times, November
9, 2004
After 15 years of assisting conscripts who suffer
from hazing or wish to avoid compulsory military service,
the respected Union of Soldiers' Mothers Committees
is going into politics with the creation last weekend
of the United People's Party of Soldiers' Mothers.
YABLOKO
Mulls Alliance with Glazev
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, November 8, 2004
Yabloko deputy leader Sergei
Mitrokhin told "Vremya novostei" on
5 November that Yabloko is to "hold broad-based
talks with various groups, including Sergei Glazev's
For a Decent Life" and "one of the future
coalition's goals will be to participate in elections."
Yabloko
Finds Itself at Crossroad
By Francesca Mereu, The St. Petersburg Times, November
2, 2004
"Our financial situation is extremely bad,"
Yabloko deputy leader Sergei
Mitrokhin said in a recent interview in his office.
"There are a lot of businesses that are ready
to help us because they believe in our policies, but
they want us to get the Kremlin's approval for their
financing," he said. "They are afraid of
losing their businesses if they give money to a party
that opposes the Kremlin."
500
Protesters Denounce Racism in St. Petersburg By Vladimir Kovalyev, The Moscow Times, November
2, 2004
"We don't pay enough attention to the education
of our people," Lukin
told the rally Sunday on Sakharov Square. "The
authorities don't pay enough attention to this issue.
But it looks like a small avalanche is being formed
that could snowball and destroy the government itself
if it doesn't deal with the problem."
Ustinov:
Detain Terrorists' Relatives By Oksana Yablokova, The Moscow Times, November
1, 2004
Yabloko leader and former Deputy Grigory
Yavlinsky warned in a statement that the proposal
is an attempt to restore the Soviet prosecution system
of the 1930s that effectively became the legal machine
for Stalin's purges.
Duma
Gives Nod to Putin's Governors Bill By Oksana Yablokova, The Moscow Times, November
1, 2004
"I do not see why the governors become more efficient
and less corrupt if they are appointed and not elected
in a popular vote," said Sergei
Popov, a member of the liberal Yabloko party and
an independent deputy.
Russian
Liberal Yavlinsky Awarded Prize for Freedom MosNews, October 18, 2004 (Archive)
Yabloko head was nominated for the award by the faction
Liberals, Democrats and Reformers of the Parliamentary
Assembly of the Council of Europe. This decision was
made in October 2003 during a session of the Liberal
International in Dakar, Senegal. The party had an
observer status by the Liberal International since
1998, and became its full member in 2002.
