At the end of last week
the Yabloko faction adopted an open letter to Boris Nikolayevich
Yeltsin. We thought that it would find its way into the
newspapers. Unfortunately, this did not happen. The
text was not published, only accounts
spiced in this form or the other by journalists' commentaries
appeared. I request that Obshchaya Gazeta publish, if
possible, the full text so that the President have an
opportunity to familiarize himself with it. We are interested
in this case in B.N. Yeltsin's response to the appeal
to him, not journalists' commentaries.
What has dictated this drastic way of
framing the issue? It has not hitherto been characteristic
of our movement, today, though, this is explained by a
whole number of factors. The election campaign in Bashkiria,
which turned the elections into a comedy, the bloody tragedy
in Elista, and much else. All this is being summarized
in the minds of our constituent and leading him to the
unequivocal conclusion that it is time, simply essential,
for Yeltsin to go. This opinion did not arise all at once,
and now it is quite
definite.
In conveying this letter to the newspaper
I would like to emphasize that no one is working against
Yeltsin, he is working against himself and doing so at
times with great enthusiasm.
Grigoriy Yavlinsky
Open Letter to the President of Russia
Dear Boris Nikolayevich,
We consider it our duty to call your attention to the
glaring illegalities in a number of republics that are
a part of the Russian Federation.
We are uncomfortable with the composure, which at times
develops into open support, with which you, who call yourself
the guarantor of the Constitution, contemplate the outrages
of the regional authorities in a number of components
of the Russian Federation.
The enormous profanation called elections of the president
of the Republic of Bashkortostan has just been presented
to the view of the entire country.
The viewers of all television programs and the readers
of almost all newspapers have learned that:
President Rakhimov illegally brought the elections forward;
the Central Election Commission of the Republic of Bashkortostan
refused to register two candidates in opposition to Rakhimov,
ignoring the ruling of the Supreme Court;
independent news media such as the newspaper Vecherniy
Neftekamsk and the Timan radio station were persecuted
in the course of the campaign;
all the prerequisites for vote-rigging in favor of
Rakhimov were created;
the MVD authorities, which were essentially made Rakhimov's
personal secret police, were employed in the fight against
dissidents;
The only thing that the audience of the news media
has not heard is how you, the guarantor of the Constitution,
have reacted to these obvious facts of tyranny.
The propensity of the leadership of Bashkiria for unlawful
behavior could hardly have been news to you, who surely
knows that the republic is systematically mocking Russian
legislation, flouting human rights, strangling the independent
press, and shamelessly appropriating the powers of federal
structures--those of yourself, president of Russia, included.
For numerous governors and presidents of our country
your inaction is serving to confirm the idea that all
this is permissible and justified. But this is the quickest
way to the feudal disintegration of the country, which
is increasingly coming to resemble a confederation of
appanage principalities.
The murder of our colleague Larisa Yudina has put on
general view the criminal essence of the Ilyumzhinov regime
in Kalmykia. It is obvious to all that such crimes cannot
occur in a void. A tremendous share of the responsibility
for what happened in Kalmykia is borne by the federal
authorities, which simply failed to react to the fact
that the elections of the president of Kalmykia in October
1995 contained the most flagrant violations of Russian
legislation.
Are you aware that in conniving at the lawlessness, "elections,"
and tyranny in Russia's regions you are assuming responsibility
for future political assassinations?
Today, two years prior to the expiration of your term,
we propose that you think not only about the discharge
of your constitutional obligations but also about your
historical responsibility. For the possibility that you
will go down in the history of Russia as the politician
who was the cause of its disintegration is today all too
obvious.
On behalf of the Yabloko public association, Grigoriy
Yavlinsky. 18 June 1998.
