Press Release, 14.12.2019

“Over the past four years, Yabloko has been able to strengthen its position,” said Yabloko Chair Emilia Slabunova, presenting a report on the party’s activities at the 21st Yabloko congress.

“This is the stance of the country’s key organised democratic force, openly criticising the government, demanding a change in the Russian leadership, a change in the political course. Certainly, we did not solve all the problems, but we achieved significant results,” she noted.

The work of the opposition party in the present situation in Russia is becoming increasingly difficult and dangerous, however, Yabloko is represented in 78 regions on the country’s political map.

Emilia Slabunova spoke about the work of the party’s factions: the Human Rights, the Gender and the Green Russia faction. The politician emphasised that the past four years were characterised by tension in the country’s foreign policy, but the Yabloko party was the only political force in the country that advocated an anti-militarist stance.

Slabunova also noted positive changes that occurred in the party’s relations with other organisations on the democratic flank. She stressed that the party was ready to fulfill the role of a consolidator of democratic and civilian forces in Russian politics, which would be especially important to show to society on the eve of the State Duma elections of 2021.

“Yabloko is and will continue to position itself as a party of professionals, based on a serious Russian expert community,” Slabunova noted. The party developed several fundamental programmes and strategies for socio-economic and political development.

Slabunova also emphasised that the party had actively used the right of regional legislative initiative submitting to the parliaments of the regions where Yabloko was presented bills on the abolition of the municipal filter, independence of the Russian Academy of Sciences, restricting the President’s right to use the country’s armed forces abroad, deanonymising security officials, and on the right of families to give their children education in one school and many others.

The Chair of Yabloko also emphasised that the values ​​and the platform of the party had remained unchanged from the moment of its foundation, which was especially important now when the world was covered by a wave of populism and isolationism. “In the conditions of transit of power, it is important to show to the Russian society that politics can be honest and clean,” Emilia Slabunova said.

In her opinion, all this time the party presented to society a serious substantial alternative to the government’s policies. Over the past four years, Yabloko developed two fundamental documents: the programmes Respect for People and Road to the Future, as well as a number of industry-specific programmes on tourism development, state policies for regional development, reduction of poverty, the way out of the conflict in Syria, and a plan to resolve the situation in Donbass.

For the first time, the party held major federal campaigns on priority topics. The most ambitious campaign was Time to Return Home: party activists collected more than 100,000 signatures for the withdrawal of Russian troops from Syria. The campaign was held in 42 regions of the country.

Another campaign Let Us Bring Russia Its Voice Back” was aimed at returning direct elections of the heads of regions and cities, 50,000 people left their signatures in support of Yabloko’s proposals. The campaign on the New Budget Policy for changing budget priorities was supported by 40 regional branches of Yabloko.

The project Build Schools – Build the Future proposed to allot additional funds from oil and gas revenues for the construction of new schools and the repair of existing ones.

The action “Make Your Voice Louder!” on admission to Yabloko of all the dissenting with the government’s policies and sharing the values ​​of the party, was announced in February 2019.

Yabloko also held campaigns and rallies against raising the retirement age, government’s “optimization” of social institutions and the so-called garbage reform. “All these programmes show that Yabloko generates systemic answers to international and domestic problems,” Slabunova said.

The party remained the only non-parliamentary party that took part in elections at all levels, she noted. Over the past four years, Yabloko increased the number of deputies from 198 to 398 people. In her speech, Emilia Slabunova highlighted the party’s election campaigns, especially noting this year’s party campaign in the Moscow City Duma, where Yabloko received four mandates.  “Yabloko can win, and will win,” Slabunova concluded.

She emphasised that the election campaigns of these four years and the party’s activities were based on the results of sociological studies. For the first time after a 12-year intermission, the party conducted seven studies with leading sociological centres in Russia.

Emilia Slabunova also spoke about the importance of party building, emphasising the need to develop a system of incentives for regional branches based on clear, simple and understandable performance criteria.

An important area of ​​the party’s work was information policy: over four years, Yabloko’s mention in the media doubled; in terms of the number of references in the media, Yabloko is second only to the parliamentary parties.

Slabunova also told that several centres were created for systematic work in the party: the Anti-Corruption Policies, the Legislative Initiatives, the New Municipal Policy, and the Gender Policy centre.

The party actively participated in the activities of international liberal organisations, and also held a large number of educational events.

Yabloko Chair concluded that in 2016-19 the party accomplished a lot of substantive work, consolidated its stance, and proved that it was the only organised political force offering both a meaningful and personnel alternative to the present government.

“We are able to win and we will win!” Slabunova said.