Press Release, 14.12.2019

Grigory Yavlinsky, Chairman of the Yabloko Federal Political Committee, made a political report at the 21st Party Congress (full transcript in Russian is here). The report dealt with Russia’s domestic and foreign policies, the situation in Russian economy, as well as the challenges that Yabloko faces today.

According to Yavlinsky, a mature authoritarian system of power was establish in Russia. “At times, this is authoritarianism, taken to the extreme, when one person makes decisions that even in Soviet times were made by 14 – 15 members of the Political Bureau [of then ruling communist party],” he said. This system is characterised by “contempt for a person, suppression of freedom, spreading of fear, corruption, and confrontation with neighbours”.

Yavlinsky stressed that this “corporate system” was not able to see the future, even its own. It had no ideology, the goal was irremovability, and it had only one principle – the end justifying the means.

“As daily practices, today’s politics is lies, reprisals, war and corruption,” Yavlinsky said. “These are dangerous times when the country is led by those who are ready to lie about anything, and they are supported by those who are ready to believe in anything, basing on the media that report anything. We must break out of this delusion.”

Such policies led to a “terrible tragedy” in eastern Ukraine, participation in a foreign civil war in Syria resulting in an increasing threat of terrorism.

Also the danger of a major war had been growing, Yavlinsky noted. Almost all nuclear arms control treaties expired, this resulted in an arms race.

Speaking about the situation in the Russian economy, Grigory Yavlinsky stressed in particular that almost a third of all Russians live on less than 690 roubles (approximately 9.8 Euro) a day. The structure of exports has been changing with the share of energy resources growing, and high-tech exports  declining.

Another large topic covered by Grigory Yavlinsky was the political reprisals in Russian. Yabloko founder talked in particular about Konstantin Kotov, a political prisoner of the so-called “Moscow riots” case, who received four years in prison. According to the leader of Yabloko, in the summer of 2019 (as in 2011), people took to the streets in protest against fraud.

“Freedom for political prisoners is a demand that must be repeated every day. Not a single prisoner should be left without attention. It is necessary to remember and protect not only those involved in the “Moscow riots” case, but also activists from the regions, public figures under investigation, human rights activists who were recognised “foreign agents”. Such a policy aims to scare everyone in Russia today. Their [political prisoners’] freedom is our freedom,” Yavlinsky said.

Yavlinsky also noted that “we are immersed in the political culture of primitive authoritarianism”. It needs to be abolished and replaced by a different culture.

According to the leader of Yabloko, those political figures can be considered successful who make maximum contribution to the change of political course of the country, rather than those who gather a lot of people in the street or event those who are able to get several mandates in regional legislative assemblies or even in the State Duma.

“Russia vitally needs freedom. Freedom is life without fear. All citizens have the right to freedom of speech, religion, freedom from need and poverty, and freedom from fear. When they are implemented, it will be a country of people, not a country of officials, groupings and thieves,” Yavlinsky emphasised.

Grigory Yavlinsky also proposed making the Memorandum of Political Alternative a party programme document, binding on all members of the governing bodies of Yabloko. “This means strengthening of our identity, this is the prevention of the erosion of our political subjectivity. We are open to dialogue, but not to being imposed the ideas that are alien to us by majority or force,” he stressed.

Yavlinsky noted that he saw the goal and meaning of Yabloko in “making it possible for society to conduct an active and principled dialogue with the authorities.” According to him, if there is no open and legal participation of society in determining the fate of the country, then “the transit of power can turn into a triumph of a militaristic and national-imperial course”. The potential of society is now very law, Yavlinsky said.

Protest activism must be turned into political action. “The rising waves of protest activity are giving way to recession, leaving more and more political prisoners behind. This is a noble protest, I myself will personally participate in it, but we must understand that protests rise and then subside, and what is the perspective? We must break this vicious circle,” Grigory Yavlinsky emphasised.

According to Yavlinsky, if thousands of people across the country join Yabloko every day, this will be a form of protest. Studies show that if 3 – 5 per cent of the country’s population take part in a peaceful protest, this will be a decisive prerequisite for a regime change, he said. Such a party should have its own programme and leaders.

The key issue for Yabloko in this connection with this is “how to combine our ideology with the energy of society,” Yavlinsky said. According to Yavlinsky, Yabloko should become an intellectual leader: “We must be a party of the choice for society. We must be a party of human dignity. Russia needs a moral imperative, for which we all work with you. We will have to prove that the goal is not in the empire, not in the seizure of territory, but life, freedom and creativity.”

At the same time, Grigory Yavlinsky also noted that Yabloko itself needed to be improved taking into account both the developments within the party and the new requirements that the parties are facing today, in particular because of the crisis of the Schumpeterian model of democracy.

“We often talk about the need to renew the party, and this is wonderful. But these conversations will end in failure if we do not do this,” Grigory Yavlinsky said.

He proposed not to close the congress, but to consider the meeting on December 14-15, 2019, as the first stage of the congress. The second stage, according to the party leader, should take place no later than November 2020. At this point, a special working group formed by the Political Committee should prepare a package of proposals for the development of the party, as well as changes and improvements to the by-laws of Yabloko.

According to Yavlinsky, this should be the main task for the party Chairperson, whom the congress will elect today.