Press Release, 23.09.2019

The Yabloko faction in the Moscow City Duma unanimously elected Maxim Kruglov as its leader.

Sergei Mitrokhin, who led the party’s faction in the Moscow City Duma of the fourth convocation (2005-2009), recused himself. Mitrokhin explained this step by the desire to maintain solidarity within the new faction, as well as to enable the young deputy to realise his potential.

“The threat to solidarity would inevitably arise if the newly elected chairman did not receive the support of all members of the faction. I think it is wrong to start work with such a dissonance,”Mitrokhin wrote on his Facebook page.

However, Mitrokhin did not rule out that the faction could return to his candidacy next year, since the faction leader is elected to this post for a year.

Maxim Kruglov thanked his colleagues for their support, noting that Mitrokhin’s withdrawal was a surprise to him. “I myself saw Sergei Mitrokhin as the head of our faction. Under the conditions that he recused himself in order to ensure solidarity within the faction, I shall try to justify the confidence vested in me and I will work together with Sergei Mitrokhin, Yevgeny Bunimovich and Daria Besedina to realise our goals,” Kruglov said.

Daria Besedina called the election of Maxim Kruglov the leader of the faction “the first important and carefully considered decision at the beginning of the long road” that Yabloko faces in the Moscow City Duma. “I am very happy to work with people like members of our faction,” she said.

Grigory Yavlinsky, Chairman of the party’s Federal Political Committee, commented on the decision of Mitrokhin as follows: “It was a sign of wisdom, honesty and sincerity in politics, a rare act for Russian politics in general”. “The party respects the decision made by Mitrokhin,” Grigory Yavlinsky emphasised.

Maxim Kruglov is 32 years old. He graduated from the Russian State Social University (RGSU), the Department of Political Science, and finished the post-graduate course in the Russian State Humanitarian University (RGGU), candidate of political sciences. From 2007 to 2009, he was a member of the Youth Chamber at the Moscow City Duma; from 2009, he was an expert at the Yabloko Anti-Corruption Policy Centre. He won the elections to the Moscow City Duma in single-mandate constituency No 14, defeating the rector of the RGSU Natalya Pochinok.