Decision by the Political Committee of the Russian United Democratic Party YABLOKO,19.11.2013

1. The country and the society have approached a qualitatively new condition
The problems accumulated for the past 15-20 year: shifts from the principles and norms of democracy, cynical perversion of democratic ideas and slogans, using them for covering up theft and corruption, long-term simulation of the most important institutions, endless lies, equating public interests to personal and caste interests and considerable isolation of the ruling nomenclature Russia from the rest of the world – all this have led the country and the society to a qualitatively new condition when:

1. Any, even seemingly reasonable solutions are either impracticable or meaningless, because it is impossible (or nearly impossible) to correct and reform the present system.
2. The well-known ways and means for nomalisation of social life – freedom of speech, federalization and free elections – do not have any chance of being implemented. The prospects of a sudden collapse of the present Yeltsin-Putin system are quite likely and something even more shocking may come into its place. This fully applies to economic projects and initiatives.
From the point of view of development, the present corporate semi-criminal system is dead; it has neither a vector of development, nor room to movement. It is only a matter of time.
In these circumstances the task of political force which is responsible for the people and the country may be reduced to a single one, but a crucial point: creation of the democratic opposition proposing a moral, personal, human resources and programme alternative.
No one in the country, but the YABLOKO party, has acquired such experience. Therefore, we need to formulate the essence and meaning of such an alternative.
2. What we have
The group which has been trying to declare itself as the political opposition, has been consistently demonstrating, in its present condition, their inability to respond to the present challenges of the Russian history. This leads to further frustration of citizens, their lack of faith in the feasibility of peaceful and progressive positive change, which leads to a situation when populists and radicals are taking the lead in the protests.
This situation can not be justified by the lack of time or difficult working conditions. Virtually the same figures, who dropped out of real politics, have been constantly creating stillborn quasipolitical structures or ‘circles’: a decade has passed since the creation of the Committee 2008, then there were The Other Russia, the National Assembly, Solidarity and the Opposition Coordination Council…
The incompetence and arrogance of those who are called today ‘the opposition leaders’ has led to their complete failure many times already, but they persist in repeating the same erroneous actions.
In particular, the much promoted the Opposition Coordination Council virtually collapsed because it had never been a real coordinating body, i.e., a platform for the coordination of opposition parties. In reality it represented a kind of a union of media figures, some clubbing set of very well-known liberal journalists and a number of also well-known public figures. Most of them went politically bankrupt during mass-scale protests, without offering any coherent political strategy to the protesters. In addition, the Coordination Council had among its members several leaders of nationalistic movements who do not enjoy broad electoral support, as well as the left, who also failed to prove their political consistency, but were involved in a series of scandals connected with moral and financial impropriety.
We believe that the fundamental errors that have led to the failure were as follows:
• mechanical merger of different and diverging political forces and imitation of “unity”;
• lack of capacity for long-term strategic work for formation of the democratic alternative;
• attempts to expand the circle of supporters through an alliance with left-wing radicals, nationalists and the National Bolsheviks;
• hopeless expectation of a “split in the elites” and changes in the state power initiated by the so-called “liberal wing” of the authoritarian administration;
• stakes on non-political, “ordinary citizens” protest, refusal from political struggle (many of those who urged the citizens to follow them to such a dead end have realised today the complexity of real work and opted out of it but time was lost) ;
• vote in the elections proceeding from the principle “for anyone, except the [ruling] United Russia [party]”.
Many of these errors have been repeated for over a decade, but no conclusions are made. Consequently, one more “opposition” structure – the Opposition Coordination Council – crumbled demonstrating citizens its complete disability. The hope to find even a minimum support on the top of the present oligarchic authority has balked. An exaggerated idea of ​​the possibilities, and, most importantly, of the intentions of Dmitry Medvedev, bursting as a bubble after his waiver for a second presidential term represent a valuable lesson for all supporters of change in Russia.
We would like to say that famous people and all those who helped them to spend time and energy on designing organisational “dummies”, bear enormous human and political responsibility for the failure of the Russian democratic movement in the past ten years. They are mainly to blame for foolishly wasted time and profound disappointment of citizens. Many of these people still have not realized their responsibility for the criminal privatization of 1990s and its political cover, as well as for the support and direct involvement in bringing Vladimir Putin to power as a means of rescue of the system which was so beneficial to them, but disastrous for the country’s political and economic system. Announcing their movement to the opposition, but constantly disappointing people’s expectations, they made a gift to the authoritarian regime of another ten years of a life of ease with continuously reorganised but steadily inviable mass media and street opposition.
Even today, in the presence of huge public demand for change, the so-called “opposition leaders” have virtually disappointed public expectations and continue to parasitise on the energy of the civil movement.
We can not say what prevails in this flurry of activity leading to the failure of the democratic opposition: arrogance and incompetence, or collusion with the authorities. We do not know this, but the fact is that there has been no other well-organised political democratic opposition in Russia, but YABLOKO.
3. What is the democratic opposition today and what should be done?
A democratic opposition is a political force aiming at coming into government and launching a principled change of the political system which developed in Russia for the past decades by means of peaceful, lawful and legal procedures.
The living conditions of the civil society and work of the democratic opposition under the system based on the merger of power and property are as follows:

• It is useless to wait for a “split in the elites”. There is no elite in the present government. A real Russian elite is not allowed into the government. Those who have been work in the Russian government for the past decade represent nomeklatura, and it is united over its basic interests, whereas their key interest is to maintain in any form the present political and economic system.
• There can be no real opposition forming around representatives of the Russian big business, such as, for example, Mikhail Prokhorov, as the essence of the political and economic system is merger of power and large property. Today all the billionaires are part of the Russian government. These are people of different qualities and traditions than those that are needed to reform the country.

• The nomenclature parties represented in the State Duma can not be used for hitting the goals of the democratic opposition. Voting for any of these parties represents voting for the ruling United Russia’s counterpart or a potential successor, rather than for the alternative.
• And in terms of the prospects, it is impossible to rely on populist methods and those, like Alexei Navalny, who use these methods and aspire for leadership. An attempt to “privatise” the fight against corruption and increase their own popularity with the help of such self-promotion can not replace political, programme and ideological content. The tactics of responding to acute and complex issues standing before the country described by the formula “when I get into power, everything will be all right,” leads to further deprofessionalisation and degradation of Russian politics and civil society. The “new face” will soon turn into and “old face” and will be replaced by even more primitive people, slogans and methods.
• The attempts to mechanically broaden the social base of the democratic opposition through an alliance with the left and the nationalists do not solve the problem of the narrow base of support for those Democrats who associate the period of liberation of the country (which was again allegedly enslaved by Putin in the 2000s) with the ill-conceived, misguided and sometimes criminal actions of the authorities in 1990s.
• It is impossible to go on with establishing such structures as the Coordination Council replacing political struggle for changes in the country by the struggle for popularity in a pleasant, but a very narrow social circle.

Today only politically responsible and financially transparent organisation enjoying support of Russian citizens can become workable, prospective and successful opposition which will respond to the demands of history, society and expectations of citizens; this opposition can offer Russia the following:

– an honest conversation about Russia’s problems both in their present acute manifestations and its historical context;

– a meaningful political alternative to the present authoritarian rule in the country both in terms of the course the country has been pursuing, and in addressing the most pressing problems faced by citizens, such as housing problems, accessibility and quality of education and healthcare, fight against corruption, creation of an efficient professional army which would not kill its soldiers and creation of an independent judiciary;

– professional and uncompromising struggle for the implementation of this alternative in elections at all levels, which enivsages well-trained political personnel;

– reputation based on the decisions, actions and words that were taken and uttered in the most important moments in recent history.

Certainly, the ability to create an alternative – a moral, programme and personal alternative – represents the key trait among the aforementioned.

4. The YABLOKO party in the present situation
The YABLOKO party has been consistently offering to the public a meaningful and alternative programme.
We have a professional and ready to use programmes for solution of the biggest and most pressing issues in Russia, the key issues are as follows:

– The concept of a deep political reform, including the reform of the judicial system, and envisaging a steady movement to the rule of law and respect for the individual on the basis of democracy and continuity with the best Russian traditions;
– The package of measures for the separation of power and property, compensation for the damage to the society caused by unfair privatisation without a new redistribution of property and large-scale nationalisation;
– Programme of decriminalisation of power bodies and fight against corruption;
– The programme for overcoming the Bolsheviks and Stalin’s legacy;
– Programme Housing-Land-Roads which allows a short term to solve the housing problem and encourage manufacturing sector of the economy protecting citizens from the effects of the global economic crisis;
– A set of measures so that to restore the healthcare system;
– Measures for restoration and development of secondary and higher education, science and research;
– Measures for implementation of the constitutional obligations of the state in the field of social protection;
– Conceptual proposals for a reform in the utilities sector improving the quality of services and reducing their prices;
– Measures to promote safe and efficient transport and other infrastructure systems, modern communications systems and logistics so that to enhance the safety of people;
– The program for complete and final transition to a professional army;
– Overcoming of the reasons of extremism and terrorism and restoration of the integrity of the Russian society;
– Selection of adequate foreign policies ensuring sovereignty of Russia while excluding its self-imposed isolation, chauvinism, the idea of ​​self-sufficiency and hostile confrontation with other countries.

We have a strategy for implementation of these programmes with support of the civil society through political work at elections. Despite reprisals and fraud, we participated in the elections at all levels, paying special attention to the training of observers. YABLOKO was the only consistent opposition force that participated in the parliamentary elections of 2011.
We are confident that the strategy of our party’s in elections and offering of meaningful alternatives to the public have led to a surge of civic activism. According to independent opinion polls, up to 40 per cent of the participants in the massive protests (in late 2011 – early 2012) voted for YABLOKO. We nominated our candidate for the 2012 presidential election.
Politicised Moscow public could not understand our strategy for various reasons, mostly subjective, and therefore it did not become the main strategy for the whole protest movement. The election campaign in 2011 was complicated not only by reprisals and propaganda by the authorities, but also calls for a boycott of the election or vote for “anyone except United Russia “. Our candidate in the presidential election was ousted from the campaign by the authorities and also did not receive sufficient support from the “protest leaders” from mass media.
However, we managed to form workable factions in the St.Petersburg Legislative Assembly and a number of other regional and local legislative bodies. We continue our work preparing observers, electoral commissions members and prepare for participation in the local and regional elections, including the most important elections to the Moscow City Duma which will take place in a short term. We have qualified personnel both in Moscow and throughout the country, and we further develop training of such personnel.
We have a political leadership and we have proved that we can without hesitation and fear nominate our candidate for the post of the President in the most difficult conditions.
We have reputation as a party and personal reputation of its political leaders and public figures related to our party. Over 20 years YABLOKO has been experiencing victories and defeats, but has always remained honest with its voters adhering to European, democratic, humanistic principles stated when we created a bloc of like-minded people and later a party. YABLOKO managed to preserve its principles and reputation, without exchanging them for money, posts or a momentary media success.
The fact that over a decade of living and working in Russian politics we have remained honest, have not deceived anyone or stole anything, openly stating our goals and achieving their implementation in fair (on our part ) political struggle, gives us the moral right to speak on behalf of the Democratic opposition and work on the formation of its core around the YABLOKO party.

5. The prospects of the democratic opposition and the prospects of the country
The existence of modern Russia as a state depends on whether politically important democratic opposition will emerge in the country.
The Political Committee believes that it is vitally important for the democratic opposition, and, ultimately, for the country, to do the following.
It is necessary to increase attention to the meaningful strategic work, creation and presentation of the citizens of deep, multi-dimensional alternative to the present government’s policies on the basis of Russian and common European humanistic values ​​and principles of the modern law-governed state and free market economy.
We must seriously engage in politics, prepare for elections, participate in elections and learn how to win them fighting for every vote.
To win the trust of society it is necessary to conduct an honest conversation with the society on the problems of democratic reforms in Russia. The society needs honest assessments and a functioning mechanism for compensation of damage caused by unfair and often criminal privatization.
A reform of the political system is impossible without consistent policies on overcoming Bolsheviks’ and Stalin’s legacy in Russia.
Criminal decisions of the present regime should not prevent an honest assessment of the country’s past. It is important because, in reality, we are speaking about today’s self-identification of Russian citizens and the basis on which we propose to build our future on.
The democratic opposition must become independent without relying on the personal and organisational tramps proposed by Russia’s present authoritarian oligarchic system. Despite abundant use of the democratic rhetoric by the representatives of the present system, they will never be strategic and even tactical allies of the democratic opposition, because a success of the democratic opposition would mean the end of the system supporting their power and influence.
However, the crucial challenge is to preserve and maintain joint coordinated efforts by people of different views in the organisation of joint actions in defense of political prisoners, civil organisations, against repressive legislation, restrictions on the freedom of speech and censorship on the Internet.
At the same time it is of principled importance for us to maintain peaceful nature of the protests.
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Proceeding from the aforesaid assessments and given the present political situation in Russia, the Political Committee has decided:
consider formation of a viable politically responsible and financially transparent democratic opposition by the key task of the party;
use assessments and conclusions of the Political Committee on the content and the role of the democratic opposition in today’s Russia as guiding principles in the daily political work of the party, interaction and contact with other political forces.
focus on the development of qualitative alternatives in crucial areas, such as the reform of the political system, protection of human rights, economy, security and defense, social policy and environment.
consider creation of ideological, programme and personnel core of the democratic opposition, increase of the number of supporters via a democratic platform oriented on the best Russian and European values ​ and appealing to a large number of citizens, rather than by means of dubious tactical alliances, be the first priority task;
make the model of honest, responsible and financially transparent organisation a priority model for broad democratic public;
strengthen education and training activities targeted at political training of citizens;
continue creation of a network of supporters, paying special attention to the development of such a network in the regions.
intensify work in the regional and local representative power bodies, as well as inform a greater number of people, including those living in other cities, regions, republics, of this work;
continue work and preparations for participation in the elections at all levels, consider the elections to the Moscow City Duma in 2014 be a priority task, create a broad civil coalition on the basis of YABLOKO’s list of candidates.
as regards the coalition policies and propaganda, here, in addition to the usual party principles, we should pay special attention to the explanation to our allies, supporters and a wide range of people about the role played by the political wing of the oligarchic structures, in particular, the structures associated with Mikhail Prokhorov. These structures are not an ally for the democratic opposition, but represent an imitation alternative controlled and imposed by the government. The key goal of such a n imitation alternative is neutralization of the protests potential, distraction from the values ​​and ideas, erosion of the sense and the concepts by means of self-promotion and formation of a meaningless and false “pragmatism “. That is the role played by Mikhail Prokhorov at the presidential election in 2012, and it it likely that he will be further playing it.
initiate the creation of a Roundtable out of members of opposition political parties and organisations ( rather than individuals from mass media, the Roundtable should join together political organizations). The Round table offered by us is not a managing structure but a platform for negotiations and coordination of actions in the centre and in the regions during election campaigns and preparation of mass protest actions.
from principled positions and where possible engage in direct and open dialogue with the representatives of the executive power, aiming solely at achieving the goals and objectives pursued by the party. Such a dialogue may also take the form of a “round table ” with multilateral participation and touch upon both common problems and very specific issues for protection of the interests of citizens, especially the most vulnerable ones.

An independent, including independent from the government and the oligarchs, responsible and financially transparent opposition able of consolidating all the advocates for change is a necessary condition for the very existence of Russia.