Is
Modernisation in Russia Possible? Interview
with Grigory Yavlinsky and Boris Titov by Yury Pronko,
"The Real Time" programme, Radio Finam, May
12, 2010
Photo: Leader of Loknya Yabloko list in the 2023 elections Maria Skorodumova and party lawyers Vitaly Isakov and Maxim Kopytov in front of the courthouse in Loknya settlement / Photo by the regional branch of the party
Bezhanitsy District Court (court presence in Loknya) satisfied Pskov Yabloko’s lawsuit against the Russian Ministry of Finance for compensation in connection with the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation ruling of 18 March 2025, which confirmed constitutional violations in cancelling registration of seven unified candidates lists of Pskov Yabloko in the 2023 municipal elections, including the unified list of candidates for elections of deputies to the Loknya District Assembly.
Pskov Regional Assembly deputy from Yabloko Arthur Gaiduk sent an appeal to Federal Antimonopoly Service head Maxim Shaskolsky requesting a check of the legality of Roskomnadzor’s (Federal Supervision Agency for Information Technologies and Communications) decision to restrict calls for Russians in foreign messengers Telegram and WhatsApp.
The meeting of the leaders of the US and Russia will be the seventh in total and the first since the beginning of Donald Trump’s new presidential term. Before this, leaders Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump met six times. The last was at the G20 summit in Japan in June 2019. Expectations from this meeting among the media and all who dream of ending the conflict in Ukraine are enormous. I spoke with journalist Jiří Just from the Czech media LIDOVE NOVINY about what I would like to expect from this conversation.
Photo: Pskov Yabloko candidates in the 2023 elections Nikolai Barkhatov and Lyudmila Kochneva, and lawyer Vitaly Isakov / Photo by the regional branch of Yabloko
On 12 August, Opochka District Court and Pushkinogorsk District Court satisfied Pskov Yabloko’s lawsuits against the Russian Ministry of Finance for compensation for cancelling registration of the Yabloko’s unified lists in the 2023 municipal elections. The unlawfulness of removing Yabloko’s lists and the right of the party to receive damage compensation was recognised by the Constitutional Court on 18 March.
The Novgorod Region Ministry of Justice Department has drawn up an administrative protocol against member of the Novgorod Yabloko Bureau Ksenia Cherepanova for failing to self-report as a “foreign agent”. The protocol lists materials whose publication on Ksenia Cherepanova’s Telegram channel allegedly occurred with foreign support. The list includes the following materials: seven reposts on Telegram of other “foreign agents'” materials and three posts criticising local self-government reform, including a message about persecution of Vologda Yabloko Chairman Nikolai Yegorov, party Federal Bureau member Alexander Yefimov and leader of the Ryazan regional branch of Yabloko Konstantin Smirnov. The protocol of the Novgorod Ministry of Justice provides no evidence of foreign influence. The court hearing on Ksenia Cherepanova’s case for failing to self-report will take place at Novgorod District Court on 20 August.
Photo: Nikolai Rybakov, Vladimir Dorokhov and Kirill Goncharov at the memorial to the crew of the nuclear submarine cruiser Kursk in Moscow / photo by the Yabloko Press Service
Today, together with colleagues, we came to the memorial to the crew of the nuclear submarine cruiser Kursk in Moscow to honour the memory of the dead sailors on behalf of all Yabloko members.
The international press is in state of disarray and chaos, including even the most authoritative publications: discussions of the forthcoming meeting of the leaders of the Russia Federation and the United States of America in Alaska are accompanied by utter incomprehension and irritation, derogatory comments, irrelevant and inappropriate wishful thinking and gloomy forecasts. This is so regrettable, as in actual fact substantive talks between the Russian and American Presidents in the current circumstances might well serve as a useful and even landmark development.
It goes without saying that the one-to-one meeting in Alaska will not suffice to resolve the key issues required for the fundamental resolution of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict – these problems cannot be resolved without Ukraine and European countries.
Statement by the Bureau of the Novgorod branch of Yabloko, 11.08.2025
Photo: Yabloko candidate Viktor Shalyakin / Photo by Novgorod Yabloko
On 8 August 2025, the Electoral Commission of the Novgorod Region refused to register Yabloko Party candidate Viktor Shalyakin for the Governor elections under the pretext of “insufficient signatures from municipal deputies”. We consider the refusal to register the only opposition candidate a “political order” aimed at depriving citizens of the right to choose.
Photo: Lev Shlosberg in court / Photo by the regional branch of the party
On 7 August, the 38th magistrate’s court in Pskov held another, already eighth hearing on the criminal case against Yabloko Deputy Chairman Lev Shlosberg for allegedly evading “fulfilment of foreign agent obligations”. The investigation believes that the politician posted several videos on his VKontakte page, which he administers, without the so-called “foreign agent” label.
On 6 August, on the tragic 80th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the central office of the Yabloko party in Moscow hosted a screening of the documentary film by Japanese film director Kaneto Shindo “Children of Hiroshima”. The film was shot in 1952 – seven years after the terrible tragedy that the Japanese experienced.
Photo: The plaques state that (1) Boris Dubrovsky, Governor of Chelyabinsk Region from 24.09.2014 – 19.03.2019, participated in a cartel agreement. The established damage amounts to over 20 billion roubles. (2) Mikhail Yurevich, Governor of Chelyabinsk Region from 22.04.2010 – 15.01.2014, accused of taking bribes. The established damage amounts to over 3 billion roubles.
Today it was reported that ex-Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Boris Dubrovsky is put on the wanted list by authorities.
Since 2019, the Yabloko party’s Anti-Corruption Policies Centre has been seeking from the Interior Ministry to open a criminal case and appealed its termination to the Public Prosecutor General’s Office.
Photo: After the atomic bombing. Hiroshima, Japan. 17 November 1945 // U.S. Department of Energy
These days mark the 80th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
On 6 August 1945, the American B-29 bomber Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, equivalent in power to 13-18 kilotons of TNT. Three days later, on 9 August 1945, another American bomber, the B-29 Bockscar, dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Nagasaki, equivalent to 19-21 kilotons of TNT. The two explosions instantly killed 80,000 people, and by the end of 1945 the total death toll ranged from 150,000 to 246,000 people.
Photo: Lev Shlosberg in court on 11 June 2025 / Photo by Stepan Baranov
The decision to extend the preventive measure was made by a judge of the Pskov City Court. The hearing was held in a closed session. Journalists were asked to leave the courtroom before the court ruling was announced.
It should be noted that a criminal case was opened against Lev Shlosberg for repeated “discrediting of the army” due to debates with historian Yury Pivovarov, in which the politician defended the position of the necessity of an immediate ceasefire. On 11 June, he was placed under house arrest.
On the International Day of Remembrance for Victims of the Great Terror on 5 August, a Yabloko party delegation visited the Sandarmokh site in Karelia – the place of execution and burial of more than 6,000 people in 1937-1938. The memorial event was attended by Yabloko Chairman Nikolai Rybakov, Karelia Legislative Assembly deputy Emilia Slabunova, Yabloko Deputy Chairman Vladimir Dorokhov, Yabloko Federal Political Committee member Ivan Bolshakov, head of the Yabloko apparatus Yevgenia Vlasova, Moscow Yabloko Deputy Chairman Kirill Goncharov, Petrozavodsk Council deputy Dmitry Rybakov and other party members.
Photo: The building of the administration of the White Sea-Baltic Canal in Medvezhyegorsk / Photo by Anri Bergius, Wikipedia
The Yabloko party has nominated seven candidates for deputies of the councils of three municipal districts in the Republic of Karelia – Medvezhyegorsky, Lakhdenpokhsky and Muyezersky. The campaign in Karelia will be held under the all-party slogan: “For Peace and Freedom! For the Ceasefire Agreement!”.
On 6 August, the tragic 80th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, the Yabloko party invites its members and supporters to a screening of the film Children of Hiroshima.
What is desperately needed now? Russia and Ukraine sign an agreement for an immediate ceasefire: troops stop at current positions and cease fire. After this, substantive negotiations are needed about the conditions and ways to achieve peaceful coexistence: about the new content of Russian-Ukrainian relations, European security architecture and its prospective geopolitical arrangement, as well as strategic stability between Russia and the United States.
The US under Donald Trump still remains a potentially influential factor in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. However, Donald Trump has no substantive position regarding what should be discussed after the ceasefire and what should be strived for. This is the problem.
Europe ostensibly supports Trump in words. However, instead of seizing the moment, forming a substantive plan for advancing towards peace in Ukraine and filling Trump’s peace initiatives with this content, European leaders are doing absolutely nothing that could contribute to a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine. Moreover, the position of ruling European politicians is directed in the opposite, destructive direction – essentially, they are implementing a foreign policy line that is contrary to a ceasefire. As German Chancellor
Friedrich Merz recently stated, “diplomacy is exhausted”. Such testimonies about intentions to continue hostilities (by proxy) are often heard in ruling European elites and in leading Western media.
Congratulations from Nikolai Rybakov, Grigory Yavlinsky, and St.Petersburg Yabloko, 28.07.2025
Photo: Alexander Shishlov / Photo from the Yabloko Press Service
On 28 July, Alexander Shishlov, Coordinator of the Yabloko party’s Federal Political Committee and leader of the Yabloko faction in the St Petersburg Legislative Assembly, celebrates his 70th birthday. He receives warm congratulations from party Chairman Nikolai Rybakov, Chairman of the Federal Political Committee Grigory Yavlinsky, and the St.Petersburg branch of the party.
Photo: Igor Khomechko, Irina Komleva and Vyacheslav Polezhaev
Yabloko candidates in single-mandate constituencies Irina Komleva (constituency No. 13), Vyacheslav Polezhaev (constituency No. 19) and Igor Khomechko (constituency No. 20) are standing for election to the first convocation of the Council of Deputies of the Kolsky Municipal District of the Murmansk region. The new council of deputies was formed after the municipal reform. The Yabloko candidates’ campaign will be conducted under the party-wide slogan “For Peace and Freedom! For the Ceasefire Agreement!”.
Photo by the Yabloko Press Service
