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: June 16, 2021. From left to right: Russian President Vladimir Putin, President of the Swiss Confederation Guy Parmelin and US President Joe Biden at the Villa La Grange in Geneva. Photo by Sergei Guneyev / RIA Novosti
The Geneva summit ended as expected without any significant breakthroughs. Ambassadors will be able to return to their places of work in Moscow and Washington, consultations will continue, mass media will find out who “won” in the negotiations, both sides will deal with nuclear security and the START treaty, and possibly even create some working groups to discuss cybersecurity issues.
Indeed, no one expected breakthroughs. The Presidents of Russia and the United States met primarily in order to meet. Such PR is useful for both Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden. Well, why not, at the same time, talk in the “realpolitik” format about common and different positions on such important topics as nuclear security, arms control, cybercrime, Iran and Afghanistan? After the summit, many noted that Vladimir Putin got what he wanted from the meeting – he emphasized his importance without compromising anything. And so it is.
Statement by the Yabloko Gender Faction, 15.06.2021
Photo: Halimat Taramova / screenshot of the publication on Svetlana Anokhina’s Instagram page
On 10 June, Chechen and Dagestan security forces broke into a crisis centre in Makhachkala, Dagestan, kidnapping Khalimat Taramova and her girlfriend Anna Manylova (the latter was later released). Human rights defender Svetlana Anokhina and volunteers of the crisis center were detained together with them.
On 16 June, Yelena Sorokina, the head of the Ryazan city administration, said that “unfortunately, the number of cases of coronavirus infection has not been decreasing in the city,” and asked “the heads of Ryazan enterprises to think over the ways of encouraging, for example, granting days off, to employees who took part in the vaccination”.
At the same time, Sorokina did not say anything about the quality of the vaccination campaign. The Ryazan branch of Yabloko notes that the credibility of this procedure has been seriously undermined by its bad organisation, which raises concerns among city residents.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Chelyabinsk Region initiated an audit of the validity of budgetary spending of the Mayor of Chelyabinsk Natalya Kotova and the Minister of the Regional Ministry of Economic Development Natalia Lugacheva on flights and accommodation in the five-star Hilton Hotel in Dubai in May – June 2021. Formally the purpose of the officials’ trip was to be training under the Master of Public Administration programme from the Skolkovo Business School, Russia. The cost of training in this School for a similar programme, but with a less number of modules, is from 1.1 million rubles.
On 16 June, the Central Electoral Commission held a meeting on the appeals from the Yabloko leader Nikolai Rybakov and the Ombudsman in St. Petersburg Alexander Shishlov sent to the head of the Central Electoral Commission Ella Pamfilova, with a proposal not to introduce a three-day voting in the 2021 elections.
Photo: Meeting of Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Joseph Biden in Geneva. Photo by Mikhail Metzel / RIA Novosti
Joe Biden was “asked” at the G7 meeting and the NATO summit, to speak toughly with Putin. And so it will be: we will hear some new words about the “red lines” and about the price that the Kremlin will have to pay. There will be no cordial agreement and even partial convergence of positions on “sensitive” issues, as well as a joint press conference. Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden won’t even have lunch together. As a CNN source in the American delegation told CNN, “there will be no breaking of bread.”
Photo by the Press Service of the Saratov branch of Yabloko
Deputy Chairman of the Saratov branch of Yabloko Fyodor Demyanchuk sent an open letter to the Ombudsman for Human Rights in the Saratov Region. Demyanchuk called on the regional Ombudsman to prepare a special report on massive violations of citizens’ rights in Saratov during the January and April protests, as well as send a report to the Saratov Regional Duma.
Photo: Writer Dmitry Bykov with his spouse Ekaterina Kevkhishvili. Photo by Mikhail Voskresensky / RIA Novosti
Yabloko leader Nikolai Rybakov demanded that the head of the Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin and Public Prosecutor General Igor Krasnov open a criminal case into the poisoning of the writer Dmitry Bykov with an organophosphate nerve agent.
Rybakov refers to an investigation by Bellingcat and The Insider (https://theins.ru/politika/242567 ), which convincingly proved that the sharp deterioration in Bykov’s condition on the Yekaterinburg-Ufa plane on April 17, 2019, was associated with his poisoning by Novichok.
Trials of the participants of the April 21 rally in support of political prisoners continue in the Ivanovo region. Five sessions of the courts of first instance have taken place by today. In all the cases, the hearings were postponed at the request of the defence to establish additional circumstances and motions to summon witnesses. The interests of those detained at the rally are represented by defenders Yulia Kambur and Andrei Lyamzin, who collaborate with the Ivanovo branch of Yabloko.
The Yabloko party considers the decision of the Moscow City Court to recognise Alexei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) and related organisations as extremist to be politically motivated.
This is another step targeted at banning the activities of public organisations that expose corruption and openly criticise the authorities. It is also the creation of yet another precedent for the deprivation of rights and exclusion from participation in elections of many citizens who want to improve life in the country, on the basis of groundless and absurd accusations of their work in “extremist organisations” or “involvement” in the activities of such organisations.
Photo: Maxim Kruglov at a meeting with residents of the Alekseyevsky district. / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service
Deputies of the Yabloko faction in the Moscow City Duma, as well as party candidates for the State Duma, will hold a series of street meetings with Muscovites to find out what amendments they would like to make to the Moscow budget for 2022.
Statement by Nikolai Rybakov and Boris Vishnevsky, 8.06.2021
Photo: Arseny Vesnin / Photo from Arseny Vesnin’s Facebook page
The Yabloko party is outraged by the persecution of Arseny Vesnin, a well-known St. Petersburg journalist, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the Ekho Moskvi radio station in St. Petersburg, whom the Investigative Committee is trying to accuse of “libel of an individually undetermined group of persons (law enforcement officers)”.
Congratulations from the Yabloko party Chairman, 4.06.2021
Photo: Egikkhal, Ingushetia / Photo by a_lisa / Depositphotos.com
Dear residents of Ingushetia,
I would like to send you our greetings on the 29th anniversary of the founding of the Republic of Ingushetia and wish prosperity to your Republic and its people.
During the years of ordeals, showing wisdom and strong will, the residents of Ingushetia fought for the honour and freedom of their people. But unfortunately, dozens of participants in the popular protest in Ingushetia are still under arrest today, including both venerable elders – Akhmed Barakhoyev and Malsag Uzhakhov, and young activists such as Zarifa Sautiyeva. I know what pain it is for you, and I am going through it with you.
Photo from the official web-site of the Central District Court of Kaliningrad
The Central District Court of Kaliningrad declared unlawful the refusal of the administration of the city district to permit single pickets of the local branch of Yabloko, which were planned to be held near the entrances to the buildings of the administration and government of the Kaliningrad region using prefabricated demountable constructions. Officials referred to the anti-COVID resolution of the regional government.
In Kirov, winners and prize-winners of the All-Russian Academic Olympics for Schoolchildren were awarded memorable ketchup and mayonnaise.
Alexei Chumakov’s blog post, 7.06.2021
Photo from the official web-site of the Kirov administration
In Kirov, winners and prize-winners of the All-Russian Academic Olympics for Schoolchildren were awarded memorable ketchup and mayonnaise. The head of the Kirov administration Dmitry Osipov admonished talented children in the following way: “Not everyone succeeds in achieving high results, but you did it. I would like so that each of you stayed in this city and applied your knowledge for its development”.
Today Vladimir Putin has signed a law prohibiting citizens associated with “extremist” organisations from being elected as deputies. The content of this law is absurd in the best traditions of the adoption of insane laws by the State Duma, and allows absolutely any person to be accused of having links with extremists, allows to accuse absolutely any citizen of this terribly sounding crime. Any organisation undesirable for the authorities can be declared extremist.
Boris Vishnevsky’s blog post at the Ekho Moskvi web-site, 4.06.2021
Photo from the official web-site of the President of Russia/ http://www.kremlin.ru
The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum is a depressing sight.
Not only because there are many respectable men in expensive suits, traveling in expensive cars in the centre of the city (I saw myself yesterday, when I was going to work to the Mariyinsky Palace [where the Legislative Assembly of St.Petersburg is located] passing by the Astoria, Lotte and Petro Palace hotels).
Not only because a million is demanded for participation in the forum and the right to “socialise” among a number of high-ranking officials.
On Monday, 31 May, the first meeting within the framework of the cycle of international online seminars “Time for Women” took place. The topic of the seminars is gender equality and advancement of women, the events are organised by the European Dialogue Expert Group and the Gender Faction of the Russian United Democratic Party Yabloko. The first session was devoted to the topic “Discrimination Against Women and the Fight for Gender Equality: European Experience and Its Applicability in Russia”.
Photo: Businessman Igor Chaika. /Photo by Ramil Sitdikov, RIA Novosti
The Public Prosecutor General’s Office of Russia got acquainted with the investigation of the “garbage business” of the sons of ex Public Prosecutor General Yury Chaika, but did not find any facts of violation of the law, follows from the answer of S. Parshina, Assistant to Public Prosecutor General of Russia. The Yabloko Anti-Corruption Policy Centre sent an inquiry to the Public Prosecutor General’s Office following a joint investigation by Novaya Gazeta, the 7×7 journal and Transparency International (the latter is entered by the Ministry of Justice into the register of foreign agents).
Decision of the Small Council of the Public Constitutional Council, 1.06.2021
Photo by Pavel Lisitsyn / RIA Novosti
When preparing amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation in July 2020, as well as in order to implement its amendments, as of May 25, 2021, four federal constitutional laws were adopted, 52 federal laws and 41 draft laws are under consideration in the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, in total amendments are introduced into more than 170 legislative acts of the federal level.
A significant part of adopted package of legislative acts does not comply with the principles of a democratic state structure (Article 1), the rule of law (Articles 1, 4, and 15), democracy (Article 2), ideological diversity (Article 13 Part 1), the priority of international law (Article 15 Part 4), separation of powers (Articles 10 – 11) and independence of local self-government bodies (Article 12), stipulated by the First Chapter of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, and which are the foundations of the constitutional order.
