Is
Modernisation in Russia Possible? Interview
with Grigory Yavlinsky and Boris Titov by Yury Pronko,
"The Real Time" programme, Radio Finam, May
12, 2010
Statement by the Saratov branch of Yabloko, 29.12.2020
A year ago, at the end of 2019, there was a change in the leadership of the Electoral Commission of the Saratov Region. The electoral system of the region during this time fully demonstrated extremely negative consequences of personnel changes, blatant incompetence of the new leaders and their reckless political engagement. The Regional Council of the Saratov regional branch of the Russian United Democratic Party Yabloko considers the current activity of the Electoral Commission of the Saratov Region destructive and leading to the elimination of the principles of the political balance in the region.
On 24 December, the Ryazan Regional Duma, adopted by 32 votes out of 40 a decision to increase the wages for assistants of Duma deputies by more than two times – up to 60,000 roubles. This increase will require an additional 20 million roubles per year.
The Yabloko party has developed and submitted to the executive and the legislative authorities amendments to the Law on Police, which envisage equipping all police stations where legally significant procedures are carried out with video cameras and audio recorders.
On 8 December, the State Duma of the Russian Federation adopted in the first reading other, repressive, amendments to the law “On Police”. The Yabloko Centre for Legislative Initiatives prepared an examination of the constitutionality of these amendments. Party lawyers believe that these changes are aimed at establishing a police state and suppressing disturbances and discontent of citizens, which are, apparently, expected by the authorities .
Political Entropy. Digital Technologies and the Globalisation of Disorder. (Chapter 6) Grigory Yavlinsky’s website, 28.12.2020
New manifestations of sociological, psychological and economic laws in global socio-political life have acquired absolutely unprecedented scales. Reality is determined more and more by the spread of the fourth industrial revolution to the socio-political sector. This concerns new generation information and communications technologies related to expansion of the Internet and also the collection and processing of large arrays of different data in a digital format, the use of elements of artificial intelligence. These technologies adapted for use in mass communications have rendered it possible to dilute the fundamentals of the “classical” model of the political organisation of society.
It goes without saying that the crisis of party systems and related state institutions, the contradictions in the relations of the authorities and society in leading democratic countries have been in the making for many years. New technologies changing the realities of life expedited crisis phenomena and the ongoing destruction of institutions, and as a result fringe ideas and politicians with authoritarian views have started assumed far more significant positions in their countries (See «On the political systems of the New Age»).
The “networking” of society so typical of today1, accompanied by a wide distribution of forms of influence, and accordingly, a decrease in individual responsibility, has resulted in an abrupt increase in the number of random outcomes unrelated to the actual ratio of interests of publicly significant groups. Significant opportunities have appeared for strange political decisions that unexpectedly receive support and a chance for implementation. Presented by enthusiasts as a tool democratising governance, in reality, “networking” generates chaos and irrationality.
Konstantin Smirnov, deputy of the Dubrovsky Rural Settlement Council of Deputies, Chairman of Ryazan branch of Yabloko and Editor-in-Chief of vidsboku.com, began collecting signatures from residents against the impending decision to transfer a large plot of land to the heads of the Zeleny Sad construction company.
Sanal Molotkov, a member of the Yabloko branch in Kalmykia, held a single picket [such pickets do not need any permissions from the authorities] against unjustified provision of tax benefits by the regional authorities to the Fortum and Rosnano companies. The action took place in front of the building of the government of the Republic of Kalmykia.
Yesterday, on December 23, the Moscow City Duma considered the bill on parliamentary investigations submitted by Maxim Kruglov, the leader of the Yabloko faction.
According to the document, any facts of violation of the city laws, the rights of Moscow residents, non-fulfillment of the budget, manipulation with city property, non-compliance with construction rules can become the subject of investigation.
The leader of the Yabloko party shared his views on the ending 2020.
The leader of the Yabloko party has always had a special critical view of what was happening around him and had his own recipes how to fix it. He shared this special view of the outgoing 2020 in the Vladimir Vorsobin’s programme Civil Defence on the Komsomolskaya Pravda radio.
Photo: a screenshot of the main page of the investigation
The Chelyabinsk branch of the Yabloko Anti-Corruption Policy Centre has found purchases of luxury goods for gifts from the Governor of the Chelyabinsk Region Alexei Teksler. Yabloko’s Anti-Corruption Policy Centre asks the regional Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Main Control Department to check the facts of ineffectiveness of budget spending.
The Anti-Corruption Policy Centre lawyers analysed the execution of the government contracts for the provision of services for the provision of protocol events in 2019-2020, concluded between the Governor’s Administrative Department and the OOO PROTOKOL compnay (the company is 100% owned by the regional government). In the investigation published on the website of the Chelyabinsk branch of Yabloko, the Anti-Corruption Policy Centre clearly showed what presents the Governor makes, to whom and how much they cost.
On December 28, Yabloko Party Chairman Nikolai Rybakov will take part in a press conference on the start of the trial of seven leaders and activists of the Ingush protest: Akhmed Barakhoev, Malsag Uzhakhov, Zarifa Saytiyeva, Barakh Chemurziev, Musa Malsagalov, Ismayil, and Bagaudin Khautiev. The press conference will begin at 11:00. The conference will take place in the office of the Moscow Helsinki Group at the address: Moscow, Krasina 15, building 1.
The Moscow City Electoral Commission has published the names of new members of territorial electoral commissions, which will also conduct elections to the State Duma [in 2021]. It is no secret that the formation of the commissions takes place under the control of the authorities, which send loyal people to them not only from the [pro-government] United Russia party, but also from other parties and public associations.
Statement by the Yabloko branch in Altai, 21.12.2020
Increasingly more people in Russia are beginning to understand that the policy of the ruling regime has led the country to a dead end, depriving the people of the future.
The multi-day voting “on stumps” on an amendment to the Russian Constitution, in order to reset the presidential terms of Vladimir Putin, during the Covid-19 pandemic, demonstrated the authorities’ disregard for the lives and health of Russian citizens.
The Bashkirian branch of Yabloko, with the support of sponsors and the Ufa Public Development Fund, brought New Year gifts to elderly people with disabilities in the cities of Ufa and Neftekamsk. The gifts were distributed by five Yabloko employees to 11 addresses. The regional branch plans to repeat the action in January 2021 and give more gifts during the New Year holidays.
On December 20, 2020, a conference of the regional branch of the Yabloko party in the Republic of Tatarstan was held.
The delegates heard the reports of the Сhairman, the Bureau of the regional branch, and the Control and Audit Commission. Ruslan Zinatullin was re-elected as Chairman of the regional Yabloko. Ildus Salakhov, Vladimir Solovtsov and Marat Kurbanov were re-elected deputy chairmen of the regional branch of the party.
Political Entropy. Digital Technologies and the Globalisation of Disorder. (Chapter 5) Grigory Yavlinsky’s website, 18.12.2020
These days virtually all economic analysts concur that the pandemic and its consequences are exacerbating key negative trends in the global economy, such as the increasing gap between stock market indices and real economic processes, the rise in monopolies and growth of inequality. Arguably, the pandemic is consolidating the political power of oligarchic interests and postponing the opportunity to implement urgent economic reforms, creating an extremely conservative economic context (See «The pandemic and politics»).
When considering the link between the global financial and economic crisis of 2008-2009 and the current recession with long-term trends, fundamentally new factors were identified in the modern global economy1. For example, consolidation of the impact of historical and technological rents on structural changes in developed countries to the benefit of the new economy, and reinforcement of material inequality both within developed economies and also in the global economy, and also a change in the nature of the impact of scientific and technological progress on the economy. The thesis that public perceptions of benefits play a far bigger role in the economy than commonly believed has been confirmed.
Five out of seven Yabloko nominees will work in the Omsk territorial electoral commissions from regional branch of the Yabloko party. Four Yabloko candidates were approved to the five territorial electoral commissions of Omsk and one candidate was approved for the district territorial electoral commission.
The Ryazan branch of Yabloko calls deputies of the Ryzan City Duma to decline the draft budget of Ryazan for 2021 and the planning period of 2022-23 when considering the document on December 17.
According to Konstantin Smirnov, Chairman of the regional branch of the party, there are at least three reasons for this:
Yabloko Chairman Nikolai Rybakov sent an appeal to Public Prosecutor General Igor Krasnov in connection with regional authorities blocking of travel cards, which allow certain categories of citizens to use public transport for free or with benefits. He also called on the regional authorities to pay compensations for imposing such restrictions.
Photo: Member of the territorial electoral commission Valentina Balashova
The first stage on the formation of new compositions of territorial electoral commissions of the Kaliningrad region has come to an end. The Kaliningrad region branch of Yabloko applied for all nine vacancies in the territorial electoral commissions of seven urban districts of the Kaliningrad region. Only three were satisfied: in the territorial electoral commissions of the city of Kaliningrad.
Photo: Yabloko deputies of the Pskov Regional Assembly Artur Gaiduk and Lev Shlosberg
Gaiduk and Lev Shlosberg, Yabloko MPs in the Pskov Regional Assembly, sent an appeal to the Investigative Committee of Russia demanding to initiate a criminal case on the fact of encroachment on the life of public figure Alexei Navalny
In a statement addressed to Alexander Bastrykin, head of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, Artur Gaiduk and Lev Shlossberg refer to an investigation conducted by the independent international group Bellingcat and The Insider with the participation of the NGO Anti-Corruption Foundation.
