Is
Modernisation in Russia Possible? Interview
with Grigory Yavlinsky and Boris Titov by Yury Pronko,
"The Real Time" programme, Radio Finam, May
12, 2010
Yabloko does not recognise Vladimir Putin’s “plebescite” on consitutional amendments and its results. Such a statment was made by Yabloko Chairman Nikolai Rybakov:
Today, on 1 July, 2020, the false and unlawful special operation Constitution 2020 will be completed ingloriously.
Its purpose and meaning is to put President Vladimir Putin beyond the limits of presidential terms, out of voting rules, out of reach of court and above the law; to consolidate in the Basic Law of Russia the lawlessness and arbitrariness that have developed in our country over the past decades.
The Yabloko party Anti-Corruption Policy Centre found unexpectedly expensive elite real estate (worth almost 0.5 billion roubles) from Talia Khabriyeva, one of the key authors of Putin’s amendments to the Constitution. The investigation is published here.
The deputy of the regional Duma, who was taking the leaflets to the Yabloko office, is facing administrative responsibility
Press Release, 29.06.2020
The police seized leaflets against the reset of Vladimir Putin’s presidential terms from Dmitry Anufriyev, Chairman of the Astrakhan branch of Yabloko and MP of the Astrakhan Regional Duma.
Anufriyev’s car was stopped when he left the printing house with Yabloko leaflets against Vladimir Putin’s constitutional amendments. The leaflets set out the main points of the alternative amendments prepared by the Yabloko party – the Constitution of Free People.
Vitaly Zubenko, Chairman of the Stavropol branch of Yabloko, filed an application with the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Stavropol Territory about abuse of power by police officers. The leader of the regional branch of the party asks the Public Prosecutor to verify the legality of the detention of Ronald Ayrapetyan, member of the Yabloko party who, on June 26, went on a single picket (such pickets do not require any permissions from the authorities) to the Kislovodsk Mayor’s office with a placard against changing the Constitution and “resetting” the presidential terms. After a “conversation” with threats in the police office he was released without a protocol being drawn up. The police tried to exert pressure on the activist.
A “popular vote” to amend the Constitution is like a rape. That is, it resembles coercing into something that you initially did not want and what should not have happened, and the longer and more persistently they persuade you, the more disgusting it becomes. Now people, even if they vote, do not understand at all why they need it, and, certainly, they feel cheating.
The Yabloko party has been conducting a nation-wide campaign against the “reset” of the presidential terms of Vladimir Putin. Members of the regional branches of the Yabloko party protest against the eternal rule of Vladimir Putin. The campaign Speak Up Against the Reset of Presidential Terms includes picketing, distribution of stickers and leaflets and placing banners.
On June 25, police detained Anatoly Nogovitsyn, Chairman of the Yabloko branch in Yakutia, after a single picket (such pickets do not require any permissions from the authorities) against constitutional amendments allowing Vladimir Putin to remain on the post of President of Russia until 2036. The court sent the leader of the regional branch of Yabloko under arrest for eight days. According to the police (they told it informally to the family of Anatoly Nogovitsyn), the Chairman of the regional branch of Yabloko was detained so that he could not hold any protests on July 1, the final day of voting for the “reset” of Vladimir Putin’s presidential terms.
Earlier the court in Yeysk, the Krasnodar Territory, arrested for ten days Alexander Korovainy, Yabloko’s municipal deputy of the Council of the Municipal Formation of the Yeysk District, for “disobeying the police”. Alexander was arrested after a rally against Vladimir Putin’s amendments to the Constitution. Yabloko considers the arrest of Korovainy a political revenge on the part of the leadership of Yeysk and the Krasnodar Territory and demands his immediate release.
The Yabloko party has been conducting a nation-wide campaign against the “reset” of the presidential terms of Vladimir Putin.
In Skhodnya, near Moscow, the police forcibly ousted Kristina Klimayeva a member of the precinct electoral commission from Yabloko, from the voting station. Klimayeva last night tried to control the sealing of ballots after the first day of voting. She had to call an ambulance, as due to stress her blood pressure got up high.
If there was an alternative vote, only a quarter of Russians (25%) would support the amendments of President Vladimir Putin. These are the data of a sociological survey conducted by the Levada Centre on the request of Yabloko from June 11 to 17. The survey involved 1,516 people over 18 years of age from a representative sample of the Russian population. There were fewer supporters of the presidential package than supporters of the Constitution of Free People proposed by the Public Constitutional Council and the Yabloko party (28%) and even fewer than opponents of both the projects (26%).
Open address to the President of the Russian Federation
Respected Mr. President,
A nationwide representative opinion poll conducted by the Levada Centre a few days ago shows that 28% of Russian citizens are ready to vote for the package of amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation – the Constitution of Free People – developed by the Public Constitutional Council and the Russian United Democratic Party Yabloko, at the same time, only 25% [are going to vote] for the project proposed by you and the Federal Assembly.
The Ministry of Public Security of the Sverdlovsk Region turned down Yabloko’s application for pickets in Yekaterinburg against Vladimir Putin’s amendments to the Constitution, citing the Ministry’s lack of information about the possibility of extending the COVID high-alert mode.
The action of the authorities to amend the Constitution of Russia has approached the finish line.
Both in terms of content and form, the amendments proposed by Putin to the Basic Law of the country, as well as the so-called “popular vote” are, as is well known already, unlawful (see the expertise).
Opponents of this lawlessness speak mainly about the of “reset” of Putin’s terms – granting the right to extend his powers until 2036. This is absolutely correct: such an “amendment” is a mockery of law and opens the way for the almost eternal irremovability of power. However, it is important to see that people are being pushed to a non-alternative vote with one tick [for all the amendments], putting more than 200 hundred amendments [in a package to one vote] at once, which draw up an authoritarian corporate state at the level of the Constitution, serving the interests of the nomenclature and the groups around the power. That is, the present closed antisocial political system with an adventurous foreign policy course, with extremely incompetent corrupt, semi-criminal and non-independent staff at all levels, with a militaristic and police ideology and corresponding repressive mechanisms will now be enshrined in the Basic Law of Russia.
More than five advertising agencies refused to place Yabloko’s banners with a slogan I AM AGAINST THE RESET [OF PRESIDENTIAL TERMS] because of “fear of the city administration”. The companies are afraid to lose the bid for the right to placement of advertising structures. This was stated by the manager of the largest aggregator of the outdoor advertising booking company All-billboards.ru (the regional branch of Yabloko disposes of the correspondence and records of telephone conversations).
A court in Yeysk arrested for ten days Alexander Korovainy, a municipal deputy, member of the Yabloko Party known not only in Yeysk, but throughout the Krasnodar Territory as an activist fighting against the tyranny of local authorities and for protection of the environment.
The court in Yeysk, the Krasnodar Territory, arrested for ten days Alexander Korovainy, Yabloko’s municipal deputy of the Council of the Municipal Formation of the Yeysk District, for “disobeying the police”. Alexander was arrested after a rally against Vladimir Putin’s amendments to the Constitution.
An online lecture by Yelena Dubrovina, lawyer and member of the Yabloko Federal Political Committee, will be held at Yabloko’s Party University. The lecture will be held on the Zoom platform on June 23, beginning at 16.00.
On June 11, the European Court of Human Rights communicated the complaint of the Novgorod branch of the Yabloko party in the case of contestation of the results of the elections to the Novgorod Regional Duma in 2016.
Anna Cherepanova, Chair of the Novgorod branch of Yabloko and deputy of the Veliky Novgorod Duma, recalled that in 2016, the list of Novgorod Yabloko to the regional Duma, which she topped, gained 4.83% of the vote. Yabloko lacked 0.17%, or about 300 votes, to get a mandate to the regional parliament. The authorities did everything so that the Yabloko would not get into the regional Duma.
Yabloko Chairman Nikolai Rybakov sent an appeal to Igor Krasnov, Public Prosecutor General of Russia, with a request to track and prevent violations during the voting on the approval of amendments to the Constitution.
In his appeal, the Chair of Yabloko notes that media have published numerous reports on the participation of commercial and non-profit organisations throughout the country in the preparation of contests, lotteries and quizzes that have to take place during voting. “The organisers of these events do not conceal the fact that the main purpose of these events is to encourage citizens to take part in the all-Russian vote,” Nikolai Rybakov emphasises.
The Supreme Court of Karelia satisfied the claim of Olga Tuzhikova, Ilya Shkvarin and Valery Alekseev, the residents of the capital of Karelia Petrozavodsk, to the city administration, who demanded that the change of the status of part of the territory of the Kamenny Bor park (where the construction of a kindergarten is going on as part of the Federal Special Programme for the Development of the Republic of Karelia until 2020) was unlawful.
The region is ranked fourth in Russia as of the number of COVID cases
Press Release, 19.06.2020
The Nizhny Novgorod branch of Yabloko appealed to Governor Gleb Nikitin with a demand to cancel the Victory Day parade in Nizhny Novgorod scheduled on June 24 instead of May 9 due to the epidemic. The corresponding appeal was sent to the Governor by Oleg Rodin, Chairman of the Nizhny Novgorod regional branch of the Yabloko party.
