Is
Modernisation in Russia Possible? Interview
with Grigory Yavlinsky and Boris Titov by Yury Pronko,
"The Real Time" programme, Radio Finam, May
12, 2010
On 27 December, 2019, criminal cases were initiated against civil activists of the Republic of Ingushetia Malsag Uzhakhov, Akhmed Barakhoyev, Musa Malsagov, Barakh Chemurziyev, Bagaudin Hautiyev, Ismail Nalgiyev, Zarifa Sautiyeva and Akhmed Pogorov, under [the charges envisaged in] the article [of the Cirminal Code of the Russian Federation] on creating and participating in an extremist organisation, and January of this year they were already been charged.
The Yabloko Party University resumes its work. Speeches of famous politicians, political scientists, social scientists and economists (Igor Nikolayev, Grigory Amnuel, Yevgeny Gontmakher, Nikolai Petrov, Tatyana Vorozheykina and others) are planned in the curriculum. Classes will be held mainly on Wednesdays at 19.00.
Statement by the Yabloko Federal Political Committee, 28.01.2020
The 2020 Presidential Address [to the Federal Assembly], amendments to the Constitution hastily introduced [by the government], and formation of a new government of the Russian Federation testify to the policies of the authorities that led the country into a dead end are maintained.
The main thing in the Presidential Address is unwillingness to talk about the situation in the country, give an account for what was done and what was not done, and bear responsibility. The President not only did not try to analyse what happened in Russia during the year, but did not even mention the events that were significant for the country. Speaking about the importance of “national projects”, he did not analyse the reasons for the failure to fulfill these plans, as well as the Strategy 2020, approved in 2008, which completely failed in all respects.
The Yabloko faction of the Moscow City Duma proposes that the Moscow parliament should have the right to approve appointment and dismissal by the Mayor of top Moscow officials such as Vice Mayors, ministers of the city government, districts heads, heads of local administrations, while the same candidacy cannot be submitted for approval for a post more than two times.
On 27 January, the anniversary of the lifting of the siege of Leningrad in the World War 2, Yabloko leaders and activists laid flowers at the memorial in the Alexander Garden, Moscow, and commemorate victims of the war.
Photo: Nikolai Rybakov
Yabloko Chairman Nikolai Rybakov, said that 27 January was of particular importance for both residents of St.Petersburg (Leningrad in the USSR period) and all residents of the country. He noted that the siege of Leningrad was “one of the most terrible crimes against humanity in our history.”
The Public Constitutional Council has begun work on an alternative package of amendments to the Constitution. This was announced at a briefing in Moscow by its founders – Yegeny Gontmakher, Leonid Nikitinsky, Vladimir Ryzhkov and Grigory Yavlinsky. The Public Advisory Council, which will include Tamara Morshchakova and Mikhail Krasnov, authors of the Constitution, will help the Public Council in this. When the work on the amendments is completed, they will be sent to the President and to the State Duma. The Council will seek their consideration by popular vote, which is expected to take place in April. The main goal of the amendments is to offer the public an alternative, the founders of the Council say.
Yabloko’s Anti-Corruption Policy Centre drew up the results of a vote by the web-site visitors for awarding the Golden Toilet Brush 2019 anti-award to the most wasteful officials. Vladimir Medinsky, former Minister of Culture of Russia and currently President Putin’s aid, received most of the votes. He will receive the “golden toilet brush” for the purchase of the Ministry of Culture for screening of the documentary “I owe my millions to their work…” in Switzerland. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin got the Regional Golden toilet Brush for the purchase of 941 km of road curb stone borders for 3 billion roubles.
Konstantin Smirnov, Chairman of the Ryazan branch of Yabloko, believes that the health and life of at least tens of thousands of Ryazan residents are in direct danger due to another poisoning of tap water. People have been massively complaining about the unbearable smell of tap water and sickness, but the government and supervisory authorities are keeping silent.
Photo: Alexander Kondrov, Deputy Chairman of the Altai regional branch of Yabloko, “I demand justice”.
Alexander Kondrov, Deputy Chairman of the Altai regional branch of the Yabloko party and head of the research and production laboratory of the Altai Techological University, held a one-person picket (that does not require any permission from the authorities) near the walls of the regional Public Prosecutor’s office. Deputy Chairman of Altai Yabloko sought punishment for police officers who had beaten him. After the beating, a criminal case was instituted against Alexander Kondrov allegedly for his using “violence” against a representative of the authorities.
The breakdown of the Constitution proposed by the President and furnished with decorative procedures, is not only an already familiar manifestation of disrespect for the people, but also, above all, a manifestation of the political vector: towards not only preserving the current system, but making it even more authoritarian, closed and, as consequently, economically inefficient. In such situation, active civic political resistance is necessary: to develop and introduce to the society fundamentally different amendments to the Constitution in the interests of citizens of Russia, and not the ruling group, make amendments that create conditions for improving the quality of life and development of the country for the current young generation of Russians and several generations ahead.
For example:
– elect the President of Russia for four years, rather than for a six year term;
– return the elections of mayors and governors instead of presidential appointments;
– make the posts of senators in the Federation Council elective.
Emilia Slabunova on the key amendment to the Constitution
Novaya Gazeta, 22.01.2020
The most intriguing thing in the draft amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation, introduced by the President to the State Duma, the most intriguing thing is the paragraph “g.1” proposed by him to Article 83, which defines the powers of the head of state.
The Ivanovo branch of Yabloko formed its electoral headquarters for elections to the Ivanovo City Duma. Such decision was made by the Bureau of the Ivanovo Regional Branch of the party at its meeting on Tuesday, 21 January.
Statement by Grigory Yavlinsky, Chairman of the Federal Political Committee of Yabloko, 19.01.2020
President Vladimir Putin has decided to make urgent changes to the Constitution. The proposals made by him in his [annual] Address [to the Federal Assembly] are vague and incomprehensible from a legal point of view. It is proposed to isolate Russia from international law and this is called sovereignty, give the President the right to dismiss judges of higher courts, turn the Constitutional Court into a kind of legal department of the State Duma, form a new constitutional bureaucratic body – the State Council -with incomprehensible powers. Speaking of the need for change, the President proposes decorative amendments, such as approval of the government by the State Duma, whereas the President can anytime terminate the powers of the government. For all their incoherence, the political vector of these amendments is obvious: not only to maintain the current system, but to make it even more authoritarian, closed and economically inefficient. This is also demonstrated by the composition of the working group created by the President for preparation of amendments.
On January 16, Yabloko Chairman Nikolai Rybakov took part in the Facing the Event programme hosted by Yelena Rykovtseva. The guests of the studio – Sergey Obukhov, former State Duma deputy from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Mikhail Fishman, journalist from the Dozhd television channel, and Mikhail Kasyanov, former Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, – discussed the appointment of Mikhail Mishustin as Prime Minister, what Russians can expect after amendments to the Constitution are adopted and the irremovability of power announced in the President’s Address [to the Federal Assembly].
On 26 January, a rally “For the quality of life and a clean city, against air pollution” will be held in Omsk. The rally is organised by Tatyana Nagibina, Chair of the Omsk branch of Yabloko, and is supported by the Omsk City Public Council. The rally will begin at 12.00.
The application for the march will be submitted for 29 February
Press Release, 20.01.2020
Kirill Goncharov, Deputy Chairman of the Moscow branch of Yabloko, and Galina Mikhaleva, Chair of the Gender Faction, Professor of the Russian State University for Humanities, joined the organizational committee of the Boris Nemtsov Memorial March on behalf of the Yabloko party. The march will take place on 29 February, the closest Saturday to the day of the assassination of Boris Nemtsov – 27 February.
Today, leaders, members and supporters of the Yabloko party paid tribute to lawyer Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasia Baburova who were murdered by neo-Nazis from the BORN group on the doorstep of Prechistenka Street 3, Moscow, on 19 January, 2009. Yabloko has been holding memorial actions paying tribute to Markelov and Baburova for 11 years, since 2009, when this cynical murder was committed in the centre of Moscow.
Earlier, the activist was arrested for five days for participating in a series of one person pickets for the resignation of the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Tatarstan
Press Release, 17.01.2020
Yelena Izotova, Chair of the Tatarstan Green Russia faction of the Yabloko party, went on a hunger strike. Earlier, the activist was arrested for five days for participating in a series of one person pickets (that do not require any permissions from the authorities) demanding resignation of Artyom Khokhorin, Minister of Internal Affairs for Tatarstan, for breaking up (in late December 2019) of the tent camp of opponents of the construction of the waste incineration plant.
State Duma deputies from the ruling United Russia Gadzhemet Safaraliyev, Yevgeny Marchenko and Valentin Subbot introduced amendments to the law on political parties to the lower house of the Russian parliament to liquidate the Yabloko party for “diminishing the authority of the state in the international arena”. The explanatory note to the bill gives only one example of the parties that, according to the authors of the bill, should be dissolved – the Yabloko party.
The initiatives contained in the annual Address of President Vladimir Putin to the Federal Assembly do not cause illusions. No significant changes or democratisation of the system is expected. The declared initiatives are targeted at strengthening the political system that has developed over the past 20 years and maintaining Putin in power after 2024. Life in the country will not become better, freer, and more honest.
