Is
Modernisation in Russia Possible? Interview
with Grigory Yavlinsky and Boris Titov by Yury Pronko,
"The Real Time" programme, Radio Finam, May
12, 2010
Members and supporters of the Omsk branch of Yabloko took part in an environmental rally against urban air pollution. The protest rally was organised with the support of Tatyana Nagibina, Chair of the regional branch of the party.
The rally participants demanded that the authorities find sources of harmful emissions into the atmosphere, hold those responsible for air pollution accountable, and also opposed the construction of new hazardous chemical plants for the production of phenol in Omsk. It should be noted that 380 people signed under the resolution of the rally.
Today, the Moscow Region Court considered the appeal on the measure of restraint in the case of Yevgeny Kurakin, head of the branch of Yabloko in Reutov, the Moscow Region. The court ruled out to return the case to the preliminary hearing stage to the Reutov court (the court of the first instance), and the decision to return the case to the public prosecutor was canceled.
The criminal case of fraud under of Article 159 Part 4 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation was instituted against Kurakin back in 2012, but for all these years the investigation failed to provide convincing evidence of his guilt. The activist spent 18 months in a pre-trial detention centre and was released only after a security deposit of three million roubles was paid. In September 2019, Kurakin planned to run for election to the city Council of Deputies. Simultaneously with the decision to participate in the elections, his release on bail was canceled and replaced by detention, allegedly because of his reluctance to read the case file.
Video: Trial over Yevgeny Kurakin, bailiffs beat the public and the press who came to the hearings to support Kurakin.
Konstantin Kotov was sentenced to four years [in a penal colony]. The defender of the Constitution and the rights of citizens of Russia, who has not committed any crime, will be in prison. Yesterday, the Moscow City Court upheld this decision. Neither the arguments of twelve lawyers, nor guarantors, nor even the Constitution of the Russian Federation could change anything. Because there is a political decision: Kotov should be in prison. So that to intimidate and frighten all.
Yesterday, four more [young people] were arrested within the “Moscow riots case”: Barshai, Emelyanova, Lesnykh, Martintsova. Two more managed to escape before the arrest.
About 4,000 residents of Elista, the capital of Kalmykia, came to the rally against the appointment of Dmitry Trapeznikov (who used to be Chair of the Council of Ministers of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic in East Ukraine) acting the head of the administration of Elista. The Kalmyk branch of Yabloko was one of the organisers of the rally.
The Chelyabinsk branch of Yabloko has prepared a bill on the return of direct elections of the Mayor of Chelyabinsk, the capital of the region. The regional branch plans to introduce its legislative initiative in the regional Legislative Assembly through Yelena Vakhtina, head of the Yabloko faction in the Council of Deputies of the Central District of Chelyabinsk, for this the Council should support the party’s initiative.
In addition, Yaroslav Shcherbakov, Chairman of the Chelyabinsk branch of Yabloko, called on municipal deputies from other district councils to join the Yabloko’s initiative.
Statement by the Novosibirsk branch of Yabloko, 10.10.2019
Two more prisoners of conscience appeared in Russia: in Rostov-on-Don 19-year-old Yan Sidorov and 22-year-old Vladislav Mordasov were sentenced was sentenced to six years and six months and six years and six months in a maximum security colony respectively. On November 5, 2017, they were detained at a picket dedicated to local problems: return of land to fire victims. They have been being persecuted for deciding to use their constitutional right to freedom of expression and freedom of peaceful assembly.
A series of one-person pickets (which require no permission from the authorities) in defense of political prisoners Yan Sidorov, Vladislav Mordasov and Vyacheslav Shashmin took place in Rostov-on-Don. Members of the Rostov-on-Don branch of Yabloko and residents of the city in turn went out with posters into the street. Mothers of Yan and Vladislav also took part in the picketing.
Today Boris Nemtsov could have turned 60. In February 2015, Boris was killed, shot right by the walls of the Kremlin…
We have known each other since 1990. We worked together, were friends. Boris was a very sincere and very free person. In recent years, he openly, vividly and sharply opposed the authorities. And that is why President Putin bears political responsibility for the murder of Nemtsov.
On Thursday, October 3, an auction in support of political prisoners was held in the Moscow office of the Yabloko party. The main partner of the action was the portal delo212.ru of the initiative group Case 212, where you can find detailed information about the prisoners of the so-called “Moscow riots case” and transfer money to assist them. Journalists, politicians, actors, public figures, scientists, and even the defendants were selling their works at the auction.
Statement by the Novgorod branch of Yabloko, 1.10.2019
An unidentified person attacked Anna Cherepanova, Chair of the Novgorod regional branch of the Yabloko party and the deputy of the City Duma, at the entrance to Mayor’s Office, before the meeting of the Novgorod Duma on the morning of September 26. The man poured white powder on her.
The Novgorod regional branch of the Yabloko party regards this attack as an act of political pressure on the opposition party and personally on MP Anna Cherepanova. This represents a reaction to the effective political work of Novgorod Yabloko, as its results are confirmed by a significant increase in the support of party candidates in the elections and growth in the number of supporters in different disrticts of the region.
The Yabloko party supported the rally for the release of political prisoners, which was held in Sakharov Prospect in Moscow today. Grigory Yavlinsky took part in the action, and Maxim Kruglov, head of the Yabloko faction in the Moscow City Duma, addressed the rally from the stage.
In August 1999 the young director of the Federal Security Service Vladimir Putin was appointed chairman of the Russian Government. By the end of the same year after the early resignation of Russia’s first President Boris Yeltsin, he started assuming his duties. Putin’s longstanding opponent Grigory Yavlinsky discusses the phenomenon of new Russian authoritarianism, summarizing the results of the past two decades.
Vladimir Putin, 1999 Photo: Musaelyan Vladimir / ТАSS
The Kirov branch of Yabloko participated in the rally “For Environmental Rights” conducted within the All-Russian Day of Environmental Protest. Activists and supporters of the Yabloko party, including Polina Klyucharova, Alexander Amosov and Arthur Abashev, took part in the action. The rally participants opposed the construction of the Maradykovsky complex for processing chemical weapons and a landfill in the Arkhangelsk region.
Deutsche Welle talked with Grigory Yavlinsky, the founder of the Yabloko party and Doctor of Economics, about why the Russian Federation adopted the Paris climate agreement and what consequences it will have for society and the economy.
Deutsche Welle: Grigory Alexeyevich, more than three years have passed between the signing of the Paris Climate Agreement by Russia and its adoption. Do you think that the sudden acceleration of work in this area is really connected with the aggravated environmental problems in the country, or is there some other underlying reason?
Grigory Yavlinsky: I think that this is a political decision and it was not adopted that quickly. The point is that Vladimir Putin is ready to take a variety of measures to raise his own popularity. He does not change the situation with Crimea, Ukraine and in other matters. You know what happened in Moscow in the summer, how many people were persecuted for political reasons. And the topic of climate change is in fact fashionable, popular. Why should not he take such a step to please people? And besides, the topic of climate is a civilisational issue. People who understand the value of environmental protection are people of a higher cultural organisation. The lower is the level of culture, the less is understanding of climate issues. So Putin decided to demonstrate that he is well civilised in order to gain popularity in this way.
Supposedly amendments were made to the charter of the Municipal Council of the Liteiny District in St.Petersburg so that to prevent of a deputy from Yabloko be elected as head of the council. According to the new charter, now it is possible to elect head of the municipal council with by two-thirds of the votes, although earlier he/she could be elected by a simple majority. Yabloko received 11 of the 20 mandates in the 8 September elections in this municipality, so had good chances that head of the council would be elected from Yabloko deputies.
The municipal council of the sixth convocation of the Vladimirsky municipal district of St.Ptersburg elected Yabloko’s Denis Tikhonenko head of municipal district on its first meeting on the evening of 20 September, 11 of the 19 municipal deputies present at the meeting voted for his candidacy.
The Yabloko faction in the Moscow City Duma unanimously elected Maxim Kruglov as its leader.
Sergei Mitrokhin, who led the party’s faction in the Moscow City Duma of the fourth convocation (2005-2009), recused himself. Mitrokhin explained this step by the desire to maintain solidarity within the new faction, as well as to enable the young deputy to realise his potential.
The Bureau of the Pskov Regional Branch of the Yabloko Party considered the transfer of mandates of deputies of the Pskov City Duma, the Assembly of Deputies of the Novorzhevsky District and the Assembly of Deputies of the Pustoshkinsky District, which became vacant in connection with the election of Arthur Gaiduk as an MP of the Pskov Regional Assembly in single-member constituency No. 2, Sofia Pugazheva as head of Novorzhevsky district and Svetlana Vasilkova as head of the Pustoshkinsky district.
Photo: Dmitry Permyakov
Dmitry Permyakov, lawyer and Deputy Chairman of the regional branch of the party, and Tatyana Fedorova, member of the Bureau of the Regional Council of the Yabloko party and teacher of economics and management, competed for the mandate of a deputy of the Pskov City Duma.
The team of the Novgorod Yabloko organised and conducted a series of pickets against the imports of garbage from Moscow and St. Petersburg into other regions. The protest action was held in Novgorod and Okulovka.
Anna Cherepanova, Chairperson of the Novgorod branch of Yabloko and MP in the City Duma of Novgorod, noted that the Novgorod region risks becoming a landfill for Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Activists of the Tatarstan branch of Yabloko conducted a series of one-person pickets, that do not require a permission from the authorities, in support of defendants in politically motivated criminal cases instituted as part of the so-called the “Moscow riots” case when people protested against non-registration of opposition candidates in the Moscow parliamentary election. The action was held in the centre of Kazan. During a series of pickets, party members and supporters demanded the release of those deprived of their liberty and accused in participation in the “mass riots” on 27 July, 2019, as well as drop charges against them and close criminal cases.
