Is
Modernisation in Russia Possible? Interview
with Grigory Yavlinsky and Boris Titov by Yury Pronko,
"The Real Time" programme, Radio Finam, May
12, 2010
Everyone knows that the Network [antifascist group] case was fabricated, and confessions were beaten out under torture, including the President of Russia, who was informed about torture at the meeting of the Human Rights Council. As the saying goes, “tell comrade N: a monstrous mistake has occurred”.
Speaking in court with his last statement, Dmitry Pchelintsev, who was sentenced for the longest term, 18 years, in this case, said,
“I have never been particularly interested in politics or justice, or anything like that. In principle, mainly because I was not very interested in it and I did not think that it could ever become.., that I would ever come across this. However, after spending more than two years in solitary confinement, I analysed how I ended up here and what brought me here. And naturally, I could only make one conclusion, which, I think, is obvious to everyone: we really did something wrong with the whole country. And we did not do something [important], although we had to, were even obliged to do.”
The sentence passed in Penza today in the so-called Network case is a monstrous abuse of law and justice.
Young people tortured by the law enforcement and the investigation so that to get “confessions” received from six to 18 years of imprisonment. The defendants made statements about this at the trial and retracted these “confessions”.
Condolences by Nikolai Rybakov and Grigory Yavlinsky, 4.02.2020
Photo: Teodor Shanin
Today, Teodor Shanin, outstanding social scientist and founder of the Moscow Higher School of Social and Economic Sciences (“Shaninka”) passed away in his 90th year.
Nikolai Rybakov, Chairman of the Yabloko party:
Teodor Shanin was an amazing person, with a fate extraordinary even for the 20th century. His strength of mind, intellectual power, independence and ability to practically conduct business are fascinating. “Shaninka”, his brainchild in Moscow, has become one of the best education and research centres. I am sure that it will continue working, despite all the difficulties, and will preserve the traditions laid down by its founder, as well as the atmosphere of free-thinking and intellectual celebration.
The organisers of the march in memory of murdered opposition politician Boris Nemtsov in Nizhny Novgorod sent an open letter to Gleb Nikitin, Governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region, with a request to assist in getting a permission for the event.
On 16 January, Lev Shlosberg, MP of the Pskov Regional Assembly of Deputies and member of the Yabloko’s Federal Political Committee, addressed Sariya Saburskaya, Commissioner for Human Rights in the Republic of Tatarstan, in connection with administrative arrests of Yelena Izotova, leader of the Yabloko’s Green Russia faction in the Republic of Tatarstan and eco-activist, and civil activist Anatoly Malov.
Yabloko MPs of the Pskov Regional Assembly Lev Shlosberg and Artur Gaiduk for the second time submitted to the Pskov Regional Assembly a package of bills on the need to government to respect the people.
Yabloko’s bills represent a direct political and legal response to Federal Law No. 28-FZ “On Amendments to the Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Offenses” dated March 18, 2019, which introduced citizens’ responsibility for “explicit disrespect” for bodies exercising state power and local self-government in Russia.
Yabloko has created a party commission to draft constitutional amendments alternative to those of President Putin’s. This decision was made today by the Party Bureau. Yabloko Chairman Nikolai Rybakov will head the commission. The Executive Secretary of the commission will be Ivan Bolshakov, Yabloko Deputy Chairman.
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.
