Is
Modernisation in Russia Possible? Interview
with Grigory Yavlinsky and Boris Titov by Yury Pronko,
"The Real Time" programme, Radio Finam, May
12, 2010
Condolences to the families of those killed in the terrible accident at Sheremetyevo. 41 victims! An increasingly terrible price paid for the failures of import substitution, anti-sanctions and a “special [Russian] way”.
It is necessary to immediately stop the flights of the SSJ 100 until finding out the causes of the accident and conducting an independent expertise, check the runway Sheremetyevo, the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation should examine the use of budget funds for the SSJ 100 project.
Emilia Slabunova,
Yabloko Chair
***
Tragedy in Sheremetyevo. 41 people died. Condolences to the families and nest of kin of the victims. Strength and health to all the wounded.
They say Kolyma [one of the GULAG places in north-east Russia] is the birthplace of our fear. But no, it is not Kolyma. And neither [the camps of] Magadan, nor Mordovia, nor Norilsk, nor Komi. And not even all 427 camps of the GULAG. Homeland of our fear is the Kremlin.
Vladimir Putin said that the decree on the simplified procedure for issuing Russian passports to residents of certain regions of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions of Ukraine was “a humanitarian measure”. That is, it is like taking care of people who are suffering. In fact, in order to alleviate the suffering of the residents of Donbass, one must first of all end the war. A decree on passports represents, on the contrary, continuation of the policy that gave rise to the war in the east of Ukraine.
Grigory Yavlinsky’s book The Putin System has been published by Columbia University Press, New York.
How power works in present-day Russia, how Vladimir Putin came to power and maintains his rule for over 20 years — these questions are often misunderstood and the answers remain opaque. In The Putin System, Russian economist and opposition leader Grigory Yavlinsky explains his country’s politics from a unique perspective, voicing a Russian liberal critique of the post-Soviet system that is vital for the West to hear.
On 7 May, on the threashold of the Victory Day of 9 May, leaders and activists of the Yabloko party will lay wreaths and flowers at the Eternal Flame and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Alexander Garden in Moscow.
Arthur Parfenchikov, head of Karelia, submitted to the parliament of the Republic of Karelia draft amendments to the budget, which provide for an increase in co-financing of scientific research within the framework of an agreement with the Russian Foundation for Basic Research in 2019.
n 26 April, turns 33 years since one of the largest disasters in the history of the nuclear industry – the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. About 400 million people worldwide were exposed to radiation. According to experts, up to 830,000 people were directly or indirectly involved in liquidation of the consequences of the accident. Now, 33 years later, about 5 million people live in infected areas. On this day, the Green Russia Faction of the Yabloko party holds its annual all-Russia action in memory of the Chernobyl tragedy.
In Moscow, Yabloko activists held a picket in front of the Russian Federal Atomic Energy Agency (Rosatom). Sergei Mitrokhoin, Yabloko’s Federal Political Committee member, and Galina Mikhaleva, Chair of Yabloko’s Gender Faction, participated in the action.
Distributing Russian passports on a mass scale to foreign nationals in a war zone is not the way to peace. If Putin really wants to help the residents of Donbass, then we must stop the war with Ukraine. This will ensure the real and long-term safety of the inhabitants of the region.
Today, the Moscow City Duma adopted in first reading a draft law on electronic voting at the elections of Moscow deputies. We are categorically opposed to the introduction [of the law], because it will only worsen the situation with people’s confidence in the elections.
A meeting of the initiative group on holding a referendum in Tatarstan on the need to hold local referendums in the constructing waste management facilities with a capacity of more than 40,000 tons per year was held by the Yabloko branch in Tatarstan. The initiative group included twenty-five residents of the Republic of Tatarstan, including members of different parties and social movements and leaders of the movement against the construction of an incinerator in Osinovo (a suburb of Kazan). Ruslan Zinatullin, Chairman of the regional branch of the Yabloko party, was elected as one of the authorised representatives of the initiative group.
On 26 April, turns 33 years since one of the largest disasters in the history of the nuclear industry – the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. About 400 million people worldwide were exposed to radiation. According to experts, up to 830,000 people were directly or indirectly involved in liquidation of the consequences of the accident. Now, 33 years later, about 5 million people live in infected areas. On this day, the Green Russia Faction of the Yabloko party holds its annual All-Russian action in memory of the Chernobyl tragedy, the party members will come out on pickets in Moscow and Russian regions.
Nikolai Rybakov, as an expert on the environmental organisation Bellona, Deputy Chairman of the Yabloko party and environmentalist, gave a lecture to the students in Bryansk and Volgograd.
A round table discussion on the problems of the Russian health care system was held in the office of the regional branch of the Yabloko party in Chuvashia. Basing on the results of the discussion, representatives of political parties and public associations of Chuvashia adopted a resolution “For Decent Medicine”, which was sent to the President of Russia.
Watch the documentary The Optimists dedicated to the 25th anniversary of Yabloko with English (or other) subtitiles now. Choose your language in the Settings of the video. The documentary covers the key periods in the history of the Russian Federation and the development of the Yabloko party.
Boris Vishnevsky, head of the Yabloko faction in the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg, submitted for public discussion the first version of his programme for the election of the governor of St. Petersburg. Vishnevsky plans to amend his programme in accordance with proposals and comments of St. Petersburg residents.
Grigory Yavlinsky, Chairman of the Federal Political Committee of the Yabloko party, sent a message of congratulations to Vladimir Zelensky on his victory in the presidential elections in Ukraine in Ukrainian and Russian.
According to public opinion polls, the attitude of over 50 per cent of Russians to Joseph Stalin is somewhat positive. This is not surprising. Stalin’s methods of governing based on fear and lies were maintained under Leonid Brezhnev and country leaders after him. Mikhail Gorbachev abolished this practice. But then, not yet overcome, Bolshevism with its “goal justifies the means” and indifference to the life, dignity and destiny of man, formed the basis of the reforms of the 1990s, which gave rise to the mafia state. And in the 2000s, capitalism with a Stalinist face emerged on the basis of this “market Bolshevism”: lawlessness, authoritarian rule, contingent property law, dullness in power, and corruption, which was deliberately laid in the foundation of all relations in the country, so that to serve as a universal charge for arrest for anyone at any time (just like “anti-Soviet activities of the enemies of the people and spying for world imperialism” in [Joseph Stalin’s] 1930s).
They are preparing Russia for a war. The propagandise. They intimidate. They threaten. Kinzhal (Dagger), Sarmat, Poseidon, Peresvet… Endless news about the “newest deadly” weapons. “Wonderful,” Putin says, “a gift to the country for the New Year is the Avangard missile.”
On 20 April, a rally of the city opposition was held in Vologda under the slogan “We demand!”. The speakers demanded that the authorities abolish their tariffs for garbage collection and revise their project for improvement of the Vologda embankment.
Members of the Vologda branch of Yabloko took part in the rally.
