Press Release, 22.03.2019

The first hearings on the lawsuit of the Chelyabinsk branch of Yabloko to the City Duma were held in the Chelyabinsk Regional Court. The regional branch of the party asks the court to invalidate the decisions of the City Duma approving the regulations on the procedure for holding a competition to select candidates for the position of head of the city of Chelyabinsk, as well as to announcing a competition and electing the head of the city of Chelyabinsk, because they violate the rights of the competition participants and city residents.

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Grigory Yavlinsky’s web-site, 18.03.2018

Five years ago, Vladimir Putin, with mass support of Russians annexed Crimea. Today, they talk a lot about the “price of Crimea”, give figures, the size of subsidies, allocations, expenses for the construction of a bridge, etc. However, this is not so much about Crimea as about the stagnant Russian economy and inefficiency of governing. By the way, few people believe that with these considerable expenses, people in Crimea began to live much better, freer, safer than before, until 2014, and corruption actually fell for the five years. True, many people there have preserved their Ukrainian passports. In fact, Russia’s payment for Crimea is huge. The price we pay for Crimea is not to be counted in dubious official figures, percentage of the budget share or GDP. The price is different:

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Grigory Yavlinsky’s web-site, 19.03.2018

A year has passed since the presidential election. Many then were saying that the voting itself did not matter, that the result was predetermined, that there were more important things… As a result, a year ago Vladimir Putin received a mandate to change nothing in the country, to keep everything as it was before: sanctions, isolation, confrontation with the whole world, support of the war in Ukraine, participation in the war in Syria, corruption in all power structures, suppression of civil liberties and propagandistic lies in the media. Putin did not disappoint the expectations: isolation and wars remained, but the so-called “pension reform”, increased taxes, an arms race, and laws on punishment for insulting the authorities and isolating the Internet added to this.

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Statement of the St.Petersburg branch of Yabloko, 20.03.2019

Photo: Maria Karpenko and Boris Vishnevsky, Yabloko MP in the St.Petersburg Legislative Assembly

On Tuesday, 19 March, Maria Karpenko was sacked from her post of correspondent for the Kommersant newspaper. The reason for this outrageous dismissal was [her criticism of Alexander Beglov, acting Governor of St.Petersburg in] the Rotonda channel co-authored by Maria in the Telegram network. According to Vladimir Zhelonkin, head of the [Kommersant] publishing house, the texts published by Maria in the Rotunda did not meet the approved requirements of the Kommersant paper. He stated that the Rotunda channel represented “activism incompatible with journalistic status.”

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Press Release, 21.03.2019

Alexander Goncharenko, leader of the Altai branch of Yabloko, sent appeals to Ivan Gilev, Minister of Construction and Housing and Communal Services of the Altai Territory, as well as to Vladimir Popryadukhin, regional Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology, asking them to answer a number of questions about the “garbage reform” that worried residents of the region.

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Greetings from Yabloko Chairperson, 21.03.2019

Today Vasily Popov, the leader of the Karelian branch of Yabloko, turns 55. Emily Slabunova, Chair of the Yabloko party, sends Vasily Popov greetings for his jubilee:

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Press Release, 21.03.2019

Natalya Tumureyeva, Chairperson of the Yabloko in Biryatia, became a participant in the meeting of the heads of the Federation Council, the upper chamber of the Russian parliament, with environmental activists from Russian regions. The meeting was attended by Ivan Valentik, Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, and representatives of 80 constituent entities of the Russian Federation.

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Press Release, 19.03.2019

The Rostov-Don branch of Yabloko sent inquiries to the Federal Service for Supervision of Natural Resource Usage (Rosprirodnadzor) in the Southern Federal District and the Minister of Nature Management and Ecology of the Rostov-Don Region. The regional office of the party demanded to provide information on the volume of municipal solid waste generated in the region for 2017 and 2018, as well as on what is planned to be done with the waste at the landfills.

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Press Release, 19.03.2019

On Sunday, 24 March, a rally “Free Elections for St.Petersburg!” will be held. The rally is marking the 30th anniversary of the first free elections to the Supreme Soviet [parliament] of the USSR.

30 years ago, on 26 March, 1989, the first for the entire Soviet history free elections of deputies were held in the USSR: 750 deputies out of total 2,250 were elected from territorial districts, the same number was elected from public organisations and national-territorial districts. Historians call the 1989 election the first democratic election in Soviet history.

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Press Release, 18.03.2019

https://twitter.com/yavlinsky/status/1106154531115671552

In his interview to Radio Liberty Grigory Yavlinsky on 12 March, Yabloko founder and Chairman of the Federal Political Committee of the Yabloko party, called on citizens of Russia to join the Yabloko party so that to make their voice heard in defending their rights and making the government change their policies.

“There is no need to wait for Putin or someone else to leave, and a good one taking his place. It will not be like this! In order to save the country from war, poverty and chaos, one must begin creating a powerful political force, a mass movement now,” Yavlinsky said.

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Press Release, 18.03.2019

According to Emilia Slabunova, Russian President Vladimir Putin, who announced the Decade of Childhood in Russia, must personally visit the village of Tomsino in Sebezhsky District, the Pskov Region, where fellow villagers harassed and mobbed Tanya Perchikova, 12-year-old girl who wrote a letter to Russian President asking for help. Moreover, the head of the Sebezhsky district, Leonid Kursenkov, said that the Perchikov family is not the only one who is experiencing similar difficulties: “We have around 19,000 people in the area, of which such families are almost all in the same condition.”

In mid-December 2018, 12-year-old Tasia Perchikova from the village of Tomsino, the Pskov Region, wrote a letter to Vladimir Putin. The girl complained about various difficulties – the only school in the village was closed, her mother worked as a nurse in two shifts for a small salary – and asked the President to help.

There was no response from Vladimir Putin, and local officials refused to help. After a publication about the Perchikovs was released on the Radio Liberty website, the family began to receive small donations from people across the country. At the same time, the Perchikovs began facing problems in counteraction with their fellow villagers, many of whom also experienced financial difficulties, but did not receive any help.

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Press Release, 16.03.2019

In the Krasnodar Territory, a lawsuit was filed against Alexander Korovainy, deputy of the Yeisk District Council from the Yabloko party, for his repost on Facebook of a MBH-Media’s picture on the rise in prices. Alexander Korovainy was accused of “carrying out the activity of an undesirable organisation” (Article 20.33 of the Administrative Code of the RF).

According to the law enforcement agencies, the deputy published a material recognised by the Open Russia Civic Movement which had been recognised an undesirable organisation in Russia. However, Alexander Korovainy stated that he placed a link only to the media web-site, which had not been banned in Russia, and the publication about currencies exchange rates and prices did not violate Russian laws.

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Yabloko party statement, 14.03.2019

On 14 March, the State Duma plans to examine draft federal law No 631751-7 “On Amendments to the Federal Law “On General Principles of Organisation of Local Self-Government in the Russian Federation”(in the Part of Improving the Issues of Territorial Organisation of Local Self-Government)”.

Adoption of this draft law will become a final sentence to the reform of local self-government, which began in 2003. Read more »

Press Release, 14.03.2019

On Friday, 15 March, Grigory Yavlinsky, Yabloko founder and Chairman of the Federal Political Committee of the Yabloko party, will meet with those who have submitted applications for joining the party within the framework of the “Make Your Voice Louder!” campaign launched by Grigory Yavlinsky and calling citizens of Russia to join the Yabloko party so that to make their voice heard in defending their rights and making the government change their policies.

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12.03.2019

Interview with Acad. Alexei Arbatov by Fyodor Anaschenkov, special for yabloko.ru

Photo by Ramil Sitdikov/RIA Novosti

The international community has been discussing with concern a new border incident between India and Pakistan. The two countries have been in a state of a “smoldering” conflict for 70 years. At the same time, both the sides possess nuclear weapons. Acad. Alexey Arbatov, head of the Centre for International Security of the Russian Academy of Sciences and a member of the Federal Political Committee of the Yabloko party, told us why nuclear weapons cannot be used even in a local conflict, and how joint actions of Russia, the USA and China can help in the regulation of the dispute.

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Decision No 109 of Yabloko’s Federal Political Committee, 12.03.2019

The Federal Political Committee of the party adopted a new version of the “Memorandum of Political Alternative” at its meeting on 1 March. This document is mandatory for signing by party candidates in elections of all levels.

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Press Release, 12.03.2019

The Kuntsevo District Court of Moscow fined Sergei Mitrokhin, member of the Federal Political Committee of the Yabloko party, for 200,000 roubles for his meeting with residents of the Kuntsevo district who oppose the actions of the PIK Group of construction companies.

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Grigory Yavlinsky’s Facebook page, 12.03.2019

Prosecution of human rights activist Oyub Titiyev has been going on in Chechnya for a year now. Nothing defamatory to Titiyev has been found: all the charges look extremely unconvincing, contrived and politically motivated. Oyub Titiyev, Chairman of the Chechen [branch of human rights society] Memorial, is a very strong and courageous man, he cannot be broken. Yesterday, in his last word in court, Titiyev spoke about my appeals to the President: I twice drew Vladimir Putin’s attention to the need to bring the Titiyev case under control in order to protect an honest and innocent person, and not to allow injustice. But yesterday, the public prosecutor demanded four years of imprisonment [for Titiyev].

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Decision No 107 of Yabloko’s Federal Political Committee, 6.03.2019

In 2018, the electoral system of modern Russia celebrated its 25th anniversary. At this time political organisations, movements and political parties were born.

However, today confidence of Russians in elections has dropped to almost a zero level, almost like in Soviet times, when elections were not perceived by anyone as a real institution of a possible change of government.

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Press Release, 7.03.2019

One-person pickets for the alternation of power were held in Elista, capital of Kalmykia. Activists of Kalmyk branch of Yabloko demanded that representatives of the pro-government United Russia party should resign from all the bodies of the executive and the legislative power in Kalmykia.

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