The Clock Is Ticking for Business
Grigory Yavlinsky’s web-site, 06.11.2018
Need money for a national park in the Arctic? Not enough money for a port complex at Novaya Zemlya [archipelago in the Arctic Ocean]? Don not have 1.5 trillion roubles for a highway from Sochi to Crimea? The government’s 540 billion roubles allocated for the implementation of the May Presidential Decrees on Russia’s entry into the top five leading scientific countries of the world is not enough? No problem! Presidential Aide Andrei Belousov has already invented everything: multi-billion projects of Rosatom, the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Environment, the Ministry of Communications, the Ministry of Agriculture, RusHydro, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Federal Forestry Agency and the Ministry of Construction, Industry and Economic Development will from now on be paid for by large business – mandatory. The discussion that began in summer about a one-time withdrawal of “superprofits” of chemical and metallurgical companies to the [federal] budget has taken on a strategic scale by the end of the Fall. Today we are talking about mandatory participation of state-owned companies in the financing of national projects. However, there are very big doubts about the quality of the preparation of these projects. It is impossible to seriously prepare 394 projects with financing over 150 billion dollars on such an urgent basis. Most likely, most of them are merely pulled out of a hat. Moreover, the effectiveness of investment projects can and should be determined by the market, and not the authorities.
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Posted: December 6th, 2018 under Economy, Understanding Russia, YABLOKO against Corruption.
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Yabloko demands that the State Duma annul the law that allows to withdraw property from citizens
Press release, 5.12.2018
The State Duma of the Russian Federation has passed through the first reading a draft of the federal law that will allow to withdraw land plots [from individuals] for governmental and municipal needs.
Image by Grigory Belozyerov/ Aif.ru
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Posted: December 5th, 2018 under Human Rights.
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A U-Turn: from Сarnival to Сollapse
Grigory Yavlinsky’s web-site, 27.10.2018
On what has been happening with liberal capitalism, the “carnival politics”, a change of course in the global economy and the role of Russia in these developments.
Smiles and tongue-in-cheek greetings at the recent meeting between Vladimir Putin and the adviser to the President of the United States on national security in Moscow were in stark contrast to the meaning of their conversation. The United States announced its withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, which means a serious military threat to Russia and the whole of Europe, however, it looked as though they were children discussing some [Soviet children military sports] game Zarnitsa or participants of a TV show competing in wit. And not a single constructive word.
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Posted: December 4th, 2018 under Russia-Eu relations, Russia-US Relations.
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Writer Andrei Bitov died
Press Release, 3.12.2018
Writer Andrei Bitov died in Moscow in the 82nd year of his life. He was considered the founder of postmodernism in Russian literature. Grigory Yavlinsky, Chairman of the Federal Political Committee of the Yabloko party, expressed his condolences on the passing of renowned Russian writer:
Andrei Bitov is a writer whose sense of style was both a gift, an ethical measure, and a sign of individuality.
His “Vanishing Monakhov” was both the author’s protagonist and the hero of the generation, who will never be the spokesman for the majority, but the thinking part of the society will always correlate them with this hero.
I commiserate with everyone who loves Andrei Bitov. And myself as well.
Image by TASS
Posted: December 4th, 2018 under Condolences.
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The Supreme Court revives the communist slogan “the abolition of private property”
Boris Vishnevsky on the decision of the Supreme Court to allow the PIK development group to demolish residential blocks of flats in the Kuntsevo District, Moscow, and build up the area again
Boris Vishnevsky’s Telegram Channel, 23.11.2018
Image: Sergei Mitrkhin, member of Yabloko’s Federal Political Committee, at a rally in Kuntsevo
“The theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property,” Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels once wrote in the Manifesto of the Communist Party.
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Posted: December 4th, 2018 under Human Rights, YABLOKO Against the Parties of Power.
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Reprisals in Silence
Grigory Yavlinsky’s web-site, 30.10.2018
Once a year, on the eve of the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Political Reprisals, people [in Russia] come to the Solovetsky Stone [monument representing a stone brought from one of the GULAG labour camps] in Lubyanka Square [the office of the Federal Security Service, former NKVD-KGB] to remember the millions of people who perished in the years of the Bolshevik political terror, so that to return their names [reading out loud the names of the victims of the Stalin’s political regime]. It is very important. Because all this can happen again. And it is recurring.
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Posted: December 3rd, 2018 under Human Rights.
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Regional officials are taught how to squeeze money from the population
Grigory Yavlinsky’s Facebook page, 04.11.2018
In the Novgorod region, 42 per cent of ambulance stations were closed. In the Voronezh region 40 per cent of libraries were liquidated. In the Saratov region in 30 per cent of houses there is no sewage. The state debt of the Krasnoyarsk Territory only amounts to 109 billion roubles. However, 60 billion roubles were spent on the fountain in the centre of Grozny, Chechnya; 43 billion were spent on the stadium in St. Petersburg; 14 billion on the Zaryadye Park in Moscow; 107 billion were spent on the maintenance of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Read more »
Posted: December 3rd, 2018 under Economy.
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Court of the Kuntsevo District plays into the hands of a development company
Sergei Mitrokhin’s blog post, 29.11.2018
The court sentenced me, the municipal deputies and activists who defended the residents of Kuntsevo district, Moscow, from the lawlessness of the PIK development group, to fines of 150,000 roubles (approximately USD 2,300).
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Posted: November 30th, 2018 under YABLOKO Against the Parties of Power.
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Both Putin and Poroshenko are equally interested in the escalation of Russia-Ukraine conflict
Emila Slabunova’s blog post, 28.11.2018
The situation in the Kerch Strait clearly shows that the presidents of the two countries are ready “to sign their doom”. Both Putin and Poroshenko are equally interested in the escalation of the conflict. At the moment foreign policy adventures are vital for both leaders to preserve their power, get their poll numbers up and distract [people] from domestic problems. External threats and military rhetoric are used in order to gain approval of their policy. The incident in the strait is so advantages for both presidents that they will try to delay dealing with it as long as possible to score as much political points for themselves as they can. Putin’s today’s comments at the “Russia Calling” investment forum has once again proved it.
Image by the Border Guard Service, Federal Security Service, Crimea
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Posted: November 29th, 2018 under Russia-Ukraine relations.
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Yabloko’s Boris Vishnevsky proposed to initiate a general civic campaign for the abolition of the municipal filter at the elections
Press Release, 26.11.2018
Boris Vishnevsky, head of the Yabloko faction in the St.Petersburg Legislative Assembly, called on citizens to begin collecting signatures under the letter to St. Petersburg municipal deputies and the leadership of ruling United Russia party to ensure real, rather than decorative, political competition in the election of the St.Petersburg Governor.
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Posted: November 29th, 2018 under Gubernatorial Elections, St.Petersburg Gubernatorial Elections 2014, YABLOKO's faction in St.Petersburg Legislative Assembly.
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The case of human rights defender Oyub Titiyev concerns everyone in Russia
Grigory Yavlinsky’s web-site, 28.11.2018
Oyub Titiyev. School teacher. Children’s boxing coach. Human rights activist, head of the Chechen branch of the Memorial [human rights organisation]. In January 2018, Oyub who was driving his Lada Kalina car was stopped by traffic police officers. During an inspection, a police officer found a package with marijuana in a car of a 61-year-old school teacher, children’s coach and human rights activist (just at the moment when another policeman in the presence of Oyub was inspecting the trunk). Since then, Titiyev has been in prison.
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Posted: November 29th, 2018 under Human Rights.
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Yabloko member Igor Kochetkov wins an award for civil society development in Russia
Press release, 27.11.2018
Igor Kochetkov, member of Yabloko, head of the “Sfera” LGBT organisation in St. Petersburg, co-founder of the Russian LGBT Network, won the award for Activity Fostering Development of Civil Society granted by the Yegor Gaidar Foundation.
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Posted: November 28th, 2018 under Human Rights.
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Yabloko in Kaliningrad: Those who attacked the monument to Immanuel Kant must be held accountable for it
Press release, 27.11.2018
Chair of the Kaliningrad branch of Yabloko Igor Pleshkov demands that Governor of the Kaliningrad Region and law enforcement hold those who attacked the monument to philosopher Immanuel Kant and his grave accountable for their doing.
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Posted: November 28th, 2018 under Understanding Russia.
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Grigory Yavlinsky: “This is a mistake, a big mistake. Oyub Titiyev has always worked only for the sake of the people”
Press Release, 26.11.2018
The Shali District Court of Chechnya did not release from custody human rights defender Oyub Titiyev under the personal guarantee of Grigory Yavlinsky, Chairman of the Federal Political Committee of Yabloko.
Photo: Grigory Yavlinsky and Oyub Titiyev. Grozny, 6 March, 2018. Photo: Anna Artemyeva / Novaya Gazeta
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Posted: November 27th, 2018 under Human Rights.
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Yabloko in the Republic of Chuvashia demands that the Central Election Commission eliminate the municipal filter in gubernatorial elections
Press release, 22.11.2018
On 21 November, Yabloko branch in the Republic of Chuvashia organised a round table on the improvement of Russia’s electoral legislation. Representative of political parties, public organisation and the regional branch of the Central Election Commission took part in the discussion.
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Posted: November 26th, 2018 under Elections, Gubernatorial Elections.
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Yabloko participated in a round table on gender equality organised by the Delegation of the EU to Russia
Press release, 19.11.2018
On 19th November, Yabloko Gender Faction representatives (Galina Mikhaleva, Nikolai Kavkazsky and Irina Zabelina) participated in a round table on gender equality organised by the Delegation of the European Union to the Russian Federation.
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Posted: November 26th, 2018 under Gender Faction, Human Rights.
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Grigory Yavlinsky on the consequences of the conflict between PMC veterans and the Russian government
Grigory Yavlinsky website, 16.11.2018
They were not present in Crimea in 2014. They have not been present in the Donbass these four years. They are not present in Syria. They are not present in Central African Republic, in Libya and in Sudan… However, it looks like they are present in the Hague.
The so called “veterans of military conflicts” also knows as “servicemen on leave”, “volunteers” and “rebels” who are in fact simply “the soldiers of fortune”, in other words they are mercenaries from Russian private military companies, are intent upon turning to the International Criminal Court (ICC) itself to maintain their rights (!). The veterans of the underground military groups are planning to gain an official status, recognition, standard benefits, etc. from the Russian government which sent them to the war denying their presence in the hot spots, and, as a result, refraining from any social or financial responsibility for them. [The government] is concealing the losses, and it is not a rare case when the dead [militants] are buried in unmarked graves. It seems that the people “who-are-not-present-there” are no longer satisfied with the current state of affairs and are determined to insist of international organisation’s investigation into the secret military operations in Syria, in Ukraine and in Africa.
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Posted: November 22nd, 2018 under Foreign policy, Russia-Ukraine relations, War in Syria.
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Yabloko demands from Vladimir Putin again that Oyub Titiev be released. Earlier President through his Administration refused to do it
Press release, 19.11.2018
Yabloko Chair Emilia Slabunova once again demanded that Vladimir Putin release Oyub Titiev, Chair of the Chechen branch of the Memorial human rights groups. Yabloko Bureau has already demanded from Russia’s President that Titiev be released and protected by the government. However, Putin through his Administration refused to do it.
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Posted: November 21st, 2018 under Human Rights.
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Yabloko resumes activity in the Chechen Republic
Press release, 19.11.2018
On 18 November, a conference of the Chechen Republic branch of Yabloko took place where the new leading bodies where elected.
Rizvan Ibragimov was elected Chair of the regional party branch. He is a teacher of the Russian and Chechen languages at grammar school No 12 in Grozny. His deputies are Sharip Tsuruev, Edilbek Khasmagomedov and Alfatu Gaziyeva. Ruslan Magomedov was elected to the Regional Council Bureau. Sharip Tsuruev was also elected to the Federal Council of the Yabloko party.
Sharip Tsuruev, Nikolai Rybakov, Rizvan Ibragimov
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Posted: November 21st, 2018 under Human Rights.
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A Hundred Years After the War: from Nationalism to Nationalism
by Grigory Yavlinsky
Grigory Yavlinsky’s web-site, 11.11.2018
IN BETWEEN THE WARS
The situation, in which the centenary of the end of the Great (First World) War is celebrated [in Russia], causes as many questions and bewilderment as the anniversary of the revolution in Russia. The unwillingness of the Russian authorities to discuss the crisis of the csarist autocracy and the terrorist essence of Bolshevism is understandable and expected. They are the heirs of the Bolsheviks with imperial ambitions, for whom the celebration (precisely the celebration) of the one hundred years anniversary of the Cheka [the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution, further the KGB] and the Komsomol [the young communists organisation] is much more important than understanding of the tragedy of the dispersal of the Constituent Assembly [the representative body in Russia elected in November 1917 and dissolved in early January 1918] or the execution of the imperial family [of the Romanovs]. Furthermore, they also celebrated at the highest level the “century of the military intelligence”, which in the light of the events of recent months looks very much grotesque, much more than Halloween.
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Posted: November 20th, 2018 under Foreign policy, Russia-Eu relations, Russia-US Relations, Understanding Russia.
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