Is
Modernisation in Russia Possible? Interview
with Grigory Yavlinsky and Boris Titov by Yury Pronko,
"The Real Time" programme, Radio Finam, May
12, 2010
Photo: Yabloko campaign leaflets “For Peace!” and “For Peace and Freedom!”
Elections were held in a number of Russian regions on 11 September. 462 Yabloko candidates took part in election campaigns in 12 regions. 2,167,203 voters had the opportunity to vote for peace, against the policy pursued by the current Russian authorities, supporting the slogan of the Yabloko candidates “FOR PEACE AND FREEDOM!”
Photo: Boris Vishnevsky / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service
Deputies of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg refused to forward a deputies’ inquiry to the Governor of St.Petersburg on the amount and sources of budgetary expenditures for the formation of bearing toponymic names of the region. The inquiry was submitted by Boris Vishnevsky, MP of the Legislative Assembly and Deputy Chairman of the Yabloko party. Three MPs voted for the inquiry, nine voted against, no one abstained, and the rest did not vote.
Photo: Emilia Slabunova / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service
On 13 September, the Petrozavodsk City Court held a hearing to consider the complaint of Emilia Slabunova, head of the Yabloko faction in the Legislative Assembly of Karelia and ex Chair of Yabloko, about the inaction of the Federal Service for Supervision in the Sphere of Communications, Information Technologies and Mass Communications (Roskomnadzor) in connection with the blocking of her page in the popular social media Vkontakte.
Photo: The conference of the Pskov branch of Yabloko / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service
The Pskov branch of Yabloko succeeded in 12 municipalities in the 11 September elections: in the city of Pskov and 11 municipal districts.
In the elections to the Pskov City Duma, Yabloko, according to official data, received 9.04% of the vote and came third. Yabloko as a party of peace was supported by 3,003 people, remote electronic voting inclusive.
According to the single electoral list of the party, Tatyana Pasman, a teacher and educator, who has represented Yabloko in the city parliament for the last eight months, gets the deputy mandate in the Pskov City Duma.
Photo from left to right: Andrei Morev, Deputy Chairman of the Moscow branch of Yabloko, Nikolai Rybakov, Yabloko Chairman, and Maxim Kruglov, head of the Yabloko election headquarters in Moscow, at the briefing on 11 September. The slogan on the placards runs “Yabloko Stands for Peace!” / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service
The election campaign has ended in Russia. The Yabloko party and its candidates participated in it, realising that we were participating in the elections held in the regime of a special military operation launched on 24 February, 2022. Our candidates were not allowed to be nominated through application of new laws, and they were removed after the nomination (every fifth candidate in the elections in Moscow was removed). Nevertheless, 462 Yabloko candidates took part in these elections in 12 Russian regions.
We have provided an opportunity for 2,167,203 voters to vote for peace, against the policies pursued by the current authorities of our country, and support our main slogan “FOR PEACE AND FREEDOM!”.
At a briefing on the final election day, 11 September, Yabloko Chairman Nikolai Rybakov said that the main task of Yabloko in these elections was fulfilled: in 12 regions of Russia, hundreds of thousands of citizens had the opportunity to peacefully and safely declare their attitude to what was happening in the country, Ukraine and the world. All candidates campaigned under the slogan “For Peace and Freedom!”. In spite of the fact that the candidates have programmes for their districts and regions, candidates understand that no change is possible until there is peace.
In Moscow, the police detained Ilya Myakinin, a candidate for municipal deputies from Yabloko, at polling station No. 59 in the Meshchansky district. The chairwoman of the commission, Yelena Zaitseva, accused the Yabloko candidate that he had allegedly been demanding that voters show him their passports. Myakinin was taken to the district police station.
According to the team of candidates from Yabloko, the authorities were preparing same “carousel” (when same voters vote several times) in the Meshchansky district as in the Yakimanka distrcit: members of precinct commissions were ready to issue ballots to voters were not registered in the district (thus were not entitled to vote there) but had special marks in their passports. Candidate Ilya Myakinin stood at the table of the chairwoman of the commission and watched the issuance of ballots. He did not ask voters to show their passports to him.
The Yabloko Press Service has got screenshots (https://www.yabloko.ru/regnews/Moscow/2022/09/11) from a chat of pro-government observers, where employees of the Yakimanka district executive authority demand to “wag the nerves”, “resist to”, “make maximum difficulties” for Yabloko observers. The observers hired by the authorities must write personal messages about all the actions of the Yabloko activists to Tatyana Tregubova, an employee of the Yakimanka district executive authority (her phone number is determined through a mobile service). Another participant in the chat who gives recommendations on counteraction to observers from Yabloko is Svetlana Osiptsova, a former deputy of the Yakimanka district and a candidate from the ruling United Russia.
Photo: Voting at the clothing market instead of voting at home in Novorzhev, Pskov region / Photo from social networks
In the regions where Yabloko participates in the elections, our observers record violations.
A provocation against Yabloko was carried out in the Pskov region. A local news agency reported that the party was allegedly engaged in buying votes in elections in Pskov. As a “confirmation” the news agency was presented a screenshot of the correspondence of two unidentified persons. The Pskov branch of Yabloko does not have a candidate with the surname that appears in the screenshot. Interestingly, it is similar to the name of a candidate for the Pskov City Duma nominated by the New People party. Lev Shlosberg, Chairman of the Pskov Yabloko, will send a statement to the police with a request that the media should provide the evidence of what was published and attach them to the materials of the check, which was previously launched on the basis of the statement of a Yabloko campaigner, whom a representative of the New People party attempted to bribe.
In Novorzhev, voters voted at the clothing market. It happened during “voting at home”. Another “voting at home” took place in the bookstore.
On Saturday, 10 September, Grigory Yavlinsky launched his book “Underlying Causes. Why and How Did a Political System Appear, Which Has Resulted in the Events of 24 February, 2022?” the Moscow office of the Yabloko party.
Commentaries by Maxim Kruglov, leader of the Yabloko faction in the Moscow City Duma, and Lev Shlosberg, Chair of the Pskov Yabloko
Press Release, 9.09.2022
Figure: Moscow municipal elections on 9-11 September, 2022.
Left – ballots issued to voters. Right – votes received.
In Moscow, 500,000 voters voted remotely electronically – approximately 7% of all voters – just in the first 2.5 hours of municipal elections voting.
“In just over two hours, almost half a million people voted in the Russian capital. By e-voting, of course. Indeed, there is nothing more important for a Muscovite at 8 a.m. than to voluntarily vote for his/her favorite candidate. I think that’s all you need to know about these elections,” Maxim Kruglov, leader of the Yabloko faction in the Moscow City Duma and head of the campaign headquarters in Moscow, commented.
Photo: Alexander Makhankov’s leaflet running “Thou shalt not kill” / Photo from Alexander Makhankov’s personal page in the VK social media
State Duma deputy from the government’s United Russia party – Vitaly Milonov – wrote an appeal to the Public Prosecutor of St. Petersburg with a request to “pay attention” to the campaign materials of Alexander Makhankov, a candidate from Yabloko to the municipal council of the city of Pushkin, the Leningrad Region. According to Milonov, leaflets with the slogan “I stand for peace” could be aimed at “discrediting the President and the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation”.
On the final voting day, 11 September, the Yabloko Election Campaign Headquarters will hold briefings on the course of the elections and preliminary results of the voting at 17:00 and 23:00 (MSK).
On Saturday, 10 September, the Moscow office of the Yabloko party (Pyatnitskaya 31/2) will host a launch of the book by Grigory Yavlinsky’s work “Underlying Causes. Why and How Did a Political System Appear, Which Has Resulted in the Events of 24 February, 2022?” now published as a separate book. The event will take place at 13:00.
On the voting days of 9 – 11 September, the Yabloko party organises a “hot line” for receiving calls about violations for observers and candidates from the party. Those contacting the hotline will be able to report violations at the polling stations, get advice on further actions, including drafting and filing of complaints and submitting the complaints to the electoral commissions or filing statements with the police.
Photo: A team of Yabloko candidates in the Basmanny district in Moscow / Photo from social media
The municipal election campaign in Moscow, unprecedented as of the number of deregistered Yabloko candidates, has reached the finish line. One day remains before the voting in September 9-11, and some candidates still continue to defend in courts their right to be elected. In Moscow, documents for registration with the territorial electoral commissions were submitted by 179 candidates. To date, 141 Yabloko candidates remain in the status of registered. But their number may still change. The Press Service of the Yabloko party collected information about egregious cases of unfair removal from elections, fines and arrests, falsification of evidence of the “guilt” of candidates for municipal deputies campaigning under the slogan “For Peace and Freedom!”.
Photo: leaflets of Yabloko candidates “For Peace and Freedom”
We are against the so-called Smart Voting [reduced to voting for any pro-government political party but the ruling United Russia] re-announced by Leonid Volkov [head of Alexei Navalny’s headquarters].
We, as before, categorically do not share his position: voting “for any party except United Russia”, the possibility of voting for Stalinists and nationalists, as well as his disdain for human destinies.
We can only reiterate: we are asking all voters who support Volkov and his team and their stance not to vote for us.
Photo: Ivan Safronov / Photo by Gleb Shchelkunov, Kommersant
On 5 September, the Moscow City Court sentenced 32-year-old journalist Ivan Safronov to 22 years in a strict regime colony on the charges of “treason”. On the same day, the Moscow Basmanny District Court revoked the registration of the print version of Novaya Gazeta, led by Editor-in-Chief Dmitry Muratov, a member of Yabloko and Nobel Prize laureate. Yabloko leaders comment on these events.
On 5 September, the regional branches of the Yabloko party and the candidates nominated by the party to run in the regional and local elections submitted lists of observers to the electoral commissions. The regional branches of Yabloko in Moscow, Pskov and Novgorod also sent their lists of observers for remote electronic voting to the electoral commissions organising remote electronic voting. The lists of observers include IT-specialists.
The Moscow branch of the Yabloko party has officially applied to the Moscow Electoral Commission to organise the deployment of the Remote Electronic Voting node at the party’s technical facilities, to which Yabloko IT specialists will have access.
