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: Grigory Yavlinsky /Photo by the Press Service of the Yabloko party
The goal of the reform in the Yabloko party is to preserve the political core of the democratic opposition in the authoritarian mafia state with a chauvinist ideology. Such a statement was made at the Yabloko congress by Grigory Yavlinsky, Chairman of the Federal Political Committee of Yabloko.
Vladimir Putin’s amendments to the Constitution made last year formally drew a line under the period of post-Soviet modernisation, Yavlinsky said. Now, the Basic Law enshrines the irreplaceability of Vladimir Putin’s personal power, as well as the foundations of a “corporate, mafia, authoritarian state with a chauvinistic ideology.” Yavlinsky also noted that the “anti-constitutional coup” of 1 July, 2020 [when a plebiscite for the amendments to the Constitution took place] remains outside the scope of public discussion, the society has not realised what happened.
On April 3 and 4, Yabloko is holding the second stage of the 21st party Congress. The main topic of this stage of the congress is the reform of Yablokoy and the adoption of appropriate amendments to the Yabloko by-laws. The congress will also discuss preparations for the federal and regional elections that will take place this fall.
The congress of the Yabloko party, which has to discuss the reform of the Yabloko party and is scheduled for April 3-4, will be held in strict compliance with the recommendations of the Russian Federal State Agency for Health and Consumer Rights (Rospotrebnadzor) in order to minimise the risks of infection with COVID-19.
Photo: Irina Maltseva / Photo from the personal page of Irina Maltseva on Facebook
On 1 April, the Ivanovo branch of Yabloko sent to the regional Duma a letter asking to include Irina Maltseva in the regional electoral committee as a member with a casting vote.
The Regional Council of the Pskov branch of Yabloko proposed the party congress to nominate Artur Gaiduk for the Pskov single-mandate constituency and Lev Shlosberg for one of the single-mandate constituencies in Moscow as candidates in the parliamentary elections. The decision was sent to the Yabloko Chairman Nikolai Rybakov and the election headquarters of the party.
Photo: Svetlana Lelyukhina / Photo from the official website of the Yuzhsky municipal district of the Ivanovo region
The Ivanovo branch of Yabloko intends to appeal to the Public Prosecutor’s office of the Ivanovo region with a demand to remove from office Svetlana Lelyukhina, acting the head of the Yuzhsky district of the Ivanovo region.
The bureau of the Ivanovo regional branch of the Yabloko party disposes of a document signed by the official, addressed to the heads of the structural divisions of the local administration, subordinate institutions, as well as to other officials, somehow dependent on the regional authorities. In the letter, Svetlana Lelyukhina categorically demands to oblige employees to register in the mobile applications Vverkh (Up) and Agitator (Campaigner), as well as to report “on the registration done” by 24 March, 2021.
The Russian government has made changes to the Spatial Development Strategy of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2025. Now Karelia has the status of a region with special opportunities for the development of certain sectors of the economy. Since 2019, the Yabloko faction in the Legislative Assembly of Karelia has consistently sought amendments to the Strategy from the regional and federal authorities, taking into account the potential of the Republic of Karelia and the requirements of the time.
Photo: Yelena Skvortsova / Photo from Yelena Skvortsova’s personal page in the VKontakte social network
Boris Vishnevsky, head of the Yabloko faction in the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly and Deputy Chairman of Yabloko, called for additional attention to the situation with the expulsion from university of Yelena Skvortsova, a student of the Institute “The Higher School of Journalism and Mass Communications” of St. Petersburg State University. Skvortsova is a journalist in the human rights group Team 29, an association of lawyers and journalists fighting for the Russian citizens’ rights to access and distribute information.
On 29 March, 2021, the first meeting of the Central Electoral Commission of the new convocation took place. Chairman of the Yabloko party Nikolai Rybakov spoke at the meeting.
According to the Yabloko Chaiman, it is necessary to increase confidence in the elections, and the fact that people who protested are sent to pre-trial detention centres, and the fact that the defendants in so-called “the Moscow riots case” (mass protests against non-registration of independent candidates in the Moscow City Duma election in 2019 and election fraud led to arrests and imprisonment of the dissenting) have not yet been released, does not help build confidence. “We are all interested so that people would really see their representatives on the rostrum of the State Duma, rather than in police vans and pre-trial detention centres,” Rybakov said.
Photo: Sergei Dustin / Photo by the Press Service of the Kaliningrad branch of Yabloko
On 25 March, Sergei Dustin, a human rights activist and head of the local branch of the Yabloko party in Baltiysk, was detained during his single picket (single pickets do not require any permissions from authorities) outside the building of the regional government. Dustin held a poster in the form of a housing and utility services bill which demonstrated high tariffs for utilieis. In 15 minutes, he was detained under a far-fetched pretext – an examination for alcohol intoxication. The analysis carried out in the Kaliningrad drug dependency clinic did not reveal any signs of intoxication.
Photo: The first stage of the 21st Yabloko congress, December 2019 /Photo by the Yabloko party Press Service
This weekend, on 3 – 4 April, a Congress of the Yabloko party will take place in Moscow. The Congress will discuss the reform of the party and approve appropriate amendments to the party by-laws.
The goal of the reform is transformation of Yabloko into an effective professional, and at the same time ideological party with clear political principles, massive participation and the involvement of a significant number of supporters in its activities. The reform will launch mechanisms for renewing the party and increasing the influence of rank-and-file members on the decision-making process.
Boris Vishnevsky, head of the Yabloko faction in the St.Petersburg Legislative Assembly and Deputy Chairman of Yabloko, urged Governor Beglov to increase the number of zones (the so-called “Hyde Parks”) in the centre of St. Petersburg where no permissions are required for rallies.
Yaroslav Shcherbakov, Chairman of the Chelyabinsk branch of Yabloko, filed a lawsuit against the Legislative Assembly of the Chelyabinsk Region. Shcherbakov asks the regional court to return the boundaries of the Chelyabinsk urban pine forest and its protective zones to the boundaries it had before 2011. According to the contested decisions of the regional parliament, the pine forest lost almost the entire protective zone around its borders.
Photo: Joseph Biden and Vladimir Putin. Photo by Alexei Druzhinin / RIA Novosti
On 2 October, 2018, Jamal Khashoggi, a prominent journalist for the Washington Post, was killed and dismembered at the Saudi Arabian Сonsulate in Istanbul. Recently, US National Intelligence accused the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammad bin Salman, of organising the assassination.
In an interview with the ABC television channel, which Russia does not stop discussing, US President Joe Biden spoke not only about Vladimir Putin, but also about Prince Salman. However, the latter was more fortunate. First, the journalist for some reason did not ask Biden if he considered the Crown Prince to be a murderer. And second, the American President himself has unequivocally clarified that Mohammed bin Salman ordered the murder, but he was “our man who ordered the murder”. That is, “he is a nasty piece of work, but he is our nasty piece of work”. And the US has never persecuted their friends (heads of allied states), the American President added. Further Joe Biden spoke of the conditions of kind of possible forgiveness, that is, the price that, from the point of view of the United States, the Saudi allies must pay for the assassination.
Statement by regional branches of the Yabloko party in the South of Russia, 25.03.2021
Photo by scullery/depositphotos
In the fall of 2018, a peaceful protest began in the Republic of Ingushetia, dozens of thousands residents of the region participated in it. The reason for such events was the signing of the clandestine border agreement with the Chechen Republic by Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, head of the Republic. The people’s protest reached its climax by March 2019. After the unjustified use of force by law enforcement officers in Magas, on the morning of 27 March, 2019, the investigating authorities opened a number of criminal cases involving about 60 people, residents of Ingushetia, 49 of whom were arrested. More than 30 people have already been convicted.
Photo: Alexei Teksler Governor of the Chelyabinsk Region / Photo by Creative Commons
The Chelyabinsk Department of the Federal Antimonopoly Service found violations in the public procurement of luxurious banquets and gifts by the Governor of the Chelyabinsk region. The Federal Antimonopoly Service carried out the corresponding audit after the appeal by the Chelyabinsk branch of Yabloko.
Photo: A sketch of the monument to the victims of political reprisals / photo from the official website of the Administration of Novgorod
Sergei Busurin, Novgorod Mayor, is committing a huge human and political error. He proposed to the Novgorod Duma to cancel the decision to erect a monument to the victims of political reprisals. Novgorod is almost a sole regional centre where there is still no such monument.
The fourth interregional seminar with regional branches of the Yabloko party took place in Sochi on March 20 – 21. Party leader Nikolai Rybakov and Deputy Chairman Ivan Bolshakov discussed with the participants of the seminar the preparations for the State Duma elections, as well as the party’s coalition policy.
More than 31 million roubles will be allocated to private nursing homes for the elderly in the Republic of Karelia. Deputies of the Yabloko faction in the Legislative Assembly of Karelia, Emilia Slabunova and Ivan Gusev, managed to make the parliament of the Republic of Karelia allocate to the nursing homes for the elderly the subsidies envisaged for them by law as partial compensation of their costs for the provision of their social services in 2021. On 18 March, deputies of the parliament of Karelia adopted amendments to the regional budget, the amendments provide for the allocation of the required funds.
Photo: Dmitry Permyakov / Photo by the Pskov Yabloko Press Service
Dmitry Permyakov, a deputy of the Pskov City Duma from Yabloko and Deputy Chairman of the Pskov branch of Yabloko, appealed to the Pskov department of the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service with a request to give a legal assessment of the procurement for the production and placement of image-building video clips about the work of local self-government bodies of Pskov on television. A competition for such procurement is being held by the city parliament. Permyakov believes that only state television and radio channels fit the established technical requirements, consequently citizens will not be able to receive objective information about the work of the authorities from non-state channels.
