Is
Modernisation in Russia Possible? Interview
with Grigory Yavlinsky and Boris Titov by Yury Pronko,
"The Real Time" programme, Radio Finam, May
12, 2010
Adopted at the meeting of the Federal Bureau on 3 June, 2024
Photo: The Finance Ministry of the Russian Federation / Photo by Konstanin Kokoshkin, Kommersant
The true goal of Vladimir Putin’s tax reform is not the alleged provision of social justice, but the collection of additional trillions of roubles from citizens and businesses.
These funds will go into the federal budget and, therefore, will be used to finance military expenses and even greater militarization of the economy and the entire country.
Grigory Yavlinsky, the Russian opposition Yabloko party’s leader, took part in the debates at Cambridge Union about the West’s Approach to Russia. The event took place on May 16, 2024. The other speakers were Dominic Grieve, the former UK Attorney General and Conservative MP, the former chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee of UK Parliament; Elisabeth Braw, the senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, the columnist with Foreign Policy and Politico Europe; Mary Seery Kearney, Fine Gael Senator and the spokesperson on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. The full transcript of the speech is below.
Photo: Boris Vishnevsky / Photo by the St.Petersburg branch of Yabloko
On 31 May, the Vasileostrovsky District Court held the first hearing in the lawsuit filed by Boris Vishnevsky, Deputy Chairman of the Yabloko party and deputy of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg, against the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Roskomnadzor (the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology, and Mass Media). Vishnevsky disputes the status of “foreign agent” unlawfully assigned to him. The hearing was postponed because representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Roskomnadzor did not appear in court.
Photo by the Press Service of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg
Deputies of the Yabloko faction voted against discrimination against “foreign agents” at the level of city laws. The parliamentary majority voted to ban “foreign agents” from being elected and holding public office. On 22 May, the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg was engaged in “bringing the city legislation into conformity with the federal legislation”. The latter had been supplemented by regulations banning “foreign agents” from participating in elections at any level and from being current deputies. The party is preparing an appeal to the Constitutional Court.
Past weekend, the Yabloko branch in the Moscow region held its Conference, and elected a new chairman and governing bodies. Now the regional branch will be headed by Sergei Kryzhov, a candidate of technical sciences, a deputy of the Sergiev Posad District Council of three convocations and the first Commissioner for Human Rights in the Moscow Region. The Bureau of the regional branch includes 11 party members, and 19 people were elected to the Regional Council of the branch.
Yabloko will once again conduct actions of writing letters to political prisoners. The participants in the events learn from letters of political prisoners that such letters and words of support are very much needed by those who has been deprived of freedom and is under pressure from repressive authorities.
On 21 May, the birthday of human rights defender and scientist Andrei Sakharov, the central office of the Yabloko party in Moscow will host a screening of the documentary film “Andrei Sakharov. On the other side of the window” (Russia, 2022). The film by Dmitry Zavilgelsky and Boris Altshuler focuses on the memories of Andrei Sakharov’s associates, declassified documents of the CPSU Central Committee and the KGB of the USSR, and a chronicle filmed by the KGB in the city of Gorky. We will also see animated drawings by Academician Sakharov. It is planned that Boris Altshuler, human rights defender, scientist and author of the film script, will participate in the discussion.
On 28 May, the Yabloko party Gender Faction will hold a round table “Feminitives: a Natural Development of a Language or Extremism?”. The event will begin at 18:00 Moscow time.
Photo: Marina Zheleznyakova / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service
A search was conducted in Marina Zheleznyakova’s apartment. Police seized equipment and documents. Marina learned about the criminal case opened against her on 24 April on the day of the search. A lawyer is defending her.
Photo: Vladimir Putin and members of the government during their working trip to China / Photo by Dmitry Azarov, Kommersant
This week the State Duma approved the new Russian government. The previous cabinet of ministers automatically resigned after the inauguration of President Vladimir Putin on 7 May. For the first time, the government has been entirely formed according to new rules fixed in the new version of the Constitution: now the State Duma votes not only for the candidacy of the prime minister, but also for all members of the cabinet, except for the security forces and the defence minister.
The most discussed appointment was the President’s candidacy for the post of Minister of Defence. On 12 May, Vladimir Putin proposed appointing Andrei Belousov as head of the Defence Ministry. Sergei Shoigu, who headed the Defence Ministry since 2012, was appointed Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation on 12 May.
Yabloko leaders comment on the new government and make forecasts for the development of Russia with the new cabinet of ministers.
“What should be done to prevent a large-scale war? The very first steps to be taken to prevent a big war should include: a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine and the signing of a respective agreement; the creation of a demilitarised zone on both sides of the fault line; the resolution of humanitarian issues — an exchange of prisoners; the creation of acceptable living standards for people on the territories in the zone of the military actions.
It should be acknowledged here that diplomatic dialogue will have to start against the backdrop of total distrust. The necessary communications channels must be created immediately, the rhetoric needs to be changed, special representatives for negotiations must be appointed. No amount of military aid can ensure Ukraine’s security in the long term and even in the short term. It is a mistake to proceed from the premise that there is no alternative to “victory on the battlefield”. A ceasefire is the only possible prospect in such confrontation.”
The collapse of the world order that emerged after World War II and the danger of a major war were discussed in the new release of “A Way to the Future”.
Photo: Alexander Yefimov / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service
The Volgograd Regional Court sent for revision the administrative case of Alexander Yefimov, a Yabloko Federal Bureau member, for “participation in the activities of an undesirable organisation”. On 4 April, the court of the city of Volzhsky fined Yefimov 15,000 roubles for his interview with the Youtube channel of the Golos independent observers movement. The politician’s appeal against the court’s decision cited the lack of corpus delicti and procedural errors.
On 14 May, on the second anniversary of the death of Andrei Babushkin, an event in memory of the human rights defender, Yabloko member since 1999, Chairman of the public human rights charity organisation Committee for Civil Rights and a member of the Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights under the President of the RF, was held at Yabloko. Colleagues in human rights activities, friends and party members shared their memories of Andrei Babushkin.
Photo by Dmitry Chiginsky / Photo from social media
Dmitry Chiginsky, a member of the Bureau of the Tula branch of Yabloko, was fined under the administrative article of “discrediting the army” for writing about the need to conclude a ceasefire agreement on a ballot paper. The Tula district court fined Chiginsky 45,000 roubles for publishing a photo of the ballot on his Vkontakte page. Dmitry Chiginsky, a member of Yabloko and an active participant in the elections in Tula, needs help paying a fine. Yabloko announces a fundraising.
Photo from left to right: Nikolai Ivlyushkin, Alexander Daniel, Svetlana Gannushkina, Valery Borshchyov, Vyacheslav Bakhmin, Vyacheslav Igrunov, Alexei Smirnov, and Alexander Podrabinek / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service
On 12 May, a round table with the participation of Soviet dissidents was held at the Yabloko central office in Moscow. The participants talked about the history of the dissident movement, its political and moral aspects, as well as the protection of human rights in modern Russia. Valery Borshchyov, Co-Chairman of the Moscow Helsinki Group and a member of the Federal Political Committee of the Yabloko party, Svetlana Gannushkina, Chair of the Civil Assistance Committee and a member of the Federal Political Committee of Yabloko, Alexander Daniel, human rights defender and writer, Vyacheslav Igrunov, MP of three convocations of the State Duma from Yabloko, Vyacheslav Bakhmin, Co-Chairman of the Moscow Helsinki Group, Alexander Podrabinek, human rights defender and journalist, Soviet political prisoners Alexei Smirnov and Nikolai Ivlyushkin participated in the discussion. Tatyana Kasatkina, the wife of imprisoned Chair of the Board of the Memorial human rights centre Oleg Orlov, as well as other participants and witnesses of the Soviet dissident movement were among the guests of the event.
Photo: The Moscow City Duma / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service
Such decision was made by the Moscow Yabloko Bureau in early May. A headquarters has been created to work during elections. The work of the headquarters will be coordinated by Maxim Kruglov, the head of the Yabloko faction in the Moscow City Duma, Kirill Goncharov, a Deputy Chairman of the Moscow Yabloko, and Maria Chuprina, the Chair of one of the local branches of the Moscow Yabloko. The decision to nominate candidates will be made at the Moscow Yabloko conference in June.
On 9 May, the leaders and members of the Yabloko party honoured the memory of those killed in the Second World War at the Preobrazhenskoye cemetery in Moscow, where more than 10,000 soldiers and commanders of the Red Army are buried. The delegation laid flowers and a wreath at the War Memorial.
On 8 May, on the eve of Victory Day, the day of the victory over the Nazi Germany in 1945, members of the St. Petersburg Yabloko laid a wreath and flowers at the Motherland monument at the Piskarevskoye memorial cemetery.
The State Duma has approved amendments stipulating that elected deputies included in the foreign agents register by decision of the Ministry of Justice will be deprived of their deputy mandate.
The regional branch of the Yabloko party, on the basis of moral principles and principles of humanity, opposes the killing of captured stray dogs as a way to solve the problem of animals without owners.
In April, a survey was conducted on the government services portal “On the need to introduce additional measures into regional legislation to solve the problem of animals without owners in the Novosibirsk region”. One of the possible survey answers proposed to kill captured stray dogs if “the dog has not found a new owner within one month”.
