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: Yelena Osipova at the opening of her exhibition in the St. Petersburg Yabloko on 31 January, 2023 / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service
The paintings by the artist Yelena Osipova, which the police seized from the office of the St.Petersburg branch of Yabloko, have, according to the police, “text inscriptions possibly containing false information about the use of the armed forces of the Russian Federation”. In view of this, the police conducts a check “on the signs of crime envisaged in Article 207.3, Part 1, of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation”. This follows from the response of the St.Petersburg Public Prosecutor’s Office to the appeal of Alexander Shishlov, head of the Yabloko faction in the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg.
Artur Gaiduk, Yabloko MP in the Pskov Regional Assembly, exercising the right of regional parliaments to initiate bills in the State Duma, submitted to the Pskov regional parliament a draft resolution for the State Duma “On Announcing an Amnesty”. Yabloko proposes to release from serving their sentences those who were brought to criminal responsibility for the first time or convicted for the first time under articles on “fakes about the army”, “discrediting the army” and “calls for sanctions against Russia”. A similar draft resolution was submitted on 7 March by the Yabloko faction in the Moscow City Duma.
Photo: Oleg Baranov, head of the Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for Moscow / Photo by the Moscow City Duma
Today, deputies of the Moscow City Duma heard a report by Oleg Baranov, head of the Moscow Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, on work of Moscow police in 2022. The faction of the Yabloko party prepared many questions for the chief of police. The questions concerned the interests of Muscovites.
Photo: Anatoly Nogovitsyn / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service
On 20 March, a hearing will be held in the Yakutsk City Court at which the last word of the accused will be heard, and the judge will make a decision on the criminal case against Anatoly Nogovitsyn, Chairman of the Yakutia branch of the Yabloko party. Nogovitsyn is accused of “discrediting the army” (Article 280.3, Part 1, of the Criminal Code of Russia) for publishing a video on his Telegram channel expressing an opinion about “partial mobilisation”. The court ended the interrogation of witnesses, some of them admitted that their testimony was distorted at the investigation stage. The decision may take place on 20 March or within several sessions of the court.
Government is formed in elections. What kind of elections we have, such governments we have.
The government formed in fair elections depends on the voters and, therefore, protects their interests. Election fraud brings power to those who ignore the problems of citizens.
Yabloko calls all voters who are dissatisfied with what is happening around and that the authorities do not hear people and do not solve their problems to join those who are fighting for fair elections!
Yabloko stressed that people have to fight for fair elections just like they fight for any of human rights or like they fight for freedom.
The St. Petersburg branch of the Yabloko party succeeded in registration of two candidates for municipal by-elections in Krasnoye Selo and Yuzhno-Primorsky municipal districts. Elections in these municipal districts will be held in April. The election campaign will be held under the slogan “For Peace and Freedom”, and Yabloko opened fundraising for the election campaign.
Photo: Rallies in in Aloye Pole, Gagarin Park and Kolyushchenko Square in Chelyabinsk / Photo by the Chelyabinsk branch of Yabloko
On 15 March, the Seventh Court of Cassation in Chelyabinsk upheld the decision of the Second Court of Appeal on the organisation of “hyde parks” (specially designated free speech zones where no permissions from authorities for rallies are required) in Aloye Pole, Gagarin Park and Kolyushchenko Square. The complaint was sent to the cassation by the government and the Public Prosecutor of the Chelyabinsk region.
The Yabloko Party University hosted a lecture “Russian Social Policies after 24 February, 2022” by Yevgeny Gontmakher, Doctor of Economics, professor at the Higher School of Economics, a member of the Public Constitutional Council, and a member of the Yabloko party.
On 10 March, the Gender Faction of Yabloko held a round table on the new forms of work in the conditions of a “special operation”. Participants and members of the faction, as well as candidate members and supporters of the party took part in the event.
On 11 March, the Chelyabinsk branch of the Yabloko party together with the “You Are Not Alone 74” project, held a charity auction in support of those persecuted for political reasons in the South Urals. During the auction, 49 lots were sold for a total of 71,250 roubles. The funds thus raised were sent to three residents of Chelyabinsk – Nadezhda Vertkhovskaya, Dmitry Gromovoi and Vladimir Kazantsev.
Why it is necessary to sign up as a member of the a precinct electoral commission when many people do not believe in fair elections, when there are no candidates from the democratic opposition in the elections, when the tragic events make one think about other much more complex moral problems, when the opposition and civil society are demoralised, when there is often no choice in the elections and when voting seem pointless – the Novosibirsk branch of Yabloko answers these questions and announces recruitment of voting members of precinct electoral commissions from Yabloko.
Photo: Viktor Kogan-Yasny / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service
As is well known, there were wars in Europe after 1945: the territory of the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s, – and very tough confrontations on the verge of a large-scale use of force: the GDR in 1953, Hungary in 1956, and Czechoslovakia in 1968, – and violence against the backdrop of changes in the USSR: Lithuania and Latvia in 1991. But the “common place” in politics was that to move by sheer force was the last resort, that the results of competition and confrontation of the systems should be achieved mainly be means of “bypassing”, through strategic analysis and the use of “soft power”.
Photo: The exhibition / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service
The Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Central District of St. Petersburg canceled the decision of the investigator of the district department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs which refused to initiate a criminal case on a false report about mining of the office of the Yabloko party. This follows from the response of the deputy head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Central District to the appeal of lawyer Andrei Chertkov, who represents the interests of the party.
In the recent weeks, actions in support of political prisoners were held in the regional offices of the Yabloko party. The actions focused on support to women political prisoners were timed to coincide with International Women’s Day. Yabloko members and civil activists prepared about a thousand letters and thematic postcards, which have already been sent to the recipients.
Photo: Yelena Panfilova, founder of Transparency International – Russia, and Anton Pominov, ex-Director of the organisation / Photo by Gennady Gulyaev, Kommersant
The Anti-Corruption Policy Centre of the Yabloko party expresses its unconditional support for colleagues from Transparency International – Russia and protests against the recognition of the international movement Transparency International as an “undesirable organisation” in Russia. This decision by the Public Prosecutor’s Office is devoid of common sense and maintains the chain of insane repression against civil society in Russia, said Alexei Karnaukhov, Director of the Anti-Corruption Policy Centre of the Yabloko party.
The faction of the Yabloko party in the Moscow City Duma, exercising the right of regional parliaments to initiate bills in the State Duma, submitted to the Moscow city parliament a draft resolution for the State Duma “On declaring an amnesty”. The draft envisages termination of criminal cases under the following articles of the Criminal Code of Russia: No 207.3 (“fakes about the army”), No 280.3 (“discrediting the army”), and No 284.2 (“calls for sanctions against Russia”).
On 21 March, the Yabloko Party University will host a lecture “Attitude towards the special military operation a year after it started”. The lecturer is Denis Volkov, Director of the Levada Centre.
Photo: Emilia Slabunova / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service
On 6 March, the Supreme Court of Karelia held a hearing on the appeal of Emilia Slabunova, a deputy of the Legislative Assembly of Karelia from Yabloko. Slabunova, together with defence lawyer Alexander Kobrinsky, asked to cancel the decision of the Petrozavodsk City Court, which on 2 February fined her 30,000 roubles under the administrative article on “discrediting the army”. The Judge upheld the decision of the City Court.
On 4 March, the Social-Democratic Faction of the Yabloko party held a round table “Lessons of Perestroika” devoted to the 92nd anniversary of Mikhail Gorbachev. The round table was attended by members of the Yabloko party, experts and members of the Russian Social Democratic Youth Union. The speakers were Co-Chairman of the Yabloko Social Democratic Faction Anatoly Golov, Co-Chairman of the trade union “University Solidarity” Pavel Kudyukin, dissident Alexander Daniel, deputy of the State Duma of the 2nd convocation Yuri Nesterov and others.
On 3 March, the Yabloko Party University hosted a lecture “Global constitutionalism: integration or fragmentation as a way to construct a new world legal order?”. The lecturer is Andrei Medushevsky, Professor of the Research University of the Higher School of Economics and a member of the Public Constitutional Council.
