Is
Modernisation in Russia Possible? Interview
with Grigory Yavlinsky and Boris Titov by Yury Pronko,
"The Real Time" programme, Radio Finam, May
12, 2010
“It often requires more courage to dare to do right than to fear to do wrong”.
Abraham Lincoln
The most recent rotation of the Presidency of the Council of the European Union – which is usually a formal procedure in the European bureaucratic system — became a high-profile international event. On 1 July 2024 Hungary assumed the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, and the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who had previously declared on numerous occasions that a diplomatic resolution of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict was required, immediately started implementing the practical part of his peace plan.
Orban was already in Kyiv on 2 July, where at a meeting with Vladimir Zelensky he called on the parties to agree to a ceasefire. Three days later the Hungarian Prime Minister went to Moscow. His meeting with Vladimir Putin was attended by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov, as well as aides to the Russian President Yuri Ushakov and Vladimir Medinsky (the last two individuals were key figures during the negotiations between Russia and Ukraine in spring 2022 in Belarus and Turkey). As had been the case in Kyiv, Orban called on Russia to agree to a ceasefire for the start of negotiations with Ukraine. Beijing became the next stop in Orban’s peace-making blitz tour. A ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine was also the central topic of conversation at his meeting with the President of the People’s Republic of China Xi Jinping. In general Xi supported Orban’s idea, but stressed that a ceasefire could be achieved only “when all major powers exert positive energy, rather than negative energy.” Orban left Beijing for Washington where the NATO Summit started on 9 July.
If one proceeds from the assumption that Viktor Orban’s goal is to achieve peace in Europe, then the route he took to discuss a ceasefire is logical and reasonable: Kyiv-Moscow-Beijing-Washington – these are the countries which hold the keys to ending the bloodshed. His meeting with the Turkish President Recep Erdogan held at the NATO Summit in Washington was also useful.
The Karelian Interdistrict Environmental Public Prosecutor’s Office established that a plot of pine forest on the shore of Lake Onega with an area of over 6 hectares was transferred into private hands illegally. Forest lands, which include centuries-old pine forests, can be exclusively federal property. The public prosecutor sent a statement of claim to the court to declare all transactions, the subject of which are the disputed territories, null and void. As an interim measure, a ban was introduced on the owners of plots and third parties to carry out any economic activity on the forest territory, including its felling. The inspection was carried out by the Interdistrict Environmental Public Prosecutor’s office after numerous appeals to the public prosecutor’s office and to officials from Yabloko deputies, as well as a great public outcry caused by the news of felling the forest.
Photo: Playwright Svetlana Petriychuk and theatre director Yevgenia Berkovich in court / Photo by Ilya Pitalev, RIA Novosti
On 8 July, the Second Western District Military Court of Moscow sentenced theatre director Yevgenia (Zhenya) Berkovich and playwright Svetlana Petriychuk to six years in a general regime penal colony each in the case of “justifying terrorism”.
Photo: A monument at the place of mass burial with an inscription “People, don’t kill each other!”
On the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Great Terror, on 5 August, the Yabloko delegation will go to the Sandarmokh, Karelia, the place of mass burial of victims of Stalin’s political terror. Yabloko ativists will lay flowers at the memorial cemetery and honour the memory of the victims of Soviet repression. Yabloko invites all its supporters to join our trip.
Photo: Maxim Kruglov, head of the Yabloko faction in the Moscow City Duma and Yabloko’s candidate, meets with Muscovites
Candidates for Moscow City Duma deputies from the Yabloko party were able to collect a total of 51,526 signatures from Muscovites in favour of their nomination that are required for their registration in the Moscow City Duma elections. Yabloko conducted this campaign under the slogan “For Peace and Freedom!” For the Ceasefire Agreement!”
Vladimir Kara-Murza has been taken to the prison hospital.
His wife Evgenia reported this to the media. Defenders are not yet allowed to see him, there are no details about his condition.
Let me remind you that in April 2023, the Moscow City Court sentenced Vladimir Kara-Murza to 25 years in prison on charges of “treason” and spreading “fake news.”
In 2023, nine countries increased their spending on nuclear weapons by 13%. This is a record high growth.
According to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), nuclear club countries have spent a record USD 91.4 billion on modernisation and the number of operationally deployed nuclear weapons.
Yabloko candidate in the Moscow City Duma elections Vladimir Kalinin was found guilty of “demonstration of extremist symbols” for a post on social media in 2019 dedicated to the elections.
He is fined 2,000 roubles and will not be allowed to participate in the elections. The decision was made by the Gagarinsky District Court of Moscow.
Grigory Yavlinsky, leader of the Russian United Democratic Party Yabloko, says in his interview to Erin Molan, Sky News Australia, that there is “no other way out” in the Russia-Ukraine conflict but a ceasefire agreement.
Photo: A screenshot of a map with locations for collecting signatures that the Chelyabinsk Mayor’s Office offered to the Yabloko party
The administration of Chelyabinsk did not approve for the regional branch of the Yabloko party any of the one hundred locations which Yabloko applied for so that to collect signatures for the nomination of Yabloko candidates for the Chelyabinsk City Duma elections. The Mayor’s Office proposed three collection points instead, which are literally located in a field or near the railway. Yaroslav Shcherbakov, Chairman of the Chelyabinsk Yabloko and a candidate, filed a lawsuit in the Sovetsky District Court of the city.
The head of the Yabloko faction in the St. Petersburg parliament, Alexander Shishlov, appealed to the city Public Prosecutor Viktor Melnik: the list of those municipal deputies who put their signatures for the candidate for Governor of St. Petersburg Alexei Kovalyov included members of Yabloko who did not support him.
On 28 June, the conference of the St. Petersburg branch of Yabloko nominated 25 more candidates for municipal deputies; earlier, on 24 June, the regional branch of the party nominated 70 candidates (five candidates will run in the elections in two electoral districts at once), the total number of Yabloko candidates who will compete for mandates in September is 90 people.
13 candidates from Yabloko will conduct their election campaigns under the slogan “For Peace and Freedom! For the ceasefire agreement!”. This was decided by the Conference of the regional branch of the party, held on 28 June.
Photo: Alexander Yefimov / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service
Yabloko nominated Alexander Yefimov, a member of the Federal Bureau of the party and an entrepreneur, as a candidate from the Rostov region in the by-elections for a State Duma deputy. Single-mandate electoral district No. 152 includes the Aksai district and the city of Novocherkassk. The decision was adopted at a meeting of the Federal Bureau of the party on 27 June. The Yabloko candidate will conduct his election campaign under the slogan “For Peace and Freedom! For the ceasefire agreement!”.
Yesterday I was in Dagestan – in Makhachkala and Derbent. That was case when I couldn’t help but come. You all understand the tragic reason. I will return (https://eng.yabloko.ru/yabokos-statement-on-the-situation-in-dagestan ) to the substantive side of the problem more than once in the future. But now I just want to share the photos. Perhaps they will convey the atmosphere and feelings.
Photo: Yabloko candidates Victor Zagorodnikov and Alexander Zagainov
The conference of the Krasnoyarsk regional branch of the Yabloko party nominated two candidates for by-elections to the regional Legislative Assembly and to the Berezovsky District Council. The party will be represented in the elections by retired law enforcement officer Viktor Zagorodnikov and current deputy of the Esaul village council Alexander Zagainov. The candidates will conduct the election campaign under the slogan “For Peace and Freedom! For the ceasefire agreement!”.
At the request of Shcherbakov, the Chelyabinsk Public Prosecutor’s Office issued an action order to the Mayor’s Office about the improper maintenance of the Fraternal Cemetery of Soldiers
Press Release, 26.06.2024
Photo: The Memory Memorial at the Fraternal Cemetery of Warriors with decommissioned S-75 anti-aircraft missile systems installed by the monument / Photo by the regional branch of the party
The Chelyabinsk Public Prosecutor’s Office, in a response letter to the leader of the Chelyabinsk Yabloko Yaroslav Shcherbakov, admitted that the gravestones in the cemetery were destroyed, there were no stars on the tombstones, and the burial fence was broken. In addition, there is decommissioned military equipment by the monument to grieving mothers devoted to the victims of the Second World War, which is prohibited by order of the State Committee for the Protection of Cultural Heritage Objects. In connection with the identified violations, the Chelyabinsk Public Prosecutor’s Office issued an action to the Mayor’s Office about the improper maintenance of the Fraternal Cemetery of Soldiers. Earlier, Yaroslav Shcherbakov reported that the memorial at Lesnoye Cemetery, an important place for Chelyabinsk residents, had been under conservation for four years, and access to it was closed even on Victory Day, 9 May.
The Yabloko party expresses its sincere condolences to the families and friends of those killed in the terrorist attack in Dagestan, including Orthodox Archpriest Nikolai Kotelnikov, who worked there for more than 40 years, civilians and a large number of law enforcement officers. May their memory live forever! We wish a speedy recovery to the wounded.
A lecture dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the birth of the philosopher and sociologist Nikolai Berdyaev was held at Yabloko. The lecture was given by Anastasia Gacheva, a leading researcher at the Gorgy Institute of World Literature of the Academy of Sciences and Moscow Higher School of Social and Economic Sciences.
Delegates to the conference of the St. Petersburg branch of Yabloko, which took place on the evening of 24 June, nominated 70 candidates for 17 municipalities of St. Petersburg. On 28 June, the regional branch plans to nominate more candidates who have expressed their desire to run for Yabloko in recent days.
