Is
Modernisation in Russia Possible? Interview
with Grigory Yavlinsky and Boris Titov by Yury Pronko,
"The Real Time" programme, Radio Finam, May
12, 2010
Press Release, 22.02.2023, based on bfm.ru, rbc.ru, pravda.ru
Photo: Alexei Arbatov / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service
On 22 February, the State Duma approved the suspension of Russia’s participation in the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. This happened the day after the announcement of Vladimir Putin’s message to the Federal Assembly. On 21 February, the President announced that Russia was suspending participation in the START III Treaty, which was signed in 2010 by Dmitry Medvedev and Barack Obama. Acad. Alexei Arbatov, head of the Center for International Security of the Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO) of the Russian Academy of Sciences and a member of the Political Committee of the Yabloko party, believes that the United States can be expected to withdraw from the treaty in the near future.
Photo: A response letter from Yuri Dmitriyev, imprisoned head of the Karelian branch of the Memorial human rights group to the activists of the Novgorod Yabloko: “There is such a thing called “peace” (when there is no war), and, whatever paradoxically it may sound, we must fight for it! And then the world (the Universe) will become better.
Yabloko actions of writing letters of support to Russian political prisoners, which have already become traditional, will be held at the central office of the Yabloko party and in the offices of its regional branches. This time we are going to pay special attention at our actions (which will take place in late February and early March) to women political prisoners. Yabloko is preparing a series of postcards with flowers, drawn by artists who are simply not indifferent to the fate of civil activists, journalists and politicians who are in trouble.
On 23 February, on the eve of the anniversary of the start of the “special operation”, Yabloko will hold a marathon-concert “Say Yes to the Peace!” Let us recollect how we lived through this difficult year, what gave us strength, and listen to excerpts from books about war. Actress Tatyana Parshina and Yabloko Chairman Nikolai Rybakov will recite excerpts from the works of Vsevolod Garshin, Leonid Andreyev and Guy de Maupassant. Violinists Alexei Lobanov and Yefim Krinovsky will perform works by Bach, Pachelbel, Vivaldi and Maria Theresa von Paradis.
Press Release, based on Telegram channels, 21.02.2023
Photo by Dmitry Azarov / Kommersant
“Vladimir Putin’s message in short is: get ready that all this will take a long time. Our stance is: enough! Everyone has already said enough to each other – stop killing people, this is the main thing! And as long as there is an opportunity to talk about it on TV, I am doing it!” Yabloko Chairman Nikolai Rybakov once again explained on the NTV channel today why Yabloko insists on a ceasefire agreement.
The corresponding draft resolution was submitted to the regional Assembly of Deputies on 20 February by Sofya Pugachyova, head of the Novorzhevsky district, and Nikolai Barkhatov, a deputy of the Assembly from Yabloko.
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 St. Petersburg police refused to open a criminal case against a telephone terrorist who reported about “a bomb threat” in the office of the Yabloko party in St. Petersburg at Shpalernaya 13. The police even failed to identify a person who had made the false call about mining. This is reported by the investigator on the refusal to institute a criminal case.
On 26 February, the Yabloko branch in the Altai Territory, will hold in Barnaul a commemorative rally in memory of opposition politician Boris Nemtsov who was murdered in Moscow on 28 February, 2015. The rally will be held in Svoboda (Freedom) Square and will begin at 12:00. The meeting of activists will be held in the square near the monument to the victims of political repression. We invite everyone to participate! We obtained a permission from the Barnaul administration for holding the public event.
Photo: Boris Vishnevsky and Alexander Shishlov in the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service
The Committee on Legislation of the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly will not put the initiative of the Yabloko faction on repealing the laws on “fakes” and “discrediting the RF Armed Forces” in the agenda of the Assembly. Such a decision was adopted by the Committee on Legislation of the St.Petersburg parliament at its meeting on Friday, 17 February. The members of the Committee said that the Yabloko’s bill was not developed enough and suggested that a working group be created for this.
Photo: Anatoly Nogovitsyn / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service
The Yakutsk City Court has just completed hearings on the testimony of witnesses within the framework of prosecution of Anatoly Nogovitsyn, Chairman of the Yabloko branch in Yakutia. The criminal case against Nogovitsyn was filed for his alleged “discrediting the army”. The eight witnesses declared by the public prosecutor include three security officials, one police expert, two students who admitted that they were forced to become witnesses in the case, one citizen who “experienced anxiety” and one woman who refused to come to court. The debate of the parties is scheduled on 1 March.
On 23 February, Yabloko will hold an online marathon “Say Yes to Peace!” dedicated to the events of the past year. We invite everyone to join the action by recording a video.
Tell us how you lived this year, what you thought, what you felt and what has been helping you to find strength. Please make a short video about this (up to three minutes). You can also read an excerpt from a literary work.
Photo: The Pskov Regional Assembly of Deputies / Photo by sobranie.pskov.ru
The Pskov Region Governor Mikhail Vedernikov informs, in his conclusion to the Yabloko bill on criminal liability for propaganda of nuclear war which was submitted to the Pskov Regional Assembly of Deputies, that “a call to commit legal actions cannot be a crime,” therefore, the Yabloko initiative cannot be supported.
Photo: The Turkish Red Crescent and Syrian Arab Red Crescent
The Yabloko party announced collection of humanitarian aid for the residents of Turkey and Syria affected by the earthquake. Yabloko is in touch with the embassies of the affected countries, where our party will transfer all the collected aid.
Photo: City views of Mariupol during the so-called “special operation” / Photo by Alexander Chernykh, Kommersant
Throughout its political history, YABLOKO has been a party of peace, since the war in Chechnya, when in December 1994 [when the RF authorities started a war in Chechnya], a group of State Duma deputies from YABLOKO (Grigory Yavlinsky, Valery Borshchyov, Anatoly Golov, Alexei Melnikov and others) went to Grozny and returned several Russian servicemen from captivity.
Photo by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)
The Yabloko party organises collection of humanitarian aid for victims of an earthquake in Turkey and Syria. We ask all Russian citizens to participate.
Photo: Andrei Medushevsky / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service
On 3 March, the Yabloko Party University will host 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. The lecture will begin at 18:00 (Moscow time).
On 13 February, Sergei Mitrokhin, a member of the Federal Political Committee of the Yabloko party, an MP of the Moscow City Duma and a candidate of political sciences, delivered his third lecture out of the series of his lectures at the Yabloko Party University “Truth Instead of Law”. Has capitalism come to Russia? What is Russia’s “special path”? Is our country a separate civilisation? Sergei Mitrokhin answered these and other questions in his lecture.
Photo: The Turkish Red Crescent and Syrian Arab Red Crescent
The Yabloko branch in Udmurtia started collection of humanitarian aid for victims of a series of earthquakes in Turkey and Syria that happened on the night of February 5-6. Yabloko asks Russian citizens to bring medicines, children’s and women’s hygiene products, travel accessories, and power banks to the office.
Photo: Boris Vishnevsky / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service
The reason for blocking the page of Boris Vishnevsky, an MP of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg from Yabloko and Deputy Chairman of the Yabloko party, was his post in where he wrote about the pioneers movement, Moskvich brand cars and quoted the Polish writer Stanisław Jerzy Lec. This was announced by a representative of Roskomnadzor, Russian media regulator, at the hearing in the Vasileostrovsky District Court on Monday, 13 February.
When it was already blindingly obvious that Russia was about to launch large-scale military actions in Ukraine, actions that Putin refers to as war today, for a long time a vast number of the Russian elite and the opposition-minded mass media refused to believe that this could actually happen. In 2021, when it would appear that everything was clear — they refused to countenance this possibility. In July 2021 Putin wrote an article where he openly talked about his goals and intentions in detail – and yet they would still not believe it. And when in September that year United Russia was led in the elections to the State Duma by the Minister of Defence — they still refused to face the facts. They refused to believe even when the Kremlin issued an ultimatum to the USA and NATO at the end of 2021…
Academician Alexei Arbatov on the risks of nuclear war and relations between Russia and the United States
Kommersant, 09.02.2023
Photo: Acad. Alexei Arbatov / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service
The Russian Foreign Ministry warned of “the real danger of a direct military clash between the two nuclear powers” – Russia and the United States. Moscow believes that “a total hybrid war unleashed by Washington against Moscow” could lead to this. This statement was made in the context of the difficult situation around the Strategic Offensive Arms Treaty (START): the United States accuses Russia of non-compliance with it, which Russia categorically rejects. Academician Alexei Arbatov, head of the Centre for International Security of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told Kommersant correspondent Yelena Chernenko how the current situation differs from the Cold War and what the Russian Federation and the United States can do to avoid escalation.
