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: Maxim Kruglov / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service
Arrested Yabloko Deputy Chairman of Yabloko Maxim Kruglov, via the FSIN-letter service, asked one of his colleagues to convey words of gratitude to all who support him:
“Dear friends,
Hello to everyone! I would like to convey my heartfelt gratitude to you for your support and warm words — they warm my heart and give me strength. Everything is well with me — as far as is possible under the circumstances. I receive many letters and kind words — thank you! I am sorry that I haven’t yet succeeded to reply to everyone, but I will definitely do so!
As, I think, the brothers Arkady and Boris Strugatsky [popular science fiction authors in the USSR and Russia] said (and Boris, by the way, was a Yabloko supporter), let us look into the future with inexhaustible optimism! This era will pass, and people in uniform will be replaced by people with books.
Photo: Grigory Gribenko at the monument to Babr, the symbol of Irkutsk / Photo by Pavel Kharitonenko’s Telegram channel
In the centre of Irkutsk, Yabloko activists held single pickets in support of their Moscow colleague Maxim Kruglov and all political prisoners. In addition, participants’ placards contained calls to cease fire and emphasised the Yabloko party’s position — for peace and freedom.
On Tuesday, 14 October Yabloko will host a public lecture “Not Only the West: Democracy Japanese-Style”. The lecture will be delivered by Alexander Gnezdilov, member of Yabloko’s Federal Political Committee, editor-in-chief of Smart Power Journal and author of the Telegram channel “Gnezdilov. Against the Current”. The lecture will begin at 7:00 p.m.
Photo: Konstantin Smirnov attended the court hearing via video conference from the remand prison / Photo by Ryazan Yabloko
On 6 October, the Ryazan Regional Court considered the defence appeal by Konstantin Smirnov, Chairman of the Ryazan branch of Yabloko and editor-in-chief of the Vidsboku online media, against the ruling by Sovetsky District Court of Ryazan of 26 September, which extended his arrest at the petition of the investigator.
On 7 October, the court changed the preventive measure for Yabloko party Deputy Chairman Lev Shlosberg: instead of house arrest, it imposed a ban on certain actions. The order came into force today, 8 October, and is valid indefinitely, until the court verdict.
Photo: Kirill Goncharov, Ivan Bolshakov and Nikolai Rybakov lay flowers at the memorial plaque at the entrance where Anna Politkovskaya was killed / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service
7 October is a tragic date for Russian journalists, human rights defenders, activists and politicians — the date of the murder of Anna Politkovskaya, a symbol of Russian freedom of speech. On this day 19 years ago, Anna was shot dead outside her home in Moscow on Lesnaya Street. Yabloko members came here today — Yabloko Chairman Nikolai Rybakov, head of the Yabloko Analytical Centre Ivan Bolshakov and Deputy Chairman of Moscow Yabloko Kirill Goncharov. They honoured Anna Politkovskaya’s memory by laying flowers and observing a minute’s silence.
Photo: Anna Shteinbakh / Photo by the regional branch of Yabloko
Anna Shteinbakh, 30, has become the new Chair of the Yabloko party’s regional branch in Kaliningrad. Anna’s colleagues elected her by a majority vote at the general meeting of the regional branch, which took place past week. As head of the Kaliningrad office, Anna Shteinbakh replaced Alexander Lisovsky, who had chaired the branch in previous years.
Photo: Maxim Kruglov in Zamoskvoretsky District Court, Moscow / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service
Lawyer Natalia Tikhonova has appealed the arrest of Maxim Kruglov, Deputy Chairman of the Yabloko party. In the complaint against the chosen preventive measure, the defence emphasises that the court had no grounds whatsoever for imposing a preventive measure on Kruglov at all, let alone one as severe as detention.
Statement by Grigory Yavlinsky, Chairman of the Yabloko Federal Political Committee, 2.10.2025
Photo: Grigory Yavlinsky and Maxim Kruglov / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service
We know Maxim Kruglov well. He has been a member of the Yabloko party for more than 20 years, holds a Candidate of Political Science degree, and is a specialist in anti-corruption policy. In the 2019 Moscow City Duma elections, he received around 40% of the vote and led our faction [in the Moscow parliament].
Photo: Maxim Kruglov in the courtroom / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service
Zamoskvoretsky District Court in Moscow sent Yabloko party Deputy Chairman Maxim Kruglov to a remand centre until 29 November. He has been charged under Article 207.3, Part 2, point “d” of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (dissemination of “fakes about the army”). The defence petitioned for a preventive measure not involving detention. Party leaders Nikolai Rybakov, Grigory Yavlinsky and Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexei Arbatov offered personal guarantees. The party was also prepared to post bail.
Photo: Maxim Kruglov / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service
According to the Investigative Committee, a criminal case has been opened against Yabloko party Deputy Chairman Maxim Kruglov under Article 207.3, Part 2, point “d” of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (public dissemination of knowingly false information about the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation).
Photo: Boris Vishnevsky and film director Alexander Sokurov (left) at the launch of the book “Chronicles of the Revived Arkanar” by Boris Vishnevsky at the Mayakovsky Library in St Petersburg, 7 April 2016 / Photo by Alexander Chizhenok, Kommersant
A lawsuit on administrative violation has been filed with St.Petersburg City Court by the City Public Prosecutor’s Office demanding that a collection of articles by Yabloko party Deputy Chairman Boris Vishnevsky, published in 2015, be declared extremist material.
Heads of the member states of the G7 Summit in Kananaskis, Canada. 15-17 June 2025 // Wikimedia
The hostilities between Russia and Ukraine continue against the backdrop of declarations on the need for a ceasefire that are at times sincere, but more frequently hypocritical. Fighting of such magnitude and duration was last witnessed on this land during the years of the Great Patriotic War. Unfortunately, even this frightening comparison will not compel the individuals authorised to adopt the key decisions today to shudder and beat a retreat. Over the past three and a half years there have been a number of opportunities to put an end to the bloodshed. However, initially one decision-maker was opposed to the idea, then other parties were reluctant to do so, and then the third and fourth parties rejected the option. And today the whole world watches with callous indifference at how the future is being destroyed.
On Tuesday, 7 October, the central office of the Yabloko party will host a book launch by Nadezhda Azhgikhina and Katrina vanden Heuvel ” Hope Springs Eternal” published as part of a project by the “Association of Researchers of Russian Society – 21 Century”. The event starts at 7:00 PM.
Photo: Screenshot from broadcast of Donald Trump’s speech in the UN
In just one day, Donald Trump launched scathing criticism of “green” energy, migration policy and the UN. However, his most telling statements were about the Ukrainian conflict, which, among other things, contradict his own administration’s official position.
Photo: Marina Zheleznyakova / Photo by the Yabloko branch in the Maritime Territory
Since August 2025, Primorsky Regional Court has been hearing a criminal case brought under Article 354.1 of the Criminal Code (“Rehabilitation of Nazism”) against Marina Zheleznyakova, Deputy Chair of the Yabloko regional branch in Maritime Territory. She is charged with alleged dissemination of “deliberately false information about the USSR’s activities during the Second World War” made in her Telegram post on 9 May 2021. The criminal case was opened three years later – in 2024. At the defence’s request, a jury has been brought into the case.
Watch the discussion switching into English soundtrack
Once again about the necessity of concluding an immediate ceasefire agreement between Russia and Ukraine. It is important for all participants in the conflict — both direct and indirect — to understand that in current conditions, its escalation, as is already happening, will lead neither to a “local military clash” between Russia and NATO, nor to an exchange of “proportional strikes on the enemy’s strategic targets”. An armed confrontation between Russia and NATO will almost immediately escalate into a large-scale nuclear war with all the ensuing consequences.
From 18 to 21 September, the Yabloko party retreat-2025 “New Generation of Yabloko Members: Understanding, Speaking, and Persuading” took place in the Ryazan Region. Twenty young people from different regions of Russia from Moscow to Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, became participants in this event, which was of a new format for the party.
In late September and early October, Yabloko party regional offices will host traditional actions of writing letters to political prisoners. The actions will be held in Yabloko offices in different cities throughout Russia from 20 September through to 8 October.
Boris Vishnevsky special for the Yabloko web-site, 19.09.2025
Photo: Joseph Stalin and Nikita Khrushchev on the Mausoleum tribune / Photo from akg-images, EAST NEWS
Vladimir Putin called on deputies to “depoliticise” Stalin’s role in victory in the Great Patriotic War [a term used in the former USSR, Russia and some post-Soviet states to describe the Eastern Front of World War II, fought primarily between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany between 22 June 1941 and 9 May 1945]. The President said this at a meeting with leaders of the State Duma factions. “In general, everything connected with the Great Patriotic War, and with what role Stalin played in the Victory, needs to be kept in mind and we should try to depoliticise this,” Vladimir Putin explained. The President also added that one should not forget the “numerous problems connected with repressions” that existed during Stalin’s rule.
Yabloko Deputy Chairman Boris Vishnevsky notes that what President Vladimir Putin now calls “problems connected with repressions,” Prime Minister Vladimir Putin called differently in 2010:
