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: Zulfiya Sitdikova / Photo from social media
UPDATE: 13 February, 19:50 Moscow time. Fundraising for Zulfiya Sitdikova is closed! We thank everyone who helped the Yabloko activist.
Yabloko activist Zulfiya Sitdikova from Kazan, Tatarstan, is accused of “rehabilitating Nazism” (Article 354.1, Part 3 of the Criminal Code) and “discrediting the army” (Article 280.3, Part 1 of the Criminal Code) for the posters calling for peace. Previously, the activist was fined under an administrative article for “discrediting the army” and served five days of arrest for “disobeying the demands of a police officer”. The Tatarstan Yabloko is helping Sitdikova raise money to pay for a lawyer.
In July 2021, Vladimir Putin published an article in which he made it absolutely clear to the whole world that Russia could start a military conflict with Ukraine at any moment. The article essentially denied Ukraine’s right to statehood and sovereignty and, correspondingly, made territorial claims. Such claims, expressed by the president of a nuclear power, substantiated Russia’s historical right to military action. “Moreover, this is not a war with a neighbour with whom the country has some differences, even if territorial, but instead a war with a powerful external aggressor, in other words, with the West where Ukraine is merely the battlefield for the confrontation,” I wrote in my response article “On the Historical Future of Russia and Ukraine” published on 19 July, 2021.
Photo: Viktor Kogan-Yasny / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service
My job is to occasionally write about things that relate to limiting bloodshed now and eliminating it strategically in the future. I have to write in a dry language because it’s “work”. Political leaders, military leaders and military commanders say in dry language how many they have killed and how many more they should kill, and they do not know other ways to achieve their goals.
Photo: Sergei Piskunov holding a placard “No More Than 2 Terms”/ Photo from social media
UPDATE: 12 February, 11:45 Moscow time. Sergei Piskunov was detained in the Altai Territory. He is suspected of “creating an extremist community” (Article 282.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). Now he is being taken to the Rubtsovsky City Court which will choose a preventive measure.
Sergei Piskunov, candidate member of Yabloko and electoral expert in Kuzbass, was arrested. This became known on 12 February. Earlier, on 10 February, his home was searched in connection with the case of “organising an extremist community”, after which the civil activist was taken for questioning, but then released.
Photo: Akademgorodok (the “Academic Town”) in Novosibirsk /Photo from open sources
On the Day of Russian Science and in honour of the 300th anniversary of the formation of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Novosibirsk regional branch of the Yabloko party sent congratulatory letters to the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the trade union of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, as well as to Yevgeniy Kraus, the Acting Director of the Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics and Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, and Anatoly Popkov, Chairman of the Trade Union Committee of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. In letters signed by the Chair of the Novosibirsk Yabloko, Natalia Chubykina, the party not only congratulates the scientific community on their professional holiday, but also notes that the shadow of repression, reminiscent of Stalin’s times, is once again looming over science. The staff and management of trade union of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences had to face persecution of scientists.
On 23 and 25 December, charity Christmas parties were held at the central office of the Yabloko party for the children of Ukrainian refugees – wards of the Civic Assistance Committee and Lighthouse Charity Foundation. We are summing up the results of the charitable New Year parties.
Photo: Lev Shlosberg / Photo by the Pskov regional branch of Yabloko
On 5 February, the Pskov City Court fined Lev Shlosberg, Deputy Chairman of the Yabloko party, three times for distributing materials without a “foreign agency” tag ( Article 19.34, Part 4, of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation) and mentioning without a special reference an organisation recognised by the state as extremist (Article 13.15, Part 2, of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation). The three fines totaled 62,000 roubles. Lev Shlosberg says that he is going to appeal these fines.
Photo: MP Gurulyov, a screenshot of the programme “Sunday Evening with Vladimir Solovyov”
On 5 February, the Izmailovsky Court of Moscow refused to recognise as illegal the inaction of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which did not find extremism in the calls of State Duma deputy, General Andrei Gurulyov about the “rotten” 20 per cent of population who disagree with Putin and, therefore, must be destroyed. The appeal to the Ministry of Internal Affairs was sent by Boris Vishnevsky, a deputy of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg and Deputy Chair of the Yabloko party. The court’s decision will be appealed.
Today, on 6 February, the Tomsk City Duma discussed at a closed meeting depriving Yevgeny Kaverzin, a deputy from Yabloko and a technologist at the Clean City waste recycling company, of his mandate. Such a measure against Kaverzin was proposed by the executive authorities.
On 19 February, the Yabloko Party University will host a lecture “Dynamics of Changes in Public Opinion.” The lecturer is Denis Volkov, sociologist, Director of the Levada Centre. Participants in the lecture, using materials from sociological surveys, will consider how the attitude of Russian society towards the “special operation” has changed over the two years, what determines public sentiment today, how opinions are distributed in different segments of the population, and whether it is worth listening to critics of public opinion polls.
Yevgeny Kaverzin, a deputy from Yabloko in the Tomsk City Duma, may be deprived of his mandate. The formal reason is some inaccuracies in his income declarations for 2020 and 2021, but the real reason for deprivation of his mandate is his protection of the interests of citizens that are infringed by the regional waste management operator. The meeting of the City Duma, at which a decision on depriving Yevgeny Kaverzin of his mandate will be held on 6 February.
Photo: Magistrate of the Court District No. 3 of Oktyabrsky District of Izhevsk, Alyona Dresvyannikova / Photo by Iya Boronina
The Minister of Culture of Udmurtia, Vladimir Solovyov, was fined for violating the procedure for considering the appeal of the Chair of the Yabloko branch in Udmurtia, Iya Boronina. The leader of the regional department asked the minister to provide the information necessary to prepare amendments to the draft law on the budget of the Republic. The magistrate of the Oktyabrsky District of Izhevsk fined the minister of 5,000 roubles on 1 February.
Photo: Yelena Lukovitskaya / Photo from open sources
The Novgorod branch of the Gender Faction of the Yabloko party plans to hold a series of discussions on issues of equality, women’s rights, family policy, domestic violence and other relevant topics. The first seminar will take place on 11 February. It will be conducted by Yelena Lukovitskaya, candidate of psychological sciences. The event starts at 14:30, the duration is 1.5 hours.
Photo: The Chelyabinsk City Forest / Photo by Alexander Sapozhnikov, Wikimedia
The Sovetsky District Court of Chelyabinsk began considering the claim of the regional branch of the Yabloko party against the administration of Chelyabinsk. Yabloko is represented in court by Andrei Talevlin, environmentalist, Deputy Chairman of the Chelyabinsk Yabloko and member of the Bureau of the Yabloko Green Russia Faction. Talevlin is challenging the permits issued by the Mayor’s Office for the construction of a high-rise residential complex on the site of the city forest.
Photo: The inscription on the stele runs “To the victims of repression of 1937-1939 and to the victims of the Finnish occupation during the Great Patriotic War” / Photo by Emilia Slabunova
At the end of December 2023, it was reported that the authorities plan to install a stele in memory not only of those killed in 1937-1939 during Joseph Stalin’s Great Terror, but also to the “victims of the Finnish occupation during the Great Patriotic War” (Ed.: World War 2 on the territory on the USSR has been called the Great Patriotic War in the USSR, Russia and some post-Soviet states) in the Karelian Sandarmokh – the burial place of victims of Soviet repression and a cultural heritage site of regional significance. The discovery of the remains of victims killed by Finns on the territory of Sandarmokh has been questioned in the scientific community. Deputy of the Legislative Assembly of Karelia from Yabloko, Emilia Slabunova, appealed to the Public Prosecutor’s Office with a demand to verify the compliance of the design and inscription of the stele with the established status of the object. The Public Prosecutor’s Office found no violations. A stele with an inscription distorting history has already been installed in Sandarmokh. Slabunova appealed to the Investigative Committee.
On 26 January, the Yabloko Party University hosted a lecture by Pavel Kudyukin “Trade Unions in Russia”. The lecturer, Pavel Kudyukin, is Co-Chairman of the University Solidarity Trade Union, member of the Council of the Confederation of Labour of Russia, and Deputy Minister of Labour of Russia in 1991-1993.
Resolution by the 22nd Yabloko Congress adopted on 10.12.2023, published on 26.01.2024
Photo by Yevgeny Odinokov, RIA Novosti
The Russian United Democratic Party Yabloko is worried and draws attention to the campaign unfolding in Russia to justify the Great Terror and its inspirer, Joseph Stalin. Against the background of the ongoing loss of human lives in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the liquidation of democratic institutions and the growing repressiveness of the state, this campaign increasingly threatens the rights and freedoms of Russians. The political and criminal practices from the darkest times in our history are once again returning to the daily life of the country. We are witnessing the return of the basic principles of the Stalinist state: “man is nothing, just dust underfoot”, “repressive authorities do not make mistakes”, which leads to the impossibility of defence against repression.
Resolution by the 22nd Yabloko Congress adopted on 10.12.2023, published on 25.01.2024
After the start of a special military operation and the adoption of laws punishing for “discrediting of the army” and “fake news” (essentially, the laws on military censorship), political repression against the dissent in Russia intensified.
The head of the Yabloko faction in the Veliky Novgorod City Duma Anna Cherepanova, the head of the regional Centre for Anti-Corruption Policies Ksenia Cherepanova, and a member of the Bureau of the Novogorod branch of Yabloko Viktor Shalyakin came to St. Petersburg to meet their colleagues.
Photo: “The Last Address” sign on Dolgorukovskaya 5 (formerly Kalyaevskaya 5) / Photo from social media
Maxim Kruglov, head of the faction in the Moscow City Duma and Deputy Chairman of the Yabloko party, signed a letter to the Moscow Mayor on the inclusion of memorial plaques of the “The Last Address” project in the Moscow state programme for the preservation of cultural heritage. Yabloko calls on Sergei Sobyanin to prevent the disappearance of memorial plaques and take measures to restore those already lost.
