Is
Modernisation in Russia Possible? Interview
with Grigory Yavlinsky and Boris Titov by Yury Pronko,
"The Real Time" programme, Radio Finam, May
12, 2010
A round table dedicated to the 105 years since the October 1917 coup was held at Yabloko. Its participants – historians and politicians – spoke about the lessons to be learned from the October coup.
The round table was opened by Nikolai Rybakov, Chairman of the Yabloko party. According to Rybakov, despite the fact that 7 November, the date of the coup, had gone from our life as a Soviet holiday and a special day, the traditions remained, and it was these traditions that served as a basis for all modern politics in Russia. Rybakov noted the stance rooted in Russia, when the people were considered as expendable supplies for solution of the highest national tasks.
Photo: Yaroslav Shcherbakov and Vasily Moskovets / Photo from social media
On 9 November, the Second Court of Appeal in St. Petersburg overturned the decision of the Chelyabinsk Regional Court and invalidated the decrees of the Government of the Chelyabinsk Region that excluded three territories from the list of public areas in Chelyabinsk where rallies can be held without prior notification of the authorities (the so-called “hyde parks”). Now, after the official publication of the decision of the court, Russian citizens will be able to gather in these public areas without mandatory notification of the authorities and getting their permission for holding a rally. Yaroslav Shcherbakov, Chairman of the Chelyabinsk Yabloko, Anna Ilyina, a member of the Regional Council of Yabloko and human rights activist, and Vasily Moskovets, human rights defender, won the litigation over the right of citizens to free assembly in the city’s venues.
Photo: A screenshot of the main page of the online media Noviy Fukus ( The New Focus) khakasia.info
An administrative case was filed under Article 20.3.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (inciting hatred or enmity) against the legal entity of the Internet media Noviy Fokus in Abakan. The Public Prosecutor’s Office in Abakan sees violations in the publications of the media, the editor-in-chief of which is Mikhail Afanasyev, a member of the Yabloko party. He is also the founder of the legal entity – the founder of the media.
Photo: Sofia Pugachyova and Svetlana Vasilkova / Photo by the Pskov Yabloko Press Service
The Novorzhevsky and Pustoshkinsky districts of the Pskov region, which are headed by Sofia Pugacheva and Svetlana Vasilkova, members of the Yabloko party elected heads of the districts in 2019, were among the best in the region in terms of the quality of financial management and received additional funding.
Photo: Alexander Makhankov / Photo from social media
Alexander Makhankov, Chairman of the Yabloko branch in the Pushkinsky District of St.Petersburg, was charged, for the second time, of “discrediting” the Russian Armed Forces. The reason was Makhankov’s calls for peace during the municipal election campaign which took place three months ago.
“The tools of hatred deprive you of a meaningful approach, they deprive you of intellectual advancement, deprive you of the opportunity to intellectually resolve the issue. Hatred is beyond comprehension, it is an emotion. When you are in such emotions [of hatred], you run the risk of making very wrong decisions. Hatred does not allow for competent policies, or any serious policies. This is a very difficult, very painful, tragic circumstance. Sometimes, in my opinion, hatred is justified, but it still needs to be pushed aside.”
Yabloko founder Grigory Yavlinsky, in his interview to Nikolai Solodnikov, answers questions about whether hatred can help in the solution of problems, what will happen to Russia further, and what he personally would do if he got the power.
Photo: Mariupol, July 2022 / Photo by Anatoly Zhdanov, Kommersant
The Federal Political Committee of the Yabloko party formulated the party’s position on what is happening during the “special military operation” and the challenges that the party is now facing.
Decision by the Yabloko Federal Political Committee No 161 of 20 October 2022, published on 1.11.2022
Photo: Flags of Russia and the European Union / Photo by Vladimir Sergeyev, RIA Novosti
The mission of our party today and its main task is to overcome Bolshevism, the oligarchic nature of the state, the irremovability of power and militarism, create prerequisites and implement a real modernisation of Russia founding a modern political and economic system in our country.
Decision by the Yabloko Federal Political Committee No 160 of 20 October 2022, published on 1.11.2022
Photo by the Yabloko Press Service
Yabloko is the only socio-political institution left in Russia that opposes war, totalitarian transformation of the state, and disintegration of society.
Over the three decades of post-Soviet Russia, we have many times offered meaningful alternatives to the erroneous and corporate-selfish decisions that brought our country to the current situation. There was an opportunity to choose an alternative in all 11 federal election campaigns in which Yabloko participated.
Decision by the Yabloko Federal Political Committee No 159 of 20 October 2022, published on 1.11.2022
Photo: Moscow, Novy Arbat street, February 2022 / Photo by Vitaly Smolnikov, Kommersant
The main reason for the current situation in our country is the failure of post-Soviet modernisation, which, in turn, was due to the refusal of the Russian authorities over the past 30 years to consider society as a subject of politics and regard the freedom and real well-being of people as the main goal of the state.
Decision by the Yabloko Federal Political Committee No 158 of 20 October 2022, published on 1.11.2022
Photo by Sergei Averin, RIA Novosti
The tragedy, which has been going on for eight months already, makes it absolutely obvious that [all] should realise as soon as possible the need (the obligation) for a ceasefire as the first step towards preventing a real impending nuclear catastrophe.
However, the Russian government continues the policies towards escalation, that lead only to new victims and destruction, and further international isolation of Russia. Threats of the possible use of nuclear weapons have been voiced increasingly more often.
Decision by the Yabloko Federal Political Committee No 157 of 20 October 2022, published on 1.11.2022
Photo by Anatoly Zhdanov, Kommersant
A military conflict between Russia and Ukraine with a huge potential for escalation up to the use of nuclear weapons is going on. At the moment, there is no reason to believe that the end of the armed conflict is approaching. What is happening is a disaster for our country on the scale of a national catastrophe.
Decision by the Yabloko Federal Political Committee No 156 of 20 October 2022, published on 1.11.2022
Photo (left to right): French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, US President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Anthony Blair at the Kurhaus complex in Heiligendamm / Photo by Dmitry Astakhov, RIA Novosti
The legacy of late Stalinism, combined with the collapse of the USSR in Belovezhskaya Pushcha [by the Belvezh Accords], illiterate and voluntaristic economic reforms, and Boris Yeltsin’s stake on power politics, made in the early 1990s, led to the formation of a system of peripheral authoritarianism in Russia – a neo-Bolshevik model of the state with an eclectic populist ideology of “political Eurasianism”. In such a system, all institutions and understanding of social justice are subordinated to the “state interest”, personalised in the leader.
Photo: Anatoly Marchenko / Photo from the family archive
Regional branches of the Yabloko party in Novosibirsk and Tatarstan propose to perpetuate the memory of Soviet human rights defender Anatoly Marchenko, the last deceased Soviet political prisoner. Academician Andrei Sakharov was returned from exile due to the efforts of Marchenko and then a state decision was made to release all political prisoners of the Soviet Union. The joint statement was signed by the Chairmen of the two Yabloko branches Natalya Chubykina and Ruslan Zinatullin.
Past week, regional branches of Yabloko over Russia held actions in memory of victims of political repressions and in support of the present political prisoners. Yabloko party members and supporters organised actions of writing letters to political prisoners, laid flowers at memorial complexes, held lectures on the history of political repressions and excursions to memorable places, as well as participated in commemorative rallies and readings of the names of the repressed.
On 9 November, the Yabloko party in Moscow will host a round table “Lessons of the October Coup of 1917 and Modern Times” in its Moscow Office. The event is timed to the 105th anniversary of the Bolshevik coup d’etat.
On 30 October, on the eve of the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Political Repressions, a launch of the new edition of the book “Solovki. The Labyrinth of Transformations” by the famous Russian photographer and historian Yuri Brodsky took place at the office of the Yabloko party in Moscow. The book launch was conducted by Nadezhda Azhgikhina, a journalist and Director of the PEN-Moscow NGO joining together writers, journalists and bloggers.
On 25 October, the Yabloko Party University hosted a lecture “Truth Instead of Law” by Sergei Mitrokhin, a member of the Federal Political Committee of Yabloko, MP of the Moscow City Duma and Candidate of Political Sciences. Has capitalism come to Russia? What is Russia’s “special path”? Is our country a separate civilisation? Sergei Mitrokhin touched upon these and other issues questions in his lecture.
Photo: Maxim Petlin / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service
Yesterday, the European Court of Human Rights satisfied my complaint against the Russian Federation and declared the Resolution of the Sverdlovsk Regional Court dated 16.11.2010 unlawful and violating Article 8 of the European Convention. In November 2010, the regional court, on the basis of the submission of the Federal Security Service for the Sverdlovsk region, considered it possible to deprive me of a number of constitutional rights, including the inviolability of my home, the secrecy of telephone conversations and correspondence, and also allowed Federal Security Service officers to conduct surveillance on me in order to collect information and subsequently initiate a criminal case.
Photo: Polina Kuskova at the meeting of the Legislative Assembly of the Kirov Region on 27 October, 2022. / Photo: a screenshot of the video broadcast
Polina Kuskova, a Bureau member of the Kirov regional branch of the Yabloko party, spoke at the plenary meeting of the Legislative Assembly of the Kirov Region on 27 October, 2022. In her speech, Kuskova spoke about the formation of the Youth Parliament in the region.
