Is
Modernisation in Russia Possible? Interview
with Grigory Yavlinsky and Boris Titov by Yury Pronko,
"The Real Time" programme, Radio Finam, May
12, 2010
On 13 November, a conference and public forum The Alexei Yablokov Day were held at the Darwin Museum in Moscow as part of the events dedicated to the 90th anniversary of Acad.Alexei Yablokov (1933-2017), a renowned Russian ecologist and founder of the Green Russia Faction of the Yabloko party. In 2006, Alexei Yablokov, together with a large group of like-minded people, joined the Yabloko party and until his last day headed the Green Russia Faction of the Yabloko party, while remaining a recognised leader of the environmental movement in Russia.
On 16 November, the Yabloko Party University will host a lecture “Ecology of Russian Regions: Trends of the 2020s.” The lecturer is Nikolai Rybakov, an environmentalist, human rights activist, and Chairman of the Yabloko party.
Photo: Olga Tuzhikova / Photo from Olga Tuzhikova’s personal archive
On the morning of 10 November, a search was carried out in the apartment of Olga Tuzhikova, a Yabloko deputy of the Petrozavodsk City Council. Tuzhikova is a witness in the case initiated under the article on calls for activities directed against the security of the state (Article 280.4 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). During the search, the politician’s phone and computer were confiscated. Tuzhikova was summoned for questioning by the Federal Security Service and the Investigative Committee. According to her relatives, she has been under interrogation by the Federal Security Service since 14:00 (Moscow time).
On December 9-10, the Yabloko party will hold its 22nd Congress. Delegates of the Congress will elect the party’s executive bodies.
According to the Yabloko By-Laws, congresses at which the executive bodies of the party are elected should be held every four years. The previous congress was held in December 2019.
Photo: Grigory Yavlinsky / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service
Our party receives questions from citizens from different regions of Russia about collecting signatures for the nomination of Grigory Yavlinsky as a candidate in the forthcoming presidential election. In September, Grigory Yavlinsky said that he was ready to consider the possibility of participating in the election campaign if at least 10 million citizens’ signatures were collected in support of his nomination.
Photo: Yabloko candidates Pyotr Kopylov and Maxim Novikov
The territorial electoral commissions of the Central and Oktyabrsky districts on Novosibirsk refused to register Maxim Novikov and Pyotr Kopylov, candidates for deputies for by-elections to the Novosibirsk City Council, previously nominated by the Novosibirsk branch of the Yabloko party.
On 1 November, the Moscow office of the Yabloko party hosted a launch of the first volume of Engelina y memoirs, “How I Lived in the Soviet Union”.
Engelina Borisovna Tareyeva is one of the oldest members of the Yabloko party; she was born in 1925 in Ukraine into a family of professional revolutionaries. The book is a collection of memoirs about life in the Soviet Union, published in Engelina Tareyeva’s LiveJournal in 2009–2021. Tareyeva writes about different generations of her family, recollects Kyiv before the Second World War, life in evacuation in Kazakhstan, Moscow during her years of study at Moscow State University and further. A separate chapter contains memories of Stalin’s death and the events that followed.
Photo: Alexander Shishlov / Photo by the St.Petersburg Yabloko Press Service
Each member with a casting vote of the St.Petersburg Electoral Commission should be able to work on a permanent basis as a staff member. The Yabloko faction in the St.Petersburg Legislative Assembly submitted such a bill in the city Legislative Assembly at a plenary session on Wednesday, 8 November.
Photo by the Press Service of the St.Petersburg branch of Yabloko
The Regional Council of the St. Petersburg branch of Yabloko decided to begin preparations for the municipal, gubernatorial elections and by-elections to the Legislative Assembly that will be held in the city in September 2024. Working groups for corresponding election campaigns were formed in the regional office.
The Public Prosecutor General’s Office sent Boris Vishnevsky’s appeal for a legal assessment of the scandalous statements of State Duma deputy Andrei Gurulev for consideration to the Moscow Public Prosecutor’s Office. This is stated in the response of the Public Prosecutor General Office to an appeal from Boris Vishnevsky, Deputy Chairman of the Yabloko party and a deputy of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg.
Earlier, Vishnevsky sent an appeal to the Public Prosecutor General of Russia Igor Krasnov with a request to organise a check of State Duma deputy Andrei Gurulev’s statement that 20% of Russian citizens who disagree with the policies of President Vladimir Putin should be exterminated.
The attack on the Makhachkala airport by a crowd motivated by national hatred under anti-Semitic slogans, as well as anti-Semitic actions in Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay-Cherkessia – all these are the symptoms of a progressive serious illness of the state and society.
Against the backdrop of the 18 months long special military operation, discontent, fear, suspicion and hatred are growing in different social groups in Russia. The value of human life is decreasing.
On 9 November, the Yabloko party office in Moscow will host a launch of the book “Glasnost in Two Cultures. Participants of the First Meeting of Russian and American Women Writers in New York Speaking”. The book was published by the Yuri Shchekochikhin Foundation in 2023.
During the years of Joseph Stalin’s rule in the USSR, millions of citizens of the country were repressed and killed. This is the scale of a real national catastrophe. The crimes of Stalinism and Bolshevism affected almost every family in our country. It is impossible to simply forget and move past such a tragedy and move on as if nothing had happened. Or rather, it is possible, as it turned out, but we feel the consequences of this increasingly often today.
Photo: Boris Vishnevsky / Photo by the Press Service of the St.Petersburg Legislative Assembly
Speaking on October 31 at the meeting of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg, deputy Boris Vishnevsky explained why the Yabloko faction could not support the draft city budget of St.Petersurg for 2024.
Vishnevsky said that the reasons of voting against the draft city budget were the reduction of funding for social support for citizens and the failure to solve the problem of people on the housing waiting list who had been waiting for housing for more than 40 years. “But 290 million roubles are allocated for political instructors in schools,” Vishnevsky added.
The Novgorod branch of Yabloko organised a rally on 30 October, the Day of Remembrance of Victims of Political Repression. The rally participants read out loud the names of Novgorod residents who were shot during the years of Stalin’s terror, as well as excerpts from the letters of the current political prisoners.
On the eve of the Day of Remembrance for Victims of Political Repression, the Chelyabinsk branch of Yabloko organised an excursion in memory of victims of Stalinist repression in Chelyabinsk, who were shot in 1938 allegedly for counter-revolutionary activities and were rehabilitated in the 1950-1960s.
On the Day of Remembrance for Victims of Political Repression, Yabloko held an online marathon “People, Don’t Kill Each Other!”, during which hundreds of people read out loud the names of victims of Stalin’s repressions of 1930s-1940s, remembered their ancestors who died during the terror, and showed places of mass executions in the Russian regions. The action brought together Yabloko members and civil activists from 62 regions of Russia.
On 27 October, the Yabloko Party University hosted a lecture “Causes, Results and Significance of the Superficial Europeanisation of Russia in the Second Half of the 15th – early 16th Centuries”. The lecture was delivered by Tatyana Chernikova, Doctor of Historical Sciences and Professor of Moscow State Institute of International Relations.
On 25 October, the 7th Yablokov Readings were held at the House of Journalists in St. Petersburg. The readings were dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the birth of Alexei Yablokov (1933-2017), an outstanding scientist, ecologist, head of the Yabloko Green Russia faction, and public and political figure. In 2006, Alexei Yablokov, together with a large group of like-minded people, joined the Yabloko party and until his last day headed the Green Russia Faction of the Yabloko party, while remaining a recognised leader of the environmental movement in Russia.
Photo: Grigory Yavlinsky / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service
Due to numerous requests received by the Yabloko Press Service, we are informing you of the following:
On 26 October, 2023, Grigory Yavlinsky met with President Vladimir Putin.
The key subject of discussion was the need for a ceasefire agreement in the special military operation. It is well-known that a ceasefire is Grigory Yavlinsky’s principled position. The Yabloko leader believes that it is necessary to begin negotiations on a ceasefire as soon as possible and is ready to personally participate in them. Grigory Yavlinsky outlined his position in detail.
