Is
Modernisation in Russia Possible? Interview
with Grigory Yavlinsky and Boris Titov by Yury Pronko,
"The Real Time" programme, Radio Finam, May
12, 2010
Over 30 years, the Yabloko party has offered people in Russia a different path eleven times: eight times in parliamentary elections and three times in presidential elections. This path would never have led our country to what is happening now. We proposed to build a state of welfare and human dignity, freedom and democracy with life without fear and war.
But even today, in the most difficult conditions, when it became dangerous to campaign for peace and freedom, Yabloko candidates were reaching out to people and told them the truth about the situation in the country. And people only had to vote – secretly, without any risk – for peace and freedom. Every vote was extremely important. But, unfortunately, this did not happen on a serious scale. For the most part, people did not understand that voting was the way to change the situation. And without this understanding nothing can be changed.
Photo: The rally organised by the Tomsk branch of Yabloko /Photo by the Tomsk Yabloko Press Service
The rally was organized by Vladimir Petrov, deputy of the City Council of the city of Seversk from Yabloko. Several hundred people opposed the actions of the administration of the Siberian Federal Scientific Clinical Centre of the Federal Medical and Biological Agency (SibFNKTs FMBA). The centre includes the Seversk Clinical Hospital, as well as the Medical Rehabilitation Centre and the Treatment and Prevention Unit in Tomsk. The centre has been headed by Viktor Avkhimenko since February 2021. The protesters are dissatisfied with the quality of health care and the level of salaries of medical workers.
Photo: Viktor Sheinis /Photo by the Yabloko Press Service
A round table “Viktor Leonidovich Sheinis: Academic, Politician, and Person” was held at the Institute of Scientific Information on Social Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences past week.
The event was dedicated to the memory of Viktor Leonidovich Sheinis (1931–2023), Doctor of Economics, People’s Deputy of the RSFSR and a member of the Constitutional Commission of the Congress of People’s Deputies of the RSFSR (1990–1993), a deputy of the State Duma (1993–1999) and a member of the Political Committee of Yabloko. The participants of the round table spoke about the great contribution of Viktor Sheinis to the creation of the Constitution of the Russian Federation and the electoral legislation of Russia, his scientific works as an economist, historian and political scientist, and his participation in the political life of the country.
On 12 September the central office of the Yabloko party hosted a launch of a collection of lectures from the Yabloko Party University “Russia: History and the Modern Period” delivered in 2020-2022 within the framework of the Yabloko Party University by well-known politicians and academics. Galina Mikhaleva, head of the Yabloko Party University, who prepared the present collection of lectures, and the authors of the lectures participated in the event.
Speakers at the launch were Yabloko party Chairman Nikolai Rybakov, Yabloko Deputy Chairman Boris Vishnevsky, Moscow City Duma deputy Sergei Mitrokhin, Yabloko member Yevgeniy Gontmakher, leading researcher at the Centre for International Security Natalia Bubnova, political and social scientist Olga Popova, Director of the SOVA information and analysis centre Alexander Verkhovsky, President of the Humanitarian and Political Science Centre Strategy Alexander Sungurov, Deputy Director of the Centre for Social and Labour Rights Yulia Ostrovskaya, and Candidate of Juridical Science Arkady Lyubarev. Lectures by these and many other authors are published in the book.
On 14 September, a launch of the books by Eva Merkacheva: “The City of the Doomed. An Honest Report on Seven Penal Colonies for Life-Sentenced Prisoners”, “Who Lives Well in Russia. How Prisons Work in Modern Russia” and “High-Profile Cases. Crimes and Punishments in the USSR” was held in the central office of Yabloko in Moscow. Eva Merkacheva is a Russian journalist, writer and human rights activist. Since 2018, he has been a member of the Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights under the President of the Russian Federation. Yabloko Chairman Nikolai Rybakov, and Valentin Gefter, human rights defender, publicist, and director of the ANO Institute of Human Rights, spoke at the event.
Decision by the Federal Bureau of Yaboko adopted on 4 September 2023, published on 14 September 2023
Photo by Oleg Kharseyev, Kommersant
The document was adopted following the results of expert hearings held in Veliky Novgorod on 4 September. Yevgeniy Gontmakher, Doctor of Economics and a Yabloko member, participated in the development of the document.
The poverty of Russian citizens is one of the main problems of our rich country. The current state of poverty is a direct result of the policies of Vladimir Putin and his administration. This policy is not aimed at the development of the economy and improvement of the well-being of citizens, but at preservation of the power of the president and increase of the wealth of those close to him. The regime benefits from poverty because with its help it supports paternalism and the demand for a “strong hand” among Russians.
UPD. The total amount collected in support of political prisoners together with donations which came after the auction, as of 14 September at 20:00 (Moscow time), is 3.674.276 roubles.
In total, 23 lots were sold at the auction: works by contemporary artists, as well as things, books, photographs and paintings donated specially for the auction by political prisoners Alexei Gorinov and Sasha Skochilenko, lawyer Mikhail Biryukov, human rights defender Oleg Orlov, musician Vera Musayelyan, politicians Grigory Yavlinsky , Nikolai Rybakov and Sergei Mitrokhin, journalists Ksenia Sobchak and Oleg Kashin, political scientists Yekaterina Shulman and Valery Solovey and others.
Photo: Yelena Mayatnikova / Photo by the Pskov branch of Yabloko
Yelena Mayatnikova, a member of the Pskov Regional Electoral Commission from Yabloko, wrote a special dissenting opinion on the resolution on the protocol of the results of the gubernatorial elections in the Pskov region.
“The elections of the governor of the Pskov region in 2023 do not allow us to reliably determine the results of the expression of the will of voters in the region due to violations of the Constitution of the Russian Federation and the norms of electoral legislation,” Mayatnikova notes.
Photo: Andrei Morev / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service
On 14 September, the Cheryomushkinsky District Court of Moscow will hold the first hearing on the claim of the Deputy Chairman of the Moscow Yabloko, Andrei Morev, against the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation. Morev demands to cancel the decision of the Ministry of Justice to include him in the register of “foreign agents”.
Statement by the Regional Council of the Pskov branch of Yabloko, 13.09.2023
Photo by the Yabloko Press Service
Despite the cancellation of registration of Yabloko’s lists of candidates, three-day and remote electronic voting, and admission of observers to polling stations only in three districts of the region, candidates from the Pskov Yabloko did not stop fighting and showed decent results.
In the elections held on 10 September, Yabloko managed to retain representation in the city parliamets of Yekaterinburg, Veliky Novgorod and Krasnokamsk (the Perm region), as well as create a faction in the city duma of Yasnogorsk (the Tula region). The team of municipal deputies from Yabloko has also been reinforced. All candidates from the party participated in the elections under the slogan “For Peace!”
Photo: Yabloko campaign posters “Yabloko. Your vote For Peace and Freedom!” in Yekaterinburg / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service
On 10 September, Russia held regular election. Everyone understands what kind of “elections” there can be in such a system, especially during the “special military operation”. Since 1996, voting in Russia has taken place with mass-scale fraud and in completely unequal conditions of struggle. Then why participate in this? In order to convey to people a position that is fundamentally different from that of the authorities and their servants – a position based on values. To give people a chance to hear another point of view and support it if they wish to. Participation in such elections is not a struggle for power (as it should be under other circumstances). In our conditions, this is a direct form of conversation with people about the most important things that determine not only today, but also the future. This is a way to attract people’s attention to politics, an attempt to form a society that does not exist yet. It is impossible to achieve a ceasefire without this, it is impossible to begin any transformations in the country without this. Elections, whatever they may be, still provide an opportunity to appeal to people. There are no other ways left in Russia except the Internet, with all its specifics.
Yabloko Chairman Nikolai Rybakov summed up the preliminary results of the elections of 8 – 10 September
Press Release, 10.09.2023
According to preliminary data, candidates from Yabloko were elected to the city dumas of Yekaterinburg, Novgorod, Krasnokamsk (the Perm Territory) and Yasnogorsk (the Tula Region). This was stated by Yabloko Chairman Nikolai Rybakov during a night briefing at the Yabloko election headquarters:
Photo: Olga Kolokolova / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service
The counting of votes at the polling stations of constituency No. 6 has not yet been completed, but according to preliminary data, Olga Kolokolova, Yabloko’s candidate and the leader of the Yabloko branch in the Perm region, passes to the Krasnokamsk City Duma gaining the majority of votes, even taking into account the results of the electronic vote which is easy to fraud.
Photo: Viktor Shalyakin (centre), Anna Cherepanova and Ksenia Cherepanova at the police station / Photo from social media
On the night of September 9 – 10, the Novgorod police drew up protocols of violation under Article 19.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation (“disobedience to the police”) in relation to the current deputy of the Novgorod City Duma Anna Cherepanova, as well as Ksenia Cherepanova and Viktor Shalyakin. All the three Yabloko members are registered candidates for deputies to the City Duma of Novgorod in the current elections. At night, the politicians were released from the police station. However, they are waiting for a hearing at the Novgorod District Court. Punishment under Article 19.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses provides for administrative arrest for up to 15 days. To arrest candidates to the City Duma, the court needs the approval of the city public prosecutor.
Statement by the Federal Bureau of Yabloko, 9.09.2023
Photo by the Yabloko Press Service
On 10 September, many regions of our country will hold elections at different levels: elections of local governments, legislative assemblies, and heads of regions. And in six months there will be presidential elections, which will be held within the framework of the Constitution updated in 2020, which opened the way for the permanent rule of Vladimir Putin.
Photo: Lev Shlosberg / Photo from Lev Shlosberg’s personal archive
The Pskov City Court rejected Lev Shlosberg, a member of the Federal Political Committee of the Yabloko party, in satisfying his claims against the Ministry of Justice to declare illegal the order of June 16, 2023, to include the politician in the register of “foreign agents”.
Nikolai Rybakov, Chairman of the United Democratic Party Yabloko, visited Yekaterinburg on the eve of the elections to the City Duma. He came to support his fellow party members, talk about the strategy of peaceful change with which they are going to voters, and urge the residents of the city to take part in the elections. Read the interview and learn about why politics is a matter of concern for everyone now and how ordinary people can influence fundamental government decisions.
The Minister of Education of the Ryazan Region, Olga Shchetinkina, informed Konstantin Smirnov, a deputy of the Dubrovichy settlement from the Yabloko party and Editor-in-Chied of the online media Vid Sboku (Side View), that all the necessary textbooks, that had not been delivered to the school in the village of Dubrovichy by the beginning of the school year, had finally arrived to the school.
Photo: Mikhail Afanasyev / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service
Mikhail Afanasyev, Editor-in-Chief of the Novy Focus online media, a Yabloko member and two-time winner of the Andrei Sakharov Prize “For Journalism as an Act of Conscience”, was sentenced to 5.5 years in prison in a criminal case on “fakes about the army” (Article 207.3, Part 2, item A of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). Afanasyev was also deprived of the right to engage in journalistic activities for a period of 2.5 years. The court’s decision will be appealed.
Nikolai Rybakov, Chairman of the Yabloko party, came to the announcement of the verdict. This is the third hearing in the Afanasyev case that he has attended.
