Decision No 144 by the Federal Political Committee of Yabloko, adopted on 14.10.2021, published on 18.10.2021

Photo: Distribution of seats in the Russian parliament based on the results of the 2021 elections. Photo: by Igor Ivanko / Kommersant

The past parliamentary elections are the first after the cynical, insulting and hypocritical imposition on the country of [Vladimir Putin’s] “amendments” to the Constitution.

We participated in these elections being well aware that in the changed conditions it is absolutely impossible to maintain the previous goals, objectives and methods of work of Yabloko as a centrist social-liberal democratic party of a parliamentary type in a campaign that cannot be called elections by any standards.

For us, it was not so much the formal result that was important: we perfectly understood how it would be determined, in the current authoritarian system, for the party whose list of candidates got the label of a foreign agent from the authorities, but [we regarded it as] the opportunity to appeal to society, give an exhaustive political assessment of Vladimir Putin’s regime and present a European democratic alternative to the dead-end track the dictatorship is leading Russia along.

We considered it our priority to maintain the topics of opposition to the militarisation of society, aggressive foreign policy, and prevention of war with Ukraine on the agenda. Yabloko was the only participant of the elections that held this stance, and generally represented a modern European alternative to the Vladimir Putin system – all other participants were “Putin’s parties in different costumes”.

The Yabloko programme for the 2021 elections contains not only all the most fundamental assessments that characterise the state of affairs in modern Russia, but also represents an alternative in all the key areas of our country’s development.

That is why, during the campaign, our party became the object of unprecedented pressure and repression from the authorities, faced the withdrawal of our candidates, received the seal of a foreign agent, and became the object of defamation in the state-owned and partially state owned media.

During the voting days, there were recorded a huge number of violations, obvious and easily proven falsifications, in particular, related to the uncontrolled so-called “electronic voting”.

After the elections, repressions and suppression of protests continued, new criminal cases [against peaceful protesters] were opened, and the lists of foreign agents were expanded.

This is not a surprise to us. We will continue to use all available mechanisms to challenge the falsified results. We, as always, will speak out in the sharpest form against political repression.

However, we must understand that after [Vladimir Putin amending the Constitution on] 1 July, 2020, we are in a fundamentally new situation: an authoritarian regime is developing into a totalitarian one. Falsification of elections turns into election management, that is, the authorities assign a pre-programmed result [of voting].

Let us emphasise that in the conditions of many years of suppression of freedom of speech in the country, absence of separation of powers and an independent judicial system, any more or less normal elections are impossible. Their results are predetermined by the regime, which itself participates in the elections in the form of the United Russia [party] and, accordingly, assigns itself the desired results, through completely subordinate electoral commissions of all levels, [the results] that have no relation to reality. This has been the state of affairs in Russia for almost three decades, and has become obvious in the elections this year.

At the regional level in St. Petersburg, the Republic of Karelia and in the Pskov region, at the cost of great efforts and thanks to the work of party leaders Boris Vishnevsky, Emilia Slabunova and Lev Shlosberg, Yabloko managed to retain representation in the legislative assemblies of St. Petersburg, the Republic of Karelia and the Pskov region, despite the tough resistance of the authorities, repression and outright fraud. The election of Vladimir Ryzhkov [in the Moscow City Duma election] strengthened Yabloko’s position in the Moscow City Duma.

We have every reason to consider Yabloko candidates Sergei Mitrokhin, Igor Nikolayev and Boris Vishnevsky as winners in single-mandate constituencies in the elections to the State Duma. The victory won by our comrades, but stolen from them and the entire country, is the best result among non-parliamentary parties and the best result for Yabloko since 2003. All this is proof of the significant support from citizens, which Yabloko actually has.

The Federal Political Committee of the Russian United Democratic Party Yabloko

– believes that in the current conditions the main thing for the party is to preserve an agenda based on humanistic values ​​in the socio-political space for the sake of continuation of a conscious and responsible confrontation to the repressive system in the interests of our country and its citizens. At the same time, the party should focus on the expert and professional content of its work, showing the society the need for and ways to achieve democratic changes;

– notes that the election campaign has shown that a party must have a sufficient number of its own candidates who must be continuously trained. A party can and should nominate candidates who are not its members, but they should share its ideology and be our conscientious supporters of its ideas, and not use it as a “political taxi”. There should be no candidates who use Yabloko only as a technical platform for nomination, but virtually do not mention the party in their election campaign;

– emphasises the fundamental fallacy of the so-called Smart Voting actively promoted by Alexei Navalny and his ideological support group, and based on the false assumption that everything that is not the United Russia [party] is certainly better than it. It was with the help of Smart Voting that the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, which supports the overwhelming majority of the regime’s initiatives and votes for almost all repressive laws (including the laws on “foreign agents”), not only remained the second largest party in the Duma, but even increased its number of mandates. This strengthens the authoritarian system and accelerates its development towards totalitarianism, repression, imperialism, confrontation with neighbours, the whole world, and ultimately, [and its movement] towards war. The support of the communists, as well as the allegedly “smart” support of candidates from other “Vladimir Putin’s parties” – A Just Russia, LDPR, New People and others – is nothing more than strengthening the Putin system and the advancement of the Russian political regime towards a totalitarian model in modern conditions. This is dangerous and harmful for the country, and those who promote it are the same opponents of Yabloko, like the current government, and cannot be in Yabloko, like those who do not share our ideology;

– believes that it is impossible to declare all who are in conflict with the government as Yabloko allies. The principle “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” is unacceptable in politics. For Yabloko, both Putin’s authoritarian regime and political structures of a nationalist, chauvinist, imperial, communist and leader-oriented nature are unacceptable. Our real and long-term political allies can only be those for whom our common ideology and values ​​come to the fore, and not those who call to forget about the differences in ideology in the name of fighting the government as a common enemy;

– notes that in the elections Yabloko was supported by the People’s Freedom Party – PARNAS, one of the top leaders of which, Andrei Zubov, loudly and clearly declared the principled unacceptability of voting for the Communists and support for Smart Voting. We appreciate the support of the PARNAS party and are ready to discuss cooperation and joint work;

– emphasises: the Yabloko party is grateful to everyone who, in a difficult situation, made a value-based choice, believed and supported us.

The elections once again proved that our priority task is to strengthen the value, ideological, substantive and expert-professional basis of the party, educate citizens, defend and promote our substantive position. There are no tactical considerations that could overshadow our values ​​and principles.

We are aware of serious shortcomings in our work, including those during the election campaign, and we know that not everyone in the Party is satisfied with the way this campaign developed. We do not intend to hide or hush up anything, and we will certainly draw appropriate conclusions and learn lessons. However, in the current situation, the crux of the matter is not our technical blunders and mistakes.

The result of the past elections is neither a defeat nor a victory for us. The past campaign is our work aimed at bringing about real changes in the country. It is often difficult and thankless. Changes will not be quick, but it is our duty to the country and our people to steadily move towards them.

And we have taken an important step in this direction.

Grigory Yavlinsky,

Chairman of

the Federal Political Committee of Yabloko