Novaya Gazeta, 05.11.2013, Interview with Sergei Mitrokhin by Maria Yepifanova

[YABLOKO leader] Sergei Mitrokhin spoke with Novaya Gazeta about nationalism and how the Committee for Joint Action Against Xenophobia [established by the Forum Against Xenophobia and Nationalism conducted on November 4 on YABLOKO’s initiative] plans to combat it.

Maria Yepifanova: Today, everyone has been discussing Alexei Navalny’s statement that people should participate in the Russian Marches (Russia for Russians demonstrations). Many people accuse him of promoting nationalism, do you think so too?

Sergei Mitrokhin: There is nothing new for me in Alexei Navalny’s statement. We expelled him from our party for his nationalistic views some time ago. I am more surprised by naivety and short-sightedness of some representatives of the liberal community. As it is not the first time that Navalny has been advocating nationalism, but they simply tried not to speak about such facts, because they wanted to support him.

Maria Yepifanova: Please tell me, do you think that a dialogue should and must be held with nationalists?

Sergei Mitrokhin: We are a pro-state party, we are for the preservation and strengthening of the state. How can we support those who are for its destruction? The slogan “Stop Feeding the Caucasus” means the destruction [of the state], as well as calls to separate the Caucasus from the rest of Russia with barbed wire. So why should we help promoting those who think so? So that to help they come to power?

The dialogue should be conducted with everyone, as you can convince people in the course of a dialonge. But we can not create a joint political structure with the [pro-Kremlin youth] Nashi movement, and we can not create a joint movement with nationalists as well.

Maria Yepifanova: Is there an understanding of how the Committee will work?

Sergei Mitrokhin: The plan is as follows: we want to create a committee that will consolidating the [democratic] forces of the society. What else should we do if the state does not fight against xenophobia? We are going to develop our own programme for prevention of non-regulated immigration, as the latter leads to an increase in xenophobia. And we will monitor the statements of officials who often neglect tolerance.

Maria Yepifanova: Do you have any allies among other political movements?

Sergei Mitrokhin: You can not make advances to nationalists. But it is difficult to find a movement which has not been doing this in any form. There is PARNAS, and there many sensible people there like Vladimir Ryzhkov. But PARNAS nominated Navalny to run for the Mayor of Moscow. We had a discussion on this topic in our party and we will be looking for partners.

Full version of the article and interview in Russian http://www.novayagazeta.ru/politics/60781.html