Ekho Moskvy Radio Station, 10.02.2017

Politician Vladimir Ryzhkov will support Grigory Yavlinsky in the presidential election as a candidate who meets his political stance and programme best of all. The politician made such a statement on the air of Ekho Moskvi Radio Station.

“A year ago when we created a coalition for the State Duma election and I participated in the coalition, I was YABLOKO’s candidate, I was on the federal list of candidates running in my home region, the Barnaul electoral district No 39 in the Altai Territory, I openly announced then that I am ready to support Grigory Yavlinsky in the presidential election. And I will not deny my words. For Grigory Yavlinsky meets my political opinions, my stance, my programme better than other candidates who have already stated their ambitions to participate in the presidential race. Therefore, if he decides to run in the presidential election and is nominated and registered, I will support him.”

Vladimir Ryzhkov claims that everyone who has ambitions to participate in the presidential election must do it:

“Actually, it would be the right thing to to do if everyone who has such ambitions participated in this election: both Alexei Navalny and Grigory Yavlinsky as well as parliamentary parties’ candidates. Otherwise we will not have the whole political palette, we will not have the change of generations, we will not have a true election campaign, if we have artificial barriers once again and if the Kremlin decides who should and should not participate in the election. By the way, Grigory Yavlinsky have expressed the same stance today. He said that it would be very good if Alexei Navalny also participated in the presidential campaign, he has many supporters, he is young, talented, he is a man of action, he has a lot of achievements and he has the desire to do something for our country. Therefore I believe that Grigory Yavlinsky, Alexei Navalny and any other decent candidate should be registered and participate in the election. Then we will have true presidential election not a performance that we used to have before.”

YABLOKO made a decision to nominate Grigory Yavlinsky as candidate for President of Russia at the party Congress in February 2016. The party claims that Yavlinsky represents a real alternative to the incumbent President Vladimir Putin. Grigory Yavlinsky participated in the presidential race three times. In 1996 he finished forth, in 2000 he finished third. He was withdrawn from the presidential race of 2012 on political grounds.