Press release, photographs, 03.09.2013

On Monday, September 2, candidate for the Moscow Mayor Sergei Mitrokhin and founder of the YABLOKO party Grigory Yavlinsky met with residents of the Central Administrative District of Moscow. Galina Mikhaleva, First Deputy Chair of the Moscow branch of YABLOKO, moderated the meeting.

Sergei Mitrokhin told the voters of the key points of his programme his political stance as a candidate for the Moscow Mayor. “Moscow is in a quite dangerous situation at present. The city authorities conduct incorrect policies that can lead to very serious consequences. We see a lot of errors in the policies of the present city authorities, mercenary interests, stealing of the [Moscow city] budget funds, senseless road projects and we see corruption,” Mitrokhin said.

In his speech Sergei Mitrokhin spoke about the problem of illegal migration, city development, protection of environment, the situation in the housing and utilities sector and social protection measures, such as solution of the problem of lack of places in kindergartens and stopping of unlawful merger of schools.

Sergei Mitrokhin said that when he became Mayor, he would listen to the Muscovites’ opinion and maintain a dialogue with them. In this respect he noted that it would be important to establish a mechanism of public hearings, hold referendums and enhance local self-governing. Sergei Mitrokhin also promised free and fair elections to the Moscow City Duma [Moscow parliament]. “Parliament is the most powerful tool for of feedback between citizens and the authorities,” he said.

Sergei Mitrokhin was also asked many questions by Muscovites. For example, he was asked about his attitude to the bearing of arms. Mitrokhin said that he was categorically against such an initiative referring to the experts’ opinion. He also added that the right to free bearing of arms had been exercised in the countries with a mass culture of arms bearing which Russia had not have.

Several questions referred to the construction of mosques and other places of worship in Moscow. Mitrokhin said that all construction works should be done within the framework of the law and in accordance with the City Construction and Development Plan. Mitrokhin noted that special zones for building of places of worship should be allocated. But they must be located in such a way so that their functioning would not by in the way for other people irritating them. Land should be allotted for such construction and religious communities should have the right to buy it off. Also he stressed that it should be a must that different confessions should enjoy equal rights.

Answering the question about a scandalous reform of the Russian Academy of Sciences Mitrokhin said that the authorities would like to deprive the Academy of its “academic freedom”: “The Russian Academy of Sciences is denied the right to self-government. There are two reasons for this: political (the government wants to subordinate the science) and economic (large property of the Academy)”.

According to Mitrokhin, the first step towards the destruction of the Russian Academy of Sciences was made a few years ago, when the Russian President began appointing the President of the Academy, but nobody seemed to notice the danger then. Sergei Mitrokhin said that the YABLOKO party was strongly against such a reform of the Academy. “But this does not mean that the Academy should not be reformed, it must be reformed but this should be done jointly with the academic community,” he said.

Sergei Mitrokhin was asked what he would do with Lenin’s Mausoleum. YABLOKO’s leader answered that in his opinion it should be removed from the Red Square, as “there should be no cemetery in the Red Square”. Mitrokhin also expressed his indignation of the fact that the highest honour had been paid to the person “who had been as behind the destruction of entire social groups of our nation”.

The audience also asked about the expansion of Moscow, women’s labour rights, construction projects and moving of the capital to another city.

YABLOKO founder Grigory Yavlinsky told the audience why in his opinion people should vote for Mitrokhin. Yavlinsky said that in the federal elections of 2000, he obtained 22 per cent in Moscow and 34 per cent in the Central Administrative District of Moscow. So Yavlinsky addressed the audience as YABLOKO’s voters.

“Sergei Mitrokhin is a very honest person,” Grigory Yavlinsky said adding that he had known Mitrokhin for 20 years. He also marked his modest way of living, “Mitrokhin wants to live like his voters live”. Speaking about Mitrokhin’s courage he recalled Sergei Mitrokhin’s campaigning against and stopping imports of nuclear waste into Russia.

Grigory Yavlinsky also noted that Sergei Mitrokhin was the only expert on Moscow among all the candidates, “He knows Moscow and can answer every question in detail moreover proceeding from his experience. Also Mitrokhin is the only candidate who in contrast to other candidates without disposing of any administrative resource really had been solving problems of Moscow residents”.

YABLOKO founder stressed that Sergei Mitrokhin was a professional politician. “His key incentive is not to allow to destroy Russia,” Yavlinsky said.

Another advantage of Sergei Mitrokhin over other candidates was, according to Yavlinsky, his clear electoral programme and a professional team that can implement it.

“You will witness a very important political event. There will be another attempt to force the voters one way or another under the guise of their “voluntary” choice to elect a candidate who is the best to the authorities, i.e. [the Acting Mayor] Sergei Sobyanin ,” Grigory Yavlinsky said. He urged the audience to render support to Mitrokhin, the only real candidate knowing and loving Moscow. “If Moscow shows all Russia that it can honestly elect a person whom people really believes in, this will mark the beginning of changes. If Sergei Sobyanin remains Moscow Mayor, there will be no changes,” stressed Yavlinsky .

After his speech, Grigory Yavlinsky, answered questions from the audience. The questions dealt not only with the immediate problems of Moscow (economy, allocation of budget funds, corruption, etc) but also Russia’s prospects.