Primaries, selection of candidates, formation of a network of supporters are on the agenda

Press Release, 22.02.2020

Photo: Participants of the seminar in Kazan. / Photo by the Yabloko party Press Service

On February 20-21, Yabloko Chairman Nikolai Rybakov and Deputy Chair Ivan Bolshakov held seminars in Kazan with regional headquarters.

The concept of changes in Yabloko was presented to the regional branches, which implies introduction of the institution of primaries for the selection of candidates for elections of different levels, party-wide voting in elections for the party Chairperosn, limiting the term of office of the governing bodies of the party and its regional branches, forming a network of supporters and other changes.

Photo: Nikolay Rybakov. / Photo by the Yabloko party Press Service

The participants of seminar discussed the coalition policy of the party in the upcoming elections to the State Duma and legislative assemblies of the regions, the strategy and tactics of election campaigns, and the requirements for candidates nominated by the party. The latter includes, in particular, the political and business reputation of the candidate, his/her agreement to sign the Political Memorandum and implement the organisational programme.

Photo: Ivan Bolshakov. / Photo by the Yabloko party Press Service

The event was attended by representatives of 13 regional branches of the party from Volgograd, Kirov, Saratov, Ulyanovsk, Astrakhan, Tula, Ryazan and the Moscow regions, the Republics of Mordovia, Chuvashia, Bashkiria, Tatarstan and the Perm Territory, as well as members of the Federal Bureau of Yabloko Grigory Grishin, Galina Boldyreva, Alexander Yefimov, Olga Kolokolova, Vladimir Dorokhov and Dmitry Konnychev, a member of the Yabloko Federal Political Committee.

Photo by the Yabloko party Press Service

As part of their visit to Kazan, Nikolai Rybakov and Ivan Bolshakov visited the specially protected natural area “Russian-German Switzerland”, where the authorities plan to build a multi-lane highway. Kazan activists fear that the construction will damage the archeological monuments and nature of this unique place. The Yabloko leader plans to send appeals on this issue to the Russian Ministry of Environment and the Public Prosecutor General’s Office.

There was also a meeting with the intelligentsia: environmentalists, academics, architects, teachers and activists of the regional branch of the party in the Republic of Tatarstan.

The next seminars will be held in Yekaterinburg and Krasnoyarsk in March.

The next party congress in Moscow will be devoted to the party reform.

On 19 February, the Federal Political Committee of the party adopted a decision on the principal directions of the party’s reform.