Press Release, 4.04.2021

Photo: Nikolai Rybakov / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

On the second day of the Congress Yabloko Chairman Nikolai Rybakov and Deputy Chairman Ivan Bolshakov spoke about some aspects of Yabloko’s upcoming parliamentary election campaign.

Nikolai Rybakov said that to the coalition policy of the party is developing, a large extent, as an alliance of Yabloko and citizens, and the main goal of the work is to create a serious single democratic opposition faction in the State Duma as a result of the elections. Another important task is to nominate a party candidate for the presidency in the next presidential elections.

Rybakov also noted that a union implying  liquidation of the party, or cooperation with politicians and organisations that do not support democratic values is impossible for Yabloko.

“We consider any alliances with Stalinists, nationalists, fascists, racists, imperialists, militarists, xenophobes, and other left or right-wing radicals to be politically, ethically and ideologically unacceptable,” Rybakov said. “We consider all the parliamentary parties as one party of Vladimir Putin. Cooperation with them is also impossible for us,” he noted.

Rybakov also said that Yabloko is ready to agree on candidates in single-mandate constituencies, but after the registration of candidates is over, since it is unclear how the registration from other political forces and self-nominated candidates will go.

“Before the end of registration, it is useless to divide the constituencies. These principles apply not only to the elections to the State Duma, but also to municipal and regional elections.”

Rybakov separately mentioned the importance of organising control over the elections: he announced the readiness of Yabloko to join forces with a very wide range of political and civic movements that take a democratic stance.

The party Chairman also stated that there should be a party representative in each municipality who would be involved in campaigning there before the elections.

Ivan Bolshakov, Deputy Chairman of Yabloko, noted in his speech that the upcoming elections to the State Duma are very different from previous election campaigns, especially from the 2016 campaign. “Then the elections were held in rather harsh conditions from the point of view of the situation in the society, as there was the so-called “Crimean consensus”, when the authorities, with the help of propaganda, were able to ensure the rally effect, the effect of rallying around the authorities, thanks to the geopolitical “achievements” of Vladimir Putin. Now the Crimean consensus is over,” Bolshakov said.

Photo: Ivan Bolshakov / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

“This is confirmed by the results of regional elections that Yabloko received. Society is changing, protest moods are growing. This happens because of the mistakes of the authorities. The society hoped that the authorities would now move on to solving socio-economic problems, but instead people were simply deceived: the authorities raised the retirement age and taxes, carried out incomprehensible garbage reforms, and “optimized” [cut the expenses on] the healthcare systems in the regions,” Bolshakov said.

Sociological polls show good prospects for Yabloko. According to them, the rating of Putin and the authorities is falling, while the rating of Yabloko is growing. Even pro-government polling centres give from 4 to 10 per cent to Yabloko.

Bolshakov also outlined the scale of the task Yabloko faces: to ensure the party’s visibility not only at the expense of Moscow and St. Petersburg, the liberal nucleus and the protest “get-together”.

The Deputy Chairman of Yabloko noted that this time the party would give priority to the campaign on Yabloko party lists of candidates.

“We must all work for one big team, so that our party can get into the State Duma, and not hog the cover in each of our single-mandate constituencies,” Bolshakov said.

However, Yabloko is ready to nominate its partners from other democratic organisations, democratic politicians, human rights defenders, and civic activists in the constituencies.

“I think that we will be able to nominate a large number of politicians who support our Memorandum of Political Alternative on the basis of the principles of the party’s coalition policy,” Bolshakov noted.

He also noted that the party will start the election campaign immediately after the Congress.

“Our experience shows that we can win, we know how to win, we just need to believe in our victory and work for it,” Ivan Bolshakov concluded.

Grigory Grishin, head of the Headquarters for the Elections to the State Duma, announced in his speech a large-scale pre-campaign of Yabloko, which will take place both offline and online. During this campaign, one million newspapers will be handed out, there will be a door-to-door campaign and campaign cubes in the streets. On the Internet, the campaign will be actively carried out on social networks.

Photo: Grigory Grishin / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

Also, Grishin said that one the keys to the success of Yabloko in the elections should be organisation of observation over voting, which, in his opinion, has a strong political influence. The urgent task remains “to create points of contact with Yabloko in every small town and urban-type settlement”.

“Elections are not a war, they are a type of work. There is no need to organise the campaign headquarters as an army. The goal of the campaign is to realise human potential. If we do this, we will win,” Grishin said.

The head of the headquarters stressed that getting into the State Duma should be the priority. But at the same time, the party should also use elections for party building. According to Grishin, it is unclear what results Yabloko will receive in September, but it is absolutely certain that the party will emerge stronger from the campaign.