Press release, 24.08.2016

Today YABLOKO parliamentary candidates have launched the legislative initiatives, which the party is intended to implement if it enters the Parliament. YABLOKO leaders and parliamentary nominees launched the most relevant out of nearly 150 bills, which YABLOKO had drafted.

Opening the event, YABLOKO Chair Emilia Slabunova estimated the work of the outgoing composition of the Lower House of the Parliament as “the most incompetent, aggressive and ignorant over the history of Russian parliamentarism”. The bills were designed without any consultations with the expert community, they were passed without a proper discussion within short timeframes, neglecting democratic and regulatory procedures. As a result, the adopted drafts were incomplete and contained obscure wording, YABLOKO leader stressed. Her colleagues are intended to change the current state of affairs.

Parliamentary candidate Anatoly Golov proposed to pass a bill which concerned the interests of all the citizens of Russia – Housing and Public Utilities Consumer Law. “After the President prohibited the officials to “nightmarise” business, promising to create mechanisms for protection of the citizens’ interests, housing and public utilities business began to “nightmarise” the citizens themselves since no measures were adopted,” he explained.

Dmitry Ilushin, a candidate for State Duma deputy, advocated for restoration of independence of the judiciary system. Ilushin claims that the chiefs of courts must be elected by the community of judges, and their terms in office must be limited by two or three years. “A judge can not have a boss. They obey the law and Constitution,” he noted.

YABLOKO Deputy Chair, member of the federal list of parliamentary candidates Nikolai Rybakov presented a new version of the Environmental Protection Law which will help to stop the increasing de-environmentalisation of Russia’s legislation.

Renowned human rights defender Valery Borshchev prepared the amendments to the law on public control, which will extend the ability to protect the rights of prisoners as well as orphans and patients of psychiatric hospitals.

Parliamentary candidate Igor Nikolayev indicated a legal paradox in the public sector. He said that there was no such a notion as sequestration and its procedure in the Budget Code [of the Russian Federation], but in the meantime, the basic financial law of the country had been revised dismally often. He also spoke about submitting of a draft law, introducing the concept of budget sequestration as well as inflexible expenditure.

Head of the expert and analytical department of the party Ivan Bolshakov proposed to limit the powers of the President concerning the introduction of special economic measures, in other words, sanctions against one country and company or another. The food products embargo, introduced by the head of the state, aimed at countries which had imposed sanctions on Moscow resulted into boom in prices on food products, a gap in the domestic market and a fall in living standards. Bolshakov claims that the Parliament should reserve the right to impose such measures.

YABLOKO’s expert Elena Morozova talked about the necessity of returning the right to referendum to the citizens of Russia.The corresponding amendments to the law on the guarantees of electoral rights, developed by YABLOKO, will be introduced into the parliament after the elections. Her colleague Ildar Faseyev said that the reform of the local self-government, including the transition back to direct mayoral elections and the rights of the representative bodies to control the costs and revenues of local budgets, must take place.

Parliamentary candidate Olga Demicheva represented a new version of the law on health care maintaining guarantees.

YABLOKO’s nominee Maxim Kruglov called for tightening the public control over the representatives of legislative bodies of power of all levels by means of broadcasting their meetings and publishing voting reports on the Internet.

Party Deputy Chair, member of the federal list of parliamentary candidates Alexander Gnezdilov proposed to exclude any censorship of films when granting distribution certificates and to establish a public state Cinemateque on the basis of the Film Museum.

Parliamentary candidate Yulia Galyamina and party Chair Emilia Slabunova presented a legislation package on the reform of the educational system.

YABLOKO founder Grigory Yavlinsky reminded that YABLOKO, which had a faction in the parliament from 1993 until 2003, participated in the development of the major basis of the Russian legislation. YABLOKO’s deputies developed the Civil Code, the legislation on local self-government, the basis of budget process, tax legislation and a large number of other documents.
However, “many amendments, which perverted the legislation beyond recognition, were introduced and enabled corruption” when YABLOKO was not presented in the State Duma. He reminded of the story when Vladimir Putin signed the amendments to Russian weapon ownership laws, which were different from the version adopted by the Parliament. YABLOKO will have to work hard in order to exclude corruption elements from the legislation.

“A law is a legal act, which represents the interests of the entire society, not some individual groups. Law ensures social peace and progress when it represents a compromise between all the groups. Especially in such a big country as Russia.” According to the politician, the State Duma has nothing to do with parliamentarism at the moment, it only approves of the orders of one person.