Press Release, October 5, 2013

On October 4, 2013, YABLOKO Bureau summed up the results of the single voting day and assessed the results of Russia’s political development.

YABLOKO nominated its lists of candidates in nine regions and five regional capitals at elections of different levels: gubernatorial elections, elections to regional legislative assemblies, elections of heads of municipalities and representative bodies of local governments. The elections of September 8 had important results in the number of regions.

YABLOKO factions and party representatives appeared in the parliament of the Novgorod Region and in the number of cities of Moscow, Kaliningrad, Sakhalin, Sverdlovsk and Tver Regions, the Perm Territory and the Altai Republic. Forty YABLOKO municipal deputies were elected to city and town councils of the Karelia Republic; whereas YABLOKO received an absolute majority of the vote in five towns. Galina Shirshina supported by YABLOKO was elected Mayor of Petrozavodsk.

However, the Moscow mayoral elections got most of the attention. The Moscow mayoral election campaign and its results where discussed by YABLOKO’s Bureau and YABLOKO’s Political Committee.

The Bureau also marked the difficulties with Sergei Mitrokhin’s campaign conducted in the conditions of mass hysteria around Alexei Navalny incited by the federal and the Moscow authorities.

Grigory Yavlinsky, YABLOKO founder and head of YABLOKO’s faction in the St.Petersburg Legislative Assembly, mentioned that after 2011 the oligarchic groups and those close to the government had a feeling that the power had been weakening and there emerged oligarchic groups preparing to seize the power. Taking into account the prevailing public moods one of such “dissatisfied oligarchic” groups made a stake at Alexei Navalny, as his stance and personality fitted into the public expectations pattern and the demand for a populist and a nationalist.

Grigory Yavlinsky proposed to those few members of YABLOKO who demonstrated such moods during the Moscow mayoral campaign not to deceive themselves and the party. “One day you will understand your mistake and we will receive you back to YABLOKO”. In this context Yavlinsky mentioned some members of the Krasnodar branch of YABLOKO.

The Bureau also discussed both the objective difficulties of campaining in the situation of pre-term elections and the drawbacks of organisation of the campaign.

The participants of the discussion unanimously agreed that the main task of maintaining the party’s political line had been fulfilled and the candidate for Moscow Mayor Sergei Mitrokhin had done everything so that to carry a dignified campaign.

The Bureau also marked the party successes at the regional elections and the techniques of such campaigns, as well as mass-scale violations of the law and election fraud still observed in the elections.

The Bureau noted that the party planed to conduct a Federal Council meeting in December 2013 so that to discuss in detail the goals of further campaigns including elections to the Moscow City Duma.

The discussion resulted in adopted a statement by the YABLOKO Bureau “On the threat of growth of nationalistic moods” which expressed great concern in view of the rise of ethnic tensions and conflicts in the society. YABLOKO stated that the responsibilities for this had been lying on the authorities, “The corrupted regime has been playing with xenophobic moods so that to mobilise the conservative social groups” relying on nationalistic groupings here. The Bureau also noted that those who called themselves “liberal opposition” also bore the responsibility as they had lost the immunity against this dangerous virus and showed mass support to nationalists and populists engaging the latter into Russia’s politics.

The Bureau urged the authorities and all the public and political forces that did not divide people into “our folk” and “strangers” to stand up against the threat of growing fascist moods in the society, the government and the opposition.