Press Release, November 21, 2013
On November 20, non-parliamentary parties’s leaders had a meeting with President Vladimir Putin.
YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin spoke about the reprisals against the activists in the Krasnodar region. He mentioned the case with Chair of the Kransnodar branch of YABLOKO Andrei Rudomakha and Professor Mikhail Savva.

The trial of Professor Savva will take place on November 21. Sergei Mitrokhin read the appeal of Mikhail Savva’s wife to the President aloud.

Mitrokhin also gave Putin several appeals on politically motivated cases: prosecution of Andrei Rudomakha, leader of the Ingushetia branch of YABLOKO Daud Garakoyev, attacks on YABLOKO’s activists in the Kemerovo region.

According to Vladimir Putin, the federal authorities have nothing to do with those cases. “The overreaches at the local level are possible, we should keep it under observation”, said the President.

Mitrokhin said that the prosecution of NGO’s in accordance with the law on “foreign agents” should be stopped.

YABLOKO leader supports the broad amnesty. Mitrokhin claims that the Bolotnaya Square case prisoners and Greenpeace activists should be included in the amnesty.

Vladimir Putin said that the amnesty was necessary, but it should be conducted carefully. “We shouldn’t rise panic within the society that some criminals will be released”, he said. Putin said that he will also take the advice of the Council for Human Rights into consideration, when taking his final decision.

Sergei Mitrokhin and YABLOKO are concerned about the growth of cross-ethnic tension in the country. YABLOKO leader believes Putin should pay special attention to this issue.

Mitrokhin expressed disagreement with the often changes in the electoral legislation. “These changes undermine the trust of the society to the authorities and violate the Constitution”, said Sergei Mitrokhin,

Another important topic touched by Sergei Mitrokhin was the social differentiation. According to the research, Russia is one of the leading countries in social distancing. “The reasons for this are the shadow economy and non-transparency of all the economic agencies, resource-based monopolies in the first place”, mentioned Mitrokhin.

Sergei Mitrokhin expressed proposals on fighting corruption: conduction of the Bureau on investigation of corruption in the top echelons of power, including the Article on “unlawful enrichment” in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation , introducing the “provocation of bribe” institute.