Press Release, 5.12.2017

Grigory Yavlinsky, Yabloko founder and Yabloko’s presidential candidate, answered journalists’ questions at a press conference devoted to his concept of the country’s development. Yavlinsky explained why his programme addressed the entire Russian society rather than individual “electoral groups”, and how his economic development plan differed from Boris Titov’s plan, formulated a road map for Donbass, criticised sports officials and admitted that he would not have gone at the Olympics, if there had been no Russian flag.

Grigory Yavlinsky said that he regarded Vladimir Putin and his policies as his main opponent in the upcoming election, and all citizens of Russia be his potential voters.

According to Yavlinsky, a significant part of the society was ready to vote for the incumbent President simply because they saw no alternative: “These people do not want revolutions, coups or scandals. They want stability. I also want stability. Only I want a stable development, but not a stable stagnation.”

“Who can vote for me? Citizens of the Russian Federation. All of them! What I told you is in the interests of absolutely everyone, because everyone wants that there is a fair trial in Russia, that there is inviolable private property, that there is freedom and no arbitrariness, that our economy is ranked the fifth, rather than the 78th. I represent the interests of the entire society, rather than individual groups, corporations or structures.”

Yavlinsky formulated the most important differences of his economic programme from other concepts, in particular, the programmes of Sergei Glazyev and Boris Titov. “They are created under the present structure of power and under the incumbent President,” Grigory Yavlinsky said.

“This is such endless work on rewriting Encyclopaedia Britannica. But nobody needs this, no one will do it.” According to Yavlinsky, the key task should be creation of a “qualitatively new, modern socio-political system in Russia, based on Russian history and Russian culture.” “This can and should be done, and that is what our programme is about,” he said.

Grigory Yavlinsky also noted that the erroneous economic path was chosen back in the early 1990s and recalled that he then left the government in disagreement with the destruction of the economic space of the USSR, the Belovezh agreements and Yegor Gaidar’s concept of privatisation.

Speaking about Russia’s foreign policies Yavlinsky stated once again that normalisation of relations with Ukraine should be the primary goal. He also noted that implementation of the road map for setting peace in Donbass would be able to end the armed confrontation and protect the Russian population of the region. “The priority of life in Russia is peace, all foreign policy should be aimed at one goal – a safe life and economic growth, rather than war and isolation.”

Also, journalists asked Yavlinsky to his opinion regarding Russia’s preparation for the World Cup and the doping scandal threatening Russian athletes with a ban from the Olympics 2018.

The politician criticised how funds were being used to build infrastructure for the World Cup (in particular, the stadium Krestovsky in St. Petersburg) and doubted that it would be in demand in the future. He gave an example of major sports facilities, abandoned after the Moscow Olympics 1980.

Speaking about the situation with the 2018 Olympics, Yavlinsky said he was not ready to advise Russian athletes whether to participate in it if the IOC takes a negative decision.

“They spent most of their lives on this, let them take their own decisions whether they should go or not, if restrictive measures are taken against Russia. I practiced sports a long time, in my youth. Personally, if I did not have the flag of my country, I would not participate. But it is me personally. And what other people decide is their decision and their fate. ”

According to the politician, thousands of athletes and the country as a whole were put in a humiliated situation, and the sporting officials of the country should bear responsibility for what has happened.