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Urgency Resolution submitted by the YABLOKO party to the ELDR Council. Rome, March 12, 2010.

The ELDR Council convening in Rome on March 12-13, 2010,

Expresses concern in view of:
- ongoing discrimination of its member-party YABLOKO at Russian elections, especially in the Sverdlovsk and Kaluga regions;
- discrepancy between President Medvedev’s statements on liberalization of elections and persecutions against YABLOKO

States that:
- ELDR will submit the issue to the CE and Europarliament

Calls on the Russian authorities to:
- take urgent remedial measures in ensuring free and fair elections and maximum public control over voting;
- observe Russia’s obligations on ensuring democratic standards under its membership in the OSCE and the CE.

ELDR Congress 2009
19th-20th November, Barcelona, Catalonia

URGENCY RESOLUTION submitted by YABLOKO

The ELDR congress convening in Barcelona on November 19-20, 2009,

Observes that:
- The elections that took place in Russia on October 11, 2009, demonstrated an unprecedented scope of falsification of results of the voting and violations of the law confirmed by observers from all the political parties, except the ruling party, and mass media.

States that:
- ELDR will closely observe the development of the situation with lawsuits and complaints on election fraud.

Calls on:
The Russian authorities to:
- conduct a full inspection of candidates and parties’ complaints, and the evidence of election fraud published by the media, and take urgent remedy measures up to declaring the elections void;
- observe democratic standards and Russia’s obligations under its membership in the OSCE and in the Council of Europe on ensuring free and fair elections;
- ensure free and equal conditions for all political parties and candidates and maximum public control over elections and voting.

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Resolution "Good Governance - The Liberal Agenda"
51st Congress of Liberal International
Budapest, Hungary, March 21-23, 2002

Liberal International The Executive Committee
Resolution on Terrorism. Copenhagen, November 10, 2001

European Liberals' congress adopts urgent resolutions on Russia’s elections on October 11

Press release, November 20, 2009

Today the congress of the European Liberal Democrat and Reformers Party (ELDR) joining together European liberal parties has unanimously and without objections adopted an urgent resolution on Russia’s elections submitted by YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin.

The ELDR congress is taking place in Barcelona, Catalonia, on November 19-20. Over 600 delegates from all the European countries participate in the Congress. The YABLOKO party which has been ELDR member since 2006 is represented by Sergei Mitrokhin.

The resolution states that the elections that took place in Russia on October 11, 2009, “demonstrated an unprecedented scope of falsification of results of the voting and violations of the law confirmed by observers from all the political parties, except the ruling party, and mass media”.

Mitrokhin proposed a visa-free regime between Russia and EU at the European liberal leaders meeting
Press Release, June 18, 2009
Introduction of a visa-free regime between Russia and European Union should be put into agenda of Swedish presidency in the EU. Such a proposal was put forward by the leader of the YABLOKO party Sergei Mitrokhin at the ELDR Leaders and Ministers meeting which took place in Brussels on Thursday, June 18, 2009, in advance of the European summit.

Chair of the YABLOKO party will participate in the meeting of ministers and liberal leaders
Press Release, June 17, 2009
Chairman of the YABLOKO party will participate in the ELDR Leaders and Ministers meeting which will take place in Brussels on Thursday, June 18, 2009, in advance of the European summit. This meeting will be the first time that ELDR's leaders will have gathered since the European elections and the main focus of the discussions will be the election results and the composition of the liberal democrat group in the European parliament.

Liberals and Women Strengthen Their Positions in the New European Parliament
Press Release, June 9, 2009
The liberal parties considerably strengthened their influence at the European Parliament election which took place at the week-end. It is expected that the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (the ALDE Group) which is largely based on the European Liberal Democrats party (ELDR) will get 84 seats in the new Parliament.

Liberals and Democrats confirmed in kingmaker role in new Parliament
Press Release, June 9, 2009
Liberal and Democrat MEPs will be returning to the new European Parliament after this weekend's European elections in almost exactly the same proportions as they left the old with approximately 12% of the seats of the House. Precise numbers are yet to be confirmed but they expect to form a group with about 85 MEPs. With no overall majority party, this will confirm their role as Kingmakers in the new Parliament.

Liberals even stronger in new European Parliament
eldr, Press Release
June 8, 2009
The ELDR party MEPs are set to strengthen their influence in the next European Parliament as they increase their MEPs relative to 2004 and to the EDP members, with whom they form the current ALDE Group. ELDR MEPs within the liberal group are expected to bring 75 out of the 84 total seats.

The International Prize for Freedom has been awarded to Grigory Yavlinsky
Press release, October 16, 2004
The International Prize for Freedom will be handed to chairman of Russian Democratic Party YABLOKO Grigory Yavlinsky at special ceremony in Berlin on October, 18

Chairman of the Russian Democratic Party YABLOKO Grigory Yavlinsky nominated for the Freedom Prize established by Liberal International
Press Release, June 27, 2002
Chairman of the Russian Democratic Party YABLOKO Grigory Yavlinsky has been nominated for the Freedom Prize established by Liberal International. Since 1985 the prize has been granted annually for “consistent defence of the principles of democracy and human rights.”

The Russian Democratic Party YABLOKO to join Liberal International
Press Release, March 04, 2002
The Russian Democratic Party YABLOKO will join Liberal International as a fully-fledged member of this international political organisation which joins together liberal-oriented political parties.

For the visa-free travel between Russia and the EU as a way to promote mutual trust and cooperation

Speech by Sergei Mitrokhin at ELDR Council meeting, Rome, March 12, 2010

In my view, elimination of visa barriers between Russia and Europe should be examined and solved by politicians rather than bureaucrats. All we need is political will towards such strategic decision-making. Long-term advantages here both for Russia and Europe considerably overweight bureaucratic problems. And it will also allow us to solve such issues as, for example, work permits and registration for foreign citizens working in Russia, which should be part of the general agreement on elimination of visa barriers.

For the Russian citizens the freedom of movement within Europe is not reduced only to facilitation of their business, study or tourist trips (though this is also very important). This means their normal life within a single European civilization on the basis of mutually shared principles and values. This issue has become especially acute when visa barriers separated us from our close Eastern European neighbours. However, close interaction with them has always been very important when we speak about European trends in Russia.

The 56th Congress of the Liberal International. Urgency resolution submitted by YABLOKO

The 56th Congress of the LIberal Internatioanl convening in Cairo...

Calls on:
The Russian authorities to:
- conduct a full inspection of the complaints of the actions (or negligence) of election commissions in all the Russian Federation subjects, all the evidence of fraud published by the mass media and punish all those guilty of election fraud, as well as take urgent remedy measures, if needed, declaring the elections void;
- observe Russia’s obligations under its membership in the OSCE and in the Council of
Europe on ensuring free and fair elections in the country;
- form new electoral commissions ensuring that representatives from all of Russia's political parties should have equal participation to cast a vote;
- ensure free and equal conditions for all the political parties and candidates, as well as maximum public control over elections and voting.

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Liberals discussed the world

Sergei Mitrokhin’s blog at the Echo Moskvi web-site, November 3, 2009

The 56th Congress of the Liberal International (LI) where I took part, finished its work on Saturday night in Cairo.

The congress adopted basic resolution World Today, which, in my view is a very interesting document. It provides liberal assessment of the situation in different countries and regions of the world.

In terms of examples:

The congress approved election of Barack Obama noting that he had won under the slogans of “active civil position, tolerance, dialogue, rights of individuals, freedom and democracy”.

[The congress also noted that] Honduras had been “going through a period of serious disturbances provoked by the violation of its Constitution by the President of the Republic”.

Moscow Regional Elections saw multiple violations

Liberal International. Newsletter No 157, October 16, 2009

The Moscow City Duma elections that took place on 11 October saw multiple violations despite the reports of the Moscow Electoral Commission that “no grave violations” took place. Independent election observers and opposition parties noted the multiple violations such as ballot box stuffing and inhibiting access to polling stations. Sergei Mitrokhin, leader of LI member in Russia, YABLOKO, said: “Stemming from both direct and indirect data, we can say that YABLOKO obtained about 12% of the votes. Fraud took almost two thirds of our votes. Many YABLOKO voters found out that ‘someone' had already voted for them, and they were not allowed to vote. There was an Anti-election propaganda throughout the whole elections and no information on where to vote was available to the public. Russian President Medvedev described the elections as ‘well organized' and ‘in accordance with the law'.”

Read more:

LI Deputy President decorated by Indonesia
FNF hosts event on German elections
Moscow Regional Elections saw multiple violations
We need to power Canada on clean energy – say LPC’s Ignatieff
Argentine Senate passes controversial media bill
Graham Watson supports Taiwan’s bid to take part in UN agencies
Liberal Matters “The Global Economic Crisis” now online
Cairo Congress

Violations at the Moscow City Duma elections

ELDR, European Liberal Democrats, October 12, 2009

... The BBC and other international media outlets reported about the concern that such violations of democratic principles happened also elsewhere across Russia.

ELDR supports the strong commitment of its democratic member parties Yabloko and the People’s Democratic Union in their strenuous resistance in defense of transparency and democracy in Russia.
ELDR commits itself for raising European awareness around the democratic character of elections in Russia in general, and in particular in the Moscow city Duma elections in order to examine closer the position of the Russian observers and the unclear results.

At the ELDR Congress in Barcelona on 19 and 20 November, European Liberal Democrats will discuss a resolution on the topic of citizen’s access to the electoral system in Russia.

read more at the ELDR web-site

Yabloko: Liberals in Russia
By Alexander Shishlov
Preparing an official visit of the Yabloko party to Strasbourg, Alexander Shishlov, Member of Yabloko Bureau and Vice-Chairman of the Liberal Group in 1996-2003, addressed the ALDE in April. Long-standing partners of the ALDE, the Yabloko party, represented by the current and former chairmen, Sergei Mitrokhin and Grigory Yavlinsky, and Alexander Shishlov should attend the autumn session of the group. This article, signed by Mr Shishlov, presents an introductory overview of the state of liberal ideas and institutions in today’s Russia.

Grigory Yavlinsky wins Prize for Freedom 2004
Liberal International, Awarded Freedom Prizes, 2004
This years Liberal International Prize for Freedom has been awarded to Grigory Yavlinsky, head of the Russian Democratic Party Yabloko, for his defence of liberal democracy and market economics in both the USSR and the Russian Federation.

Democratic consolidation and the Role of Political Parties – modern Russian experience
By Alexander Shishlov, Member of the Federal Bureau of YABLOKO party
Liberal International Conference* Guason, Taiwan. March 4-6, 2004
* A meeting of the Executive Committee of the Liberal International and the Asian Conference of the Liberal International took place at Guason, Taiwan, on March 4-6, 2004. The conference discussed the urgent problems related to the construction and development of a democratic state. Liberal parties from 35 countries sent their 120 representatives to the conference. Alexander Shishlov, Member of the Federal Bureau of YABLOKO party, Russia, spoke at the conference on YABLOKO’s view of the problems of developing democracy in Russia.

Yabloko to Join Liberal International
NTV.RU, March 4, 2002
The Yabloko faction will soon submit to the State Duma a law on public television. This was announced by the leader of the Yabloko party and its faction in the State Duma Grigory Yavlinsky in an interview with the "Geroi Dnya" (Hero of the Day) The Yabloko democratic party will be a fully-fledged member of Liberal International, an international union of liberal-oriented parties...