Public organisations and political parties of Kaliningrad join in a coalition

Press Release. March 4, 2010

On March 3 during the second meeting of the Coordination Council leaders of political parties and public organisations and movements functioning in the Kaliningrad region signed a joint document on creation of a coalition targeted at stopping the monopoly of the progovernmental United Russia party in the Kaliningrad region.

A press-conference of the new coalition will take place in the Regional Duma on March 5 at 1 p.m. The participants will present the text of the agreement opened for all the parties and organisations sharing this platform and will also answer the journalists’ questions.

YABLOKO participated in a rally under the slogan “United Russia Must Leave!”

Press Release, December 13, 2009

A coalition of parties and movements in the Kaliningrad region expressed their dissatisfaction with the work of the Governor of the Kaliningrad Region.

The Constitution Day of December 12 was marked by a rally which gathered 5,000 people. The participants of the rally expressed their negative attitude to the policies of the ruling party and the leaders of the region and of the Russian Federation.

The trigger for public dissatisfaction was raising of the transport tax adopted by the regional parliament. It was an unprecented mass-scale action in the centre of Kaliningrad. All the parties and movements in of the region – the CPRF, Just Russia, the LDPR, YABLOKO, Solidarity, Patriots of Russia, Spravedlivost (Justice) and other – joined in the rally against the progovernmental United Russia party.

Nikolai Rybakov asks to conduct an audit how Governor of St.Petersburg Valentina Matviyenko could be elected to the Supreme Council of the United Russia party

Press release, November 24, 2009

Deputy Chairman of St.Petersburg YABLOKO branch Nikolai Rybakov applied to Public Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika and Minister of Justice Alexander Konovalov in connection with election of Governor of St.Petersburg Valentina Matviyenko to the Supreme Council of the United Russia party.

According to Rybakov, Valentina Matviyenko joined United Russia only on November 20, 2009, and could not be elected to the Supreme Council of this party, as in accordance with item 7.3.2 of the By-laws of this party, Council members should have party record of at least one year to be elected into the Council...

United Russia congress took place in St.Petersburg in the past weekend. The congress elected St.Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko (who had joined United Russia a day before the congress) to the Supreme Council of this party.

Pro-governmentl factions deprived Russian science of tax breaks
Press release, October 8, 2003
"The decision of the Duma majority subordinated to the government is also shameful, as yesterday two Russian scientists obtained the Nobel Prize for Physics," stressed Shishlov.

Alexei Melnikov assesses the action of the movement "Going Forward Together" as a "shameful event"

Press Release May 8, 2001

A deputy of the Yabloko faction of the State Duma Alexei Melnikov criticised the action to support the President of Russia Vladimir Putin conducted by the "Going Forward Together" on Monday May 7 2001.

United Russia determined its ideology

By Galina Mikhalyova, Executive Secretary of YABLOKO’s Political Committee
kommentarii.ru, November 25, 2009

The congress of the United Russia party resembles the congresses of the communist party of the Soviet Union of the Brezhnev’s stagnation period, the present United Russia congress lacked only young pioneers saluting their elder comrades and the statue of the Lenin. The key thing which is common between the two congresses is their absurdity, an obvious discrepancy between the declared goals and the reality. The [proclaimed] “conservative modernisation” ideologeme is something like “dry water”...

The Liberal Opposition Under Authoritarianism

By Galina Mikhalyova, Executive Secretary of YABLOKO’s Political Committee
Special for YABLOKO’s web-site , November 17, 2009

The logics of the development of a "fake democracy," i.e. an authoritarian state with a formal presence of democratic institutions, relates to deconsolidation of democratic institutions and their delegitimisation in public opinion. Election results become predictable in general and are, in principle, not changeable. The ruling group creates a system of shielding mechanisms and includes a propaganda machine so that to strengthen its position. This results in reprisals of the people who represent real or potential (even insignificant) danger for the ruling system. To ensure compliance of representatives of the political and business elite, the authorities organize "staged" reprisals and create external and internal enemies to justify for such actions. Such actions are authorised by a state controlled judicial authority. At the same time, blocking legitimate ways of regime change leads to intensified latent conflicts and an increased pressure on a society and stimulates emergence of still very weak forms of resistance.

People's Deputies: in the Hall and at Home
By Irina Gordiyenko, Novaya Gazeta, April 7, 2003
Recently the State Duma rejected the draft address to the President of Russia to repeal certain provisions of the housing and communal service sector reform and finalise the draft for wage system reform. Strangely enough, many factions that had protested against the "criminal policies of the regime", simply sabotaged this important vote.

The meeting at Vassilievsky Spusk was organised by the Going Forward Together movement distributing free pagers to its members and providing them with free railway tickets including those to resorts in the Crimea

polit.ru May 8, 2001

Yesterday 7,000 young people (according to data of the Interior Ministry), and not 15,000 (as previously announced by RIA Novosti corespondents from the meeting) gathered at Vassilievskiy Spusk [by the Kremlin] to celebrate the first year's inauguration of Vladimir Putin.