YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin has forwarded
a letter to President of Russia Vladimir Putin asking him
to take under his personal control the problem of 11 large
families that for various reasons remained homeless.
These are families from different regions
of Russia: Moscow, St. Petersburg, Tatarstan, Krasnodar
and the Moscow region. Many of these families have seven
children and more and in some families there are disabled
children. These families have not received child benefits
and other allowances for years...
On Friday 11 May, the ELDR held their Council
meeting in Armenia’s capital Yerevan, hosted by ELDR member
Armenian National Movement (ANM). The outcome of the parliamentary
elections, in which ANM returns to Parliament, was one of
the issues debated.
ELDR President Sir Graham Watson MEP expressed
concern that important shortcomings in the elections have
been reported - the vanishable ink used, disappeared after
only 25 minutes allowing for some voters to vote several
times. Additionally, the fact that there were 2.5 million
registered voters for a total population of 2.8 is a strong
indication that the results have been inflated.
...Basmanny Court on Tuesday ordered the
camp at Chistiye Prudy closed in response to a lawsuit by
residents of the area around the former camp who complained
of inaction by authorities. (Related article: Court
Orders Protest Camp Dismantled)
Leader of the liberal Yabloko party Sergei
Mitrokhin called the police action illegal in a message
on Twitter, saying he had filed an appeal of the Basmanny
Court decision late Tuesday.
St. Petersburg. May 15. Interfax.ru. Grigory
Yavlinsky, founder of the YABLOKO party and deputy of St.Petersburg
Legislative Assembly, spoke to the participants of the "walking
protests" at the St. Isaac's Square, St.Petersburg.
The [present] "walking protests"
should have a political meaning, they should not happen
just for nothing," he said, adding that the objective
should be victory of democratic forces at elections...
YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin appealed
against the decision to liquidate the opposition camp in
the garden at Chistiye Prudi boulevard, Moscow.
"I believe that this decision violates
my right to free walking in the garden without time restriction
and at any time," he said.
In addition, Mitrokhin noted that the decision
by the Basmanny Court, Moscow, did not envisage immediate
implementation, as the law stipulates that it should be
implemented only after the decision comes into force, i.e.
after 30 days from the date it was made...
Sergei Mitrokhin, Chairman of the YABLOKO
party, sent an inquiry [to the prosecutors] on verification
of income statements of four members of the Federation Council,
including Rafgat Altynbayev, a member of the Federation
Council from the Government of the Ryazan region.
The 7 News agency asked Oleg Kovalyov, Governor
of the Ryazan region, whether he had known about this fact,
and what he his reaction proceeding from the results of
the audit would be.
“I know about this inquiry. If the commission detects violations,
then we will consider recalling of the Senator,” said the
head of the region.
YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin demands
from President of Russia Vladimir Putin, Governor of the
Krasnodar Territory Alexander Tkachyov and Sochi Mayor Anatoly
Pakhomov to immediately stop pulling down blocks of flats
in the center of Sochi (Plastunskaya street 80 and Golenva
street, 7).
Bailiffs and riot police have thrown out
80 families, hoodwinked investors, who lived in these blocks
of flats and have begun pulling down the houses. The houses
are pulled down so that to build a parking for coaches and
buses for the guests of the Olympics for the two weeks of
the Olympic Games in 2014...
A mourning ceremony in memory of those killed
during the Second World War was held by YABLOKO activists
at Preobrazhenskoye Cemetery - the largest military burial
in Moscow - today.
Activists and leaders of the YABLOKO party
laid flowers and a wreath at the Eternal Flame at the Memorial.
The participants observed a minute of silence
in memory of those killed in Second World War.
A memorial ceremony devoted to the 67th
anniversary of victory in the Second World War took place
at Piskaryovskoye Cemetery, St.Petersburg. Representatives
from the city government, veterans and siege survivors organisations,
delegations from other countries and cities, representatives
of diplomatic corps, different confessions, youth public
organisations and thousands of St.Petersburg residents came
to the cemetery to pay tribute to those who died in the
872
days long siege of Leningrad.
According to Grigory Yavlinsky, Chair of
the YABLOKO faction in St.Petersburg Legislative Assembly,
who participated in the ceremony, “The city has been feeling
the pain from the wounds from the Leningrad siege even decades
past the events”. Yavlinsky together with other deputies
of the faction and YABLOKO’s activists laid wreaths and
flowers to the monument to the victims of the siege.
The Piskaryovskoye Cemetery contains 126
collective graves with burials of 420,000 civilians who
died during artillery bombardments, bombings and from hunger
and 70,000 military who defended the city.
YABLOKO’s delegation laid a wreath and flowers
to the Tomb of Unknown Soldier by the Kremlin wall. “In
cherished memory of the heroic liberators” ran the inscription
on the wreath ribbon.
Sergei Mitrokhin, YABLOKO Chair, and Political
Committee members Alexei Arbatov, Sergei Ivanenko and Grigory
Yavlinsky participated in the ceremony. They wore White
Ribbons, symbols of the winter and spring protest actions
in Russia, together with St.George Ribbons, the symbols
of memory of the victims of the war.
On Monday, ELDR Vice-President Leoluca Orlando
scored 42% in the mayoral elections in the Sicilian city
of Palermo, crushing the candidates of both left and right.
"The old politics is dead" in
Palermo, Orlando said, referring to the two big blocs of
the centre-right and centre-left parties which have governed
Italy for decades.
More than 9 million people were eligible
to vote in more than 900 towns and cities across Italy in
the first significant election since Italian Prime Minister
Mario Monti took office in November 2011.
The French presidential election has been
followed with interest throughout Europe. France, a founding
member state, has a weighty influence within the EU. Guy
Verhofstadt, President of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats
for Europe, welcomes the election results as the President-elect
has made strong commitments to revitalise the European project.
Guy Verhofstadt said: "Nicolas Sarkozy is an energetic
man who has recently directed his energy in taking positions
on the eurozone crisis and on the Schengen area that have
been particularly disappointing and alarming for those in
Europe who, like me, expect more from France"...
Collection of signatures for registration
of Alexander Korotkov, YABLOKO member and ex Vice-Governor,
as a candidate in the mayoral elections in Omsk has finished.
Within ten days only (from April 25 to May
4) YABLOKO collected 14,000 signatures in favour of his
nomination. Now the election headquarters of the candidate
have to select 9,916 signatures required for Korotkov’s
registration and wil forward them to the Electoral Commission
until May 7.
Alexander Korotkov, ex Vice-Governor of
the Omsk region, was nominated to run for the mayor of Omsk
at YABLOKO’s Federal Bureau meeting on April 20...
On Friday 11 and Saturday 12 May, European
Liberal Democrats will meet for the ELDR Council in Armenia's
capital Yerevan. On the agenda are topics such as democratisation
and human rights in the southern Caucasus, energy security
for Europe, and liberal policies to tackle climate change
as well as other topical issues.
The ELDR Council will follow parliamentary
elections in Armenia to be held on Sunday 6 May. ELDR member
Armenian National Movement (AMN) will participate on the
list of the biggest opposition alliance, the Armenian National
Congress. AMN Leader Aram Manukyan: "There is a glimmer
of hope that these elections may be different from the previous
ones."
The leaders and activists of the YABLOKO
party will pay tribute to the memory of the victims of the
Second World War. Sergei Mitrokhin, YABLOKO Chairman, and
Grigory Yavlinsky, YABLOKO founder and member of Political
Committee, will lay a wreath to the Tomb of Unknown Soldier
by the Kremlin wall on May 8 at 17:20.
On Victory Day of May 9, according to long-term
YABLOKO’s tradition, Sergei Mitrokhin, Grigory Yavlinsky
and YABLOKO activists will honour the memory of the dead
soldiers at Preobrazhenskoye Cemetery, the largest military
burial in Moscow. The participants of the ceremony will
lay flowers there at 13:30.
Address: Preobrazhenskoye Cemetery, Preobrazhensky
Val 17A.
The Russian United Democratic Party YABLOKO
expresses condolences to relatives of the victims of a double
bombing in Makhachkala, Dagestan. We are wishing all the
injured a speedy recovery.
Despite repeated assurances by the Russian
leadership that terrorism has been defeated in Russia, the
Caucasus and the armed gangs are not eliminated and terrorist
attacks do not stop.
We demand an immediate investigation into
this crime and punishment of all guilty in this in this
crime in accordance with the law.
We demand that President-elect Vladimir
Putin should take investigation of this act of terror under
his personal control...
Public Prosecutor General's Office refused
to investigate whether there was a conflict of interests
in the March meeting between President Dmitry Medvedev and
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Italian citizen and businessman
Silvio Berlusconi. Mr.V.Volkov, Asistant to Public Prosecutor
General, informed (in the response to the inquiry by YABLOKO
leader Sergei Mitrokhin) that President and Prime Minister
can not be subject to the prosecutor's investigation. This
contradicts the Law "On Public Prosecutor's Office",
and YABLOKO is preparing a lawsuit...
The noticeable rise of extremism and xenophobia
among youth across Europe brought prominent liberals to
discuss in Moscow, Russia liberal agenda for addressing
this problem. Prominent speakers included Sergei Mitrokhin
and Grigory Yavlinsky, the leader and the presidential candidate
of Yabloko (LI Full member), Trine Skei Grande MP, leader
of Venstre, Norway (LI Full member), Astrid Thors MP of
SFP, Finland (LI Full member) and Marc Guerrero, Vice President
of ELDR (LI cooperating organisation), Angelika Mlinar,
leader of Liberales Forum, Austria and Kerstin Lundgren
MP of Center Party, Sweden (LI Full member). In the welcome
speech LI Secretary General Emil Kirjas pledged for “more
opportunities for the young people to participate in decision
making, starting from micro level, including in families
and the local communities. That responsibility must be based
on freedom of expression and dialogue, discussion, debate.”
LI Treasurer Robert W. Browne spoke on the growth of xenophobia,
street protests and violence in Europe, giving account of
the 2011 London riots. A resolution
was adopted that is likely to be further discussed at the
upcoming LI Congress in Abidjan.
YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin in his speech
at the “Open Tribune” meeting criticized the President's
initiative on public television. According to Mitrokhin,
the key problem was the functioning of the state-owned television
"uncontrolled by the society, censored and manipulating
with public opinion”, rather than absence of public television
in Russia.
Mitrokhin also noted that Presidential Decree
on establishing of public television represented "another
bureaucratic imitation": "public's attention would
be simply switched onto channels functioning of decimeter
frequencies, while the meter channels would remain mouthpieces
for propaganda"...
He proposed a different mechanism for formation
of the Supervisory Board, which "would create truly
independent television". The Board should include representatives
of various political parties or parliamentary factions.
“However, there should be an equal number of representatives
from each of the parties, so that to avoid the dominance
of the [ruling] United Russia [party]," stressed Mitrokhin.
...YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin, who
also attended the action, said that the party had been commemorating
the tragic Chernobyl anniversary for many years already.
"Not only we commemorate those who died and express
sympathy for those who got sick in this tragedy, but we
also speak about the danger of the new Rosatom’s plans,”
said Sergei Mitrokhin.
He spoke about Rostam’s plans to build a
nuclear power plant on the border of Novgorod and Vladimir
regions, near the town Murom. The nuclear power plant would
be built on moving karst soils, where an accident may occur
at any time and this would inevitably lead to a disaster
similar to that in Chernobyl. At the same time Sergei Mitrokhin
said that the money for this construction came from the
state budget rather than private investors. "This is
the taxpayers' money, the money of ordinary Russians, teachers,
doctors and people with disabilities. Moreover, Rosatom
builds with our money nuclear plants not only in Russia
but also abroad," Sergei Mitrokhin stressed...
Academician Alexei Yablokov, leader of YABLOKO’s
Green Russia faction and renowned environmentalist, told
about independent assessments of the Chernobyl disaster
being significantly more pessimistic than the official reports.
"It's millions of deaths and diseases, cancers, premature
aging and diseases of the endocrine system," stressed
Yablokov.
According to Yablokov, 43 per cent of toxic
sediments polluted the territory of the former Soviet Union
after the disaster and the rest were spread across the globe.
"Today, Chernobyl sediments can be found in the lakes
of China, the Nile Delta and Japan," he said...
On Thursday, April 26, the anniversary of
the Chernobyl disaster, YABLOKO will conduct a staged action
by the Russian Atomic Energy Agency (Rosatom) under the
slogan "Save the world from the peaceful atom"...
The action will start at 12:30.
Address: Tretyakovskaya metro station, Bolshaya
Ordynka 24.
Also YABLOKO will hold the same action in
Chelyabinsk, where YABLOKO activists, environmentalists
and civil activists will pay tribute to the memory of liquidators
of the Chernobyl disaster.
The activists will fly 26 balloons symbolizing
26 years since the tragedy.
From 19 to 22 April, ELDR Vice President
Marc Guerrero was on tour in Ukraine and Russia to support
the activities of the liberal family.
In Kiev, an international ELDR conference
with the local liberal partners from Ukraine, the Future
and the European Youth of Ukraine, was held which focussed
on free market and liberal policies as the best tools for
a democratic and prosperous society. At the event, the Institute
of Democracy and Liberalism (IdeaL) was launched.
In Moscow, Marc Guerrero and ELDR Vice President
Astrid Thors MP were present at the conference "Youth
under threat of Extremism and Xenophobia. A liberal response"
organised by ELDR member YABLOKO.
Leader of the YABLOKO party Sergei Mitrokhin
demands from the Investigative Committee to file a criminal
case against Dagir Khasavov, lawyer promising "to flood
the city [Moscow] with blood" in the REN TV channel,
"unless sharia courts are created in the capital [of
Russia]".
"Muslims do not want to get involved into the judicial
system. You think that we are coming here to Russia as to
some strange place. And we believe that we are at home.
Maybe you are foreigners here, but we are at home. And we
will establish the rules that suit us, whether you like
it or not. Any attempt to stop this will lead to bloodshed.
The second dead lake will be here. We will flood the city
with blood," announced the lawyer and Assistant to
Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Social Policy
and Healthcare in the federal television channel. He was
quoted by the Russian News Service...
YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin doubts that
the acting President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev will be able
to do more for liberalisation of Russia’s political system
at the Prime Minister post than now.
"I doubt that in his new post he will do more for realisation
[of this] than at present. And he has not done much for
this at the post of the President," Mitrokhin told
to Interfax...
...We think that such liberal
response should include the following:
- steady rejection by the society of all
forms of xenophobia and extremism and personality cult,
as well as revival of nazism, Stalinism and fascism; abolishment
of the cult of superiority and crude force, as well as manipulations
with public opinion by means of pseudo historical myths
and conspiracy theories;
- broadening of possibilities for engaging
people in social and political life, provision of free and
fair elections and independence of the judiciary; development
of institutes of democracy and civil society which allow
each citizen to participate in the social and political
life and feel that his or her beliefs, points of view and
interests influence government’s politics;
- protection of human dignity protection,
person immunity and freedom of individual choice; strengthening
of the secular state principles and freedom of conscience
and rejection of all forms of anti-Semitism;
- conducting policies stimulating maximum
integration and socialisation of people into economic, political
and cultural life of Europe; gradual liquidation of barriers
either in the society or between the states. Creation of
a pan-European visa-free area...
Participants of the conference "Threats
of Extremism and Xenophobia Among Youth: the Liberal Answer"
adopted a resolution where they expressed their deep concern
of noticeable rise of extremism and xenophobia among youth
in almost all European countries.
Nevertheless, "liberal and democratic
forces are capable of tackling these challenges basing their
response on human rights, individual freedoms, respect for
the individual, tolerance and civil and moral responsibility
of each person"...
The European Party Liberal Democrat and
Reform Party (ELDR) and the Russian United Democratic Party
YABLOKO will hold an international conference "Youth
under Threat of Extremism and Xenophobia. A Liberal Response"
on Saturday, April 21.
The conference will be opened by Dr.Sergei
Mitrokhin, Chair of the YABLOKO party, Emil Kirjas, Secretary
General of Liberal International, Dr. Marc Guerrero, ELDR
Vice President, Vladimir Lukin, Russia's Ombudsman and Dr.
Astrid Thors, ELDR Vice President.
About 300 people took part in the rally
"For the freedom of the media! Against the lies and
censorship on TV! The rally was held by the Ostankino TV
centre on April 14. The action began and ended with demonstrations.
A column of YABLOKO activists led by party Chairman Sergei
Mitrokhin marched from the metro station to the site of
the rally despite the ban of the authorities on a march.
In the end of the rally the participants made a “present”
to "Putin's censorship" on its birthday.
April 14 is considered to be the birthday
of Vladimir Putin's censorship on television. At night of
April 13 on April 14, 2001, there was forceful change of
the Board of the key Russian independent private television
company NTV...
Alexander Shishlov, member of Yabloko's
(LI Full member) Bureau and LI Vice-President, was recently
elected as Commissioner for Human Rights in St. Petersburg.
His candidacy was supported by 45 out of a total of 50 deputies
from St. Petersburg's Legislative Assembly. Speaking to
parliamentarians Shishlov promised to focus on protection
of labour rights, the rights of the most vulnerable groups
of population, rights to education, medical care and a healthy
environment. Commenting on his election Shishlov said "A
Commissioner for Human Rights is not just a defender of
those whose rights have been violated. It is a position
that links the society with the government." He also
spoke of his commitment to promoting dialogue and finding
a common ground between public and government agencies and
protecting citizens' rights in such a way as to create "an
atmosphere of cooperation rather than mutual disputes and
misunderstandings." Yabloko's leader Sergei Mitrokhin
spoke
about the global impact of the Arab Spring on the Russian
political system at the recently convened 188th Executive
Committee meeting of Liberal International in Barcelona.
The ALDE Group in the European Parliament
has today launched a procedure inside the European Parliament
seeking to establish a common EU list of officials responsible
for the death of Sergei Magnitsky, for the subsequent judicial
cover-up and for the on-going and continuing harassment
of his mother and widow...
On April 4, The Kuibyshevsky District Court
dismissed a complaint on the arrest of YABLOKO member Maria
Kozhevatova arrested for ten days for her participation
in the campaign in defense of the Article 31 (on the freedom
of assembly) of the Russian Constitution.
During the hearings Judge Julia Trofimova
questioned the witness A.Vinovkina, but did not consider
her testimony, stating that "the witness was helping
Kozhevatova”. Consequently, Kozhevatova will be held in
prison until April 10...
Alexander Shishlov, member of YABLOKO Bureau,
is elected Commissioner for Human Rights in St. Petersburg;
45 deputies of St.Petersburg Legislative Assembly out of
total 50 deputies supported his candidacy.
Speaking to parliamentarians Shishlov promised
to focus on protection of labour rights, the rights of the
most vulnerable groups of population, rights to education,
medical care and a healthy environment.
He also highlighted protection of citizens' political rights
– the freedom of speech, the freedom of assembly, the right
to participate in governing - 'the rights and freedoms ensuring
sustainable development and prosperity of the country in
today's world"...
The local authorities of the North-Western
Administrative District of Moscow denied YABLOKO a permission
to hold a march towards the Ostankino television centre
on April 14. The officials proposed to the organizers to
hold a rally instead. Also they limited the number of participants
from 5,000 (as in YABLOKO’s application) to 200.
Initially it was planned to hold a march
and a rally. The local authorities did not give any reasons
for not giving a permission for the march...
YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin congratulated
Eugeny Urlashov on winning the post of Mayor at elections
in Yaroslavl. "This is an important event for the whole
of the opposition," Mitrokhin said.
YABLOKO supported the candidacy of Eugeny
Urlashov in the elections. About 100 YABLOKO's observers
from Moscow, Tver and Tula participated in the monitoring
of the voting in the second round...
Despite of all the attempts to rig the elections,
Eugeny Urlashov was supported by 69.65 per cent of the voters.
His opponent Yakov Yakushev obtained 27.78 per cent of the
votes.
After the Arab Spring many people turned
their views to Russia. Many people have been asking me if
these developments resemble the Arab Spring. I will try
to answer this question now.
What is the resemblance between Putin's
governance and the ones of the toppled Arab leaders?
There is obviously a lot in common between
the systems that existed in the Arab countries and Vladimir
Putin's system in Russia.
First of all, it is a political monopoly
and long-term governing of one person who is striving for
a life-long rule. Secondly, it is
political dominance of bureaucracy over society, and thirdly,
presence of oligarchic groups (that are groups generating
their profit from merger of government and business). Fourth,
such a system is also characterised by huge corruption penetrating
the entire state system.
These are the common traits between the
Putin's system and the toppled systems in the Arab states.However,
there are also large differences between political systems
in Russia and the Arab states.
Putin's system is more flexible. And it
is aiming at imitation of democracy. For example, it allows
for more elements of the freedom of speech and provides
more space to more or less independent media. Being
more flexible Putin's system is more prepared to meet the
challenges of the Internet than the authocratic Arab regimes...
YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin believes
that the full restoration of the right to form electoral
blocs will prevent deepening of the political crisis, which
is boosted by mass-scale creation of new parties. He made
such a statement at the meeting of the Federation Council
Committee on Constitutional Legislation. On March 26 the
Committee examined amendments to the new law on political
parties...
St. Petersburg Governor Georgy Poltavchenko
introduced candidacy of Alexander Shishlov, YABLOKO Bureau
member, for the post of Human Rights Commissioner in St.Petersburg.
Here comes Alexander Shishlov's statement
in connection with the nomination:
I am grateful to St.Petersburg Governor
for nomination of my candidacy to the post of Human Rights
Commissioner in our great city. I am also grateful to all
who supports my candidacy.
In case I am elected, my activities on the
post of Ombudsman will be based on close cooperation with
civil society institutes, critical and positive interaction
with the governments and local self-governments for fair,
peaceful and lawful solution of a human rights problems
in St. Petersburg. I undertake to be unbiased, impartial
and objective, regardless of personal preferences on the
post of Ombudsman...
The new law on political parties can not
be considered "a victory of common sense" as long
as the electoral law bans creation of electoral blocs. This
statement was made by YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin at
the hearings of the State Duma. It was the third and final
reading of the draft law on liberalization of establishment
of political parties.
"What victory of a common sense can
we speak about if voters get their ballots with dozens or
maybe hundreds of pages innumerating the names of political
parties, or when the voter sees unstructured political area
and a register of absolutely unknown names of political
parties?" Mitrokhin asked deputies of the Duma.
According to Mitrokhin, if the parties are
not allowed to make electoral blocs, they will simply disperse
the votes, and "a huge number of voters will remain
turn out below a 5 per cent threashold" to the Duma,
and thus will get no representation in the parliament...
...Kirill Goncharov, leader of the Moscow
Youth YABLOKO, and his colleagues Gleb Sitnikov and Oleg
Rumyantsev were detained at a protest action against smearing
of the public mass-scale protests against elections fraud
in a film produced and broadcasted by the NTV channel. Goncharov,
Sitnikov, and Rumyantsev were taken to police stations.
According to the police, about 100 people were detained
at the action. about 100 people. Valery Borshchyov, member
of YABLOKO Bureau and head of the Moscow Public Observers'
Commission condemned the police actions...
YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin who is now
in Novosibirsk on a working visit participated in a series
of pickets in support of the Suren Gazaryan and Viktor Dutlov.
Young activists also joined the action in Novosibirsk.
Solidarity actions with the detained environmentalists
took place all over Russia. In Moscow, the police detained
dozens of picketers, including four members of YABLOKO –
Galina Mikhalyova, deputy head of the Moscow branch of YABLOKO,
and activists Maya Zavyalova, Gleb Sitnikov and Oleg Rumyantsev...
..."I am certainly glad that such a
decision was adopted. We know that President Medvedev whom
I handed the documents on Maxim facilitated the adoption
of such a decision. These documents clearly demonstrate
that the case was framed up," Mitrokhin said. He also
added that imprisonment was an "inadequate measure
showing that the case was purely political".
According to Mitrokhin, obvious inability
of Maxim Petlin’s family to pay such a bail is the vest
evidence that there was corruption in Petlin’s actions,
and this also another indirect proof that the accusation
in corruption was absurd...
Judicial Board on Criminal Cases of the
Sverdlovsk Regional Court refused to extend arrest for Maxim
Petlin, leader of Ekaterinburg YABLOKO, and granted him
bail amounting to RUR 5 million. Petlin will come out of
prison after the bail will be at the account of the Investigation
Committee of the Russian Federation in the Sverdlovsk region.
Maxim Petlin took an active part in the
fight against illegal construction of a recreational centre
in the place where a city park was. The fight between YABLOKO
and civil activists with the developer - Forum Group - had
loud public resonance. Maxim Petlin was the victim of a
provocation on the part of the Forum Group and was accused
of extorting bribes...
YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin and Galina
Mikhalyova, Executive Secretary of the Political Committee,
had a meeting with Bundestag deputies from the Free Democratic
Party. The German side was represented by Patrick Kurth,
MP, and Serkan Toeren, MP, and Maximilian Spinner, Secretary
of the Political Department of German Embassy.
Deputies of German Parliament were interested
by the progress and assessment of the Russian parliamentary
and presidential elections, growth of public activity in
Russia and prospects of Russia's political development.
The discussion also evolved around the Russia-EU relations
and Germany's role in their improvement. "Visa-free
regime for the Russian citizens to the EU and an anti-ballistic
missile defence system that could be developed jointly with
NATO are the initiatives of our party that we put forward
as early as in 1990s," Sergei Mitrokhin stressed.
Tuapse. On March 14 Suren Gazaryan, environmentalist
and YABLOKO member, and Viktor Dutlov, lawyer, YABLOKO member
and activist of the North Caucasus Environmental Watch,
detained by the country cottage of Governor of the Krasnodar
Territory Tkachyov a day earlier, got ten days of administrative
arrest for "non-obeying to the lawful orders of police".
The judge refused to call the witnesses of the defence,
as well as to consider audio and video recordings proving
innocence of Gazaryan and Dutlov.
On March 13 Gazaryan and his attorney Dutlov
approached the Governor’s cottage so that to inspect the
"damages" (graffiti) they had allegedly made to
the fence. Such inspection was required for their defence
in court (as they were accused in damaging the fence) and
was sanctioned by the investigator. When activists approached
the fence, the guards came out and put handcuffs on the
activists. Gazaryan was beaten by one of the guards...
Grigory Yavlinsky said that the main objective
of all the opposition forces in Russia should be radical
change in the socio-political system rather than simply
a replacement of top officials. He said this during a meeting
with representatives of the European Parliament's Liberal
Group (ALDE). The sides discussed the political situation
in Russia after the presidential elections and prospects
for further development.
The meeting was held on March 5 in YABLOKO’s
office. Guy Verhofstadt, leader of the liberals in the European
Parliament and ex Prime Minister of Belgium, Renaldas Vaisbrodas,
Political Adviser, ALDE, Sergei Mitrokhin, YABLOKO Chairman,
Galina Mikhalyova, Executive Secretary of the Political
Council and head of the Gender faction and Olga Radayeva,
International Secretary...
YABLOKO's Green Russia faction conducted
a memorial action commemorating the victims of the Fukushima
nuclear disaster. The action was held on the first anniversary
of the disaster on the nuclear power plant.
Environmentalists held pickets in Volgograd,
Petrozavodsk, Sosnoviy Bor, Ulan-Ude, Ufa, Arkhangelsk,
Kostroma, Chita, St. Petersburg and Moscow. The participants
of the actions tried to draw attention of the Russian citizens
to the dangerous consequences of the nuclear industry, and
distributed leaflets "Rosatom, shut down your Fukushimas!"
Sophie in 't Veld, (D66, Netherlands), Parliament's
rapporteur on the annual report on the state of gender equality
in the EU for 2011, is pleased with the result of today's
vote, calling on the Commission to table legislation, including
quotas, by the end of 2012, to increase female participation
in corporate management boards. Measures to combat the lack
of women at the top, both in business and in political decision
making, were discussed during a heated debate in the European
Parliament this week. Progress remains very slow, despite
numerous EU policies aimed at achieving a better gender-balance...
Today YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin have
sent an appeal to the Public Prosecutor Generals' office
asking to check whether there was a conflict of interests
in the recent meeting between President Dmitry Medvedev
and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, and Italian citizen and
businessman Silvio Berlusconi.
Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin had a
meeting with Silvio Berlusconi on March 8-9. It should be
also noted that ex Prime Minister of Italy is under investigation
in Italy for a number of criminal cases related to corruption.
Also he does not occupy any government post at present and
is a private person - a billionaire and owner of the FinInvest
financial holding...
Voice of America, 11 March 2012
...Viktor Vasilyev: President Medvedev complained
during his meeting with women (on the eve of the Women's
Day) that in Russia there were very few women in politics.
How can we explain such a situation?
Galina Mikhalyova: The system functions
in such a way. As a rule there are no women in power in
authoritarian regimes, and in democracies there are many
of them on the top. There are special mechanisms encouraging
such a promotion of women. [President] Medvedev was not
going to change anything here. And speaking about Mr Putin,
he does not even have it in his thoughts. He's such a super-macho...
When he was in power, women's problems were not mentioned
at all.
Viktor Vasilyev: So, you don't expect any
positive changes in the nearest future, do you?
Galina Mikhalyova: No, there are no positive
changes, while negative changes are obvious. There are few
women in the State Duma. There is no public institution
that would deal with our problems, for example, a Presidential
Council or a council under the Government or a Commissioner
for Women's Rights, as in other countries. Salaries [of
Russian women] consitute two-thirds [from those of men].
In several regions people who have small children have to
go on hunger strike so that to get a place for their child
in a kindergarten. Pregnant women are not paid their benefits
or get fired. But the state argues that it has nothing to
do with this disgrace...
YABLOKO leaders Sergei Mitrokhin and Grigory
Yavlinsky spoke at a rally in Novy Arbat prospect, Moscow.
Sergei Mitrokhin gave his time for the speech to Alexei
Sklyarov, Editor-in-Chief the Pulse television company in
Azov. It is the only independent television company in southern
Russia, however, local authorities began pressing the company
after Alexei Sklyarov headed the League of Voters in Azov.
"We together with the League of Voters
conducted monitoring and control over voting [at elections]
across the country. And once again I would like to state
that the elections of March 4 were rigged. We are not going
to make speeches today, we would like to give the time allotted
for our speeches to a unique person - Alexei Sklyarov. He
is the head of the only free, independent television company
in the southern Russia. His television company has been
attacked because he together with YABLOKO monitored the
elections," Sergei Mitrokhin told to the protesters...
Grigory Yavlinsky addressed the participants
of the rally with n a brief speech, "Friends, I am
glad to meet you again. It is already my sixth speech at
a rally for the past three months. I remember every word
I said. We will accomplish all this. The road is long and
difficult. The victory in the fight will not come soon,
but it will come. Russia will be free. Russia demands changes!"
If I have a chance to speak at the rally
on March 10, I would demanded the following from the authorities:
- release of political prisoners;
- show mercy and pardon those who committed minor offenses;
- stop unlawful prosecution of businessman Alexei Kozlov;
- investigate all the cases of fraud at [parliamentary]
elections of December 4 and [presidential] elections of
March 4, punish the guilty, completely reform the Central
Electoral Commission and dismiss Vladimir Churov, head of
the commission;
- immediately consider together with the newly emerging
public committees for political reform proposals for the
radical change of the electoral system and to adopt such
proposals.
We continue fighting for what I and Sergei
Mitrokhin spoke about at the rallies on December 10, December
17, December 24, demonstration of February 4 and on March
5:
- complete replacement of the present closed authoritarian,
oligarchic, inhuman political system and legal removal of
the ruling group headed by Vladimir Putin from governing;
- creation in Russia of a system in which law would be the
same for everybody, property - inviolable and the court
- independent;
- creation of committees for political reform across the
country, freedom of media from censorship and uniting of
the democratic forces;
- development of a political, economic, moral and personal
ALTERNATIVE to the present regime which would be able to
win in a peaceful and legitimate political struggle...
LI President Hans van Baalen MEP questioned
the democratic character of the Russian Presidential elections
which took place on 5 March 2012. Van Baalen characterised
them as "neither free nor fair like the parliamentary
elections held earlier. Putin rules over a facade democracy.
The institutions are in place but the democratic spirit
is absent. LI, ELDR and ALDE will support the courageous
democratic opposition in Russia which is so much needed
today." Leader Grigory Yavlinsky of Yabloko (LI Full
Member) called
for a "real political, economic and most importantly,
moral alternative." "We will create this alternative.
We will make them conduct new elections and we will win
those elections," Yavlinsky said. Yabloko Chairman
Sergei Mitrokhin said that Putin won an unfair game. "This
wasn't honest, but cowardice and meanness. It was not only
carousels and stuffing of ballots which brought him victory.
Putin won ousting the only candidate — Yavlinsky — who had
no fear of criticizing him," Mitrokhin commented. The
OSCE
election-monitoring report concluded that there had
been "no real competition".
MOSCOW, 5 March 2012 – Although candidates
in yesterday's presidential election in the Russian Federation
were able to campaign unhindered, conditions were clearly
skewed in favour of one of the contestants, current Prime
Minister Vladimir Putin, the international observers concluded
in a statement issued today.
The observers noted that all candidates had access to the
media, but the Prime Minister was given a clear advantage
over his competitors in terms of media presence. In addition,
state resources were mobilized at the regional level in
his support. Also, overly restrictive candidate registration
requirements limited genuine competition...
"This election showed a clear winner with an absolute
majority, avoiding a second round. However, voter's choice
was limited, electoral competition lacked fairness and an
impartial referee was missing. Due to increased citizen's
awareness and involvement elections were more lively, better
managed and more seriously observed, whereas structural
improvements in electoral regulation were proposed to Parliament
- but not yet passed," said Tiny Kox, the Head of the
delegation of Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly.
"There were serious problems from the very start of
this election. The point of elections is that the outcome
should be uncertain. This was not the case in Russia. There
was no real competition and abuse of government resources
ensured that the ultimate winner of the election was never
in doubt," said Tonino Picula, the Special Co-ordinator
to lead the short-term OSCE observer mission and Head of
the delegation of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly...
Over half (44 out of total 86) candidates
nominated and supported by YABLOKO and the Democratic Choice
won municipal elections in Moscow on March 4; whereas 36
of these 44 newly elected deputies of municipal councils
come from YABLOKO and eight people represent the Democratic
Choice.
Andrei Babushkin, Vice-Chairman of the Moscow
branch of YABLOKO won the race in Otradnoe, Moscow, with
43 per cent of vote and YABLOKO's Zoya Shargatova running
in Dorogomilovo, Moscow, won with 46 per cent of the vote...
Preliminary results have shown that Vladimir
Putin will complete his long-expected return as Russia's
president after polling around 63% in yesterday's election,
thus avoiding the need for a second round. Commenting on
the outcome of the election, ELDR President Sir Graham Watson
MEP stated, "there are wide-spread and seemingly justified
reservations about the extent to which this was a free and
fair contest, not only in the way the procedures were conducted
on the day itself, but in the handling of the process from
the very beginning, including the refusal to register some
candidatures."
Despite much publicised initiatives to make
these elections fair and transparent, such as the installation
of closed circuit television cameras at polling stations,
the electoral process as a whole has been widely condemned
as favoring the Putin campaign from the outset.
Evidence of this stretches back to the refusal by the Russian
Central Electoral Commission to register opposition candidates,
including former YABLOKO leader Grigory Yavlinsky on the
grounds of perceived irregularities when in fact political
engineering of the elections was the more likely reason.
On what the future may hold, Sir Graham added that Putin
should not expect the Russian people to blindly accept his
rule. "Vladimir Putin might have got his way in so
far as the outcome of the election is concerned, but the
demonstrations that have taken place since December's parliamentary
elections and the increasing criticism that he is facing
from significant sections of the population and media show
that he will not be in for an easy ride over the next six
years. The extent of ill-feeling towards President Putin
may even cast doubt on his ability to serve the full-term
unless he fundamentally addresses issues related to the
rule of law and the democratic, economic and social development
of Russian society".
YABLOKO leaders Sergei Mitrokhin and Grigory
Yavlinsky spoke at the rally For Fair Elections which took
place at the Pushkin square, Moscow.
Sergei Mitrokhin said that statements made
by Vladimir Churov, head of the Central Electoral Commission,
that elections was fair was a blatant lie. The hot line
organised jointly by YABLOKO and the Voter' League got thousands
of calls from observers and voters on violations.
Mitrokhin also reiterated that the December
slogan "Churov must go!" emerging after parliamentary
elections of December 2011 was still on the agenda. The
participants had unanimously chanted this slogan together
with Mitrokhin...
...I am appealing to all the opposition
political leaders who are organising protest actions and
inviting people to join them: if violence takes place during
these days, it will lead to dramatic weakening of the opposition
and will cause a long-lasting setback. It is our responsibility
and our task to avert violence and prevent provocations.
In complex and unpredictable circumstances, in dealing with
the authorities who most often do not want any compromises
on the substance of the matter and who at the same time
possess great experience and traditions of political reprisals,
it is possible to preserve people's trust only by avoiding
and preventing violence in every way and at the same time
advancing steadily toward the goal - peaceful radical transformation
of the authoritarian, inoperative and inhuman political
system...
On the contrary, we should prove to all
our potential supporters that we can be trusted and that
we clearly understand the aims and goals of the democratic
protest movement not as our own self-expression but as the
defence of the interests of citizens who vitally need large-scale,
serious and responsible changes in Russia. Only in this
case will the number of our supporters throughout the country
become ever greater. Only by following this path will we
become responsible spokesmen for the opinion of a significant
section of Russian society...
In Russland wird ein neuer Präsident gewählt.
Rund 100 Millionen Russen sind aufgerufen über ihr neues
Staatsoberhaupt abzustimmen. Aussichtsreichster Kandidat
ist ein alter Bekannter im Amt des Staatspräsidenten - Wladimir
Putin. Nicht nur deshalb gab es im Vorfeld der Wahl soviel
Trubel wie seit langem nicht mehr. Vor einem Monat zum Beispiel
demonstrierten gleichzeitig mehr als 200.000 Gegner und
Anhänger Putins in Moskau. Über die Wahlen und den Kandidaten
Putin sprach Nordwestradio-Moderator Tom Grote mit Galina
Michaleva, Politikwissenschaftlerin und Gastwissenschaftlerin
der Forschungssstelle Osteuropa an der Uni Bremen und Exekutivsekretärin
des Politischen Komitees und Vorsitzende der Genderfraktion
der liberalen Partei "Jabloko".
YABLOKO has obtained information that the
Central Electoral Commission has been preparing a letter
to the subordinate commissions demanding not to let journalists
and observers from YABLOKO's paper YABLOKO ROSSII come to
the polling stations...
"Such a decision by the Central Electoral
Commission would mean that the authorities decided to go
for a grand-scale fraud," Mitrokhin said.
According to Mitrokhin, at December parliamentary
elections YABLOKO's observers detected most of the violations
and fraud. If dozens of thousands of YABLOKO's observes
are not allowed to monitor the elections, they will go into
the streets on the next day, March 5.
March 4 marks the date when the people will
vote in Russia: Prime Minister Vladimir Putin plans to assume
the Russian Presidency for the third time. Unlike the first
two times, however, his support is melting on this occasion.
A demand for change is building in the country. More and
more people are no longer prepared to put up with the lies,
corruption, abuses and falsification in the elections.
It is impossible to call what we are witnessing
at present free and fair elections. There are no independent
courts, while the authorities control all national TV channels.
At the same time we can see the administrative pressure
on the mass media and the abuses of electoral commissions
– the official voting results have little in common with
the actual expression of will of the electorate.
Political competition on 4 March has been
reduced to simulation – each of the registered “opposition”
candidates to the President embodies a specific segment
of the political system created by Putin. The only candidate,
who represented a democratic alternative to the system –
Grigory Yavlinsky, who was nominated by Yabloko – was not
allowed to run in the elections on the pretext of casuistic
chicanery over the quality of the signatures gathered in
his support...
...To date 170 Russian citizens who are
currently abroad decided to become observers from the YABLOKO
ROSSII paper helping the YABLOKO party to monitor voting
in the Russian embassies and consulates on March 4...
In addition, the YABLOKO's activists will
control voting in Romania, Serbia, Turkey, Thailand, Australia,
Austria, Armenia, Belarus, Belgium, Great Britain, Hungary,
the Netherlands, Israel, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Canada,
Kenya, China, Luxembourg , Morocco, Norway, Poland, Uzbekistan,
Ukraine, Finland, Montenegro, Switzerland, Sweden, Estonia,
South Africa and Japan...
Application "I Am an Observer"
is available for downloading on iPhones and iPods from today.
The application was developed by the YABLOKO party jointly
with the Appsolute company specially for observers and electoral
commissions members.
The application contains a simple and clear
interface. It contains instructions for observers, references
to laws, forms for filing complaints, contact information
where to get help, etc.
An authorised observer will receive support
from YABLOKO's "hot line", the Voters’ League
and the Rosvybory project...
Sergei Mitrokhin, YABLOKO leader, believes
that lowering of a threashold on the number of party members
required for party registration and a ban on electoral blocs
will only lead to fragmentation of the political field and
mutual alienation of the society and the parliament. He
made such a statement in the State Duma today, when Duma
was examining the package of President’s draft laws targeted
at a political reform. Mitrokhin stressed that the draft
laws on political parties and elections of deputies of the
State Duma can not be examined separately from each other.
According to Mitrokhin, a ban of electoral
blocs will give a "powerful impulse to alienation for
the society from the government", and this on the threashold
of a coming political crisis can lead to something more
than recent mass-scale rallies. "A huge number of votes
will be distributes between small parties and they will
not be able to make it into the Duma, thus a significant
part of the Russian society will not be represented in the
State Duma and will not regard as a body reflecting their
interests," he said...
...He is standing; I'm seated. With every
statement, he lifts off his heels; the man looks down on
me with all his arrogance. "Judging by your visa, the
stated purpose of your visit in Russia does not match your
real activities." "What real activities?"
I dare to ask in return.
He fires back, "You are meeting with
members of the opposition."
Flummoxed, I'm left speechless for a moment.
But I realize he isn’t kidding. Never in 10 years of reporting
in post-Soviet Russia — including during the eight years
I spent living here and covering the war in Chechnya — have
the authorities faulted me for something with such grave
consequences. The official says that I’ll have to pay a
fine, to be determined by the colonel. My visa will be canceled
immediately, and I’ll be given a transit document requiring
that I leave the country within three days. Not once is
the word "journalist" uttered...
...Ivan Bolchakov, membre du conseil fédéral
et président de la commission jeunesse au sein de Iabloko,
étoile montante du Parti, revient sur les leçons à tirer
des manifestations et de cette invalidation à l'approche
de l'élection présidentielle du 4 mars.
Rue89 : Début février, des manifestations ont réuni entre
100 000 et 120 000 personnes à Moscou. Qui sont les manifestants
? Quelles sont leurs exigences ?
Ivan Bolchakov : Jusqu'à récemment, ne participaient
à la plupart des manifestations que des activistes politiques.
Parfois, des groupes de citoyens insatisfaits de la violation
de leurs droits – non-paiement des retraites, destruction
de parcs [comme la défense de la forêt de Khimki, dans la
banlieue de Moscou, face à un projet autoroutier, ndlr],
construction illégale de nouveaux quartiers – les rejoignaient...
The YABLOKO party supported the Great White
Ring action with an automobile race in the inner part of
the Garden Ring in Moscow.
Several dozens of vehicles participated
in the race. The cars were decorated with stickers "For
Fair Elections", white ribbons (a symbol of fight for
democracy and free and fair elections) and flags with party
symbols.
Party members made several stops during
the race so that to distribute leaflets calling the democratic
voters to become observers at the forthcoming presidential
elections. Trainings for observers are held daily in the
YABLOKO headquarters. About 5,000 leaflets were distributed
in two hours...
The YABLOKO party will support the Great
White Circle action with an automobile race in the inner
part of the Garden Ring in Moscow. The rally will be held
on Sunday, February 26. A column of cars decorated with
white ribbons (a symbol of fight for democracy and free
and fair elections) and flags with party symbols will start
from the party office at Pyatnitskaya Street...
The participants of the race will make stops
so that to join the chain of people standing shoulder to
shoulder in the Garden Ring protesting against election
fraud and curbing of human rights in Russia.
YABLOKO’s activists will also distribute
flyers among the participants in the Great White Circle.
The flyers call all the democratic voters to become observers
at the forthcoming presidential elections. YABLOKO launched
trainings for observers on February 20, the trainings will
be conducted until March 2...
Unfortunately we have such a situation in
our country when those who defend their Motherland and celebrate
their professional holiday on February 23 should be defended
from this Motherland.
On February 21 custody for Maxim Petlin,
leader of Ekaterinburg YABLOKO, was extended once again.
At present maxim Petlin, MP of Ekaterinburg
City Parliament and leader of YABLOKO’s regional branch,
is in the hospital of the detention facility. He has a kidney
problem. Probably his state deteriorated as he was kept
in a prison guards’ cold room which had no heating.
We are wishing Maxim health and strength.
We hope and wait that soon Maxim will return to his family
and public work. Russia needs such strong and honest people.
Maxim, the Defender of the Motherland holiday
of February 23 is your holiday!..
The Federal Council of YABLOKO which has
to develop party’s position on voting at the presidential
election of March 4, and the political reform announced
by the President will take place in the Moscow region on
Saturday, March 25.
The Federal Council is a representative
body of the party, it comprises 160 members, namely, Chairman
of the party, members of the Political Committee, the Bureau,
the Audit Commission, party arbitration, heads of regional
branches as well as one delegate from each regional organisation
and YABLOKO faction elected at their conferences...
Pressure on the National Reserve Bank financing
Novaya Gazeta can not be regarded as accidental.
It is a deliberate political persecution on the threashold
of the presidential election of one of the best Russian
printed media which has always demonstrated its honest,
objective and independent position.
The authorities are mortally scared of the society and of
the truth. Therefore, they have launched persecutions against
journalism.
We demand to immediately cease persecution of Novaya Gazeta
and ensure normal publication of the paper...
Das vorliegende Arbeitspapier untersucht
die Entwicklung des Bürgerengagements während der beiden
Amtsperioden von Präsident Putin und in der ersten Hälfte
der Amtszeit von Präsident Medwedew.
Während unter Putin von nachlassendem Engagement und einer
Entpolitisierung der Forderungen
der Bürger gesprochen werden kann, ist seit dem Amtsantritt
von Medwedew die Anzahl der Aktionen
gewachsen und das politische Niveau gestiegen. Dies wurde
besonders im Jahr 2010 sichtbar, als die
politischen Führungen von der zentralen bis hinunter zur
lokalen Ebene gezwungen waren, auf lang
anhaltende breite Bürgerproteste zu reagieren...
We are publishing an article
by Grigory Yavlinsky which he wrote not in the haste of
the election campaign he was not allowed to participate,
but almost a year ago.* We consider it a programme article
that is why we are publishing it under the rubrics where
we publish articles of presidential candidates...
On February 12, 2012, Russia's environmental
movement The Green decided to once again form an environmental
party. Its first public action was the decision to support
Vladimir Putin's candidacy at the presidential elections
in Russia. Also prior to its self-liquidation this party
had already declared its support to Vladimir Putin. This
party had also supported the decision to import foreign
radioactive waste into Russia. Obviously, the revival of
the party is aiming at supporting the government in their
fight against ecologists, rather than change of antiecological
policies in Russia. The newly released government's report
"On the Situation with Environmental Protection in
the Russian Federation in 2010" confirms that the quality
of environment in Russia has been deteriorating, and respectful
international ratings give Russia one of the lowest ratings
in the world as of the trends of its environmental changes...
A meeting of leaders of registered political
parties with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has just
finished. The key issue of the meeting was discussion of
the political reform. The YABLOKO party was represented
by Sergei Mitrokhin, YABLOKO Chairman, and Sergei Ivanenko,
Political Committee member.
Sergei Mitrokhin handed to President Medvedev
a list of demands put forward by participants of the demonstration
and rally of February 4, including the general resolution
of the rally, the resolution demanding registration of Grigory
Yavlinsky in the presidential election campaign and the
list of political prisoners...
The YABLOKO party begins training of observers
for presidential and municipal elections in its Moscow office.
The first seminar held on Monday evening was held for future
trainers of observers. The event was attended by 25 people.
They will train observers in Moscow and other regions. From
February 20 through to March 2 there will be daily trainings.
The trainings start at 19:00 on weekdays and at 15:00 and
18:00 on weekends...
Not only YABLOKO observers but also observers
(who will get accreditation from the YABLOKO Rossii newspaper)
from other candidates and public projects will be able to
participate in the training. YABLOKO co-operates with all
public projects for elections monitoring, in particular,
YABLOKO will provide them party offices in Moscow and the
regions.
Thus, Rosvybory project has begun distribution
of its documentation to its observers in YABLOKO’s Moscow
office. Observers from Rosvybory receive documents from
the headquarters of presidential candidates. (Note for the
Rosvybory observers: you should come for the documents only
after receipt of a notification that your documents are
ready.)
YABLOKO also collaborates with the Voters'
League (Liga Izbiratelei). Reception desks of the Voters
League will be opened in YABLOKO’s offices nationwide soon.
Volunteers will be able to get their accreditation from
the media there after a short training. Collection of observers'
reports within the framework of a joint nationwide project
"Final Summarised Protocol" will be also conducted
in the same YABLOKO offices.
Despite the fact that candidate from the
YABLOKO party at presidential elections Grigory Yavlinsky
was not registered as a presidential candidate, the party
intends to seriously engage in organisation of elections
control. Professionals who trained the party observers who
were acknowledged to be most qualified work in YABLOKO,
they also helped prepare applications to courts in hundreds
of cases of election fraud...
The Federal Migration Service unlawful and
insulting actions against Anne Nivat, French journalist
and writer, create a dangerous precedent. A journalist implementing
her professional duty and never violating Russian laws was
put under surveillance and was expelled from the country
on political grounds – after she had spoken to the opponents
of the present Russian government.
Such actions return us to totalitarian practices,
when the state regarded any oppositional activities and
contacts with foreign press a direct threat to the state
security. This has never happened even in Putin’s Russia.
However now we have witnessed an attempt to restore such
practices.
We regard this as purposeful actions by
the representatives of the state, a reprisals tryout as
a response to the civil activity growth. We demand an immediate
revision of the decision by the Federal Migration Service
on Anne Nivat and offering her an apology at a level of
at least a service head. We demand punishment for those
responsible for abusive actions against Anne Nivat.
If this is not done, the reprisals tryout will pass successfully
into our life.
Grigory Yavlinsky’s Live Journal,
February 14, 2012.
The authorities wish to turn [oppositional]
Echo Moskvi [radio station] into an echo of the [pro-governmental]
Channel One. Replacements in the Board of Directors of this
radio station is a step in this direction. It is a direct
state pressure on the media, and not only on Echo Moskvi.
This is a warning demonstrating to the Russian citizens
what will happen after presidential elections.
This step is made now because the situation
in the country and in the society has been changing. It
is not surprising that the reaction [of the authorities]
is reprisals. The authorities simply have not had any other
experience. And we should be ready to such a reaction.
But the key thing in this situation is that
the movement that has begun in the society can not be halted
by either reprisals or bribing habitual for the authorities...
Prominent French journalist and author Anne
Nivat said Russian immigration authorities forced her to
leave the country where she was working on a book on the
current political situation...
Ms. Nivat said she traveled to Russian provincial
towns where she was meeting, among others, with members
of the opposition. She traveled outside Vladimir to meet
with a local official from the Yabloko party.
She said ten minutes after her return to
a hotel in Vladimir Friday, the immigration officers showed
up at her hotel and took her to their station. “They canceled
my one-year multi-entry business visa and gave me a transit
visa, according to which I had three days to leave Russia,”
she said.
Ms. Nivat said that the officers made clear
to her that she had been followed for days—they mentioned
her meetings with members of the Communist Party and Yabloko
in Petrozavodsk, another provincial town in Russia’s north...
Activists of the Sverdlovsk region branch
of the YABLOKO party conducted an action "Putin, look,
here are political prisoners…" on Friday, February
10. The activists held a many meters banner in front of
the Representation of the President in Ekaterinburg. The
banner contained names of political prisoners from the list
handed to the current President Dmitry Medvedev.
The action represents a reaction of Vladimir
Putin’s statement during his meeting with political scientists
when he asked them to show him "at least one political
prisoner".
According to YABLOKO activists, the people
from the list were convicted with the help of falsified
evidence, the actual reason for putting them into prison
were their political activities.
Maxim Petlin, leader of the Sverdlovsk branch
of YABLOKO, kept in the pre-trial detention prison now is
also in the list of such political prisoners.
Speaking at a massive opposition rally
in Moscow on behalf of Yabloko (LI full-member) Grigory
Yavlinsky (LI Prize for Freedom laureate) said "They
wish to oust us all from elections. This won't go! This
is our right and we are defending the future of our country."
His statement comes days after the National Electoral Commission
refused
Yavlinsky's registration in the upcoming Presidential elections
declaring 20% of the collected signatures as allegedly "invalid."
Yavlinsky reassured his supporters that the party is going
to stay strong and it will continue to fight for a political
reform in the country so that moral and ethics are the main
force and so that there is no censorship in the mass media.
He also stressed that "life does no end on March 4
[the voting day of presidential elections] or March 5. This
is only the beginning." The nomination of Yavlinsky
had been officially endorsed
by Gorbachev while over 2,000 000 Russian citizens gave
their signatures in support of Yavlinsky's candidature hoping
to have a political alternative.
Grigory Yavlinsky commenting on the decision
of the Supreme Court which upheld the refusal to register
him as a candidate for President, once again emphasized
that he regarded this decision as political and not anyway
related to any litigation or the Central Electoral Commission
(CEC).
He emphasized that the court did not question
the authenticity of the 1,932,112 signatures that had been
found valid by the CEC...
Grigory Yavlinsky’s Live Journal,
February 8, 2012.
...The fact that we demonstrated this nonsense
to everyone in Russia was also part of our work.
Once again I would like to thank all of you who participated
in the collection of signatures, who helped to collect them
and who signed up. Your political position can not be "cancelled",
and eventually it is the most important achievement of this
campaign for collection of voters' signatures...
On Saturday, around 120.000 people marched
through Moscow and participated in the Rally for fair elections.
Supporters of ELDR member YABLOKO held a huge banner "We
demand new elections!"
Yabloko founder Grigory Yavlinsky stated:
"They wish to oust us all from elections. This won't
go! Together we are defending the future of the country,
the Constitution, freedom, life according to the rule of
law rather than arbitrary rule. It is important for us and
we will never surrender!"
Last week in the European Parliament, ELDR
President Sir Graham Watson MEP commented on the decision
of the Russian central electoral commission to block Yavlinsky
from running as a candidate in the 4 March elections: "It
seems to me that this is a politically motivated move."
The Moscow City Court overruled the decision
of Kuntsevsky District Court and declared removal of Aslan
Artsuyev, member of electoral commission from the YABLOKO
party with a deliberative vote, from polling station No
2451.
Aslan Artsuyev worked at the parliamentary
elections and was member of the PEC No 2451 with a deliberative
vote, was removed from the polling station 15 minutes before
its closure...
On Monday Grigory Yavlinsky, founder of
the YABLOKO party, appealed to the Supreme Court against
the decision of the Central Electoral Commission denying
him registration in presidential elections.
Yavlinsky asked in the appeal to revoke
the decision on the denial in registration in the presidential
election campaign and oblige the Central Electoral Commission
to register him in the campaign.
Grigory Yavlinsky ran in presidential elections
twice: in 1996 and 2000. In 1996 he came fourth with 7.34
per cent, and he was third in 2000 with 5.8 per cent. In
2004 and 2008 he did not participate in the presidential
elections.
In 2012 he planned to participate in the
presidential elections, however, on January 27 the Central
Electoral Commission officially denied him the registration...
Press Release, Videos, Photographs.
February 4, 2012.
...Grigory Yavlinsky, party founder, spoke
at the rally on behalf of YABLOKO:
"They wish to oust us all from elections.
This won't go! This is our right and we are defending the
future of our country.
We have gathered here so that to see that
there many of us, that we are not alone, that a friend's
shoulder is by your side. We are different, but we all have
three colours in common – the colours of the Russian flag.
All together we are defending the future
of the country, the Constitution, freedom, life according
to laws rather than arbitrary rule. It is important for
us and we will never surrender.
Now the most important thing I would like
to tell you is that life does no end on March 4 [the voting
day of presidential elections] or March 5. This is only
the beginning.
And our opponents and foes will see and
realise - may be they realise - soon that it is a beginning
for us, and an end for them.
This year we will create thousands of committees
for the political reform, join us!
This year we will make them abolish censorship
in the mass media.
This year we will make an extremely important
thing - politically we will really unite.
We will prove that morals and ethics can
be the main force both in politics and in Russia.
We love our country and we will not surrender
it to thieves, fascists, Stalinists or other parasites...
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty,
February 4, 2012.
Except from Russian transcript by Radio
Liberty:
14.25. Eugenia Chirikova [ecologist and
head of the Movement in Defence of Khimki Forest] proposes
to vote for a resolution in support of candidacy of Grigory
Yavlinsky on the post of Russian President. "We demand
that the decision of the Central Electoral Commission to
refuse Grigory Yavlinsky registration in the presidential
election campaign should be revoked." "We demand
to immediately register Grigory Yavlinsky candidate on the
post of President of Russia." The rally supports this
resolution with a roar of approval.
14.20. The rally greets YABLOKO founder
Grigory Yavlinsky with applause. Yavlinsky thanks all for
support. "They wish to oust us from elections… This
won't go. We feel a friends’ shoulder. We are different,
but we all have three colours in common – the colours of
the Russian flag. We defend the future of the country and
the Constitution – we defend them by lawful means… Now the
most important thing I would like to tell you is that life
does no end on March 5 [the day after presidential elections
in Russia]. This is only the beginning – for us and it is
an end for them… We will prove that politics can be moral…
For freedom and justice! For our Russia!"
YABLOKO participates in the demonstration
and rally For Fair Elections of February 4. The participants
should gather at 12:00 at Bolshaya Yakimanka (Oktyabrskaya
metro station).
YABLOKO's activists and supporters form
the second column (out of total six). The demonstrators
should gather by lamp-posts Nos 4 and 5 (out of total nine
numbered lamp posts). You will be able to easily locate
YABLOKO column by YABLOKO flags. Also you will be able to
find information about the location of the column from activists
wearing green YABLOKO uniform jackets.
The demonstration will start at 13:00. The
columns will go along Bolshaya Yakimanka and Maliy Kamenniy
bridge to Bolotnaya square. The rally at Bolotnaya square
will begin at 14:00...
On February 2 - 3, on the threashold of
the march and rally For Fair Elections, YABLOKO activists
will distribute leaflets calling to join the action. Leaflets
will be distributed by seven Moscow metro stations.
Tomorrow YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin
(who is also member of the organisational committe of the
action) will be distributing leaflets by Novokuznetskaya
metro station from 3 to 4 p.m.
Picketers will also distribute leaflets
by Pushkinskaya, Arbatskaya, Chistiye Prudi, Mayakovskaya,
Sretenskiy Bulvar, Tretyakovskaya and Novokuznetskaya metro
stations from 4 to 7 p.m.
Also leaflets can be obtained in YABLOKO
Moscow office (Pyatnitskaya ulitsa, 31/2 bldg 2) from 10
a.m. to 8 p.m...
Public prosecutor of Moscow
requires the YABLOKO party to provide information about
the organization, where the web-site server of yabloko.ru
is physically located. Investigators are interested in the
actual location of the organization, its legal address and
contact telephone numbers.
The request of the prosecutor's
office was given to the party this morning. Further, the
information must be provided to Zamoskvoretskaya Interdistrict
Prosecutor's Office as early as 15:00.
The requirements put forward
during the audit were launched upon request to the prosecution
by the Central Electoral Commission’s chief Vladimir Churov.
The latter appealed to the prosecutors after YABLOKO published
on its website the so-called "Churov list" - a
list of leaders of local electoral commissions, where protocols
of voting were falsified or the observers were removed without
any reason on the parliamentary elections voting day December
4, 2011...
...Thus, an observer's protocol (certified
by the Chair of the Precinct Electoral Commission) ran that
the Just Russia party obtained 290 votes (201 vote according
to the Central Electoral Commission). The discrepancy in
votes for Vladimir Zhirinovsky's LDPR party amounted to
32 votes (142 against 108 votes), 15 votes for the Patriots
of Russia (29 against 14 votes), the vote for the Right
Cause was worsened by half (from 14 to 7 votes). However,
the ruling United Russia improved its total vote (from 506
votes on the protocol of the observer to 651 vote, according
to official data of the CEC). The votes for the Communist
Party and YABLOKO remained unchanged.
"Probably, the election committee members thought that
YABLOKO and the Communist Party can go to courts only if
their interests are affected. And they decided to "modify"
the results of other parties," said YABLOKO’s lawyers.
There are also discrepancies in the numbers of canceled
and absentee ballots...
Fire resulting from an arson fire has completely
destroyed the office of "Vechrniy Krasnokamsk"
weekly this night. The founder and editor-in-chief of the
weekly is Olga Kolokolova, leader of the Perm YABLOKO branch
and deputy of the City Council in Krasnokamsk. Olga believes
that it is a revenge by Yury Chechyotkin, the city Mayor,
for journalists’ investigation into his embezzlement of
budget funds allocated for housing repairs in the city...
In April 2011, unknown persons assailants
beat Olga Kolokolova’s father - deputy of the Krasnokamsk
City Duma Arkady Kolokolov. He helped the crew of the "Riphey-Perm"
television company, which investigated the circumstances
of the repairs in the TSZh Parkovoi. The contractor hired
by the managing company providing services for the house
received 4.5 million rubles, but the works were not completed...
Grigory Yavlinsky's Live Journal,
January 29, 2012
...Let us make a simple calculation: the
share of detected defective (void) signatures that were
not included into this category (Code 29) amounted to 16,446
(2.74% of the number of verified signatures totaling 600,000).
The rest was 137,492 (22.91%): "Other violations of
procedural formalities in filing signature sheets, including
signatures of voters whose data were included into signature
sheets not in handwriting (electronic photographs certified
by authorized representatives)." This means that the
main fault found in the signatures by the Central Electoral
Commission lying behind their refusal in my registration
referred NOT TO THE SIGNATURES, BUT TO "OTHER VIOLATIONS
OF PROCEDURAL FORMALITIES IN FILING OF SIGNATURE SHEETS,
including signatures of those voters whose data were included
into signature sheets not in handwriting (electronic photographs
certified by authorized representatives)"...
Days after Yavlinsky's
candidature was endorsed by Gorbachev, the National
Electoral Commission (NEC) declared 20% of the signatures
collected in support of the leader of Yabloko (LI full member)
invalid. Commenting on the incident at a news Conference
Yavlinsky said: 'I consider the decision of the NEC as politically
motivated. They aren't letting me join the race, because
they don't want to allow an alternative - political, economic
and moral.' He also cautioned that such refusal to allow
him to join the race would undermine the vote's legitimacy
and could lead to unrest and instability in the country.
Grigory Yavlinsky needed to collect and submit at least
2,000,000 votes in order to register since he was nominated
by a non-parliamentary party. ALDE-PACE (LI Cooperating
Organisation) issued
a statement condemning the situation as 'another sign
of the limitation of political competition and expression
in the country.' The group also expressed concern that the
latest developments in Russia severely compromise the possibility
for free and fair presidential elections on 4 March 2012.
Grigory Yavlinsky, former leader of ELDR
member party, YABLOKO, has been officially barred from running
in the upcoming Russian presidential election. The Central
Electoral Commission announced yesterday that Yavlinsky's
candidature is invalid as a result of perceived technical
irregularities in the way the signatures of support, a requirement
for participation in the election, were presented to the
Commission.
Commenting on the refusal to accept Yavlinsky's
registration for the 4 March election, ELDR Party President,
Sir Graham Watson MEP stated, "this is clearly a politically
motivated move designed to ensure Vladimir Putin has an
easy ride back into the presidency and shows a blatant disregard
of democratic principles and international standards for
free and fair elections.
It seems that Putin and his cronies have learnt nothing
from the protests that have been taking place since last
December's parliamentary elections. This is very worrying
and undermines the authority and legitimacy of the future
Russian president."
Grigory Yavlinsky said that the position taken by the Electoral
Commission denies thousands of people the opportunity to
express their views freely. "Their refusal means that
all the people who do not agree with what has been happening
in Russia, the people who want a different perspective -
an open, democratic, European and modern perspective - will
not be allowed to participate in the elections by means
of this political decision"...
The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for
Europe (ALDE) of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council
of Europe unanimously condemns the latest developments in
Russia which severely compromise the possibility for free
and fair presidential elections on 4 March 2012...
YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin expressed
his indignation at the refusal of the Moscow authorities
to coordinate and give a permission to the march scheduled
on February 4. The march continues the actions launched
after parliamentary elections of December 4 that had demonstrated
unprecedented fraud.
"The decision of the Moscow Mayor’s
office provokes tension," Mitrokhin said. "Neither
broad pubic [gathering for the march via Internet] nor we
can agree to the route they proposed to us (from the Luzhniki
Stadium to the Krimskiy bridge)," he noted...
Picket in favour of registration of Grigory
Yavlinsky at presidential elections took place at the Teatralnaya
square in Nizhny Novgorod on January 23, 2012.
The participants of the action held placards
"YABLOKO for Fair Elections!", "YES to Elections!
NO to Churov*!" and "Elections Without Yavlinsky
Means Elections Without Choice!"
The picketers chanted "Yavlinsky Is
Our President!", "Honesty to the Central Electoral
Commission and "Magician" Churov, Go to the Circus!"
and "Let Elections be Fair!"...
Grigory Yavlinsky, YABLOKO leader and head
of the YABLOKO faction in St.Petersburg Legislative Assembly,
proposed to St.Petersburg Legislative Assembly to create
a commission for investigation of election fraud at parliamentary
elections of December 4, 2011.
19 deputies out of 50 voted for this proposal.
The United Russia and the LDPR factions did not participate
in the voting. Thus, the decision on creation of such a
commission failed...
YABLOKO does not see anything new in today’s
statements by representatives of the Central Electoral Commission
that the number of defective signatures give them grounds
to refuse Grigory Yavlinsky registration in the presidential
election campaign.
Grigory Yavlinsky and other party leaders
gave assessments of this decision during press-conference
at Interfax yesterday.
However, we expect further escalation of
claims on behalf of the Central Electoral Commission after
organizational committee of the rally scheduled on February
4 adopted a decision on nominating Grigory Yavlinsky presidential
candidate...
Reacting to news that Grigory Yavlinsky,
from the Russian Democratic Party "Yabloko" is
unlikely to be allowed to register as a candidate for the
Presidency, Guy Verhofstadt, President of the Alliance of
Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) made the following
statement:
"By refusing to register Grigory Yavlinsky for the
presidential election the Kremlin removes any glimmer of
hope for an alternative vision for Russia. The Presidential
elections to be held on 4 March 2012 will be another step
backwards for democracy in Russia."
"Russian people have demonstrated their disdain for
the current regime and are demanding change. New State Duma
elections should be held after registration of all opposition
political parties. The European Union should reassess EU
policy on Russia with the prospect of Putin clinging to
power until 2024."
"The President in waiting would be well advised to
heed to people's demands.
Mr. Putin, be aware Spring is coming."
Presidential candidate from the YABLOKO
party Grigory Yavlinsky said that the intention [of the
Central Electoral Commission] to refuse to register him
in the presidential elections campaign was "purely
political" and "did not have anything to do with
signatures and their quality."
"Their refusal means that all the people
who do not agree with what has been happening in Russia,
the people who want a different perspective - an open, democratic,
European and modern perspective – will not be allowed to
participate in the elections by means of this political
decision," Grigory Yavlinsky said at a press conference
at Interfax.
This is done for two reasons, Yavlinsky
noted, "Vladimir Putin and the present government fear
the choice that will be made by the part of citizens tired
of stealing, lies and corruption." In addition, "they
are afraid that tens of thousands of observers" whom
YABLOKO planned to send to the polling stations...
In the coming days the verdict of the Central
Electoral Commission (CEC) will be announced: who of the
candidates submitting voters’ signatures to the CEC will
be registered as presidential candidate. The quality and
authenticity of the signatures have nothing to do with this
[check up by CEC] and registration. It will be Vladimir
Putin who will make the decision on the issue.
My prediction is like this: [oligarch] Mikhail
Prokhorov will be registered, and Grigory Yavlinsky not.
Why?
We have learned from The New Times, that the evening on
December 9, Vladimir Putin telephoned Mikhail Prokhorov
and asked him to run for president.
The 9th of December was just the last day of filing the
application for the registration. In the evening the CEC
gave the names of all those who applied and were registered.
Prokhorov was not among them...
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty,
January 23, 2012.
Russian opposition Yabloko party founder
Grigory Yavlinsky could be denied registration as a presidential
candidate by Russia’s Central Election Commission...
"This issue is of a political nature,
absolutely, and the purpose of [denying registration] is
to bar from elections all those people who are discontent
with what is happening in Russia today and who would like
a different future for Russia -- an open, democratic, European,
modern future," Yavlinsky said.
He added that Yabloko plans to register
hundreds or even thousands of observers for the election
and that is also a reason the Kremlin might refuse to register
him.
"This decision is strictly political
and it has nothing to do with the signatures or their quality,"
he said.
The nomination of Yabloko's (LI full-member)
Presidential Candidate, Grigory Yavlinsky, has been officially
endorsed by former Soviet president and leader of Perestroyka,
Mikhail Gorbachev. It follows the disputed Russian Duma
elections in December 2011. According to the Russian law,
since Yavlinsky has been nominated by a non-parliamentary
party, he needs to collect and submit at least 2 million
signatures to the Central Electoral Commission in order
to run in the upcoming Presidential elections. The latest
party's press release indicates that the leader of Yabloko
has managed to collect signatures from all Russian regions,
as well as from Russian citizens working and living abroad.
This equates to around 2, 132, 000 votes in just 25 days.
Yavlinsky commented saying "collecting 2 million signatures
is not just a technical procedure. It means that 2 million
people have vowed to support the political alternative that
we represent." A day after Yavlinsky was nominated
as a candidate for the presidential elections,
LI President Hans van Baalen MEP made a telephone call to
Mr. Yavlinsky expressing LI's full support.
YABLOKO will submit to the Central Electoral
Commission voters' signatures for Grigory Yavlinsky's registration
in the presidential election campaign on January 18 at 4
p.m. Files with 2,100,000 voters' signatures will be transported
to the Central Electoral Commission on four minivans. In
total YABLOKO's volunteers managed to collect 2,132,000
voters' signatures in 25 days only (from December 23 to
January 16).
Address of the Central Electoral Commission:
Bolshoi Cherkasskiy pereulok 9
Accreditation for journalists: tel +7 495 606-13-25.
YABLOKO Chairman Sergei Mitrokhin participated
in the meeting of representatives of the Russian opposition
with new US Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul.
"I spoke to Ambassador about the need to continue the
dialogue on the problems of joint Russia-US anti-ballistic
missile defence initiated by the YABLOKO party in the end
of 1990s," Mitrokhin told the journalists after the
meeting...
The YABLOKO party is going to complete creation
of a fund for citizens' donations for organisation of election
monitoring and encourages people to become observers on
the election day March 4.
"Today we are initiation creation of
a special fund, which we are calling the Fund for Promotion
of Public Control over Elections", said Sergei Mitrokhin,
YABLOKO Chairman, a press conference in the Interfax office
on Monday...
2,100,000 people signed up for registration
of Grigory Yavlinsky in the presidential election campaign.
As expected Grigory Yavlinsky's electoral head-quarters
received large quantity of sheets with signatures these
days. Today, on the last day of collection of signatures,
the head-quarters will receive about 100,000 signatures.
According to the law, the number of signatures
submitted to the Central Electoral Commission should not
exceed 2.1 mln. On January 17, the staff of the head-quarters
will pass 2.1 mln signatures to the print shop for binding.
On January 18 the signatures will be submitted to the Central
Electoral Commission...
Ex-President of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev
signed up for nomination of Grigory Yavlinsky presidential
candidate. The sheet with Mikhail Gorbachev's signature
was brought by Gorbachev Fund officer to YABLOKO's head-quarters
yesterday...
Collection of signatures for registration in the election
campaign began on December 23 and will go through January
15.
As of yesterday, the Grigory Yavlinsky's electoral head-quarters
disposed of 1.7 mln voters' signatures. YABLOKO activists
hope that the remaining 400,000 signatures will be collected
in the coming days. YABLOKO attracts volunteers (YABLOKO
members and supports, ex-observers at the parliamentary
elections and people who left their telephones within the
framework of the project "The Glasnost Territory")
for collection of signatures. A number of public organisations,
including the staff of the Gorbachev Fund, help YABLOKO
to collect signatures.
As of today, YABLOKO collected over 1.7
mln signatures for registration of Grigory Yavlinsky in
the presidential elect ion campaign. Collection of signatures
will go until January 15, sheets with voters' signatures
have to be filed and prepared for dispatch to the Central
Electoral Commission on January 18.
YABLOKO activists think that they will manage
to collect the remaining 400,000 signatures (as a non-parliamentary
party such as YABLOKO has to submit to the Central Electoral
Commission 2.1 mln signatures for registration of its candidate
in the face). Grigory Yavlinsky's headquarters call all
the supporters of an alternative at presidential elections
to focus on the solution of this task...
Yelena Dubrovina, member of Central Electoral
Commission from the YABLOKO party, voted for introduction
of the issue of resignation of Vladimir Churov, head of
the Central Electoral Commission, into the agenda of the
commission. Most of the commission members (including members
from the Just Russia and Vladimir Zhirinovsky's LDPR) voted
against this proposal...
Only Yelena Dubrovina from YABLOKO and Eugeni
Kolushin from CPRF voted in favour of this proposal. Other
13 commission members, including representative of the Just
Russia Sergei Danilyenko and Oleg Lavrov from LDPR voted
against this...
Volunteers are collecting signatures for
registration of Grigory Yavlinsky as candidate for President
of Russia among Russian citizens living or working abroad.
Collection of signatures is held in seven European countries,
the US and Canada. So far, none of other Russian parties
and candidates have attempted to collect signatures of Russian
citizens living or working abroad.
Russian citizens working in the UK, France,
Germany, Finland, Belgium, Switzerland, Denmark, USA and
Canada wrote to YABLOKO with a proposal to collect signatures
among compatriots abroad...
Grigory Yavlinsky's Live Journal,
January 11, 2012
I am offering you this article without any
changes. Today my understanding of the essence of our sociopolitical
crisis and programme for its overcoming are virtually the
same. These ideas result from long work and much reflection.
This is a search for an alternative…
LIES AND LEGITIMACY
...
People take flight
The Russian political regime today, which
emerged after 1991 and was formed over the past decade,
has still not created a modern state.
As a result, we are witnessing today an
unremitting chasm that is deepening and is being transformed
into an insurmountable rift between the authorities and
the people, the state and society.
This is not a temporary credibility gap,
but rather a systematic problem. The high ratings of the
country's leader do not attest to public support for the
powers that be. The vast difference in the public trust
shown in these individuals and all other state institutions
attests to the ultimate instability and fragility of the
entire Russian state construct...
Such a decision by the Moscow authority
was announced to the organiser of the rally that have to
take place this Saturday and introduce the so-called "Churov
List" (Ed. The list includes the names of people engaged
in the parliamentary elections fraud). It was planned to
conduct the rally by Griboyedov Monument at Chistiye Prudi.
Earlier the bureaucrats had refused to allow a rally at
this place under a pretext of paving the square...
On January 3, we asked our web-site visitors:
"If the presidential election were held today, whom
would you vote for?" And offered to vote for one of
the presidential candidates: Vladimir Zhirinovsky's LDPR
Chairman, Gennady Zyuganov, the Communist party (CPRF) leader,
Dmitry Mezentsev, Governor of the Irkutsk, Sergei Mironov,
leader of the Just Russia party, billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov,
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and YABLOKO leader Grigory
Yavlinsky. The poll ended today.
The results were quite expected. Dmitry
Mezentsev failed to score even one per cent, also visitors
of the Novaya Gazeta web-site did not vest any hopes into
the leaders of the parliamentary opposition. The number
of votes given in favour of Vladimir Putin (whom the web-site
visitors probably voted for asking themselves "Who
else?") is also small. Businessman Mikhail Prokhorov
has a somewhat higher percentage, and more than half of
all the votes by the readers of Novaya Gazeta went to Grigory
Yavlinsky. So there [seems to be] no second round...
1.1 mln signatures for nomination of Grigory
Yavlinsky for presidential elections collected during Christmas
holidays in Russia. YABLOKO's electoral headquarters expect
an abrupt rise of the number of signatures after the end
of holidays.
In Moscow signatures are collected not only
in YABLOKO's office but also by six metro stations...
700,000 people have already put their signatures
in favour of nomination of YABLOKO leader Grigory Yavlinsky
to run in the presidential elections campaign. Collection
of signatures for registration in the election campaign
began on December 23 and will go through January 14.
The Russian law requires for a candidate
from a non-parliamentary party to collect and submit by
January 18 to the Central Electoral Commission at least
2 million of signatures in favour of his nomination to run
in the campaign. Moreover, such a campaign for collection
of signatures should be conducted by a party nominating
its candidate in at least 40 Russian regions, whereas the
number of signatures collected in each of the regions should
not exceed 50,000...
On December 29 at day time, Alexander Senotrusov,
YABLOKO's activist fighting against construction of cottages
in the natural reserve, was attacked for investigation of
land fraud in the Leningrad region. An unidentified person
wearing a mask hit Senotrusov on his head knocking him off
his feet. The beating continued when Senotrusov was on the
ground, the attacker was crying "Here is for Zakhar!"
Senotrusov is certain that the man aimed at killing him.
According to Senotrusov, "Zakhar" was the nick
name of Yury Zakharchuk, head of municipal settlement Lebyazhenskoye.
Senotrusov initiated establishment of a natural reserve
which had to protect the coast line of the Gulf of Finland
(a traditional recreation place for the local residents)
from sale.
Senotrusov conducted at investigation of the fraud with
land in the Lomonosov District, the Leningrad region...
According to the Levada-Center poll, 37.6
percent of the participants of the rally at the Sakharov
Prospect voted for the YABLOKO party. One out of four is
ready to support YABLOKO, even if the leaders of unregistered
opposition movements manage to create their own parties
by the next elections. YABLOKO leader Grigory Yavlinsky
was the most popular politician for the participants in
the rally (24.4 percent). Every third participant of the
rally for fair elections would be ready to support his candidacy
at the forthcoming presidential elections. These are the
results of the public opinion poll conducted by Levada-Center...
In his speech at the rally on December 24
YABLOKO leader Grigory Yavlinsky called the coming presidential
elections "the second round" which should be won
and lead to making Russia an open and free European country.
"The [parliamentary] elections of December
4 were the first round and judging by what we see here now
we have not lost it," Yavlinsky told addressing a 100,000
rally. "The second round is presidential election,
and we can not vote there for any candidate".
"We should have our candidate, we should
fight for the second round, we must make it into the second
round! Next year we should change the political system!"
he said.
"Our goal can be reduced to only evicting
some persons from the power, our goal is to change the corrupt,
bribable, deceitful and really illegitimate system,"
Yavlinsky noted...
In conclusion Grigory Yavlinsky called the
authorities to free one of the organizers of the rallies
Sergei Udaltsov who had been kept under arrest despite his
health condition. "Do not be so cruel, ghoulish and
petty, stop torturing him, release this man," he said.
The Krasnodar branch of the YABLOKO party
expresses its protest in view of dismissal of Elena Kovalyova,
Director of cinema theatre “Russia” in Tuapse. YABLOKO stated
that Kovalyova was fired in violation of the Labor Code,
but the real reason behind the dismissal was her principled
stand against election fraud.
YABLOKO members are going to apply to the
Ministry of Culture and the Department of Culture of the
Krasnodar Area with a statement running that such violations
of the labour law are inadmissible...
The Saratov branch of YABLOKO stated mass-scale
fraud at elections to the State Duma in the region. Comparison
of the data from the protocols given to observers at local
electoral commissions with the data published by the Central
Electoral Commission demonstrated a discrepancy amounting
to thousands votes. Votes given for different parties were
ascribed to the ruling United Russia party.
Thus 6,433 votes were added to United Russia
at 23 Saratov polling stations, which raised the result
of the ruling party by 41.62 per cent. These votes were
stolen from other parties: YABLOKO lost 574 votes (i.e.
41.02 per cent of its vote). For example, 110 votes were
stolen from YABLOKO at polling station 128: the Central
Electoral Commission web-site indicated that only 12 votes
were given for YABLOKO instead of 122 votes as of the protocol...
Last week YABLOKO submitted the first eight
suits to eight Moscow courts demanding to cancel the results
of the voting at eight polling stations.
The YABLOKO party began compiling the ‘Churov
List’. The list will contain names of heads (chairs, deputy
chairs and secretaries) of electoral commissions with documentary
evidence of grave violations of the law...
“It should become shameful to be engaged
in an election fraud. The circle around those engaged in
fraud should tell them that such actions are a disgrace.
Our list is aiming at formation of such a climate,” said
YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin...
YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin expressed
his doubt that North Korean domestic polices may change
with the change of power in the country, however, he did
not rule out that Pyohgyang foreign polices may become more
open.
"I doubt that some democratisation
may be possible there at all. They have a stable totalitarian
regime. And there is no crisis of this regime there,"
Mitrokhin told to Interfax on Monday.
He also noted that despite of the fact that
the new North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has been educated
in the West, he "is unlikely to cultivate Western values
in the North Korea".
"The values of the ruling clan where
he was brought up are most probably more important for him
than Western values. He is unlikely to abolish the undivided
power," Mitrokhin said...
...The decision of the Congress runs that
YABLOKO does not recognize the results of the parliamentary
elections, considers the State Duma formed via rigged voting
illegitimate and demands recognition of the elections void.
Delegates of the Congress also indicated that collection
of signatures for participation in election campaigns for
non-parliamentary parties should be abolished, also the
threashold for passing into the State Duma should be reduced
to 3 per cent. It was also stressed that all the political
organisations wishing to take part in elections should have
access to elections and public organizations should get
the right to nominate observers for elections...
Despite massive fraud, the results of the
party demonstrated sufficient increase of its support: even
according to the Central Electoral Commission data, YABLOKO
was supported by 2.3 million voters. This support was the
highest support in the large cities (as of the official
data below): over 10 per cent in St Petersburg and Petrozavodsk,
over 8 per cent in Moscow and Pskov, over 7 per cent in
Yekaterinburg, Arkhangelsk, Tver, Perm and Tomsk, over 6
per cent in Irkutsk , Murmansk, Yaroslavl, Tula, Novosibirsk,
Chelyabinsk, Vladivostok, over 5 per cent in Rostov-upon-Don,
Vologda, Kaluga, Krasnoyarsk, Samara, Novgorod, Volgograd,
Ivanovo, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, the Khanty-Mansiysk, Vladimir,
Omsk , Khabarovsk, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Ryazan and
Kostroma. In the 31 regions the party won over 3 per cent.
Grigory Yavlinsky submitted to the Central
Election Commission (CEC) the documents on his nomination
to run in presidential elections in Russia in March 2012.
The decision on nomination of Grigory Yavlinsky, the founder
of the YABLOKO party, was adopted by the party congress
on December 18.
Now, the CEC must within five days register
authorized representatives of the party and its candidate
and give them a permission to open the electoral account.
Printing of lists for collection of 2 mln of signatures
in favour of Grigory Yavlinsky required for his registration
of a candidate in presidential campaign will be paid from
this account...
Vaclav Havel was the most advanced politician
because his guidance in his work and life was always a moral
imperative rather than narrowly understood political viability.
The fact that the people of Czechoslovakia
elected Vaclav Havel in 1989 their president characterizes
first of all the thinking of the people and their realization
that such person should head the country in the moment of
abrupt changes. Such a coincidence is rare in history, that
is why the example of Vaclav Havel is most valuable for
the world. His performance in the historic stage does not
end today, on the very day when his death has become another
cause for assertion of his principles.
I am transferring my sincere condolences
to Vaclav Havel's wife, his friends, next of kin and all
the Czech people.
The majority (106 out of 109) delegates
of the YABLOKO Congress nominated Grigory Yavlinsky candidate
for presidential elections in Russia.
"The result of the [State Duma] elections
leaves us no doubt that we have far more than two million
supporters needed for the party to register in the presidential
elections," Grigory Yavlinsky said.
He also said that the election campaign
is not a purely political procedure, it is "a discussion
with the citizens of a possibility and a need of different
policies that should be conducted on different moral grounds".
"The result of the State Duma elections
demonstrated that alternative policy is in demand in the
society. And this should be moral and programmed based policies,"
he added...
We know that the enemy is using dirty tricks,
that he is stronger and that the judges are bribed. But
we will still go all the way and will fight honestly.
And no one will be able to reproach us that
we threw the towel on the ring before the fight, got frightened
and refused to fight.
YABLOKO will participate in the presidential
elections. And I ask all of you to support us. If a fighter
feels support from the stands, his strength is doubled,
and I know that from my own experience...
A rally for fair elections and against election
fraud have just ended at Bolotnaya square, Moscow. The rally
organised by the YABLOKO party have gathered 5,000 people.
Grigory Yavlinsky, Vladimir Milov, leader of the Democratic
Choice movement, Vladimir Ryzhkov, co-chair of PARNAS, representatives
of Just Russia Dmitry Gudkov and Ilya Ponomaryov, Boris
Nadezhdin, head of the Moscow region branch of the Right
Cause, leaders of public organisations and movements and
citizens who acted as observers at the election of December
4 spoke at the rally.
The resolution of the rally was read by
Grigory Yavlinsky. The participants of the rally demanded
immediate release of all those detained during protest actions
against election fraud, abrogation of the results of the
voting, investigation of the fraud and punishment of those
guilty of fraud...
Konstantin Smirnov, one of the leaders of
the Ryazan branch of Yabloko (LI full-member) was arrested
for 7 days for allegedly "disobeying the lawful orders
of the police" for participation in the "For Fair
Elections" rally organized in Ryazan on December 8.
Such an act was clearly politically motivated as a video
of Simonov's detention shows that he did not disobey police
orders. This follows the biggest protests organized since
the collapse of the Soviet Union over the highly disputed
Parliamentary elections in the country which took place
last week. The leader of Yabloko, Sergei Mitrokhin, has
asked the Head of the Central Electoral Commission, Vladimir
Churov, to voluntarily leave his post saying "it is
Churov who is personally responsible for the scope of the
fraud that took place in the country on the voting day."
LI Vice-President on the Bureau and Chair of LI Human Rights
Committee, Abir
Al-Sahlani MP, was part of an OSCE election observer mission
in Russia and witnessed first-hand the mass violations committed
during the electoral process.
Telephone terrorists again try to hamper
work of YABLOKO's office blocking party telephones on the
threashold of tomorrow's rally against election fraud...
The calls are coming in a chain, as soon
as a telephone hook is pressed there comes a new call. The
caller can not be identified.
The new attack is connected with tomorrow’s
rally against election fraud which will take place at Bolotnaya
square at 1 p.m...
Rally "For Free and Fair Elections"
will take place at Bolotnaya square tomorrow on December
17 at 1 p.m. The rally is organised by the YABLOKO party.
"We applied for a permission to conduct a rally right
after we realized that votes of our electorate were stolen
at these elections," Sergei Mitrokhin explained. According
to Mitrokhin, the goal is to "join together civil activists
and new people who are showing their civil will towards
changes". "We have to discuss all together how
we will fight for a new Russia," he stressed.
The speakers at the rally will be Grigory
Yavlinsky, Eugeniya Chirikova, Vladimir Milov, Ilya Ponomaryov,
Gennadi Gudkov and Lev Ponomaryov. The rally will be monitored
by Sergei Mitrokhin. Such public and political organisations
as the White Ribbon, Blue Buckets, the Federation of Automobile
Owners, the Party of People’s Freedom, the Democratic Choice,
the Left Front, Memorial and the Moscow Helsinki Group will
participate in the rally.
The Russian United Democratic Party YABLOKO
expresses condolences to the relatives of Khadzhimurad Kamalov,
an independent publisher of Dagestan social and political
weekly "Chernovik", killed tonight in Makhachkala,
Dagestan.
This is a great loss for Dagestan and all
Russian journalism.
We can state with the great pain that it
has been deadly dangerous in Russia to engage in honest
journalism and openly discuss political issues.
It will be unfair if the people behind the
murder go unpunished...
The Russian United Democratic Party YABLOKO
demands to immediately stop a cruel and potentially deathful
treatment of Sergei Udaltsov.
The police actions are threatening his health
and life.
The decision of the court of the first instance
on his 15 days arrest bases on trumped-up pretests and does
not take into account the medical condition of Sergei Udaltsov.
Sergei Udaltsov must be immediately released
so that to give him an opportunity for proper medical treatment.
We emphasize once again, the question at
issues is human life.
The second phase of the 16th Congress of
the YABLOKO party will take place on Sunday, December 18.
The Congress will adopt a decision on YABLOKO participation
in the presidential election...
The congress will begin its work at 12-00.
The congress will be opened by YABLOKO leaders
Sergei Mitrokhin and Grigory Yavlinsky.
A briefing by the party leaders will begin
at 16-00...
A civil rally will take place at Bolotnaya
square, Moscow, on December 17, 2011, at 1 p.m. The key
question put forward before the Russian civil society: what
to do next?
The YABLOKO party organizing the rally is
calling all the civil activists and organisations to gather
together so that to answer this question.
As of today the following organisations
have already confirmed their participation: The White Ribbon
movement, the Moscow Helsinki Group, the Memorial society,
For the Human Rights movement, Eugenia Chirikova and her
Movement for Protection of Khimki Forest, The Left Front,
Solidarnost, PARNAS and the Democratic Choice...
Today a Ryazan court of the first instance
passed a verdict on a seven days arrest to Kostantin Smirnov,
one the leaders of the Ryazan branch of YABLOKO and a journalist
from oppositional Novaya Gazeta, arrested for 7 days.
The verdict based on the Article "Disobeying
lawful orders of police" for participation in the For
the Fair Elections rally which took place in Ryazan on December
8.
The verdict was obviously politicized as
the video of Simonov’s detention demonstrated that he did
not disobey to the police orders. After voicing of the verdict
in the court Smirnov gave to the judge a mask saying that
"now you should be ashamed to show undisguised in the
streets, the mask will help you to hide your face".
Another journalist from Novaya Gazeta Sergei
Yezhov was sentenced to 9 days of arrest by court.
You can sign a petition in support of arrested
journalists at the Ryazan web-site of Novaya Gazeta...
Civil rally "For Fair Elections!"
scheduled on December 17 at 1 p.m. will take place in Moscow,
Bolotnaya square (not at the Pushkin square as announced
earlier).
The YABLOKO party considers prosecution
of Vassily Popov, [leader of the Karelian branch of YABLOKO],
be politically motivated. This is an obvious consequence
of YABLOKO's victory in the elections to the Legislative
Assembly of the region and a high regional vote for the
party in the elections to the State Duma, this provocation
means an attempt to discredit someone who was able to get
such high support from the population.
On December 6 Vassily Popov, member of YABLOKO's
Political Committee and leader of the Karelia regional branch
of the party, became a victim of a provocation. During a
staged road accident a small dose of drugs was stuffed into
his car. People (non-residents of the area) who provoked
the accident and witnessed that the drugs allegedly fell
from Popov's pocket were not checked by the police. Medical
examination showed that Popov had not used drugs, however,
the case was transferred to the court of the first instance...
At his speech in the Central Electoral Commission
on December 9, 2011, YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin asked
head of the Central Electoral Commission Vladimir Churov
to voluntarily leave his post. "It is you who are personally
responsible for the scope of fraud taking place in the country
[on the voting day]," Mitrokhin told to Churov. He
specially stressed that YABLOKO was going to demand dismissal
from head of the Central Electoral Commission "in the
State Duma and other state bodies".
"If you, our respected Central Electoral
Commission, do not announce re-counting of the votes all
over the country today, than it will take place in the streets,"
Mitrokhin concluded.
YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin in his speech
at the rally at Bolotnaya Square, Moscow, said the number
of participants of the rally allowed to speak with the authorities
on behalf of Russia's people. "We are here to say to
the ruling group: stop stealing votes at elections, stop
stealing power from us," Mitrokhin said...
Grigory Yavlinsky, YABLOKO top candidate
and founder of the party, thanked all who voted for YABLOKO
and promised that the party would protect the votes of all
the people who had come to elections.
Yavlinsky said that YABLOKO had already
forwarded a complained to the Central Electoral Commission
demanding to cancel the results of the voting. "However,
the Central Electoral Commission did not take our complaint
saying that the campaign is over. It is not true! It’s only
the beginning of the campaign!" he added.
Sunday's parliamentary elections in Russia
in which the share of the vote for the ruling United Russia
party fell to below 50% and the protests that have been
taking place the last few days in which increasing numbers
of people have been making their feelings known about the
lack of free and fair elections provide signs of hope for
the free and democratic future of Russia, not only that
Russian people are fed up with the current regime, but also
that they are willing to be more out spoken and to show
their displeasure with the way the elections were conducted.
However, the voting and counting procedures
themselves were riddled with claims of fraud, corruption
and intimidation. ELDR member party YABLOKO was the only
democratic opposition party allowed to participate and,
as such, its activists and voters were subjected to high
levels of intimidation and restrictions. Election observers
faced a similar set of circumstances and the OSCE has reported
fraudulent procedural violations and instances of apparent
manipulations, including serious indications of ballot box
stuffing...
OTTAWA— Liberal Leader Bob Rae made the
following statement today on the recent election in Russia:
"The people of Russia have voted and have sent a strong
message rejecting the kind of one-party political domination
that United Russia has been trying to implement. The election
results and the subsequent protests demonstrate the need
for the Russian political process to be opened up to allow
for the creation of an effective opposition that would provide
voters with a meaningful alternative rather than the ideological
alternatives of communists and nationalists. The Liberal
Party calls on authorities to ensure that a viable political
space is opened up for an opposition that is fully committed
to democracy."
Liberal Foreign Affairs critic Dominic LeBlanc
continued: "The recent election results, with incredible
outcomes of more than 90% of the population voting for United
Russia in some regions, have demonstrated how much more
needs to be done to build an effective democracy in Russia.
A strong commitment to making democracy work from all the
major political forces in Russia can lead to positive change
for the Russian people. We are also concerned with the tactics
being used to deal with political demonstrations. As we
have seen on repeated occasions this year legitimate protest
cannot be effectively stifled by force. We believe that
it is important that Russians be given the opportunity to
express their commitment to building a democratic Russia"...
Returning from an OSCE election observer
mission in Russia, LI
Vice-President on the Bureau, Abir Al-Sahlani, expressed
a great concern about the way in which the recent Parliamentary
elections were conducted in the country. She commented saying
"democracy is not only about the election day itself
but also about the process before, during and after the
elections. The situation is worrisome and it will require
closer attention, especially with the upcoming presidential
elections in March 2012." Yabloko (LI full-member)
leader, Sergei Mitrokhin, also dismissed the election results
as illegitimate due to the mass violations committed during
the electoral process. Based on these results Yabloko obtained
only around 3 % of the popular vote thus falling 4% short
of making it to the State Duma or the Russian Parliament.
Mitrokhin was detained by the Russian riot police at an
opposition rally in Moscow but was later released after
showing his certificate of candidate to the State Duma (until
the official announcement of the election results candidates
can be detained only with a Prosecutor's order).
BERLIN. Anlässlich der Festnahmen von hunderten
Demonstranten in Russland erklärt die Sprecherin für Menschenrechte
und humanitäre Hilfe der FDP-Bundestagsfraktion Marina SCHUSTER:
Das Vorgehen russischer Sicherheitskräfte
gegen friedliche oppositionelle Demonstranten verurteilt
die FDP-Bundestagsfraktion auf das Schärfste. Die vorübergehenden
Festnahmen des früheren Vize-Regierungschefs Boris Nemzow,
des Oppositionspolitikers Sergej Mitrochin von der liberalen
Jabloko-Partei sowie die Inhaftierung von Journalisten und
Menschenrechtlern sind eine weitere Stufe der Unterdrückung
von menschenrechtlichen Grundprinzipien in Russland. Während
Putin noch vor und während der jüngsten Wahl zur Duma versucht
hatte, mit zahlreichen Manipulationen und Einschüchterungen
die "Wahlen" zu seinen Gunsten zu entscheiden,
bekämpft er nun mit offener Gewalt die Bestrebungen der
Demonstranten für mehr Demokratie und Rechtstaatlichkeit.
Die Kader der Regierungspartei Einiges Russland mit Putin
und Medwedew an der Spitze zeigen ihr wahres Gesicht und
bekämpfen die Rechte auf Meinungs- und Versammlungsfreiheit
sowie körperliche Unversehrtheit durch Festnahmen und Repressionen.
So schaffen Putin und Medwedew weder Stabilität noch Vertrauen
in Russland, sondern zeigen wie hoch nervös sie in Wahrheit
sind. Sie fürchten den berechtigten Zorn der Bürger... MORE
Three hours after his detention YABLOKO
leader Sergei Mitrokhin was released without any charges.
However, studying of the law “On Elections” stipulating
the candidate to the State Duma may be detained only on
Prosecutor’s order took the police three hours.
At 7 p.m. Mitrokhin and YABLOKO activists
came to Triumfalnaya square so that to participate in the
protest action against election fraud and breaking of a
rally of December 5...
On December 17 YABLOKO plans to conduct
a sanctioned rally against election fraud. The action will
be held in the centre of Moscow by Pushkin monument.
YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin is detained
at a rally at Triumfalnaya square, Moscow. Now he is in
the OMON (riot police) bus together with 30 other detained.
It is very stuffy in the bus, people are virtually "tightly
packed" into the bus and can only stand there.
Kirill Gontcharov, leader of the Youth YABLOKO,
is also in one of the buses together with 20 other detained.
They have not yet arrived to any police department as the
police have been calling their bosses asking where to take
the detained. It should be also noted that passers-by who
did not participate in the rally were also detained and
are in the same bus with Kirill. Journalist Bazhena Rynska
who was sent to Triumfalnaya square by her paper is in same
bus with Kirill.
Protesters are still coming to the square.
According to different estimates, there were about 2,000
people as of 8 p.m., however, it is difficult to give a
precise assessment as supporters of the opposition are "split"
by police into smaller groups and ousted to the neighbouring
streets. Police does not allow the protester to come to
the square. However, the police and OMON (riot police) are
defending the rally of the Nashi, pro-Kremlin youth movement,
and supporters of the ruling United Russia chanting "Medvedev,
Victory!" ...
YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin is detained
at a rally at Triumfalnaya square, Moscow. Now he is in
the OMON (riot police) bus together with 30 other detained...
Kirill Gontcharov is also detained. Journalist
Bazhena Rynska is in same bus with Kirill.
The square is at present circled by young
supporters of the ruling United Russia party. They are chanting
“Medvedev, Victory!” and hold placards with Medvedev's photograph.
Mitrokhin pointed out to policemen an obvious
violation of the law – the actions of United Russia supporters
that can be qualified as an unsanctioned rally and these
young people should be detained.
Several hundreds supporters of the opposition
who have already arrived to the rally can not get to the
square, but they are chanting their slogans. People are
squeezed on the pavements between exits from the metro station
and the square. Policemen oust people to Tverskaya-Yamskaya
square, tearing someone out of the crowd and taking them
to police cars...
The Russian United Democratic Party YABLOKO
thanks all who has voted for Russia's democratic future.
Looks like the answer to the significant
question of the voting day has been given by television
before the real counting of the votes: there will be no
democratic faction in the State Duma. Passing into the Duma
of the old Russian nomenclature factions was predetermined
and the redistribution of mandates between them is not that
important...
These elections persuaded us once again
that our duty is to continue movement towards democracy,
a real democracy which Russia has not had.
The first step will be strengthening of
YABLOKO’s links with active citizens who came to us during
the campaign for determination of the strategy and tactics
how to oppose the arbitrary rule and violations of the law
that, without doubt, will only increase and built new networks
of civil political action.
Do not loose hope or loose your heart!
Time is with us! Russia needs our victory!
Russia demands changes!..
Local electoral commission had to recognize
YABLOKO's victory at Moscow polling station No 1707 where
YABLOKO won with 25.38 per cent.
Throughout the night observers and YABLOKO’s
candidates opposed members of the electoral commission who
did not want to sign the final protocol.
According to the protocol (which was hanged
on the wall of the polling station) YABLOKO obtained 235
votes (25.38 per cent), followed by the CPRF with 217 votes
(23.65 per cent) and the ruling United Russia came third
with 192 votes (20.73 per cent). However, members of the
electoral commission refused to sign such protocol as final
(the observers had to get the copies of this protocol)...
Natalya Yarigina, observer from the COPRF
(the communist party) in polling station No 2637 in Moscow,
was detained by the police after she refused to redistribute
YABLOKO's votes between United Russia, CPRF and Just Russia
parties and then called head of the electoral commission
a "groveller", Yarigina told to Gazeta.ru.
"Head of the commission Nadezhda Gazina
attacked me with fists when I asked her if she like to be
a groveller. Then her husband joined her. They were pulled
off by the students who were with us at the polling station.
Gazina complained on me at the police stating that I had
allegedly beaten her, now I am taken to the police department
and they are going to file a criminal case against me,"
Yarigina said.
According to Yarigina, head of the electoral
commission offered a bribe to all the members of the electoral
commission in exchange for their "help" in counting
of the votes given for YABLOKO in favour of other parties
passing into the State Duma. "She explained us that
everything had been determined already and nothing depended
on us, and this made me revolt. At our polling station YABLOKO
obtained 19.2 per cent. However, they probably do not have
it now already," added the detained...
Nine hours after the voting at polling station
No 2648 at Ramenki street, Moscow, was finished, policemen
who refused to give their names, ousted observers with a
consultative voice from the polling station, Alexandra Borisova,
one of the observers, told to Gazeta.ru.
"Throughout all this time we have been
preventing stuffing in of [faked] 182 ballots in favour
of the [ruling] United Russia. Consequently, after Svetlana
Makskova, head of the local electoral commission, called
the police Sergei Ovchinnikov, representative of a territorial
electoral commission came and ordered the police to throw
us behind the door," Borisova told. According to her,
after the first counting of the votes, the first place is
taken by the CPRF, the second is shared by United Russia
and YABLOKO, but the electoral commission refuses to approve
the final results of the voting. "Now they are preparing
to stuff in [faked bulletins in favour of the ruling party].
In addition to 182 bulletins we have detected, we suspect
that they are ready for a mass-scale fraud. There are 2,017
voters registered at the polling station, and 1,800 bulletins
were taken. According to our estimations, 958 people have
voted since the beginning of the voting. And only 294 bulletins
were left, the question is where over 400 bulletins are
gone," Borisova said...
YABLOKO's head quarters will be opened for
journalists from 12:00 on December 4 until morning December
5.
Address: Pyatnitskaya ul 31/2 bldg 2 (metro
stations Novokuznetskaya and Tretyakovskaya).
Journalists will be able to observe the
work of 30 hot line operators. Table with violations (from
all the regions) will be broadcasted on a large screen.
Also dozens of mobile groups comprised of
lawyers, candidates to the State Duma and journalists will
work in Moscow. Mobile groups will visit the most problematic
electoral districts with reported violations.
The first briefing will take place in the
headquarters at 15:00. At this briefing YABLOKO leaders
will report the observed violations and answer questions.
The second briefing will take place at 23:00.
At this briefing YABLOKO leaders will report the observed
violations and draw preliminary results of the elections...
Basic guidelines for 2011- 2016.
Approved by the 16th Congress of the party on September
10, 2011
OUR GOAL. The main goal of the YABLOKO party
is to build via peaceful and constitutional methods a modern
law-based democratic and socially oriented state serving
the needs of the people and ensuring Russia's dynamic development...
WHY ARE WE RUNNING FOR PARLIAMENT?
YABLOKO is participating in the elections to the State Duma
in order to represent the interests of Russia's citizens,
adopt laws that will bring the country closer to a law-based
democratic and socially oriented state and abolish all legislation
that obstructs such a goal...
The YABLOKO party will participate in the
presidential elections scheduled on March 2012. YABLOKO's
candidate to run in the elections will be Grigory Yavlinsky,
YABLOKO founder and member of the party Political Committee.
Such a statement was made by YABLOKO Chair Sergei Mitrokhin
at his press-conference in Vladimir.
According to Mitrokhin, such a decision
was adopted by the Political Committee.
However, Mitrokhin also noted that YABLOKO
would be ready to discuss other candidacies from the democratic
opposition. "We are not imposing our candidate, but
we offer to discuss all the candidacies during primaries,
and we invite all the democratic parties, organisations
and movements in spite of the fact whether they were registered
or not to participate in such primaries," Mitrokhin
said...
MOSCOW, December 1 (RIA Novosti)-Russia's
liberal Yabloko party has nominated its first leader and
co-founder, Grigory Yavlinsky, to run for president in March
next year.
Yabloko's co-leader Sergei Mitrokhin said
Yavlinsky could be the main opposition coalition candidate
but added that it was open for discussion.
"We do not wish to impose our candidate,
we wish to offer discussion on all candidates at a primary
election to which we invite all democratic parties and organizations,"
Mitrokhin told a news conference on Thursday...
Grigory Yavlinsky: Corruption and lawlessness
reached such a scope that the gap between the society and
the state became only broader. And in Russia revolutions
and coups d’etat happen exactly when the gap between the
society and the state becomes deep, not during wars or famine
or epidemics. Such was the case in 1917 and 1991. A disruption
and a disaster. And not one comes into the streets to protest
when the state disappears. And then a republic emerges on
the place of an empire. And everyone is happy. And then
the republic is taken over by bandits who set a dictatorship
for 80 years.
Question: And is radicalisation of the
views and a new coup d'etat possible today?
Grigory Yavlinsky: No, there will be no
coup d'etats. A collapse is more likely. The regime cannot
help getting weaker. When a wall is falling down you can
try and prop it, but when all the bricks are falling down
– it can not be helped.
YABLOKO expresses protest in view of intimidation
of Golos, an independent association engaged in election
monitoring. The ruling United Russia party, A Just Russia
party and LDPR launched an intimidation campaign against
Golos asking Prosecutor General to suspend Golos monitoring
of violations during this parliamentary election campaign
and on the voting day December 4.
"It is not surprising that the [ruling]
United Russia party does not like the activities by Golos…
Speaking about participation of LDPR and A Just Russia parties
in this disgusting campaign against Golos, this completely
unmasks the hypocrisy of these parties advocating fair elections
in words only, but actually servicing to the ruling party
helping the latter to intimidate the most respected Russian
public organisation engaged in elections control,"
runs YABLOKO's statement.
"YABLOKO will continue its cooperation
with Golos and will continue supporting this organisation
by all legal means," Sergei Mitrokhin said.
Today, on November 29, Galina Mikhalyova,
Executive Secretary of YABLOKO Political Committee, met
with CIS observers for the Russian parliamentary elections:
Vladimir Garkun, head of the mission and First Deputy Head
of the CIS Executive Committee, and Eugeny Sloboda.
The observers told about the tasks of the
CIS mission comprising over 200 observers...
Campaign ads by opposition parties have
been banned on state television by order of the head of
the Central Elections Commission, who has no authority to
do so, Vedomosti reported Monday.
Vladimir Churov's actions prompted a mutiny among the commission's
working group, whose job is to review such videos, but which
was only asked to do so after they were banned, the newspaper
said.
State-owned broadcaster VGTRK announced last week that it
was banning videos by Yabloko, A Just Russia and the Liberal
Democrats following a letter from Churov, who said he suspected
the ads promoted extremism and targeted other parties...
The head of the Moscow metro ordered election
ads for the opposition party Yabloko to be removed from
stations and then threatened to cancel a long-term contract
with the advertising company involved, the political group
claimed.
In a statement posted on its web site Friday, Yabloko —
Russian for apple — said stickers reading: "Tired of
vegetables? Vote for YABLOKO" that were posted Nov.
2 to 3 at the entrances to 85 stations were removed just
days later.
The removal followed a letter from metro chief Ivan Besedin
to the advertising company Avto Sell, saying the notices
"grossly violated" conditions on political advertising,
which require prior approval by metro officials and City
Hall's media department...
Mrs.Svetlana Ivanova, YABLOKO candidate
to the MPs of the Perm region, was attacked in the Kondratovo
village near Perm two hours ago. She was taken to hospital
with cerebral contusion and thighbone fracture. Doctors
assess her condition as critical.
At 22:30 Svetlana Ivanova was leaving the
building where she met with activists. An unknown person
approached her from the back, hit her on the head and disappeared.
None of her personal belongings was missing.
Olga Kolokolova, leader of the party list
in elections to the Legislative Assembly in Perm, and number
four on YABLOKO federal list, connected the attack with
Ivanova's political activities. Kolokolova said that a large-scale
campaign against YABLOKO was launched in the region. Leaflets
with libel against YABLOKO candidates regularly appear in
the streets. However, printing of YABLOKO campaign materials
is hampered...
ELDR congress convening in Palermo, Italy,
on November 23-25, elected Sir Graham Watson,
one of the leaders of British liberal democrats, new President
of the European Liberal Democrats and Reformers party. Sir
Graham has been member of the European Parliament since
1994. In 2002-2009 he headed the liberal faction in the
European Parliament and during Russian elections in 2003
visited Russia as guest of the YABLOKO party. "It is
our job as Liberals to explain how we offer a real, principled
and economically responsible alternative to the behemoths
of conservatism and socialism," said Sir Graham...
About a quarter (23.7 per cent) of Russian
Internet users vote for the YABLOKO party at the Russian
parliamentary elections. Such data were obtained via analysis
of the polls of several dozen largest Russian web sites.
Over 300,000 people participated in the polls.
About 60 700 people voted at the Izbircom2011.ru
voted; whereas 17.1 per cent out of the total gave their
votes to YABLOKO. The Rosbalt web site polled about 55,000
voters. According to these polls, YABLOKO obtained 15 per
cent. The third largest poll took place on the Sobesednik
web-site (35,000 people). According to this poll YABLOKO
enjoyed 27 per cent...
Today Sir Graham Watson MEP (UK LibDem)
was elected unopposed President of the party of European
Liberal Democrats (ELDR) at their Congress in Palermo along
with five vice-presidents (Marc Guerrero, Lousewies van
der Laan, Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, Leoluca Orlando, Astrid
Thors). Graham takes over from Annemie Neyts (Open VLD,
Belgium) who has led the Party since 2005.
Taking over the reins of the party in the
middle of one of the most serious crises of Europe's history
giving rise to increased euro scepticism and threatening
the very foundation of the EU itself will present a major
challenge for the Party which believes strongly in European
integration and solidarity.
Commenting on his election, Watson said:
"What Europe is lacking most of all at present is a
clear vision for the future. Neither the party of the European
Socialists nor the Christian Democrats offer a solution.
The former is stuck with an out of date ideology and the
latter is ridden by internal contradictions. As Europeans
we stand or fall together. We must not give in to the rising
tide of populism"...
Gathered in Palermo, Italy, the ELDR Party
today elected Sir Graham Watson (Liberal Democrats, UK)
to its new President for the coming two years!
In his speech, drawing on great liberal
thinkers from Adam Smith to Johan Norberg, Sir Graham made
a strong case for the need of liberal thought in today’s
Europe, and the central place for the ELDR Party in this
process. He promised to make ELDR stronger, smarter and
the supranational force in Europe.
The ELDR Party also elected five Vice Presidents.
While Marc Guerrero (CDC, Catalonia), Lousewies van der
Laan (D 66, The Netherlands) and Leoluca Orlando (IDV, Italy)
were re-elected for another term; Alexander Graf Lambsdorff
(FDP, Germany) and Astrid Thors (SFP, Finland) are new additions
to the ELDR Party Bureau.
All candidates were warmly welcomed by
some 500 European Liberals gathered in Palermo. The ELDR
Party would like to extend its congratulations to all elected!
Unknown persons plan to disrupt a rally
"Chelyabinsk for the Changes!" organised by YABLOKO
leader Sergei Mitrokhin and Eugenia Chirikova, leader of
Movement in Protection of Khimki Forest, in Chelyabinsk.
The city is full of flyers allegedly on
behalf of the YABLOKO party inviting the residents to come
to the rally for a fee of 1,500 roubles. Also several YABLOKO
activists and supporters got SMS where they were warned
of a possible fight between anarchists and neo-Nazis that
may take place at the rally...
ST. PETERSBURG. Nov 16 (Interfax) - Active
involvement of voters in elections can be a barrier to the
attempts to distort the results of the State Duma elections,
said Grigory Yavlinsky, YABLOKO party key figure.
"If the turnout is high, the percentage
of falsifications and manipulations will be much smaller,"
he said at the Interfax press conference in St. Petersburg
on Wednesday.
He added that the result for his party will
also depend on the turnout - the higher the turnout, the
more votes and seats YABLOKO will be able to count on.
"In case of turnout over 60 per cent,
we can count on a good result," he said.
Speaking of the party ticket in St. Petersburg,
Yavlinsky said that in the city his party can count on higher
support than average in Russia. "We can collect 15-17
per cent in St. Petersburg," he said...
Press Service by St.Petersburg YABLOKO,
November 15, 2011
...There are many respected people on YABLOKO's
list at elections to St.Petersburg Legislative Assembly,
including co-Chair of the Democratic Choice Pavel Savinkin
who tops territorial list No 5. I think that YABLOKO adopted
a correct and estimable decision in St.Petersburg having
included representatives of different oppositional forces
without any preliminary conditions.
Residents of St.Petersburg, vote for YABLOKO's
list at elections to St.Petersburg Legislative Assembly
on December 4! If Maxim Reznik or someone else from respected
people from YABLOKO’s list will make it into the Legislative
Assembly, this will help to make life of the party of thieves
(the ruling United Russia). The goal is to get real opposition
figures to St.Petersburg Legislative Assembly and this goal
can be hit...
Interview with Grigory Yavlinsky, YABLOKO
leader of election list, by Andrei Lipsky and Andrei Kolesnikov
Novaya Gazeta: But will the non-democratic
protest electorate not vote for the Communists and the LDPR
(Liberal Democratic Party of Russia)?
Yavlinsky: Yes, they will. They certainly
will, and that is the problem. Open the Radio Liberty website.
There is a poll: "Whom would you vote for next Sunday?"
It goes approximately like this: 30% for YABLOKO, 28% "I
will not vote," but 20% for the Communists.
Novaya Gazeta: The picture is approximately
the same on our website.
Yavlinsky: That is the way it is going...
Novaya Gazeta: What is the nucleus of YABLOKO's
electorate today and what additions can you count on from
among other political forces?
Interview with YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin
by Maxim Glikin and Irina Novikova
Question: The so called tandem of Dmitry
Medvedev and Vladimir Putin lasted three years. Do you think
this model was
efficient?
Sergei Mitrokhin: It was effective for the participants
in the tandem themselves. As a PR stunt, it was superb.
For Russia,
however, it turned out to be a waste because it availed
Russia nothing at all. This show was a success only for
the showmen
themselves. It accomplished its purpose. Part of society
was deceived and pinned its hopes on Medvedev. Time was
wasted, time
that could have been spent more productively, in search
for a genuine alternative to Putin that would have consolidated
society.
Question: And did Yabloko have faith in Medvedev as an alternative
to Putin?
Sergei Mitrokhin: Never. We were constantly asked who we
liked more, Medvedev or Putin. We always replied that we
liked
neither because there was no difference between them...
YABLOKO's leader Sergei Mitrokhin who is
now in the working visit in Udmurtia is going to demand
from Prime Minister Putin to implement his promises on providing
aid to the victims of explosions at a military arsenal near
Pugachyovo village on June 2-3, 2011. According to the local
residents who came to meet Mitrokhin, the money allotted
by the government for repairs and building of new houses
did not come to the village. Most
Over 60 residents came to meet Sergei Mitrokhin
and Sergei Pechenin, leader of the Udmurtian branch of YABLOKO.
According to the local residents, most of them did not get
the compensations and repairs were too slow, consequently
the village was not ready for the winter.
However the local authorities loudly announced
by television that every local resident had obtained RUR
100,000 of compensation (approximately USD 3,330). People
deny this telling that they have to sign falsified payment
receipts on implementation of all the repair works threatening
of non-paying the compensation...
MOSCOW. Nov 10 (Interfax) - A high turnout
in the upcoming parliamentary election in Russia will cut
the scale of possible falsifications, Yabloko party top
candidate Grigory Yavlinsky told a Thursday press conference
at the Interfax main office.
"The higher turnout is and the more
people take part in the ballot, the lesser falsifications
will be," he said.
Yabloko is practically the only alternative
to the incumbent authorities, Yavlinsky said. "Unfortunately,
no other democratic parties or groups are registered - we
have always said that the denial of their registration is
a violation of civil rights - and there are no other representatives
expressing European modern democratic political views on
the voting papers. There is no one else but Yabloko,"
he said...
...Yabloko has been active in Russian politics
for almost 20 years. Fully aware of our responsibility to
Russian citizens, who aspire to liberty and justice, our
party has managed to survive and retain its potential against
continuous and severe administrative pressure. Our work
has been not only difficult, it has been dangerous, and
in some cases fatal. Larisa Yudina, leader of the Yabloko
branch in Kalmykia and a journalist, was killed; so were
Farid Babayev, leader of Yabloko in Dagestan, and Yuri Shchekochikhin,
a Duma deputy and investigative journalist who was investigating
corruption in the secret services.
It is true that elections in Russia today
are not free and fair. But this is due not only to the fact
that Kasyanov’s party was denied registration and thus cannot
take part in the elections. Russian elections ceased being
free and fair after the presidential elections in 1996.
Unfortunately, back then European liberals did not protest
as loudly as they are doing now. (In fact, the electoral
system was similarly defective in 2003 when Kasyanov was
prime minister under President Vladimir Putin).
Today, however, this is how Russian elections
are held and there are no other means for a peaceful, nonviolent
change in political course and change of government. Liberals
at Yabloko proceed from the premise that an outright rejection
of all opportunities for peaceful change and the adoption
of actions based on the principle that “it has to get worse
before it gets better” is irresponsible and leads to a dead-end...
The official registration period is over
in 19 of the 27 regions where elections to the parliaments
of components of the Russian Federation will be held at
the same time as the State Duma election on 4 December.
Yabloko has had more difficulty collecting signatures than
the other non-parliamentary parties, and it was not allowed
to run in the elections in six of the federation components
where its ticket was certified. The campaign in Mordvinia,
where only three parties are registered, is the most controversial
one. Parties are filing suit and complaining to the Central
Electoral Commission in Chuvashia and Novgorod Oblast.
In most of the regions where local parliamentary
elections will be held at the same time as the Duma election,
the registration of candidates has been completed (in 14
regions last Friday). At this stage of the campaign, the
locations where non-parliamentary parties will be able to
run in the elections are already apparent.
Yabloko was denied registration in six regions
- Ingushetia, Maritime Territory, Stavropol Territory, Amur
Oblast, Moscow Oblast, and Altay Territory. Its lists of
candidates were registered in four regions - Perm Territory,
Samara and Astrakhan oblasts, and St. Petersburg. The registration
deadline has not arrived yet in five of the regions where
the Yabloko ticket was certified - Karelia and Leningrad,
Pskov, and Omsk oblasts...
...But the government needs to punish the
attackers to prove it is serious, said Beketov's supporters,
including Yabloko party leader Sergei Mitrokhin and Yevgenia
Chirikova, who heads the campaign in defense of the forest.
"If they can give Misha back his leg
and the third of his brain that got smashed away, I'm all
in favor," an indignant Chirikova said Tuesday, according
to Gazeta.ru.
"But if this is just a way of saying,
'Oh, what a nice Misha!' by the people who have created
the system that crippled him, then this is cynicism, pure
and simple," she said.
Mitrokhin said by phone that he was sad
the authorities didn't think about Beketov until it was
too late.
"The government didn't care about him
when he was lying there dying in a Khimki hospital,"
said Mitrokhin, who helped to transfer Beketov to a better
medical facility after the attack...
The thesis in liberal political circles
that there is insufficient democracy in Russia is something
that is obvious in itself. But the main problem, on the
contrary, is the absence of aristocratism and elitism, the
blending of genres, persons, and institutions.
Everything is subordinated to a kind of
uniform standard based on the power of money. On this altar
scientific conscientiousness, the talents of journalists,
and political reputations are sacrificed. And when some
kind of moneybags ascends on the political horizon, a significant
part of the political community begins to shake its little
wings in excitement, in the hope that the golden dust will
settle on them.
In point of fact, it was in this that the
main content of the "Prokhorov phenomenon" and
other similar appearances of big money in Russian politics
lay. This is why the general picture is painted in a single
colour with different hues -instead of freely flourishing
complexity, we have the emulation of plebeianism in the
very worst sense of this word...
...Petlin, now 38 and the only Yabloko member
in the 28-seat city Duma, kept battling the shopping center.
On Aug, 26, his freedom was revoked and he was taken to
pretrial Detention Center No. 1, which is so overcrowded,
Bashkov said, that each cell holds twice its capacity. People
sleep on the floor, or take turns on the beds. Tuberculosis
and hepatitis are rampant. "We are talking about innocent
people who haven't been tried," he said.
A few days ago, with prosecutors still unprepared
to try him, Petlin's detention was extended until Dec. 22.
"I think he had an idea about the scale
of the corruption," said Petlin's wife, Tatyana, "but
none of us could even imagine this"...
Eugeny Vitishko, candidate to the State
Duma from the YABLOKO party and leader of the Tuapse branch
of YABLOKO, detained in Tuapse during environmental action
on November 30 faces charges of violation of the border
regime and violation of the navigation rules. YABLOKO considers
the detention and the charges unlawful, as the detention
of candidate MP was held without the mandatory approval
by the Prosecutor. YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin is going
to appeal against such actions in court...
Eugeny Vitishko, candidate to the State
Duma from the YABLOKO party and leader of the Tuapse branch
of YABLOKO, and Eugenia Chirikova, leader of the Movement
in Defence of Khimki Forest, were detained in Tuapse during
environmental action on November 30. Chirikova has been
released by now. YABLOKO considers the detention unlawful
and demands immediate release of Eugeny Vitishko...
Boris Nadezhdin, one of the leaders of the
Right Cause party has been calling voters to vote not only
for his party, but also for YABLOKO. He explained to the
Firstnews that voters often said that they did not wish
to vote for the Right Cause [after the scandal when the
party split against tycoon Mikhail Prokhorov who had chaired
the party]. "I normally answer that then they have
to support YABLOKO," Nadezhdin noted...
YABLOKO leaders and activists participated
in the memorial action organised by the Memorial human rights
society and commemorating the victims of political reprisals
during Stalin's period. The action took place by the FSB
(former KGB) building at Lubyanka square...
The Central Electoral Commission held a
draw for the allocation of seats on the ballot for the parliamentary
elections on October 28.
Representatives of the registered parties
were pulling lotto balls with their numbers in the voting
ballot. YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin pulled a ball with
number five. Thus, YABLOKO will be listed as number five
in the voting ballot...
The Central Electoral Commission has registered
YABLOKO list of candidates for the parliamentary elections.
The party has been formally acknowledged a participant in
the forthcoming election campaign.
YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin, Alexei
Yablokov, number three in the party election list and head
of YABLOKO's Green Russia faction, Svetlana Kuznetsova,
head of Soldiers' Mothers faction, Valery Borschyov Co-Chair
of the Human Rights faction, Boris Misnik, member of Political
Committee and Valery Goryachev, Executive Secretary of YABLOKO
Bureau. Head of the Central Electoral Commission Vladimir
Churov handed them parliamentary candidates cards.
Speaking before the Central Electoral Commission
Sergei Mitrokhin expressed his "hope that these elections
will be free and fair". He recollected the situation
when YABLOKO did not get a single vote in favour of the
party at the polling station where Mitrokhin and his family
voted for YABLOKO during Moscow parliamentary elections
in 2009. "I hope there will be no way for such accidents
at over 100,000 Russia’s polling stations any more,"
Mitrokhin said.
YABLOKO’s list contains 353 candidates in
78 regional groups. The list is topped by Grigory Yavlinsky,
YABLOKO's founder, Sergei Mitrokhin, the current leader
and Alexei Yablokov, head of YABLOKO's Green Russia faction...
A series of one person pickets under the
slogan 'Stop feeding state owned corporations!" took
place by the Federation Council which had to adopt changes
into the state budget. Five YABLOKO activists held placards
"Stop stealing money from the budget!", "Where
is an account on earlier spendings?" and "Spend
money on budget sector workers rather than on building another
Fukushima in Turkey!" ...
The activists demand that the remaining
balance of the federal budget should be allotted to the
salaries of budget workers (including teachers and doctors)
rather than state-owned corporations. The Federation Council
plans to approve redistribution of the balance; whereas
state owned corporations should receive huge amounts of
funds. Thus, Rosatom (the nuclear ministry) will receive
RUR 23.5 bln, Rosnano (the agency on nano technologies)
RUR 22.2 bln and the Russian Railroads – RUR 44.5 bln...
The first lecture "Morals and Politics"
out of Sergei Kovalyov's bloc of lectures will take place
in YABLOKO's office tomorrow, on October 25.
It is also planned that the lectures will
be further published as a separate book.
The bloc of lectures will be launched by
Grigory Yavlinsky, YABLOKO founder.
Vladislav Inozemtsev, Director of the Centre
of Post-Industrial Studies, Valentin Gefter, Director of
the Human Rights Institute, Lidia Grafova, Chair of the
Migrants' Organisations and other will also participate
in further discussion.
Such a decision was adopted at the Council
meeting which took place in Moscow on October 20.
In addition to the issue of determination of their political
spectrum the participants of the Council also discussed
preparation to the Moscow International Women’s Festival
"The Femme Fest", as well as their interaction
with partner organisations.
The Council adopted two political decisions:
on the attitude to the People’s Front and on the position
as regards the parliamentary and the presidential election
campaign...
The fact that the security services work
at the proposed meeting site of [of the President with the
students] does not cause problems. The question is, what
they do: whether they ensure safety or a nice television
picture. Protesting students presented no danger to the
head of state, and, judging by the information in the media,
what was written on their placards was in line with the
law.
These students may be a problem and a headache
only for the ruling United Russia election headquarters
(their electoral list is topped by the President), rather
than for security services. And certainly, this "problem"
should not be solved by means of detentions and preventive
conversations in the police. I think that any distraction
of the Federal Security Service from its main function is
bad. It is harmful to the state.
Today, on October 17, YABLOKO submitted
to the Central Electoral Commission voters' signatures required
for party registration in the parliamentary election campaign.
Party activists and YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin brought
to the Central Electoral Commission 14 carton boxes decorated
as wooden boxes with apples (as "YABLOKO" means
"apple" in Russian). The boxes contained files
with 157,471 signature and the accompanying documents. "I
am certain that YABLOKO's list will be registered,"
Sergei Mitrokhin said.
The initial inspection of the financial
report lasted for over an hour. Only after this the Central
Electoral Commission permitted to take the boxes with signatures
into the Central Electoral Commission office and launched
recounting of signatures. The next stage will be a random
draw of several files with signatures that will be checked
by the Central Electoral Commission experts. The Commission
should conduct an audit of at least 20 per cent of signatures.
The results of the audit will be announced
within ten days in compliance with the law...
YABLOKO list of candidates for elections
to St.Petersburg Legislative Assembly has been registered
by St.Petersburg Electoral Commission. "We are satisfied
by the decision of the Electoral Commission," says
Maxim Reznik, leader of St.Petersburg branch of YABLOKO.
"For the first time in nine years residents of St.Petersburg
will be able to support democratic opposition at the election
to the city parliament. This is a big chance for changes
for the better in every day lives of the city residents.
We will do all we can so that not to miss this opportunity,"
Reznik adds.
YABLOKO had to collect about 40,000 voters'
signatures for registration in the election campaign...
YABLOKO has finished its campaign for collection
of signatures required for registration in the election
race. On Monday, October 17, YABLOKO will submit 150,000
signatures to the Central Electoral Commission for registration
in the parliamentary election campaign. According to the
Russian law parties have to submit signatures to the electoral
commission by 6 p.m. of October 19.
The law on parliamentary elections is very
tough: it envisages that non-parliamentary parties have
to collect at least 150,000 voters' signatures; whereas
a region can not give more that 5,000 signatures. Also the
signatures should be collected in at least half of Russian
regions.
YABLOKO's campaign for collection of signatures
lasted three weeks (from September 21) in 74 Russia's regions
which allowed to collect 203,000 voters' signatures in favour
of YABLOKO. Over 4,000 collectors of signatures took part
in the campaign...
Head quarters for verification of the lists
of signatures were established in YABLOKO's Moscow office.
For the past two weeks 40 people have been working there
from morning till night receiving lists with signatures
brought from all over the country, as the Central Electoral
Commission can announce signatures void due to minor inaccuracies
of the subscribers...
The Power Vertical: When you announced your
return to politics you said you said that this was one of
those moments when change was truly possible. That was before
United Russia held its congress on September 24 and Vladimir
Putin announced his intention to return to the presidency.
Do you still see a opportunity for change?
Grigory Yavlinsky: I see an even greater
opportunity. People now see that if there isn't a change
things will be just like they are now for another 25 years.
People want the situation to change. I think Putin's return
and Putin's [United Russia] congress showed people the necessity
of change even more than before. The reaction in society
and in the elite shows this. For example, after the congress
the number of people who want to work with me and with Yabloko
rose sharply. Even those who were more moderate or indifferent
are now in a different mood. They have been under pressure
from these conditions for such a long time. What does [Putin's
return] mean? It means the preservation of the previous
style and the previous agenda. It means the same faces on
television. It means everything will remain the same. People
can't take this anymore...
...The panel examined the absence of rule
of law in Russia. The keynote speaker Grigory Yavlinsky
distinguished this absence by the lack of independent justice,
the influence of the political elite and of money. He identified
three root causes of the problem: the 1917 state coup in
which "a criminal group of people were taking power
in Russia," the privatization process of the 1990s,
and the support of the international community for the political
and economic reforms of the 1990s. Mr. Yavlinsky also stated
that "Russia's corruption is a joint venture with the
West."
William Browder then spoke on the possibility of international
action putting pressure on the Russian political elite to
interrupt this joint venture. While Grigory Yavlinsky later
reiterated the importance of initiating change from within
Russia, stating that Russian "politicians all know,
personally, that it is [their] task to change the system."
Vadim Klyuvgant followed with an analysis of the Russian
"dictate of law." He insisted on individual human
rights as a foundation for rule of law.
Bobo Lo continued the discussion with a distinction between
the notions of "rule of law" and "rule by
law" which prevails in Russia. He defined this concept
as the "use and abuse, particularly, of laws and administrative
regulations to support power rather than justice."
The panel recognized the validity of Yavlinsky's view that
"there is no rule of law in Russia and we must implement
it."...
Candidates to deputies of St.Petersburg
Legislative Assembly and top candidate of the list Grigory
Yavlinsky submitted to the Electoral Commission of St.Petersburg
37,305 voters' signatures required by law for YABLOKO’s
registration in the election campaign...
Every day the web-site of St.Petersburg
YABLOKO published updated information on the number of collected
signatures and also broadcasted the news on collection of
signatures from YABLOKO's office in St.Petersburg.
Such famous public figures as actor Oleg
Basilishvili, musician Yury Shevchuk, film director Alexander
Sokurov, writers Daniil Granin and Boris Strugatsky, actors
Alexei Devotchenko and Larissa Dmitriyeva, activists fighting
for preservation of historical buildings of the city Alexander
Margolis and Yulia Minutina and many others put their signatures
for YABLOKO.
Dr. Grigory Yavlinsky, YABLOKO's founder
and Professor of the Higher School of Economics, tops YABLOKO
list in St.Petersburg. YABLOKO list in St.Petersburg contains
54 activists, including leaders of St.Petersburg branch
of YABLOKO - Maxim Reznik, Mikhail Amosov, Boris Vishnevsky
and Natalia Yevdokimova.
Another action in support of YABLOKO’s
list of candidates to the Russian parliament took place
by the Moscow State University in Moscow. Activists made
a show performance and also collected signatures required
for YABLOKO’s registration in the election race.
YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin participated
in actions the memorial evening of tribute to Anna Polytkovskaya,
human rights activist and journalist of Novaya Gazeta, murdered
in the five years ago on October 7, 2006...
“I have always admired Anna Politkovskaya’s
courage and firmness in the search of the truth. We will
spare no effort so that the culprits of this murder be detected
and justly punished,” Mitrokhin said.
An exciting picture of a bight future painted
with wide strokes – the idea of a Common Economic
Space (CES) and the Eurasian Union (see Vladimir Putin’s
article in Izvestia,
English
text) – is virtually pained over the problems
that can become crucial for Russia already in the short
perspective.
What are the proposed guidelines for such
integration with Russia’s participation? Obviously,
Vladimir Putin intends to focus on the Asian vector, rather
than the European. However, there are no grounds (at least
for Russia) to count that [Russia’s] “joining
the Eurasian Union ... will allow every member state to
integrate into Europe quicker and from stronger positions”...
Following two weeks of intense negotiations
after the Parliamentary elections on 15 September 2011,
a new government was announced on Monday in Denmark, to
be led by Social Democrat Party Leader Helle Thorning-Schmidt,
who thereby becomes the country’s first ever female
Prime Minister. Also the overall government held a good
gender balance. Out of a total of 23 Ministers, 9 are female
and 14 male. The new Danish coalition government features
three parties, including ELDR Member Det Radikale Venstre
(Radikale), who goes into the coalition as the second force
and will receive six Ministerial portfolios, the heaviest
obviously being Party Leader Magrethe Vestager's beefed
up, combined portfolio of Minister for Economy and Home
Affairs, which will give Radikale a first-hand opportunity
to steer the Danish migration policy into a new direction,
following years of influence from the nationalist, anti-immigrant
Danish People's Party on this area.
In addition to Vestager's portfolio, Radikale
gains the following Ministers:
- Minister for Climate and Energy: Mr. Martin
Lidegaard;
- Minister for Culture: Mr. Uffe Elbæk;
- Minister for Development: Mr. Christian
Friis Bach;
- Minister for Ecclesiastical Affairs, Equality
and Nordic Cooperation: Mr. Manu Sareen;
- Minister for Research and Innovation:
Mr. Morten Østergaard;
The ELDR Party would like to take this occasion
to wish Det Radikale Venstre all the best for its upcoming
challenges in Danish politics and the new government!
Sergei Mitrokhin’s blog at
the Echo Moskvi web-site, October 2, 2011
A game depicting an alleged conflict between
Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev went on for a long time
and was very exciting. A huge number of people were persuaded
that the President was an alternative to the Prime Minister.
Political scientists also tried to look clever saying very
“smart” things. There even emerged such organisations
like the Institute of Contemporarily Development, INSOR,
[by Igor Yurgens] that built their modernisation concepts
on such "differences" [between Vladimir Putin
and Dmitry Medvedev]...
I'm not going to campaign for the YABLOKO
party here, which also has never been a Kremlin’s
project and has been in opposition to Vladimir Putin since
1999. I just would like to say that in case of mass-scale
voting for us, the government would receive a very clear
signal that the society does not need any "strong hand",
but needs simply a DEMOCRATIC LAW-GOVERNED state.
The "strong hand” is not an alternative
to Vladimir Putin, but a European-style democracy is such
an alternative.
“I hope still to contribute to the
task of building Liberal strength across the continent of
Europe and beyond. I believe there is much to play for.
The European People’s Party is an inherently unstable
coalition, the European Socialists a party in terminal decline.
The opportunity for a stronger centre is immense.”
With these words I concluded my book ‘Building
a Liberal Europe - the ALDE Project’ published late
last year. The book tells the story of the Liberal contribution
to the building of the EU from the first direct elections
to the European Parliament in 1979 to the elections of June
2009. But the story of liberalism did not end there.
Since then the Lisbon Treaty has entered
into force, giving the EU institutions new competences;
substantial moves have been made towards common economic
government for the countries sharing a common currency,
in conjunction with moves to control the greed of the financial
community; the EU has been challenged to turn its fine words
into action in the fight against climate change; and the
foundations have been laid for a common foreign and security
policy. Liberal thought has contributed to these. But where
do we go from here? How can we contribute to the EU's 'work
in progress'?...
YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin
participated in the forum of civil activists The Last Autumn
taking place in the Moscow region. In his speech YABLOKO’s
leader analysed Russia’s political system. According
to Mitrokhin, a specific part of the society spent time
on find the differences between Vladimir Putin and Dmitry
Medvedev instead of searching for the alternatives. Those
calling to vote for any party other than the ruling United
Russia fell into another extreme, Mitrokhin said...
Party activists collected signatures for
the registration of YABLOKO in the parliamentary elections
campaign during the Forum. Alexei Navlany, a blogger famous
for his anti-corruption investigations, put his signature
in support of YABLOK. Also about 110 participants of the
Forum signed for YABLOKO.
Yabloko:
“Putin-Medvedev Presidency Tandem Chooses Stagnation”
LI News Bulletin, Issue 252, September 29, 2011
Sergei Mitrokhin, the leader of Yabloko (LI
full member) commented on the news that President Medvedev
is going to head the United Russia party at the parliamentary
election in December 2011 while Prime Minister Putin will
run at the presidential elections in 2012 as ”nothing
unexpected.” Describing the recent statement of Putin
and Medvedev as simply a “rotation in the tandem”,
Mitrokhin characterised the proposal as “a way towards
a new stagnation rather than modernisation, and this stagnation
may lead the country to the same deplorable outcome like
the stagnation of Leonid Brezhnev's era.” Mitrokhin's
concerns were echoed by Yabloko's top parliamentary candidate
Grigory Yavlinsky, who warned that the announcement should
be viewed as the emergence of a “new political reality”
and that the system “created during Putin's presidency
implies that it should be maintained for another 12 years,
and perhaps 24 years, that is, until 2036.” Emphasising
that a return to valid elections at all levels is the only
solution, the Yabloko leaders called on citizens to voice
their disapproval at the parliamentary elections in December...
YABLOKO managed to collect about 80,000
signatures out of 157,000 required for registration of the
party in the parliamentary election campaign.
The law envisages the number of signatures
from a region should not exceed 5,000. Three YABLOKO’s
regional branches (in St.Petersburg, Saratov and Kirov regions)
have already accomplished this task.
Over 4,000 thousands were collected in each
of the four regions: Voronezh, Tomsk, Omsk and Kurgan regions...
In today's State of the Union debate in
Strasbourg, Guy Verhofstadt welcomed President Barroso's
passionate defence of the European Union and the central
role of the Commission in proposing common solutions to
the current crisis.
"We stand in the eye of a financial
storm. Banks have lost trust in each other, stock markets
are at a 4-year low, growth prospects are anemic and the
spreads on government bonds in the eurozone are increasing
by the day. Only courage, solidarity and leadership will
provide a route out of the current crisis"...
Centerpartiet
elects Annie Lööf MP as new Party Leader ELDR Press Release, September 23, 2011.On
22-25 September, ELDR’s Swedish member party Centerpartiet
is convening for what has been described as their most important
Party Congress in a decade in the scenic skiing resort of
Åre, Sweden.
A large part of the drama has obviously
been triggered by the fact that current Party Leader and
Minister for Enterprise Maud Olofsson has announced her
stepping down, why the party elects a new Party Leader,
but also takes the opportunity to have a comprehensive debate
on the party platform and elect new Deputy Party Leaders,
a first in the long and proud history of Centerpartiet...
Grigory Yavlinsky's blog. Video.
September 27, 2011
...Because if this system does not change,
then it will impossible to amend or rebuild it a few years.
And we can influence the developments only within a very
short period - in 2.5 months through elections to the State
Duma. Whatever they are! And at presidential elections that
come in six months... We should show that there is an alternative
for the country at these elections. And yet – I am
stressing the word “yet” here - we can do it!
And YABLOKO offers such an alternative...
According to YABLOKO’s leader Sergei
Mitrokhin, new appointments in the financial and economic
bloc of the Russian government are unlikely to lead to changes
in Russia’s financial policy.
“I think that any abrupt changes in
view of appointment of Anton Siluanov acting Finance Minister
and Igor Shuvalov supervisor of the financial-economic bloc
in the government are unlikely. Most probably everything
will remain as it is,” Sergei Mitrokhin told to Interfax.
He also noted that replacement of the Finance
Minister is unlikely to lead to economic upheavals...
Eugenia Chirikova, leader of the movement
in protection of Khimki Forest, supported YABLOKO’s
list of candidates to the Council of Deputes of Khimki.
According to YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin, there
were negotiations with Eugenia Chirikova on her joining
YABLOKO’s list, however she refused to participate
in the coming elections in principle...
...According to Mitrokhin, the construction
company enjoyed support not only of the city parliament
which adopted corresponding amendments to the land laws
neglecting the rulings of the statutory court, but they
were also supported by the city government, namely, Alexander
Yakob, head of city administration. “We can also see
that even the governor sided with the corrupt officials
and businessmen demanding to cancel the decision of the
statutory court,” Mitrokhin said...
...“President’s statements that
on Prime Minister’s post he will engage in modernisation
are hard to believe. As modernisation means renewal of governing
rather than rotation in the tandem,” Mitrokhin added.
According to Mitrokhin, “this joint
proposal by Putin, Medvedev and the United Russia party
is “a way towards a new stagnation rather than modernisation,
and this stagnation may lead the country to the same deplorable
outcome like the stagnation of Leonid Brezhnev’s era
ended for the USSR.”
“They want to leave everything as
it is for another 12 years. This means for ever. It is for
people to decide whether they agree with this or not. Anyway,
we have elections, whatever they are now, ahead,”
such a comment on the decision of the ruling United Russia’s
congress to nominate Vladimir Putin for presidency and Dmitry
Medvedev for Prime Minister’s post was made by Grigory
Yavlinsky, YABLOKO’s founder, in Twitter.
Prominent writers Boris Strugatsky and Nina
Katerly and Samuel Lurier, writer and journalist, signed
up for the registration of YABLOKO’s list of candidates
to the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg.
Earlier, musician Yury Shevchuk, film director
Alexander Sokurov, writer Daniil Granin and well-known activists
fighting for protection of St.Petersburg historic buildings
and city environment historian Alexander Margolis and Julia
Minutina, Coordinator of the Live City movement, put their
signatures for YABLOKO’s list.
St.Petersburg branch of YABLOKO has been
collecting signatures for registration of its list of candidates
in the election campaign to the Legislative Assembly. YABLOKO
must collect 40,000 signatures to get registration in the
campaign...
...Yabloko’s programme will focus
on three issues. "Fight against corruption, introduction
of an article into the Criminal Code envisaging punishment
for unlawful enrichment, and firing of all state functionaries
unable or unwilling to explain their personal fortunes,”
Yabloko’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin said. “Also
[we are] for return to elections at all levels, public control
over secret services, and transition to professional military
service."
According to Mitrokhin, at present Yabloko
is about to publish a large number of copies of its electoral
programme, that will be delivered to the voters by party
activists. And before that Yabloko had organised a number
of actions and pickets, and Kirill Gontcharov, leader of
Youth Yabloko, had even served several days of imprisonment
in the Gelendzhik prison for the action by the centre of
the Russian Orthodox Church [in Gelendzhik], also called
“Patriarch’s country cottage”.
Mitrokhin said that all the political parties
were Yabloko's political rivals adding that Yabloko would
criticize United Russia and its leader Vladimir Putin. Yabloko’s
leader was the first and the only politician who dared to
criticize Vladimir Putin: “We have absolutely definite
claims on Prime Minister’s performance: namely, creation
of a resource-based economy, huge corruption and virtual
liquidation of political competition”...
YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin
forwarded to President Medvedev a letter demanding to stop
unlawful excavation works in the lime-pit the Sochi national
park for construction of Olympic facilities in Sochi. In
June 2011, after his meeting with environmentalists, Dmitry
Medvedev ordered the Russian Government and the regional
government to stop such works, however, President’s
orders have been sabotaged.
YABLOKO’s activists and activists
of the North Caucasus Environmental Watch detected these
violations. Excavation of lime in the national park have
already eliminated inhabitations of many species of the
rare plants, inflicted irreparable damage to landscapes
and fauna. However, this unlawful pit has been guarded by
the Federal Security Service.
President Medvedev learned this during his
meeting with environmentalists on June 21, 2011. He ordered
Prime Minister Putin and Alexander Tkachyov, head of Administration
of the Krasnodar Area, to stop excavation works at the Sochi
national park by August 1...
Les jeunes en Russie Russie Les 18-30 ans
constituent en Russie la première génération
qui a grandi dans l’après-communisme. Cette
nouvelle jeunesse apporte-t-elle un vent de changement ?
Rien n’est moins sûr. Rencontres. Vingt ans
après la chute du régime soviétique,
le parti d’opposition Iabloko (« pomme »
en russe) dresse dans un rapport un bilan alarmiste du sort
de la jeunesse russe : passivité civique, carriérisme
égoïste, conformisme, refus de chercher la vérité,
niveau d’éducation en baisse, orgueil national,
impréparation totale aux défis du XXIe siècle...
La situation sanitaire est tout aussi préoccupante
: contamination galopante au VIH – un million de personnes
touchées –, explosion du nombre de toxicomanes
mineurs en dix ans, alcoolisme qui tue chaque année
40 000 jeunes.
La jeunesse moderne est la première
génération née dans la nouvelle Russie…
LibDems:
Liberal voice in government loud and clear
LI News Bulletin, Issue 251, September 23, 2011
Addressing the Autumn Party Conference in
Birmingham this week, the leader of the Liberal Democrats
(LI full member) Nick Clegg underlined the party's achievements
in government, saying that an impressive three quarters
of the LibDem manifesto “is being delivered in government”.
‘In difficult times you need to know two things about your
government: that it has the strength to take the decisions
needed to fix the big problems; and that there are people
in that government who are looking out for you... Our liberal
voice is loud and clear', stated Clegg. LibDem Party President
Tim Farron, said: ‘We are a radical Liberal Party putting
radical liberal politics into action and blocking Tory policies
every day...'
YABLOKO began its campaign for collecting
signatures by the State Duma and the Kremlin. Sergei Mitrokhin
also participated in the action in Moscow. The activists
managed to collect 150 signatures from people from over
ten Russian regions within an hour. This was not an easy
task as most of the people there were guests from other
countries and Russian citizens were reluctant to give their
passport data required by law.
The police did not interfere this time,
as after the threats from the policemen to stop “an
unsanctioned picket” YABLOKO’s leader Sergei
Mitrokhin had sent a telegramme to head of the Central Electoral
Commission Vladimir Churov informing the latter of such
grave violation of the law by the police. Churov had to
explain to police that collecting of signatures for parties
registration in the parliamentary campaign does not require
any permissions from the authorities.
YABLOKO has to collect 157,000 signatures
(whereas the number of signatures per each region should
not exceed 5,000) to get registered in the State Duma election
campaign. However, YABLOKO is going to collect 200,000 signatures
in 50 regions so that make sure the party is registered
even if the Central Electoral Commission finds some signatures
faulty...
According to YABLOKO, draft federal budgets
for 2012 and 2013-2014 published by the Russian Finance
Ministry require principled changes. The draft budgets will
be submitted to the parliament after they are examined by
the Russian Government.
“It is obvious that it is an electoral
budget aiming at maintaining high level of expenditures
on the items most significant for 2012 so that to ensure
a certain electoral result,” said Grigory Yavlinsky,
member of YABLOKO’s Political Committee. After 2012
it is planned to abruptly and absolutely unreasonably change
the federal budget priorities.
Thus, expenditure on education will be maintained
at 4.6 per cent for 2012, but it will be reduced to 3.9
per cent in 2013 and 3.3 per cent in 2014. The same dynamics
of federal budget expenditure is envisaged for healthcare:
4.2 per cent for 2012, 3.5 per cent for 2013 and 3.0 per
cent for 2014.
The YABLOKO party considers such abrupt
cuts on education and healthcare inadmissible...
On September 20, leaders of the Moscow branches
of YABLOKO, CPRF, LDPR, Just Russia and the Patriots of
Russia signed Memorandum on Coordination of Actions in Organisation
of Cross-Party Work of Observers at the State Duma elections
in 2011. Signing of the document and a press-conference
took place in the House of Journalists in Moscow...
The Central Electoral Commission of the
Russian Federation attested YABLOKO’s list of candidates
for elections to the State Duma of the Russian Federation...
YABLOKO’s federal list is topped by
Dr.Grigory Yavlinsky, party founder and member of YABLOKO’s
Political Committee, Sergei Mitorkhin, party Chairman and
Alexei Yablokov, head of YABLOKO’s Green Russia faction.
“We are setting a tough goal –
creation of a faction in the State Duma. This implies overcoming
a seven per cent barrier, but we should do this with a higher
margin. A benchmark for us is ten per cent,” Mitrokhin
told journalists on Monday.
The stakes were high when yesterday’s
Danish Parliamentary elections got underway. Following intense
and good campaigning by all parties, spearheaded by leading
government party and ELDR Member Party Venstre, polls close
to election day showed the two blocs on almost equal figures.
The stage was therefore set for a real nail-biter on election
night. As the vote count got underway, it quickly became
clear that this would be a good night for Danish liberals.
Not only did Venstre stand their ground
very well, clearly maintaining their position as Denmark’s
largest party, ELDR’s other Danish member party Det
Radikale Venstre were also speeding off the blocks to substantially
increase their 5,1 % share of the electorate in the last
elections in 2007...
Yabloko:
Abstention from elections not an option
LI News Bulletin, Issue 250, September 15, 2011
During its 16th Party Congress in Moscow,
LI full member Yabloko, prominent party figures expressed
their concerns regarding public calls for abstention in
the parliamentary elections scheduled for December 4th.
Saying that the voters need to express their opinions through
voting, party founder Dr. Grigory Yavlinsky said '…today
Yabloko is the only registered independent political party
that will always stand in defense of liberty, equality before
law and the inviolability of private property ... We are
convinced that these values are consciously shared by the
majority of our fellow citizens and it would be a betrayal
on our part if we deprive them of chance to make their choice,”
he said, adding: “Systematic discrediting of elections
is as dangerous as election fraud. Because if you do not
vote, then why should you fight fraud?' Yavlinsky's views
were confirmed by party leader Sergei Mitrokhin, who added
that “Yabloko is a responsible political force,that
is why it will participate in the coming elections to the
Russian parliament”.
Alexander Sokurov, world famous film director
and prize-winner of the 68th Venice International Film Festival,
put his signature for YABLOKO’s list of candidates
to St.Petersburg Legislative Assembly.
“Alexander Sokurov has repeatedly
said kind words about the YABLOKO party noting our activities,
especially in the city planning matters,” Maxim Reznik,
leader of St. Petersburg YABLOKO, said. “We regard
Alexander Sokurov’s support as great honor to us and
an incentive to even more and better work”...
YABLOKO as a non-parliamentary party is
required to collect 40,000 signatures to participate in
the elections to St.Petersburg Legislative Assembly.
Ahead of parliamentary elections in Russia,
ELDR member party, YABLOKO held its 16th congress on 10-11
September. The upcoming elections set the tone for the congress
with democratic development and economic policy identified
as two main pillars for the campaign. “YABLOKO is
a responsible political force, which is why it will participate
in the coming elections to the Russian parliament. Only
YABLOKO due to the specifics of its ideology and programme
can challenge the monopoly of corrupted bureaucracy merged
with business,” commented Sergei Mitrokhin, leader
of YABLOKO...
Grigory Yavlinsky: “Do
not wean people away from elections”
Systematic discrediting of elections
is as dangerous as election fraud
Dr.Grigory Yavlinsky, one of the founders
of the YABLOKO party topping the party list at parliamentary
elections, made a programme statement at the 16th Congress
of YABLOKO. The first round of the Congress finished on
Sunday in the Moscow Region.
Addressing in his final speech "colleagues,
associates and opponents" of YABLOKO Grigory Yavlinsky
noted that the coming elections to the Russian parliament
(December 4) are "widely considered being a sham and
people are called for various forms of boycotting".
"We understand this position, and we respect it, as
well as many other political positions, but we do not share
it,” he stressed...
Yabloko party co-founder Grigory Yavlinsky
will come out of political retirement to head the party's
list in the State Duma elections, the party announced Sunday
at a Moscow congress. Yavlinsky, 59, handed over the reins
of Yabloko, which he co-founded in 1993, to Sergei Mitrokhin
in 2008 but kept a seat on the party's political committee.
Now the duo will occupy the top two spots on the party's
federal list in the December vote, Interfax reported.
The third spot will go to Alexei Yablokov, a noted environmentalist
and corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Also running on the party ticket will be Novaya Gazeta editor-in-chief
Dmitry Muratov; Anatoly Leirikh, a senior member of Delovaya
Rossia, a business lobby group; and Andrei Rudomakha of
Environment Watch North Caucasus, a nonprofit group known
for reporting about a Black Sea mansion of unclear ownership
dubbed "Putin's Palace"...
The 16th Congress of the YABLOKO party began
its work in the Moscow region.
YABLOKO’s congress started with a
minute of silence in view of air accident taking the lives
of the players of the Locomotive team.
YABLOKO’s Chairman Sergei Mitrokhin
opened the congress. In his report Mitrokhin gave assessment
to the present Russia’s political and economic system
and marked the priorities of the work of the faction in
the State Duma. According to Mitrokhin, Russia had become
a hostage of inefficient state and inefficient economic
system.
“YABLOKO is a responsible political
force, that is why it will participate in the coming elections
to the Russian parliament,” he said.
According to Mitrokhin YABLOKO’s goal
at the coming elections is formation of its faction in the
State Duma.
“Only YABLOKO due to the specifics
of its ideology and programme can challenge the monopoly
of corrupted bureaucracy merged with business,” Mitrokhin
stressed. He also noted that this monopoly is supported
not only by the ruling United Russia, but also by other
factions of the parliament proclaiming themselves as the
“opposition”...
Presentation of the new book by YABLOKO’s
leader Sergei Mitrokhin was held at the International Book
Fair in Moscow on September 8, 2011. The book entitled "Russia
Needs Changes" presents his vision of the situation
in the country and contains proposals how to change it.
The book consists of three parts: "What
is Happening to Russia?", "What kind of Russia
We Need?" and "How to Change Russia?".
"Russia’s assets have been stolen,"
such an assessment Mitrokhin gives to the current political
regime. "While the heads of the state and the ruling
party have been trying to show that they care Russia's future
and talks about the need to modernize Russia, a large army
of bureaucrats and businessmen associated with these bureaucrats
have been continuing getting their profit [from the federal
assets]," Mitrokhin wrote.
Sergei Mitrokhin proposes to build "a
modern state of the European type" in Russia. This
state should be governed by law, be socially-oriented, democratic,
should eliminate corruption, and protect the environment.
People capitalism should replace the present oligarchic
capitalism, Mitrokhin wrote. The society in such a state
will be able to defend its interests and control the authorities...
Estonian
growth tops Eurozone
LI News Bulletin, Issue 249, September 8, 2011
Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip (Reform
Party, LI full member) announced this week that his country's
GDP growth forecast is set to drastically improve this year,
nearly doubling from 4% to 7%. Estonia, which adopted the
Euro as recently as January this year, has with its economic
growth in the first two quarters of the year outpaced all
other 16 Eurozone countries, making itself the star performer
of the fiscal union. Since the economic downturn in 2008,
Estonia has showed remarkable public sector austerity —
including a 20 % pay cut by the Prime Minister himself.
Earlier this summer Estonia's credit rating was improved
to double-A minus, a rare achievement in the current economic
crisis. Noting the importance of trade in maintaining a
high growth rate, Ansip said: 'Our growth rate is based
on exports and our main export markets are Sweden and Finland.
They are doing really well but you never know.' Prime Minister
Andrus Ansip also emphasized that the improved growth outlook
would be mirrored by slower growth rates next year.
...According to Yavlinsky, huge public demand
in housing representing Russia’s specifics when satisfied
can lead the country out of stagnation. This envisages gratuitous
and mass-scale transfer of federal lands to the citizens
under their housing construction and development of infrastructure
(water, gas and electricity supply), as well as construction
of roads at the expense of the federal budget, i.e. the
reserves accumulated for the recent years due to high oil
and gas prices. The programme stipulates that about 14 million
of families should get about 130 sq m of housing and a plot
of land (for free) up to 3,000 sq m in the European part
of Russia and up to 6,000 sq m in the Asian part. The programme
also envisages foundation of special state crediting institutions
for provision of long-term loans (up to 50 years) to families
for housing construction under low interest rates...
Press Service of St.Petersburg branch
of YABLOKO, September 7, 2011
St.Petersburg YABLOKO became the first political
party to nominate candidates to run in the elections to
St.Petersburg Legislative Assembly. The list of candidates
was formed by the party conference.
According to the conference’s decision,
YABLOKO’s list in St.Peterburg will be topped by one
person – Dr. Grigory Yavlinsky, YABLOKO’s founder,
member of YABLOKO’s Political Committee and Professor
of the Higher School of Economics. In his letter to the
conference Grigory Yavlinsky informed the delegates that
he would be ready to work in the Legislative Assembly of
St.Petersburg.
Other YABLOKO’s candidates, including
leaders of the regional party branch, will run from different
electoral territories (constituencies). Thus, Maxim Reznik
will run at Vasiliyevsky Ostov (territory No 2), Mikhail
Amosov in Kalininsky District (territory No 10 he had represented
in the Legislative Assembly before), Boris Vishnevsky in
the Central District (territory No 29) and Natalya Yevdokimova
in Nevsky District (territory No 34 she had represented
in the Legislative Assembly earlier)...
Tomorrow, on September 7, a new book by
Grigory Yavlinsky, founder of the YABLOKO party and member
of YABLOKO’s Political Committee, will be launched
at the Moscow International Book Fair.
“The Federal Programme “Land-Housing-Roads”
described in the new book proposes a way out of the economic
deadlock Russia finds itself for the second time in its
recent history.
A simple and realistic programme for getting
the country out of stagnation, improving the living standards
and development of Russia’s economy is described in
the book in such a detail that is easy to comprehend not
only to experts but to ordinary readers too. Virtually the
book is a detailed guidance for the Russian government and
if implemented, this will allow Russia to get a steady top
position in the world economy already in 10-15 years.”
The launch will begin at 13:30
All-Russia Exhibition Centre, Pavilion No 75, Hall A (Reception
Hall F5).
On September 5 a rally against restrictions
on abortions was held in the centre of Moscow. The organizers
of the rally were initiative group "For Free Motherhood",
the Russian Association "Population and Development",
coalition “Bunch of Ashberries. The Pro-Choice”. The only
political party supporting the right of women to make decisions
on abortions was the YABLOKO party. The participants were
holding banners "Do Not Oust Abortions into the Shadow
Sector!”, "A Conscientious Choice Is Better Than Irresponsible
Parenthood," "Medicine Must Be Legal" and
other.
The rally was held in connection with parliament’s
introduction of amendments into the draft law on protection
of health of citizens in the Russian Federation, which will
be examined by MPs in the second reading already in November.
The document introduces a number of restrictions on abortions
and also takes abortions out of the list of services of
"gratuitous medicine". Also the draft law prohibits
abortion without the consent of a husband, obliges doctors
to give women "a seven days period for reflection",
makes women to take a mandatory “psychologist’s consultation”
on immorality of abortion and allows doctors to refuse from
the operation on "moral grounds"...
On September 3, on the seventh anniversary
of the terrorist
attack against Beslan school YABLOKO held a series of
pickets in Moscow. (On September 1, 2004, terrorists held
1,100 hostages, mainly schoolchildren, in one of Beslan
schools for three days: 334 people including 186 were killed
and over 800 people were injured. Yet the case still remains
uninvestigated and Senator Torshin, head of the Parliamentary
Commission for investigation of the act of terror has been
keeping silent).
Zoya Shargatova, Deputy Chair of the Moscow
branch of YABLOKO and party activists Gleb Sitnikov, Zoya
Gulyaeva and Ilona Korovchenko, held banners "Seven
years after. Who is liable?" by Public Prosecutor General’s
office and the Federation Council. Another banner “Torshin,
how about the truth about Beslan?" addressed Senator
Alexander Torshin, head of the Parliamentary Commission
on investigation of the circumstances of the tragedy. Police
officers and representatives of the Federal Security Service
checked the documents of the activists and took down their
passport data, however did not interfere with the picket...
A memory action devoted to the Beslan tragedy
also took place in St. Petersburg. The participants of the
rally lit 334 candles - one per each victim. The candles
were lined in the word "Beslan." The action was
held without any political symbols and slogans.
Leader of LI Full member Yabloko, Sergei
Mitrokhin has during a rare meeting with Russian President
Dmitri Medvedev called for a thorough modernisation of the
Russian parliament. During the meeting for all registered
parties, Mitrokhin stated that the “forthcoming elections
represent an opportunity to implement Russian modernisation
plans”, voiced by the President earlier. “Political
modernisation first of all means provision of equal possibilities
for political competition. And this should take place during
elections,” Mitrokhin stressed. “Today the State
Duma with dominance of one political party is the most powerful
anti-modernisation factor… As it is this party which
controls the parliament, it cannot protect the society from
bureaucrats' arbitrary rule and corruption. Therefore a
corrupted system based on the laws adopted by bureaucracy
and for the sake of bureaucracy has been built in the country,
via the State Duma”, he added...
On August 31 YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin
took part in an environmental rally organised by the Volgograd
branch of YABLOKO. The action was held under the slogan
"Let’s Return Land and Water to People”.
According to Galina Boldyreva, Chair of
the regional branch of YABLOKO, people need protection from
those who grab coasts of rivers and water reservoirs. During
picketing YABLOKO’s activists distributed leaflets explaining
what laws were violated by raiders and also distributed
postcards in protection of the Volga-Akhtuba flood from
drying...
...“From the economic point of view,
the programme is targeted at creation of conditions for
unprecedented growth of domestic demand,” Mitrokhin
said. This envisages gratuitous and mass-scale transfer
of [federal] lands to the citizens under their housing construction
and development of infrastructure (water, gas and electricity
supply), as well as construction of roads at the expense
of the federal budget, i.e. the reserves accumulated for
the recent years due to high oil and gas prices.
“The effect from this programme can
not be overestimated from both social and political aspects.
A possibility to obtain a plot of land free of charge from
the state, e.g. 50 hundred square meters of land and built
150 square meters of housing there for half of its cost,
- this will constitute a real breakthrough from Russia’s
economic stagnation,” he added. Mitrokhin also noted
that, according to the estimates of party experts, implementation
of such a programme will create at least 10 mln additional
jobs and will ensure economic growth by at least 3.5 percentage
points...
Anyone who on prophet Muhammad’s covenant
has passed the spiritual test during the holy month of Ramadan
acquiring real spiritual treasure which will support faithful
Muslims throughout the year and further in life.
Let the deeds of mercy that Muslims must do during fasting
and holidays provide support to the needy and comfort the
afflicted.
...Sergei Mitrokhin began his speech saying
that the “forthcoming elections represent an opportunity
to implement Russian modernisation plans” voiced by
the President earlier. “Political modernisation first
of all means provision of equal possibilities for political
competition. And this should take place during elections,”
Mitrokhin stressed. According to YABLOKO’s leader,
“today the State Duma with dominance of one political
party is the most powerful anti-modernisation factor”.
Mitrokhin also stated that this party represents the interests
of bureaucracy and large business connected with the latter.
“As it is this party which controls the parliament,
it can not protect the society from bureaucrats’ arbitrary
rule and corruption. Therefore a corrupted system based
on the laws adopted by bureaucracy and for the sake of bureaucracy
via the State Duma has been built in the country,”
Mitrokhin said...
The European Parliament's Economic and
Monetary Affairs Committee (ECON) met in extraordinary session
today to take stock of the deteriorating situation in the
Eurozone in the presence of ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet,
Eurogroup chairman Jean-Claude Juncker , EU commissioner
Olli Rehn and the Polish Minister of Finance (Council Presidency)
Jacek Rostowski...
The 20th anniversary of the coup attempt
gives one more reason to think why 20 years after the ruin
of the Communist regime Russian democracy also failed without
even being born”, said Sergei Mitrokhin, Leader of
Yabloko (LI full member) on August 19th, the day commemorating
the failed coup d'etat of 1991 that sparked the fall of
the Soviet Union. “The team of Boris Yeltsin failed
to build democracy in Russia and 20 years after the abortive
coup the country has turned into an oligarchy with elements
of autocracy”, he added...
Guy Verhofstadt, ALDE Leader has hailed
the "dawn of democracy in Libya" following the
dramatic events in Tripoli.
"Back in March the ALDE Group took
the initiative to invite Dr Al-Issawi and Dr Mahmoud Gebil,
two senior members of the National Interim Council of Libya
to come to Strasbourg to hear directly from the Libyan rebels
what support was needed in their struggle. This was the
first time that Libyan Rebels received international attention
and given a platform to outline their needs in the fight
for freedom. At that moment, they were unequivocal in their
request, recognition of the National Interim Council, guarantee
the supply of humanitarian assistance and enforce a no-fly
zone...
...Expectations about Poltavchenko, whose
involvement in public politics remains limited, were still
unclear Monday, but the leader of the city branch of the
liberal Yabloko party, Maxim Reznik, welcomed him simply
for not being a member of Matviyenko's team.
"It's a positive move," Reznik
said, Interfax reported. But he criticized the fact that
residents of St. Petersburg, the country's second-biggest
city with a population of 4.8 million, will be given no
say in who will govern them.
...Yabloko Democratic Party said it does
not recognize the elections, which were not properly announced
and thus illegal in a statement on Monday, which described
them as a “shameful and undignified farce.”
It said that Matviyenko has a “panicked
fear” of any democratic procedures and the scheme’s
goal was to save her from any political competition at the
election...
Moscow, August 19 (Interfax) - The team
of Boris Yeltsin failed to build democracy in Russia and
20 years after the abortive coup the country has turned
into an oligarchy with elements of autocracy, Yabloko party
leader Sergei Mitrokhin believes.
"Unfortunately, those who assumed full
power as a result - Boris Yeltsin and his entourage - did
not live up to the hopes that the defenders of the White
House had pinned to them. Instead of building a civilized
democracy in Russia, they surrendered power to adventurers
and national wealth - to criminals," Mitrokhin's statement
received by Interfax on Friday says...
Environmental organisation North Caucasus
Environmental Watch with YABLOKO’s support is going
to start a law suit against PR technologists employed by
the Eurochim company (which has constructed and launched
oil shipment terminal in the resort city of Tuapse despite
loud public protests) and hold them answerable for libel...
A joint action by the Federation of Russian
Automobile Owners and YABLOKO [against use of flashing lights
at bureaucrats’ cars creating terrible traffic jams
in Moscow] began as usual at 8 a.m. [this August]. First
everything was calm, as according to the law one-person
pickets do not require any permissions from the authorities...
Today, on August 10, Youth YABLOKO conducted
a solidarity action with Syrian protestors by the Syrian
Embassy in Moscow. The action was held within the framework
of the international campaign launched by the International
Federation of Liberal Youth (IFLRY). Youth YABLOKO is a
collective member of IFLRY.
YABLOKO’s activists came to the Embassy
holding white roses and with sticky tapes on their mouths.
According to Kirill Gontcharov, leader of the Moscow Youth
YABLOKO, roses symbolize the victims of the totalitarian
regime and glued moths – suppression of the dissenting
by the regime...
...Yabloko Democratic Party said it does
not recognize the elections, which were not properly announced
and thus illegal in a statement on Monday, which described
them as a “shameful and undignified farce.”
It said that Matviyenko has a “panicked fear”
of any democratic procedures and the scheme’s goal
was to save her from any political competition at the election.
“It’s an utter shame and disgrace,”
said Yabloko’s local chair Maxim Reznik by phone on
Monday.“And this is a person who once was the governor!
She simply humiliates herself”...
Gleb Sitnikov, activist of the Youth YABLOKO
was arrested by police due to provocation from unidentified
persons when picketing in Moscow against preferences on
the Moscow roads given to bureaucrats’ cars when all
the traffic is stopped to give way to the cars of the “VIPs’
cars” (the so-called anti-siren-lights campaign)...
The Russian United Democratic Party YABLOKO
expresses its sincere and deep regret in view of the fact
that Platon Lebedev [ex-head of Menatep imprisoned on the
YUKOS case] was not released on parole.
Courts in our country often apply release
on parole to killers and rapists who after their release
turn into serial pedophiles. However, when absolutely non-dangerous
for the citizens and publicly important figures such as
Platon Lebedev are concerned, than private or group interests
of the authorities prevail under the mask of law. The leadership
of the country did not take any special decision on Lebedev’s
release on parole in an exceptional order which is not surprising
in the context of the political developments around Platon
Lebedev and Mikhail Khodorkovsky case...
Unfortunately all the loud statements by
President Medvedev on modernisation of judicial system have
remained unrealized. That is why the Russian citizens do
not believe in fair justice, moreover the society alienate
from the Russian state.
We have been thinking and still think that
Platon Lebedev and Mikhail Khodorkovsky must be released,
this would become an important and humanistic step and at
the same time would serve to improvement of our public climate.
We shall spare no effort for this...
"Resignation of Vyacheslav Dudka, Governor
Tula Region, is connected with corruption scandals around
him and his people," said YABLOKO’s leader Sergei
Mitrokhin.
"It was clear for me that Dudka would resign soon after
court acquitted Vladimir Timakov, MP of the Tula City Duma
[who was a defendant on a libel case for his criticism of
the Governor], on June 30," Mitrokhin added.
Court found that Vladimir Timakov, YABLOKO’s MP in
the Tula City Duma was guilty of libel in November 2010.
The court found that Timakov’s criticism of the Governor
for corruption was “libel”...
Today YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin
forwarded an address to President of Russia demanding that
he should interfere into the situation with fielding of
St.Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko as candidate
at local elections (as only deputies of legislative bodies
have a right to be nominated Chair of the Federation Council)
from municipal constituencies Krasnenkaya Rechka and Okrug
Petrovsky.
It should be noted that public learned about
elections in these constituencies three days after closing
date for registration of candidates there. In particular,
newspaper Okrug Petrovsky (dated June 30) quoting the decision
on appointing the election in the constituency appeared
only yesterday.
“The situation when the way to the
post of the third top official in the state [Chair of the
upper chamber of the Russian parliament] begins from open
political fraud is shameful and disgraceful for Russia and
the entire system of state power in Russia,” runs
the address.
Sergei Mitrokhin proposes to the President
to entrust Public Prosecutor General to initiate the audit
of lawfulness of appointing of the elections.
LI President Hans van Baalen MEP has conveyed
his condolences to the Norwegian Government and Parliament
and to the LI Member Party Venstre of Norway following the
loss of more than 90 lives in the terrorist attacks last
Friday. “The condolences of Liberal International
go to Norwegian society, the family and relatives of the
victims and to those wounded in, as it seems, a ruthless
terrorist attack on the government buildings in central
Oslo and on the resort of the Norske Arbeiderpartiet (Norwegian
Labour Party) at Utøya.”. The party offices
of Norwegian LI member party, Venstre, suffered extensive
material damage during the attack. Expressing her condolences
to all of those affected, Venstre leader Trine Skei Grande
said: “These are days for comfort, thoughtfulness
and reflection. Take care of each other. We must remember
to maintain our democracy and an open society.” In
order to honour the national grieving, the Norwegian party
leaders have decided to postpone campaigning in the upcoming
local elections in September until further notice.
...Dressed in black uniform and with police
batons the security resembled nazies. All the time the activists
reached some road the securities prohibited them to use
it. Soon it became clear that they received an order to
“teach them a lesson” so that to make the environmentalists
keep away from the Indokopas company and “Putin’s
Palace”. So the activists had to make a very difficult
three-hours march through the forest via a mountain pass
and past a canyon. Such a trip endangered their lives, the
activists were all bruised and bleeding when late at night
they managed to get on the road by Praskeyevka village.
The actions by the security of the “Putin’s
Palace” were absolutely unlawful, moreover the security
on purpose endangered the lives of the environmentalists.
The police did not come to rescue despite of the fact that
the call made by the activists was registered by the local
police department...
On July 26, chemical fertilizers will be
delivered to bulk terminal in the centre of Tuapse, Black
Sea coast, so that to begin their exports already in early
August. The terminal is launched despite the order of the
President to hold public hearings and consultations with
environmental organisations. The YABLOKO party and North
Caucasus Environmental Watch are going to conduct several
actions in the city centre and by the terminal...
Actions on July 26 will be followed by a
mass-scale protest rally YABLOKO and environmentalists are
preparing now...
Today on July 26, local YABLOKO branch in
the town of Velsk, Arkhangelsk region, and the Vazhsky Krai
public movement conducted a picket in support of Platon
Lebedev, ex-head of the Menatep Group (the YUKOS case).
The Velsk City Court has begun examination of Lebedev’s
application on release on parole.
According to Valery Kvitkovsky, head of
the Velsk branch of YABLOKO, about 30 people were picketing
the court. People were holding placards “Freedom to
Platon Lebedev”, “No to Police State!”
and “Citizens of Velsk Support Platon Lebedev”...
The Russian United Democratic Party YABLOKO
expresses its deep condolences in view of barbaric acts
of terror in Norway. Our people know the burden of such
grief and we completely share your feelings.
Terrorism is a danger which can be confronted
only with a joint effort in combating the causes giving
rise to such monstrous things.
We are sharing your pain.
And we are confident in the courage of the
Norwegian nation.
...In conducting a campaign in the Black
Sea coastal region to return public land, including beaches
and forest areas, to the people and to stop the construction
of oil shipment terminals, ELDR member party YABLOKO, has
been targeted by an unknown source which is calling for
the party to be put on a list of terrorist organisations
and for its activities to be prohibited.
Click
here to read YABLOKO's press release on this matter.
This follows the arrest last month of YABLOKO
activists campaigning for better environmental awareness
and consideration at the Black Sea coast. Read
more.
The notion of wanting to label a political
party as being a terrorist organisation on the basis of
conducting a peaceful campaign that represents the views
of a number of citizens living in the area concerned is
very worrying and a clear infringement of human rights and
on the actions of YABLOKO as a political party. ELDR deplores
such attempts to limit the freedom of expression of the
Russian people and the underhand tactics used against YABLOKO
to halt the campaign.
In connection with the fact that hearings
on the application of [ex-YUKOS head] Platon Lebedev will
be held in the court of Velsk, Arkhangelsk region, on July
26, the Russian United Democratic Party YABLOKO insists
that the court should take a positive decision [regarding
the release of Lebedev].
An extremely odious YUKOS case in which
Platon Lebedev was twice sentenced to imprisonment is not
only a subject to litigation in different courts, but it
has also been attracting the attention of many ordinary
people who are concerned about Russia's future. It is impossible
to create a modern country when redistribution of property
and criminal prosecution of businessmen has turned into
a norm. The YUKOS case is one of many, but it is remarkable
in its scope and broad media coverage and public resonance.
Release of prisoners and re-examination
of the YUKOS case in courts, as well as other similar cases
of Russian businessmen will become an essential and necessary
step in Russia’s movement from the post-Soviet authoritarian
state towards normal policies and a European style economy
functioning in the interests of Russian citizens...
Leader of the YABLOKO party Sergei Mitrokhin
arrived to Novosibirsk on July 20 so that to intensify the
work of the regional office on the eve of the State Duma
elections. According to Mitrokhin, Oleg Donskikh can head
the party branch in Novosibirsk. Donskikh is at present
the authorized representative of the party in the region,
reports Taiga-Info correspondent on July 20...
YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin
applied to Public Prosecutor General Yury Chaika to determine
the sources of financing of a black PR campaign launched
against YABLOKO and ecologists fighting against constructing
of oil shipment terminals in Novorossiysk and Tuapse, the
Black Sea coast. After loud public protests against construction
of hazardous facilities in the resort cities and his meeting
with environmentalists President Medvedev ordered (on June
8) the regional authorities to conduct consultations with
public organisations and activists
Such a meeting was held in Krasnodar yesterday, on July
18. However, not all the environmentalists and representatives
of public organisations were allowed to be present. Thus,
according to a personal order of the anchor of the event,
well-known Russian journalists Vladimir Soloviyov, the security
did not allow Suren Gazaryan, activist of YABLOKO and North
Caucasus Environmental Watch to pass to the premises were
the even was held.
However, Gazaryan got hold of a document entitled “Action
Plan for Creation of Broad Public Resonance in Connection
with the First Public Consultations." According to
the document, the goal of the PR campaign is "to achieve
generally positive reaction from the Internet community
on the decision to launch the terminals in Tuapse and Novorossiysk."
The unknown PR technologists also set up the task to "discredit
environmentalists" fighting against this project endangering
the environment in the region...
On July 19, 2011, the Bashkirian regional
branch of the YABLOKO party, the Committee of Civil Control
of the Republic of Bashkiria and “Human Rights, Information
and Culture” civil foundation will conduct a joint
picket in defence of Article 19 of the Russian Constitution
guaranteeing protection of human rights in Russia...
Draft city development plan
of Korolyov, Moscow region, was declined and sent to revision.
Such a decision was adopted on July 14 by the city administration
basing on the results of public hearings (see
our photo report) that took place in Korolyov on July
4. Such a decision by the city authority marks a real victory
of the residents of the city who together with YABLOKO conducted
a large-scale public campaign against the city development
policies of the Korolyov administration...
On July 13 activists of the Youth Yabloko
in different Russian cities conducted a solidarity action
with their young colleagues from Ekaterinburg and Moscow
who had been detained for anti-government slogans done in
chalk on the pavement...
Activists of the Chelyabinsk Youth Yabloko
conducted an action by the ruling United Russia’s
office. Young Yabloko activists wrote in chalk on the pavement
in front of the ruling party’s office slogans "This
government must go," "Go away!" and "This
government does not need us"...
On July 14 YABLOKO leaders meet with members
of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe,
Rapporteurs on the monitoring of Russia, Mr Andreas Gross
and Mr Gyorgy Frunda, and Ms. Agnieszka Nachilo, Deputy
Head of the Secretariat of the Monitoring Committee. The
rapporteurs are preparing a report on the monitoring of
Russia's obligations and commitments entered upon accession
to the Council of Europe for the presentation in the Parliamentary
Assembly...
Today police arrested activists of the Youth
YABLOKO – Kirill Gontcharov, Gleb Sitnikov and Sofia
Rusova – for writing “This government should
resign!” in front of the United Russia’s party
office in the center of Moscow...
Today’s action by the United Russia office was conducted
in solidarity with the activists of the Youth YABLOKO branch
in the Sverdlovsk region – Anastasya Zheltisheva and
Eugeni Mezentsev - who stood before court today for writing
the same slogan during a concert organised by United Russia
in Ekaterinburg...
Actions of solidarity are held today by United Russia’s
offices in other cities: St.Petersburg, Penza, Chelyabinsk
and Kostroma.
On July 11, 2011, a mass protest rally in
protection of human rights and demanding dismissal of the
Eugeny Ulasevich, deputy head of the city administration,
was held in Sterlitamak, Bashkiria, despite the ban of the
local authorities. One of the organizers of the rally was
Damir Garifullin, leader of the Sterlitamak branch of YABLOKO.
The rally brought together about seven hundred people.
The city authorities tried to move the rally
from the walls of the administration building, however,
the indignant citizens stayed at by the administration.
The police tried to detain Damir Garifullin, however the
participants of the rally interfered and did not allow the
police to detain him...
YABLOKO’s rally in Aksay, the Rostov region,
was conducted despite counteraction of the authorities.
Before the action the police notified the
organizers of the rally about administration’s ban on the
rally, the police told that all the participants would be
detained. “This is completely unlawful. The Adminstration
has no right to ban the rally. The authorities can only
offer a different place for conducting the action,” YABLOKO’s
leader Sergei Mitrokhin said.
Also someone threw leaflets that people
are prohibited to come to the park where the rally had to
due to “sanitary measures against insects and hazardous
effect of this pharmaceuticals on people”. This was done
in the morning on the threashold of the rally. In spite
f all of this the rally gathered about 100 people...
The Russian United Democratic Party YABLOKO
expresses condolences to the relatives of the victims of
the terrible accident with “Bulgaria” tourists
ship. We support the decision of Russian President Medvedev
to declare a nation-wide mourning...
YABLOKO demands from the authorities to
conduct not only a thorough and prompt investigation and
publish its results, but take up urgent actions for raising
safety of the river transport. We demand an immediate inspection
of passenger ships of the river fleet, together with public
inspections, which should include civil society activists
and representatives of the opposition, and immediately stop
exploitation of the vessels similar to the "Bulgaria"
and others that do not meet the safety requirements...
Press conference of Russia’s Ombudsman
Vladimir Lukin to take place in Moscow, on July 12. The
topic of the press-conference is “Violation of Russian
citizens’ rights in 2011: the most frequent complaints”.
YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin
visited Vyeselovly District of the Rostov region within
the framework of his visit to the southern Russian region.
He had a meeting with Eugeny Tkachyov, Cossack chieftain
(ataman) and other Cossacks. The speakers in addition to
modern problems also touched upon the situation with Cossacks
in the USSR, and Sergei Mitrokhin promised to initiate on
the state level a discussion of the homicide of Cossacks
in that period...
...Last
week, a handful of environmentalists and political opposition
party members made their way to the site of Putin’s
alleged fairytale home to check out the mysterious place
and assess its environmental impact.
In January, the FRANCE 24 Observer’s website published
an article on the controversy triggered by photos published
on the internet of Putin’s seaside palace near the
southern town Paraskoveevka, on the Black Sea. The site
also published comments made by Sergei Kolesnikov, a Russian
businessman who had been involved in the building’s
construction, and who maintained that the prime minister
was its true owner. Although officially classified as a
centre to be used for medical care, Kolesnikov was able
to use a paper trail detailing the building’s financing
to link it to Putin...
Following the June session of the Parliamentary
Assembly of Council of Europe (PACE), at which ALDE-PACE
debated the rule of law in Russia, the liberal colleagues
from ALDE in the European Parliament (ALDE-EP, LI full member)
invited Mikhail Kasyanov and Boris Nemstov, Leaders of the
People's Freedom Party (PARNAS) for discussions in Strasbourg.
The Russian leaders warned that the current policy is paving
the way for a Russian Spring similar to the uprisings spreading
through Arab countries, 'Russian people do not seek another
revolution but freedom ultimately cannot be denied'. An
earlier liberal conference on the rule of law in Russia
in Moscow on 22 June produced a statement
condemning the refusal of the Russian authorities to register
several political parties, like PARNAS. Sergei Mitrokhin,
leader of LI full member YABLOKO, has also released a statement
on the topic. Kristiina Ojuland MEP (Estonian Reform Party,
LI full member) reacted: 'The EU needs to send an unequivocal
message to Russia that the illegal banning of legitimate
parties from elections will not be tolerated'.
...Our guys were put into a jail cell in
the police station 3 by 3 meters large, where about 20 people
had already been crammed along with them. People were standing,
squatting or lying close to each other on the dirty cement
floor. One of them - a homeless person – obviously had tuberculosis.
In this cell the guys were kept before sending them to court:
Goncharov for nine hours and Menzheritsky for 14 hours...
...The convicts were housed in a temporary
detention facility, located in the same police building
in Gelenzhik. Menzheritsky was kept cell No 13. The cell
was about 16 square meters. m, and was designed for seven,
but the police kept 18 people there. The cops did not try
to hide the fact that the temporary detention prison had
several vacant cells. They tormented 18 people on purpose,
so that, according to the police officers, "they would
try to avoid getting there in the future”. People had to
queue so that to sleep in turn on a board couch (as there
were no separate beds and linen)...
The Constitutional Court of the Russian
Federation ruled that the laws for the use of a proportional
electoral system for municipal elections in small rural
communities do not comply with the Constitution of the Russian
Federation. The Constitutional Court issued such a decision
after receiving a complaint from Vladimir Lukin, Russia’s
Ombudsman and one of the founders of the YABLOKO party.
Lukin applied to the Constitutional Court in defence of
two residents of the Chelyabinsk region, who were taking
part in the elections to the municipal council of their
rural settlement. The Electoral Commission refused to register
these independent candidates referring to the proportional
system (party lists only) set for this settlement in the
region...
"Parliament has backed today what ALDE
has been repeating for months. We do not want and will not
accept any new mechanism that may weaken the Schengen acquis
guaranteeing the principle of free movement between Member
States - the very essence of our Union." said Renate
Weber (PNL, Romania) ALDE coordinator in the Civil Liberties
Committee after today's vote on a resolution on the "Changes
to Schengen" as called for by the June European Council
conclusion...
A meeting of Presidential Council on Human
Rights and Civil Society Development will take place in
Stavropol today. The President will receive a report on
the investigation of the circumstances of death in prison
of Sergei Magnitsky, lawyer of Hermitage Capital Foundation.
Valery Borshchyov, YABLOKO’s Bureau member and Chair
of the Permanent Chamber on Human Rights of the Political
Consultative Council under President of Russia, conducted
independent investigation of the death of Sergei Magnitsky
and participated in the preparation of the report...
According to Borshchyov, death rate in
Moscow remand prisons has risen by 12 percent for the past
year. "Certainly, a political will is required so that
to bring medical service in prisons out of the Federal Penitentiary
Service jurisdiction. I am sure that our President will
read our report very carefully. The authorities have underestimated
the position of the European community, and the resolution
on the case by the Parliament of the Netherlands will be
followed by corresponding resolutions from parliaments of
other countries,” he added...
..."The facts listed confirm the need
to organize independent and competent medical services for
inmates of penitentiary facilities. Such services cannot
be exclusively controlled by the Federal Penitentiary Service
and must also be subordinated to the Health Ministry,"
it says.
"It is necessary to create a mechanism
of independent medical examinations of the inmates' condition
on the basis of proposals provided by the Office of the
Moscow Human Rights Commissioner, jointly with the City
Public Supervisory Commission," the report says...
Eight prison guards severely beat lawyer
Sergei Magnitsky shortly before his 2009 death in pretrial
detention, an activist said Tuesday, providing a new twist
to allegations that Magnitsky had been tortured in prison.
An account of the beating is included in a 40-page report
on Magnitsky's death that the Kremlin's human rights council
presented to President Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday, said
Valery Borshchyov, who headed an independent investigation
into the death that formed the basis for the report.
The report also lays blame on prison hospital
staff and the investigators who jailed Magnitsky for his
death.
"Having interviewed the prison doctors
and staff, we came to the conclusion that Magnitsky, who
was already in bad condition, was beaten in a separate cell,"
Borshchyov said by telephone...
YABLOKO’S leader Sergei Mitrokhin
called the statement made by Alexander Fedulov, head of
the Kursk regional branch of YABLOKO, on the need of repressive
measures against the LGBT community "unacceptable for
a member of the party."
"Fedulov expressed his personal opinion
which contradicts the basic principles and values of the
YABLOKO party,” Mitrokhin said. “ In a civilized
state civil rights must be respected regardless of ethnicity,
social class and sexual orientation," he added...
Press Service of the Nizhny Novgorod
YABLOKO branch, July 5, 2011
Members of the Nizhny Novgorod branch of
YABLOKO Sergei Girin and Larissa Gorbunova and Chair of
the All-Russia Women’s Congress Tatyana Chertotskaya visited
the city of Balkhan last week. During their visit they donated
over 200 books of modern authors to the local residential
home for the elderly, an orphanage and Pushkin’s library...
...How will the people of St Petersburg
remember Valentina Matvienko’s eight-year tenure as
governor? She is undoubtedly clever, resolute, has a way
of winning people over and at a pinch can make a good impression
even on her opponents. But being an authoritarian politician,
she hates being criticized and sees the opposition not as
people whose point of view needs to be taken into account,
but as an enemy that should be destroyed if it doesn’t
surrender. It is no wonder that protests in St Petersburg
are broken up, opposition members are made ineligible to
run for public office and the results of elections are often
rigged...
Press-conference "Persecution of Political
Opposition with the Help of the Criminal Code" will
be held in the Independent Press Centre, Moscow, July 7,
at 2:00 p.m.
The following speakers will participate
in the press-conference: Andrei Babushkin, Chair of the
For the Civil Rights Committee, Zoya Svetlova, member of
Public Observation Commission, Anna Karyetnikova, member
of Public Observation Commission, and Irina Fedotova, author
of the book on lawyer Stanislav Markelov murdered in Moscow
in 2009. Presentation of the report “Too loose interpretation
of Articles 282, 280 and 205-2 of the Criminal Code of the
Russian Federation” will also take place.
Address: Moscow, Prechistinka, 17/9, 1st
floor, Independent Press Centre
"I warmly welcome the acquittal of
Oleg Orlov. It is a step in the direction of ensuring respect
for the rule of law and a sign that Russian courts are willing
and able to interpret the right to freedom of expression
in accordance with the European Convention on Human Rights.
However, we should not forget that the circumstances of
the killing of Natalia Estemirova have not yet been elucidated,
and that human rights defenders in Chechnya continue to
be threatened and hindered in exercising their activities."
- Mailis Reps (Estonia, ALDE), the rapporteur of the Council
of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) on the situation
of human rights defenders.
The YABLOKO party demands that Mr.Torshin’s
draft bills limiting the jurisdiction of the European Court
of Human Rights should be either revoked by the author or
declined by the State Duma.
A ban for the Russian judges to apply the decisions of the
European Court without their confirmation by the Constitutional
Court will lead to even greater degradation of the Russian
judicial system. The Constitutional Court can not count
on any trust from the Russian citizens after the statements
servile to the executive authority and voiced by its Chair
Valery Zorkin.
The citizens of Russia who became victims of unjust court
consider the European Court as the last hope to achieve
justice...
Today young activists from the Youth YABLOKO
conducted a serious a one-person pickets against adoption
of a draft law (submitted by Senator Alexander Torshin)
envisaging that Russia should not implement the decisions
of the European Court of Human Rights. The State Duma had
been planning to adopt the draft law in the first reading
but due to a heated public discussion around the draft law
decided to postpone the discussion of the issue...
On July 30 Public Prosecutor
dismissed his charges against YABLOKO’s MP in the
Tula parliament Vladimir Timakov. Public Prosecutor asked
to close the case due to for absence of elements of crime
in the act after getting the results of a linguistic expertise.
This means that the sentence of the court of the first instance
recognising Timakov guilty of libel for his criticism of
the Governor of the Tula Region will be cancelled.
Over two yeas ago Vyacheslav Dudka, Governor of the Tula
Region, started litigation against YABLOKO’s MP in
the Tula City Parliament Vladimir Timakov for the criticism
of the latter of the Governor’s performance accusing
Timakov of libel. In the first civil process the Governor
won 1.5 mln roubles of “moral damage” from Timakov
and than tried to persecute the MP in the criminal proceedings
which could have led to deprivation of Timakov of his deputy’s
mandate...
Kirill Gontcharov, leader of the Moscow
Youth YABLOKO (LI full member), and environmentalist Sergei
Menzhitsky were sentenced to five days of imprisonment for
alleged “physical resistance to police orders”.
They were detained in Divnomorskoye village at the Black
Sea, while protesting against unlawful and illegal construction
of cottages in national parks, which involved turning public
beaches and territories into top officials' private property.
The YABLOKO action, titled “All-Russia Protest Against
the Stolen Black Sea Coast”, was launched on 24 June...
On June 26, a rally against launching of
chemical shipments terminal in Tuapse owned by the Eurochem
company was conducted in the centre of the city. The action
was organised by the North Caucasus Environmental Watch
on and YABLOKO’s Green Russia faction. Despite the
interaction from the administration of the Tuapse district
and the Krasnodar Territory, the rally brought together
over two thousand inhabitants of the city...
The YABLOKO party forwarded to the Russian
Government its proposals and initiatives via the Strategic
Initiatives Agency. The Strategic Initiatives Agency was
created by the Russian Government in May 2011. It is targeted
at support of socially important projects and initiatives.
The proposals are connected with the new
strategy of Russian economic polices, local self-government
reform and reduction of tariffs in the housing and utilities
sector. The drafts were submitted by Valery Goryachev, Executive
Secretary of YABLOKO’s Bureau. “We are going
to use all the possibilities for implementation of our projects,”
Goryachev said...
On Friday, July 1, the Moscow Youth YABLOKO
organisation will hold a series of one persons pickets by
the State Duma against adoption of the draft law envisaging
overriding ruling of the European Court.
The State Duma plans to adopt this drat
law in the reading on Friday.
The action will start at Okhotny Ryad 1
at 9:30 a.m.
Journalist and human rights activist Vladimir
Grechaninov saw his car explode in the North-East of Moscow
at 4 a.m. today. According to preliminary information, the
police qualified this crime as arson, and the journalists
connected this accident with his professional activities.
Fortunately Grechaninov was not affected. Grechaninov connects
this either with his professional activities or with the
activities of his spouse Marina Verigina...
YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin
forwarded to leaders of five parties a proposal to begin
negotiations on joining the efforts in observation at the
forthcoming parliamentary election. The letters were sent
to all the registered parties except the ruling United Russia
(which had become notoriously famous of election fraud)...
On June 28, 2011, a round table of the consultative
working group of the Commission under the President of Russian
Federation for modernisation and technological development
of Russia’s economy was held in the Moscow region...
Four political parties presented their views
of modernisation and the task of innovative development
there. Ivan Bolshakov, member of YABLOKO’s Federal
Council, made a speech about YABLOKO’s view of modernisation
and the factors hampering this process and also answered
journalists’ questions. It turned out that Bolshakov
was the only representative of a political party who criticized
the present Russia’s political system and called to
its modernisation.
“Conducting modernisation via technological
stimulation of Russia’s economy is obviously inefficient,
this should include institutional transformation of the
whole system, including political, economic, social and
socio-cultural spheres,” Bolshakov stressed. “If
this does not happen, we shall be left with the archaic
authoritarian political system which puts Russia in line
with backward countries and failing states,” he added...
Kirill Gontcharov, leader of
the Moscow Youth YABLOKO, and environmentalist Sergei Menzhitsky
were sentenced to five days of imprisonment for alleged
“physical resistance to police orders”. They
were detained in Divnomorskoye village at the Black Sea.
On June 24 Kirill Gontcharov, leader of
the Moscow Youth YABLOKO and environmentalists Sergei Menzhitsky
and Konstantin Andramonov were detained in Divnomorskoye
village at the Black Sea. YABLOKO had launched an action
“All-Russia Protest Against the Stolen Black Sea Coast”
protesting against unlawful and illegal construction of
cottages (especially for top officials) in the national
parks and turning of public beaches and territories into
their private beaches and territories.
On June 25 the activists planned to conduct
a rally by “Putin’s dacha” (“Putin’s
country cottage”). And on June 24 they inspected the
national park of the relict Pitsunda pine (as it has been
detected previously that part of the relict trees were cut
for construction of the Governor’s residence)...
A rally against the ruling
United Russia party was organised by the local YABLOKO branch
in Yaroslavl. YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin also participated
in the action...
“We ourselves are to blame that we are robbed
of,” he said. “We resemble the people who have burglars
in their house but do not want to catch them under the pretext
that they are tired,” Mitrokhin added. He also said that
if such a trend went on, the country would simply cease
to exist and called everyone not to miss but vote in the
coming elections...
YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin
expressed his disappointment with the presidential initiative
to reduce the barrier for parties to the Russian parliament
from 2016. “It is unclear why, if the President recognizes
the present seven per cent barrier as obviously too high,
why it is impossible to introduce amendments into the law
already now so that to reduce the barrier for the forthcoming
elections to the State Duma in December 2011,” Sergei
Mitrokhin told Interfax on Thursday...
“We are pessimistic about all these
public statements by the head of the state, realizing that
he either does not want or can not implement his often correct
words into real actions,” he stressed...
On June 24, YABLOKO and Women’s
Social-Democratic Congress sign partnership agreement at
the meeting of YABLOKO’s Bureau. On behalf of YABLOKO
the document was signed by party leader Sergei Mitrokhin
and Chair of the Gender Faction Galina Mikhalyova. On behalf
of the Congress the agreement was signed by its President
Tatyana Chertoritskaya.
Signing of the agreement reflects the policies
of the party towards a coalition of the organisations sharing
YABLOKO’s values. Earlier YABLOKO had already signed
such agreements with the Green Russia and the Elder Generation
that joined YABLOKO and formed their factions within the
party...
Tuapse subsidiary of the Kuban
Printing Works refused to print YABLOKO’s bulletin
on environmental problems “Let Us Save the City”.
YABLOKO and North Caucasus Environmental Watch planned to
conduct a rally against launching of chemical shipments
terminal on Sunday, June 26...
On June 22 a meeting of the
working group created by the Bureau of the party on behalf
of the 15th Congress of YABLOKO was held. The group has
to summarize proposals, comments and amendments to YABLOKO’s
programme.
Opening the meeting, Boris Misnik, head of the working group,
the coordinator of the Political Committee of the party,
spoke about the progress in further development of the party
programme and proposals made by party members. "A large
number of party members and supporters were involved into
such work. In total the web-site of the party received over
thirty-five written proposals and critical remarks, many
of them will be reflected in a draft election platform of
the party," he said...
Sergei
Mitrokhin’s blog at the Echo Moskvi web-site, June
22, 2011
The issue of today’s radio programme
“People Are Against” has been whether it is
possible to knockdown corruption in Russia? My answer is:
yes, it is, and the key condition here is the WILL OF THE
TOP OFFICIAL OF THE STATE. After which the following steps
can be taken...
Last Sunday (19 June) witnessed the second
round of the Moldovan local elections. The first round of
the local elections, held on Sunday 5 June, were very fruitful
for ELDR member Partidul Liberal (PL), as reported by ELDR
on 8 June – and offered plenty of potential for the
second round, with the capital Chisinau still undecided
and over 100 liberal candidates still in the running around
the country...
YABLOKO’s leader Sergei
Mitrokhin expressed his indignation with the decision of
the Justice Ministry to deny registration to People’s
Freedom Party (PNS).
“I am expressing indignation with
the actions of the registrator. We do not share many of
the political views of PNS, but we believe that this movement
reflects the ideas of a particular part of society and has
already proved being a political organisation,” he
told Interfax on Wednesday.
According to Mitrokhin, “the denial
to register PNS means not only a denial of rights to its
members, but also to those who support them”.
“I hope that in case PNS goes to court,
an objective decision will be taken and the party will be
registered and be able to participate in the parliamentary
elections,” Mitrokhin concluded...
An hour ago unidentified persons
attacked YABLOKO’s activists who were taking part
in the picket for of Moscow Region Governor Boris Gromov.
Gleb Sitnikov was severely injured. He was stroke to the
ground and beaten.
Nadezhda Samsonova, head of the Klin branch
of YABLOKO, told that there were ten attackers. They began
beating YABLOKO’s activists, tore the placards and
disappeared. Ambulance was called for injured Gleb Sitnikov.
Despite of the fact the policemen were watching the picket,
none of the attackers was detained...
YABLOKO’s leader Sergei
Mitrokhin was detained at an action in protection of small-scale
business by the building of the Ministry for Economic Development...
YABLOKO’s action was conducted on
the Day of Russian Entrepreneur. The picketers spoke about
the problems Russian small business has to confront. Sergei
Mitrokhin noted that situation for small-scale business
had been deteriorating with every year. Fiscal burden grew
by 2.5 times in the past two years. The picket was held
under the slogans “34 per cent of taxes strangles
honest businesses!”, “Markets for small businesses,
not the oligarchs!” and “Down with corruption!”
The European Liberal Democrat
and Reform Party Council, convening in Dresden, Germany,
unanimously voted for the draft resolution submitted by
the YABLOKO party in support of Oleg Orlov, head of the
Memorial human rights centre and winner of the European
Parliament's Sakharov Prize “For the Freedom of Thought”.
European liberals expressed their deep concern
with the trials and harassments against Oleg Orlov initiated
by leader of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov for the criticism of
the Chechen authorities in view of investigation of the
murder in Chechnya of renowned human rights activist Natalya
Estemirova. The resolution of ELDR Council stressed that
persecution of Oleg Orlov was “clearly politically
motivated, raised serious questions on the functioning of
the Russian judicial system, and demonstrated the desire
of the Chechen authorities to prevent Orlov voicing his
opinion”.
ELDR called the Russian authorities to “stop
trials and harassments against Oleg Orlov and other human
rights defenders”, “properly investigate the
murder of Natalya Estemirova and bring the perpetrators
to justice”...
The European Liberal Democrat and Reform
Party Council, convening in Dresden, Germany on 20 May 2011:
Notes with deep concern:
- Reports on political reprisals against
Oleg Orlov, Russian human rights activist, winner of the
European Parliament's Sakharov Prize and Chair of the "Memorial"
Human Rights Centre, for voicing criticism of Chechen authorities
about the investigation into the murder of human rights
activist Natalya Estemirova in 2009;
- That trials initiated by Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov,
the latest of which is set to resume in June, are clearly
politically motivated, raise serious questions on the functioning
of the Russian judicial system, and demonstrate the desire
of the Chechen authorities to prevent Orlov voicing his
opinion.
Calls upon Russian authorities to:
- Stop trials and harassments against Oleg
Orlov and other human rights defenders and properly investigate
such attacks and trials;
- Properly investigate the murder of Natalya Estemirova
and bring the perpetrators to justice.
States that
ELDR will continue to closely monitor events
in Russia.
Grigory Yavlinsky is a politician recognised
and respected by the world democratic community. He is a
regular participant of the meetings of the International
Crisis Committee, the World Economic Forum, the Trilateral
Commission, etc.
Grigory Yavlinsky has been one of the initiators
of nomination of Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, a candidate
for the Nobel Peace Prize. We began our conversation with
discussion of this event.
QUESTION: Grigory Alexeyevich, when you
decided to nominate Chinese dissident for the [Nobel Peace]
Prize, did you think about that the reaction in the world
would be controversial?..
Party leader Sergei Mitrokhin and YABLOKO
party activists have been detained by Russian police after
protesting the planned deforestation of Khimki Forest (a
region which covers 1000 acres in Moscow). When Mithrokin
arrived on the scene to join the peaceful protest, he witnessed
activists being herded into a van by police forces. Mithrokhin
himself was also detained and will likely be charged with
disobedience of police instruction. Witnesses were alarmed
by the fact that the police forces were being directed by
a non-uniformed individual, igniting speculation that this
was a government mandated operation. Party officials directed
criticism towards the government and their attempt to silence
a peaceful protest conducted by a federally recognized political
party just ahead of “Victory Day”. According
to Mr. Mithrokin: “'I assess the actions of the police
[to be] a purposeful provocation of the Khimki district
authorities on the verge of Victory Day.” Yabloko
is a full member of Liberal International, first joining
at the Budapest Congress in 2002.
By Marianne Spangenberg-Carlier,
Vice-President of D66 Women/Men/Human Rights thematic chapter
D66 News Letter, May 10, 2011.
YABLOKO is the oldest democratic
party in Russia. One important issue at hand during the
conference concerned worries that because of the low birthrate
of Russian women, abortion might become illegal (now allowed
within 12 weeks) or not covered by the health insurance.
Another issue brought to attention by Yabloko, is the concern
of so-called soldier-mothers about the situation of young
conscripts (one year army duty is obliged) improvement is
urgent.
Turkish MP Nursuna Memecan (AKP) mentioned
recent changes made to improve the position of women...
Today, on May 8, YABLOKO’s leader
Sergei Mitrokhin and a group of party activists joined the
group of environmentalists who have been trying to protect
Khimki forest from cutting.
YABLOKO’s activists have been in the environmentalists’
camp all these days trying to stop cutting of the woods.
On May 6 unidentified young men attacked the camp and injured
Suren Gazaryan who came to Khimki from the Krasnodar Area
so that to support the environmentalists in the Moscow region.
On May 8 environmentalists, YABLOKO’s activists and
local citizens conducted a peaceful rally, however, the
riot police (OMON) broke the rally and detained over 20
people, including YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin,
head of Movement in Defence of Khimki Forest Eugenia Chirikova,
Yaroslav Nikitenko, Sergei Udaltsov and leader of the Klin
branch of YABLOKO Yuri Samsonov.
Lies
and legitimacy
The founder of the Yabloko Party analyses the political
situation. Article by Grigory Yavlinsky on radio Svoboda.
This year marks the 20th anniversary since
Russia emerged from the ruins of the USSR. Peaceful rejection
of the previous totalitarian system represented a historical
achievement of global proportions. At the time society was
clearly ready for change and the construction of a new life
based on respect for the individual, democratic principles
and a free competitive economy. Today we understand that
this potential has not been realized. These dreams have
not come true...
...The people are organizing their lives
outside the state. The people are taking flight, as they
believe the state to be alien, and naturally not to offer
them any support. At critical moments in the past (such
as in 1917 and 1991) this led to the state’s disappearance...
Sergei Mitrokhin’s intrerview
to Moskovsky Komsomolets
May 3, 2011
Question: What is happening with YABLOKO,
why has it not had any success either in the regional or
the federal elections?
Sergei Mitrokhin: Do we have elections in
our country? You remember October 2009 in Moscow. At the
polling stations where Putin, Medvedev, and Luzhkov voted,
YABLOKO got 15-17%. While in places where I voted with my
family we got zero. Why? In the places where the bosses
voted, no-one dared to falsify anything. Only islands for
free elections remain today - due to oversights, because
although we have an authoritarian regime it is not very
tough. In places where we manage to ensure a fair count
of the votes, we get what we are due. In Sebezhsky district
in Pskov Oblast - 20.6% of the vote and second place after
United Russia. In Kolchuginsky district Vladimir Oblast
- more than 20%, second place after the LDPR (Liberal Democratic
Party of Russia), but the head of our list was elected head
of the district...
It is with dismay we have learned of the
forthcoming criminal trial against Oleg Orlov, head of Memorial
and 2009 laureate of the European Parliament's Sakharov
Prize. This trial, scheduled for 17 May and initiated by
the Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, is clearly politically
motivated and raises serious questions on the functioning
of the Russian judicial system.
LI full member party Yabloko has expressed
great concerns over the recent charges made against Russian
Human Rights Activist Oleg Orlov due to his comments that
the Moscow-backed President of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov,
is politically responsible for the murder of fellow human
rights activist Natalya Estemirova in July 2009. According
to Yabloko leader, Sergei Mitrokhin: ““Ramzan
Kadyrov's case is a special case even for our generally
low political culture. Even in our conditions of extreme
restrictions on freedom of speech and general judicial arbitrariness,
it never occurred to anyone to make allegations of political
responsibility a subject of a law suit…Russia's policies
on Chechnya have to be changed sooner or later. The carte
blanche to Ramzan Kadyrov and the people around him is not
infinite. We urge the Russian leadership to realize this
and change the policies to a more responsible approach.
And we repeat: persecution of Oleg Orlov is inadmissible.”
Mr. Orlov is the head of the Russian civil rights defence
organization Memorial, which won the EU's 2009 Sakharov
Prize for Freedom and thought.
The ELDR Party and our member, Yabloko,
have expressed concern about the political reprisals made
against Oleg Orlov human rights activist and former winner
of the European Parliament's Sakharov Prize (honouring the
defence of human rights and freedom of thought), and current
chair of the Human Rights Centre "Memorial" for
voicing criticism about the investigation into the murder
of human rights activist Natalya Estemirova in 2009...
On April 24 a rally against
the ruling United Russia party under the slogans "We
want changes" and "Down with the party of thieves"
was held in Barnaul, the Altai Territory. Activists from
the regional offices of the YABLOKO party, the Communist
Party, the Party of People’s Freedom and the Russian People's
Democratic Union participated in the action...
Public Prosecutor General’s
Office withdrew the responsibility for examination of unlawful
privatisation of land for the so-called "Putin's dacha”
(Putin’s country cottage). That is how YABLOKO’s
leader Sergei Mitrokhin commented the response from Public
Prosecutor’s Office on his appeal to Public Prosecutor
General Yury Chaika.
V.Kroshkin, Senior Assistant of Public Prosecutor
General, informed Mitrokhin that his appeal had been forwarded
to the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Krasnodar
Area for a “rapid response." Kroshkin promised
that an audit would be conducted and if grounds were found,
prosecutor’s measures would be taken.
"I do not understand why the Krasnodar
Public Prosecutor’s Office should deal with this case,
as it is a federal facility, which belonged to the Presidential
Property Management Department," Mitrokhin said...
Statement by YABLOKO's Political
Committee, April 18, 2011.
The Political Committee of
the Russian United Democratic Party YABLOKO expresses its
indignation in view of political reprisals against human
rights activist and Chair of the Memorial human rights centre
Oleg Orlov.
Orlov’s statement on political responsibility
of [the head of Chechnya] Ramzan Kadyrov for the murder
of [human rights activist] Natalya Estemirova can not form
grounds for any presecution, either in the civil or moreover
in the criminal suit...
YABLOKO (LI full member) last week organised
a rally in Izhevsk, Udmurtia, against the ruling party United
Russia, attracting a crowd of 1,200 people. In his speech
at the rally YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin claimed that
United Russia is taking advantage of the Russian population
for its own financial gain. “We do not have a choice
— either we let them to steal everything here, or
we will return our country back to us,” Mitrokhin
said. He concluded that: “However, the fault here
lies on us, rather than on the United Russia party, because,
it is us who allow to do all this to us and seems that we
do not have self-respect as a nation.”
Today, on February 20, All-Russia congress
of the Elder Generation public association formed on the
basis of the former Pensioners’ Party took place in
YABLOKO’s office in Moscow. The congress adopted a
decision of a merger with YABLOKO via creation of the Russia’s
Pensioners faction in YABLOKO...
Is
Modernisation in Russia Possible? Interview
with Grigory Yavlinsky and Boris Titov by Yury Pronko,
"The Real Time" programme, Radio Finam, May
12, 2010
Rafgat
Altynbayev, senator from the Ryazan region, may be recalled
Houses
of 80 families pulled down in Sochi on the Day of Family
Grigory
Yavlinsky participated in the memorial ceremony at Piskaryovskoye
Cemetery, St.Petersburg
YABLOKO
paid tribute to the memory of soldiers of the Second World
War
14,000
signatures in ten days collected for YABLOKO's candidate
in the mayoral elections in Omsk 
YABLOKO
conducted a picket by the Russian Atomic Energy Agency on
the anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster
Sergei
Mitrokhin demands from the Investigative Committee to file
a criminal case against the lawyer promising "to flood
Moscow with blood"
Rally
held on the birthday of Vladimir Putin's censorship on TV
Alexander
Shishlov, member of YABLOKO Bureau, elected Commissioner
for Human Rights in St. Petersburg
Mitrokhin
explained to the Russian senators that the law on political
parties is adopted in favour of the ruling party
YABLOKO's
protesters detained by the Ostankino television centre in
Moscow are finally released.
Pickets
in support of Gazaryan and Dutlov take part in different
Russian cities
Maxim
Petlin, Chair of YABLOKO's branch in Ekaterinburg, is granted
bail
Maxim
Petlin, Chair of YABLOKO's branch in Ekaterinburg, is granted
bail
YABLOKO
leaders had a meeting with Bundestag deputies
Environmentalist
Suren Gazaryan and lawyer Viktor Dutlov get ten days of
imprisonment on a framed-up case
A
meeting of YABLOKO leaders with Guy Verhofstadt, President
of the Liberal Group in the European Parliament
The
Green Russia faction conducted an action commemorating the
tragic anniversary of nuclear disaster at Fukushima
YABLOKO
leaders Sergei Mitrokhin and Grigory Yavlinsky spoke at
a rally in Novy Arbat prospect, Moscow
Grigory
Yavlinsky's statement prepared for the rally in Novy Arbat
on March 10
Russia's
presidential election marked by unequal campaign conditions,
active citizens' engagement, international observers say
Grigory
Yavlinsky’s appeal to protesters
YABLOKO's
observers will work in the Russian embassies and consulates
in 36 countries
Application
"I Am an Observer" is available for downloading
on iPhones
Press
Release, February 26, 2012. 
YABLOKO
to conduct an auto race to support the Great White Circle
action for fair elections 
Stop
persecution of Novaya Gazeta!
Lies
and Legitimacy. A programme article by Grigory Yavlinsky
President
Medvedev supported a number of YABLOKO's initiatives 
Extradition
of writer and journalist Anne Nivat represents probation
of a reprisals response on the growth of civil activity
Vladimir
Putin shown that there are political prisoners in Russia
YABLOKO
won the first case on election fraud
Grigory
Yavlinsky appealed to the Supreme Court against the decision
of the Central Electoral Commission denying him registration
in presidential elections 
Grigory
Yavlinsky "Politically we will really unite this year"
YABLOKO
website threatened with closure
Unidentified
persons burnt the office of "Vechrniy Krasnokamsk"
weekly published by YABLOKO
Picket
in favour of registration of Grigory Yavlinsky at presidential
elections in Nizhny Novgorod
Grigory
Yavlinsky proposed to St.Petersburg Legislative Assembly
to create a commission for investigation of election fraud
at elections
Why
Putin bars Yavlinsky from presidential election
Sergei
Mitrokhin discussed with US Ambassador Michael McFaul the
issue of joint Russian - US ABM system
YABLOKO
to create Fund for Donations for provision of elections
transparency
Mikhail
Gorbachev signed up for nomination of Grigory Yavlinsky
presidential candidate
Members
of the Central Electoral Commission representing the YABLOKO
party say that commission head should resign
Russian
citizens collect signatures in nine countries for nomination
of Grigory Yavlinsky at March presidential elections
Moscow
Mayor prohibits rallies at Chistiye Prudi
There
Will Be No Second Round in Presidential Elections. Visitors
of the Novaya Gazeta web-site chose their President
YABLOKO's
activist injured for investigation of land fraud in the
Leningrad region 
Levada-Centre:
YABLOKO supporters turn up for the rally on December 24
YABLOKO
begins compiling the 'Churov List'
Grigory
Yavlinsky: "The outcome of the presidential elections
is not foredoomed"
Condolences
on the death of Vaclav Havel
Condolences
to the family and next of kin of journalist Khadzhimurad
Kamalov
Freedom
to Sergei Udaltsov!
Konstantin
Smirnov, one the leaders of the Ryazan branch of YABLOKO
and journalist from Novaya Gazeta, arrested for 7 days
YABLOKO:
We will sweep Putin's group from power
SCHUSTER:
Putin spaltet mit Gewalt statt mit Reformen zu einen
Mitrokhin
released, Gontcharov and Dmitryev still in the police 
Sergei
Mitrokhin detained during a rally at Triumfalnaya square,
Moscow 
Candidate
to run in presidential elections from the democratic opposition
will be determined at primaries
New
ELDR President elected
Internet
refutes data of published public opinion polls
Vladimir
Milov: Vote for YABLOKO! 
Grigory
Yavlinsky: Once I was told: "Let them elect you first,
and then we will vote for you".
YABLOKO
leader Sergei Mitrokhin: "In a country with such elections
participation in elections is a must"
From
Democracy to Freedom. The Main Task of Political Changes
in Russia Is To Disparage the Plebeianism of the People
and the Authorities Alike. 
Eugeny
Vitishko, candidate to the State Duma from the YABLOKO party,
arrested in Tuapse
Boris
Nadezhdin from the Right Cause calls his party to vote for
YABLOKO
YABLOKO
participated in the action Returning of the Names
The
Central Electoral Commission has registered YABLOKO list
of candidates for the parliamentary elections
Picket
"Stop feeding state owned corporations!" took
place by the Federation Council
Sergei
Kovalyov's lecture "Morals and Politics" to take
place in YABLOKO's office
YABLOKO
to participate in elections to St.Petersburg Legislative
Assembly for the first time in nine years
Grigory
Yavlinsky: 'Change Is Only Possible If There Is An Alternative'
YABLOKO
paid tribute to the memory of Anna Politkovskaya
Prospects
for European Liberals in this decade.
YABLOKO’s
leader at The Last Autumn forum
YABLOKO
managed to collect half of the required voters’ signatures
to get registration at parliamentary elections
Eugenia
Chirikova supported YABLOKO’s list of candidates in
Khimki
YABLOKO’s
leader Sergei Mitrokhin spoke at an anti-corruption rally
in the Sverdlovsk region
Boris
Strugatsky, Nina Katerly and Samuel Lurier support YABLOKO
Sergei
Mitrokhin demanded from President Medvedev to stop unlawful
construction works for Olympic Games in the Sochi national
park
Grigory
Yavlinsky: federal budget priorities should be changed
Yury
Shevchuk supports YABLOKO
Leaders
of the Moscow branches of five political parties signed
Memorandum on the Work of Cross-Party Observers at the coming
parliamentary elections 
Alexander
Sokurov supports YABLOKO 
Grigory
Yavlinsky's manifesto: Elections versus a Revolution
YABLOKO
supported women in their pro-choice right concerning abortions
YABLOKO
conducted an action by Public Prosecutor General’s
office and the Federation Council on the seventh anniversary
of tragedy of hostages in Beslan school 
YABLOKO’s
leader Sergei Mitrokhin participated in the environmental
rally in Volgograd
Congratulations
to all the Muslims on Ramadan!
Sergei
Mitrokhin proposed to the Russian President to modernise
the Russian parliament
Russian
democracy failed without being born, says Yabloko leader
Police
is disgracing Russia
Sergei
Mitrokhin connects resignation of Vyacheslav Dudka, Governor
of Tula Region, with corruption scandals 
On
fraudulent tricks of future Chair of the Federation Council
Environmentalists’
lives endangered by the security of the “Putin’s
Palace” 
Condolences
on the acts of terror in Norway
Sergei
Mitrokhin arrived to Novosibirsk to encourage the regional
YABLOKO branch to more active work on the threashold of
the State Duma elections 
A
“chalk written slogan” action “This government
must go!” was held in different Russian cities
Valery
Borshchyov: Sergei Magnitsky died because he was severely
beaten
Nizhny
Novgorod branch of YABLOKO conducted a charity action in
Balkhan
YABLOKO
forwarded its proposals to the Strategic Initiatives Agency
Journalist
and human rights activist’s car exploded in Moscow
YABLOKO’s
activists arrested by “Putin’s country cottage”
at the Black Sea Coast
YABLOKO
and Women’s Social-Democratic Congress sign partnership
agreement
YABLOKO
continues discussion of the party programme 
YABLOKO’s
leader detained at a permitted action
Lies
and legitimacy
Our
party is democratic and anti-oligarchic 
Rally
under the slogans "Down with the party of thieves"
and "We want changes" held in Barnaul
Public
Prosecutor General does not want to open “Putin’s
country cottage” case 
On
political reprisals against human rights activist Oleg Orlov
The
Pensioners’ Party joins YABLOKO
