Single candidates from the regional branches of the “Union of Right-Wing Forces” (SPS) and the public political movement, Yabloko balloting in the 31st and 44th electoral districts to the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg and in the 209th electoral distract to the State Duma of the RF hope that the democratic forces will win these elections. This statement was made at a joint press conference of the candidates in St. Petersburg on September 25, 2000.

It is unlikely that the issue of restoring the rights of the Russian delegation will be raised at the present session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). Such opinion was expressed by one of the leaders of the Yabloko movement Sergei Ivanenko in an interview in Strasbourg, where a session of PACE was scheduled to open on September 25.

The Coalition of the right-wing parties SPS and Yabloko does not consider participation in the by-elections of the deputies to the regional legislative assemblies and heads of municipal entities as its first priority, although it will actively participate in them.

Deputies’ Inquiry On the use of the law and enforcement agencies to exert pressure on the mass media

To the Public Prosecutor of the Russian Federation V.V. Ustinov

Respected Vladimir Vasilyevich,

The deputies of the Yabloko faction of the State Duma hereby express their concern over recent information on the acts of force of state representatives against the owners and heads of some private mass media.

The State Duma expresses its concern with the recent information on the acts of force by state representatives against the owners and heads of some private mass media.

The State Duma declined the proposal of the Yabloko faction to consider, during the meeting on September 20, a State Duma enquiry on President Putin “On the use of the law-enforcement agencies aiming to exert pressure on the mass media”.

Statement

September 20, 2000

The number of individuals who have managed over the past decade to create things rather than destroy them is extremely low in our country. Only a very few have built their wealth on the creation of something principally new and useful for society, something which the country may be proud of, rather than from mere theft.

Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said that in many principal issues of the draft budget for 2001 the viewpoints of the government and Yabloko coincide. “We discussed the potential for a further rapprochement of our positions, so that Yabloko would support the draft budget at its first reading,” said Alexei Kudrin on September 22 after meeting members of the Yabloko faction and Grigory Yavlinsky at the State Duma.

The leader of Yabloko and its parliamentary faction in the State Duma, Grigory Yavlinsky, said that the actions undertaken by the authorities against Media-Most are virtually destroying the political structure of society. In an interview with journalists on September 20 Yavlinsky expressed his opinion that today society is virtually organised in such a way that “if political parties and politicians are not given an opportunity to speak, they do not exist."

The State Duma declined the proposal of the Yabloko faction to consider,

during the meeting on September 20, a State Duma enquiry on President Putin “On the use of the law-enforcement agencies aiming to exert pressure on the mass media”.

The leader of Yabloko and its parliamentary faction, Grigory Yavlinsky, thinks that if the budget for 2001 obtains additional revenues, they should be used to repay foreign debt. “It would be wrong to use them for anything else,” stressed Yavlinsky in an interview with journalists on September 20, 2000.

General results

for: 126 deputies – 28.0%
against: 69 deputies – 15.3%
abstained: 7 deputies – 1.6%
voted: 202 deputies
did not vote: 248 deputies
result: not adopted

Her Killers have been Convicted, but Questions Remain.

(The murder of larisa Yudina)

Georgy HARRISOV

December 6, 1999

The Supreme Court of Kalmykia sentenced the killers of editor-in-chief of the newspaper Sovetskaya Kalmykiya segodnya (Soviet Kalmykia Today) Larisa Yudina on November 29 in Elista.

(The murder of Larisa Yudina)

Radio Liberty

By Floriana Fossato

June 10, 1998

Moscow, 10 June 1998 (RFE/RL) -- Larisa Yudina, an opposition journalist and political activist, was murdered last weekend in Russia's southern autonomous republic of Kalmykia. No killer has been found, but Moscow media, some politicians and human rights organizations allege that the murder might have been politically motivated.

Russian parliamentary elections take place in less than two weeks (December 19), and the campaign ads are in full swing. RFE/RL contributor Laura Belin looks at how the reformist Yabloko party is trying to recast its image.

Moscow, 6 December 1999 (RFE/RL) -- Perhaps the biggest problem facing Yabloko leader Grigory Yavlinsky is his image as a talker who is unable or unwilling to take responsibility for running the country.

Grigory Yavlinsky has called on acting President Vladimir Putin to make his position clear on the situation involving Pavel Borodin, a former top Kremlin official who is wanted in Switzerland on charges of money laundering.

Putin "must finally and clearly indicate his position regarding high-ranking officials accused of corruption," Yabloko's Yavlinsky said Sunday night, Interfax reported.

By Sophie Lambroschini, Radio Liberty, March 21, 2000

For the past several years, Grigory Yavlinsky has been the leader of Russia's reformist, pro-democracy and anti-Kremlin opposition. In this Sunday's election, his political future may be at stake: polls show voter support for him this year to be only around 5 percent. RFE/RL correspondent Sophie Lambroschini profiles Yavlinsky.

By Sarah Karush

Staff Write

The Moscow Times, March 22, 2000

The voters have known Grigory Yavlinsky for a decade, but certain crucial facts about the Yabloko leader are only being revealed to them now.

Few knew, for instance, that his wife had to help him tie his tie every morning. Or about his aversion to frankfurters (a result of eating too many in his student days, says his wife).

The leadership of Yabloko has expressed its satisfaction that the President of the RF Vladimir Putin has paid attention to the budget proposals of Grigory Yavlinsky.

“We are satisfied that the President considers the ideas expressed by the leader of Yabloko,” said Deputy Head of the Yabloko faction Sergei Ivanenko in an interview with journalists.

Representatives of the Yabloko faction Sergei Ivanenko and Alexander Shishlov will participate in the autumn session of the PACE, scheduled to start in Strasbourg on September 25. This information was provided by Ivanenko, Deputy Head of the Yabloko faction.

A draft of a parliamentary inquiry into the president of Russia “On the use of the law and enforcement agencies to pressurise the mass-media” will be submitted by the Yabloko faction to the State Duma meeting on September 20, 2000.

The State Duma, September 15, 2000

Respected Deputies, A group of deputies representing the factions Yabloko, the SPS, “Fatherland – All Russia” and the deputies’ group “Russia’s Regions” hereby submits a draft resolution on establishing a special parliamentary commission to investigate developments with the «Kursk» submarine. We insist on the foundation of an independent public deputies’ commission to investigate the circumstances behind the death of our sailors.

On September 15, 2000, the State Duma of the RF declined the proposal of the group of deputies – representatives of the SPS, Yabloko, “Fatherland – All Russia” (OVR) faction and the “Regions of Russia” group – to establish an independent parliamentary enquiry to investigate the accident involving the “Kursk” submarine in the Barents Sea.

Yabloko and the “Union of Right-Wing Forces” (SPS) agreed on a single candidate for the by-elections to the State Duma in the 209th electoral district in St. Petersburg.

The decision to propose a single candidate Anatoli Golov was announced on September 15, 2000 by Deputy Head of the Yabloko Association Vladimir Lukin and Co-Chair of the SPS Irina Khakamada after a meeting of the Political Council of the two political organisations.

The Yabloko faction in the State Duma is going to insist on an independent parliamentary enquiry tino the accident with the “Kursk” submarine and the circumstances behind the rescue operation. Deputy Head of the Yabloko faction, Sergei Ivanenko, said at a press-conference on September 8, 2000, that the question can be summed up as follows: “either the Duma creates the parliamentary commission and conducts its own independent enquiry, or it refuses to form such a commission and correspondingly conduct an independent enquiry”.

The Chairman of the Subcommittee of the State Duma on the Central Bank (the Budget Committee) Mikhail Zadornov thinks that the inflation rate stated in the budget-2001 is understated. Zadornov made this statement in an interview with journalists on September 7, 2000.

At a meeting of the leaders of the Duma factions and the President on September 13, Grigory Yavlinsky expressed on behalf of Yabloko his satisfaction that the journalist of the “Sovietskaya Kalmykia Segodnya” newspaper and one of the leaders of the Yabloko branch in Elista Larissa Yudina had been awarded the Order of Courage (posthumously).

At the same time Yavlinsky asked for the President’s help in ensuring punishment for the people behind the contract killing of Larissa Yudina. He also noted that Yabloko had discovered their names through its own independent investigation.

“The Order of Courage is a deserving reward for Larissa Yudina. It requires courage to be an honest journalist in the present Russia. It is good that the head of the state has realised this fact. However this reward should in no case put an end to the criminal investigation of the murder that happened over two years ago.” This is how Deputy Head of the Yabloko faction, Sergei Ivanenko, commented on the decision of the President of Russia to grant the Order of Courage to the former Editor-in-Chief of the “Sovetskaya Kalmykia” newspaper, Head of the Yabloko branch in Kalmykia Larissa Yudina, who was murdered on June 7, 1998.

On September 12, 2000, the Consultative Council of Yabloko and the “Union of Right-Wing Forces” (SPS) in St. Petersburg declared their support for single candidates at by-elections to the State Duma (the 209th electoral district) and the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg to be held this autumn

The Deputy Head of the Sub-committee of the State Duma on the Central Bank (the Budget Committee) Mikhail Zadornov (the Yabloko faction) said in an interview with journalists on September 6 that budget revenues or 2000 may amount to 1.1 trillion roubles.

The Liberal, Democrat and Reformers' Group of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

Seminar "Politics in Russia".

June 22, 1997

The Yabloko faction will work on draft laws in accordance with its plan for legislative work, including 79 draft laws, which was approved in spring 2000. This decision was taken at the first meeting of the faction held on September 7, 2000.

The President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, has granted in a new Decree, the Order of Courage (post-mortem) to journalist Larissa Yudina, Editor-in-Chief of the “Sovetskaya Kalmykia” newspaper, for her courage and selflessness demonstrated in fulfilling her professional duties.

The leader of Yabloko, Grigory Yavlinsky, will participate in the plenary meeting of the International Crisis Group, to be held in Jakarta, Indonesia, on September 9-11, 2000.

Post Soviet Prospects, vol III, #11, November 1995, by Dmitri Glinski

In post-Soviet Russia, the absence of true reforms, the plight of the middle class, and Yeltsin's drift toward a Byzantine autocracy have led to the extinction of the mass-based democratic movement. This December, the electoral slate of Grigory Yavlinsky is likely to be the only democratic and pro-reform group to pass the 5 percent threshold of the national vote needed to win slots for its party list in the next legislature.

Radio Free Europe, By Laura Belin

In the final week before the presidential election, Russian public television conducted a campaign to discredit presidential candidate Grigory Yavlinsky. The smear tactics are the more surprising as Yavlinsky posed little threat to the overwhelming favorite, acting President Vladimir Putin. RFE/RL's Laura Belin reports.

www.TheMoscowTimes.com.

Tuesday, September 12, 2000

MOSCOW -- President Vladimir Putin decorated a slain journalist with the order of courage Monday for her brave conduct in the line of duty, Interfax reported.

www.TheMoscowTimes.com.

By Patrick E. Tyler

NEW YORK TIMES SERVICE

Tuesday, September 12, 2000

With the loss of the nuclear submarine Kursk and its 118-member crew, President Vladimir Putin has begun consultations with other leaders on an afted by a commission investigating the causes of the sinking of the Kursk in the Barents Sea on Aug. 12. They were discussed by Putin last week during the meeting of world leaders at the United Nations

Tuesday, September 12, 2000

www.TheMoscowTimes.com.

July 30, 1998

http://intellectualcapitol.com

Grigory Yavlinsky is the head of the “Yabloko” party in Russia -- a party that has been described as decidedly liberal in its outlook. Yavlinsky is a former economist, and was a candidate for the Russian presidency in 1996, an election in which he finished with less than 10% . He is expected to be a key player --whether as a candidate or not -- in Russia’s 2000 elections.
Yavlinsky was born in the Ukrainian city of Lvov in 1952. He became deputy director of the Council of Ministers of the Russian Federation -- when it was still part of the USSR -- in 1991.

Last week he agreed to this interview with a member of the IntellectualCapital.ru staff. Here is a translated, and edited, version of the transcripts.

One of the leaders of the Yabloko faction in the State Duma, Sergei Ivanenko, together with the Deputy Head of the “Fatherland-All Russia” faction (OVR) Vyacheslav Volodin, prepared and submitted to the State Duma a draft resolution on the establishment of a commission to investigate the accident with the “Kursk” submarine.

The St. Petersburg branches of Yabloko and the “Union of Right-Wing Forces” (SPS) are likely to support Anatoli Golov as their joint candidate at the by-elections to the Duma (the 209th electoral district). Alexander Shishlov, Chairman of the regional branch of Yabloko, made this announcement at a press-conference in St. Petersburg on September 5, 2000.

Deputy of the State Duma Alexander Shishlov (the Yabloko faction) said that a parliamentary commission may be set up to investigate the accident with the nuclear submarine “Kursk”.

Shishlov made this statement in an interview with journalists in St. Petersburg on September 5, 2000.

Vice-Speaker of the State Duma Vladimir Lukin (the Yabloko faction) considers Vladimir Putin’s visit to Japan to mark a perceptible step forward in increasing trust between the two countries.

“Our strategic goal is to improve relationships with Japan. I think that Japan is also in turn interested in improving its relations with Russia,” said Vladimir Lukin in an interview with journalists on September 4, 2000.

A.G.Sushkevich, expert of the Apparat of the Yabloko faction

August 10, 2000