YABLOKO EXPLODES THE INERTIA SCENARIO
By Semyon Shatskoi, Vremya MN, April 29, 2003
The April 26 resolution includes the standard list of complaints against the Government (standard for Yabloko, that is): the inability to provide security for the nation and its citizens, the failure of the social reforms, anti-social policies which promote the interests of major monopolies and oligarchs...

Who Will Back the Vote of No Confidence in the Government?
By Boris Vishnevsky, Novaya Gazeta, April 28, 2003
We will soon find out whether some political parties that boldly castigate the government now are so principled when it comes to a vote in the State Duma. As in the well-known joke, they have their own opinion on this issue, but categorically refuse to share it with the rest of us.

YABLOKO to try and dismiss the present Cabinet
Press release, April 27, 2003
The Russian Democratic Party YABLOKO plans so submit a no-confidence motion in the RF goverment and will try to achieve its dismissal.

YABLOKO Faction Confirms Its Intention to Initiate Dismissal of the Government
RIA Novosti, April 28, 2003
The YABLOKO faction in the State Duma intends to raise the issue of dismissing the government, the faction told RIA Novosti. It is likely that this will happen at the first May session of the lower house of the Russian parliament to be held on May 14.

Minister for Nuclear Power Warns About Collapse of Shield over Chernobyl
Rosbalt, April 28, 2003
Minister for Nuclear Power Alexander Rumyantsev has warned about a possible collapse in the shield over the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. "The consequences would be devastating. The sarcophagus was built to last five years, but has been there for 17 years. Nobody has inspected these walls in detail. We do not know what is happening under the shield," Rumyantsev told the Izvestia newspaper in an interview published on April 26.

Education in Russia Needs USD 1.5 Billion by 2004 to Avert Degradation
Rosbalt, April 28, 2003
In 2004 education will require an additional USD 1.5 billion, including USD 871 million for the transition to a sector wage system, stated Yabloko Party State Duma Deputy Alexander Shishlov at a session of the State Duma committee for education and science on Friday.

On Radioactive Safety in Russia
Statement, April 26, 2003
The Chernobyl disaster provided convincing proof that usage of nuclear energy even for peaceful purposes, despite the highly skilled personnel and rigid control system existing in the USSR, represented a serious risk to the health and lives of the citizens.

Alexander Shishlov: Real rise in teachers’ wages should become the priority task when preparing the federal budget for 2004
Press release, April 25, 2003
According to Shishlov, the committee prepared joint proposals on first-hand budget priorities that are of political importance. They include an increase in teachers' wages, an increase in expenditures on the purchase of educational equipment and refurbishment of hostels, increase of expenditures on the development of an information education base.

A good man murdered
The Economist (UK), April 26, 2003
POLITICAL killings in Russia are rarely political. Ten members of the Duma, the lower house of parliament, have been murdered in the past ten years, plus a host of sundry other officials. Though the cases are rarely solved, most carry a strong whiff of corruption or business disputes. But Sergei Yushenkov, a Duma member shot dead on April 17th outside his home, was - so everyone says - clean.

Veshnyakov: Freedom of Speech in a Labyrinth
Interview with Chairman of the Central Electoral Commission Alexander Veshnyakov By Anna Feofilaktova, Moskovsky Komsomolets, April 25, 2003
Russia's journalists are in a panic: fairly soon, the sight of newspapers or televisions being shut down could become commonplace. The Central Electoral Commission (CEC), the Media Ministry and finally the courts would merely have to decide whether journalists were not objective in their coverage of a certain presidential or parliamentary candidate or were praising another candidate too much.

The Housing and Utilities Sector Reform for Monopolies
By Sergei Mitrokhin, Trud-7, April 24, 2003
The Federation Council voted for the governments' draft law on housing and utilities sector reform. It can be summed up as follows: subsidies to enterprises in the housing and utilities sector should be liquidated and replaced with subsidies to households with small incomes from budgets at all levels.

The security services know who ordered the crime and killers, but cannot find them
By Svetlana Listopadova, Vesti.ru, April 24, 2003
...all the people responsible for these killings have been identified and are even been sought intensely.

RealVideo. The Moscow Youth organisation of YABLOKO protests against the adoption of the governments' variant of the law on housing and communal reform. April 9, 2003
3 min 55 sec 56 Kb/sec - 950 Kb
150 Kb/sec - 2,75 Mb
225 Kb/sec - 4,07 Mb
RealVideo

People/Yemelyanov - updated

People/Shelisch - updated

"Bolsheviks" Against "Mensheviks"
By Marina Ozerova, Natalya Galimova and Natalya Shpitsina, Moskovsky Komsomolets, April 22, 2003
Moskovsky Komsomolets interviewed prominent Russian parliament members about their attitude to the "principle of one-party rule": It should be noted that representatives of the parties with the best chances of winning the elections are more favourable to the idea than their colleagues from the Duma "minority".

Vladimir Lukin: "We have to summon up our strength and win, as you do in a game of preference."
By Marina Ozerova, Interview with Vladimir Lukin, Deputy Speaker of the State Duma (YABLOKO), Moskovsky Komsomolets, April 23, 2003
...I like to be in touch with the electorate that a politician should be close to and sense their mood and thoughts.

People/Schekochikhin - updated

People/Popov - updated

People/Ostanin - updated

Russia Will Have Enough Nuclear Power Until 2030
Rosbalt, April 18, 2003
Deputy Minister for Nuclear Power Mikhail Solonin told Rosbalt at a special round table session in the Russian parliament on Friday that Russia currently ranked 7th in the world in terms of nuclear power reserves estimated at 160,000 tonnes.
...At the same time, he said that the Russian nuclear power industry faced a number of serious environmental problems.

Campaign Kicks Off With Online Tricks
By Simon Saradzhyan and Larisa Naumenko, The Moscow Times, April 21, 2003
Even though the parliamentary election campaign and the mudslinging expected to accompany it have yet to gain momentum, some parties and politicians have already fallen victim to elaborate schemes designed to damage their reputation in the eyes of their Internet-connected voters.

U.S. Victory Highlights Russian Weakness
By Vladimir Isachenkov, The Associated Press, April 21, 2003
The quick defeat of Saddam Hussein's military, which was modeled on the rigid Soviet war machine, at the hands of a motivated high-tech adversary has thrown a spotlight on the weakness of Russia's own crumbling armed forces and strengthened the hand of proponents of radical military reform.

Wages of Budget Sphere Workers - new

YABLOKO, SPS and CPRF to join together to ensure fair and honest elections
KM-Novosti, April 16, 2003
The goal of the coming union is not to participate as a bloc in the forthcoming parliamentary election, but rather to monitor the voting process.

Analysts Warn Against Knee-Jerk Anti-Americanism
By Sarah Karush, The Associated Press, April 17, 2003
Moscow was right to oppose Washington over Iraq, but Russian leaders must be cautious not to fall into Soviet-style, knee-jerk anti-Americanism that might not always serve the country's interests, leading politicians and experts said Wednesday.

Duma Votes to Rank Civil Servants
By Oksana Yablokova, The Moscow Times, April 17, 2003
The State Duma on Wednesday approved a Kremlin-sponsored plan to rank civil service workers the same way military officers are ranked in the army. But promotions will be tied to how long the bureaucrats have worked in the government, not to their job performance.

Liberal Russia's Yushenkov Shot Dead
By Simon Saradzhyan, Nabi Abdullaev and Oksana Yablokova, The Moscow Times, April 18, 2003
Sergei Yushenkov, one of Russia's most prominent liberal opposition figures and a State Duma deputy, was shot dead in Moscow on Thursday evening in what fellow deputies condemned as an apparent political assassination.

Yesterday, on April 17, 2003, Sergei Yushenkov, member of the State Duma, head of the Liberal Russia party, was murdered April 18, 2003
Grigory Yavlinsky:

He was a bright politician who was well known all over Russia. He had his own point of view. There are a few people like him in Russia.

Vladimir Lukin: "Don Rumata is Doomed…" Literary and psychological analysis of the Iraqi crisis
Interview with Vladimir Lukin by Alexander Nikonov, Ogonyok, No 13, April 2003
...The regime is bad and no one will argue with that statement: however, from the viewpoint of international law, this does not give anybody the right to bring troops there...

Krasnoyarsk Territory may become testing ground for experiments by Chubais in housing and utilities
Press release, April 16, 2003
"It is well-known that the housing and utilities sector of Krasnoyarsk Territory has run up considerable debt before energy suppliers and consequently faces a real threat that part of the housing and utilities sector in the region will be placed under the control of the monopoly created under the guidance of Anatoly Chubais," said deputy from the YABLOKO faction Sergei Mitrokhin to journalists...

YABLOKO opposes transformation of the TVS channel into a state-owned company
Press release, April 16, 2003
Such a step will lead to a monopoly on the information transmitted to Russia’s citizens. It is especially dangerous on the threshold of the parliamentary and presidential elections, when television is transformed into the main source of information on the competing political forces.

Russia May Ratify Arms Reduction Treaty in May
Rosbalt, April 16, 2003
The treaty will, above all, limit US forces, which are considerably stronger than Russia's, explained Lukin. He emphasized that Russia had insisted on a written form of the form, whereas the US intended to "confirm the agreement with a handshake."

YABLOKO Against Monopolists
Delevoi Peterburg, April 15, 2003
According to Yavlinsky, the crux of this approach can be summed up as follows. Owing to constant tariff increases, in particular electricity prices and pressures from rolling blackouts, make the whole sector a debtor of RAO UES; and then privatize the key structures of the housing and communal services sector and the whole infrastructure of the sector in general.

Grigory Yavlinsky: Elections can be such a hassle
RTR, "News of the Week", April 13, 2003
...Russian needs politicians to save human lives. That should be the main political goal in Russia.

NEW RealVideo. Grigory Yavlinsky's briefing after the adoption by the State Duma of the law envisaging 100% payment by the population for housing and communal costs, April 9, 2003. (In Russian)
10 min 7 sec 56 Kb/sec - 2,54 Mb,
150 Kb/sec - 11 Mb RealVideo

NEW RealVideo. The Moscow Youth organisation of YABLOKO protests against the adoption of the governments' variant of the law on housing and communal reform.
3 min 55 sec 56 Kb/sec - 1 Mb
150 Kb/sec - 4,3 Mb
RealVideo

The law on the housing and communal services sector reform adopted by the State Duma will have serious consequences for both the population and the sector
Press release, April 9, 2003
...the actions of the government "do not make it possible to restore the housing and communal sector," and, on the contrary lead to "complete destabilization in the housing and communal services sector in the very near future."

Capital Flight 'Ends'
The Moscow Times, April 10, 2003
Russia's capital outflow and inflow were equal
in the first quarter of this year for the first time in the last 10 years,
Mikhail Zadornov, deputy chairman of the Duma's budget and tax committee,
said in an Ekho Moskvy radio interview Wednesday.

The War against Terrorism and the Transformation of the World Order, three perpesctives
By Alexei G. Arbatov, CEPS Commentary, November 2001
...two months later after the "Black September", the weaknesses of the coalition and deficiencies of the operation are becoming more and more evident, as well as the confusion and inconsistency of the United States and other major players in adopting a new security strategy and still less in implementing it... (Archive)

Duma gives final approval to a controversial draft law on housing and communal services reform
By: Marina Sokolovaskaya, Gazeta.ru, April 9, 2003
In view of the forthcoming parliamentary elections many deputies found it difficult to vote in favour of a law that, when enacted, is likely to complicate the lives of their electorate.

Roll-call voting in the State Duma For the adoption of the amendments to Article 264 of the Tax Code (tax breaks for educational institutions), First reading, April 09, 2003 13:25:02

The Government and "big four" factions oppose education
Press release, April 9, 2003
According to Shishlov, reduction in the prices of educational materials would make it possible to apply more broadly modern information technologies in education.

The State Duma supports the government's course towards 100% payment by the population for housing and communal costs
Press release, April 2, 2003
The State Duma rejected the draft address to the President of the Russian Federation on repealing the provisions for an accelerated transfer towards 100% coverage by the population for housing and communal costs.

Filing Cabinet for Policy Platforms Most Russian voters don't care about the policies of political parties
By Xenia Veretennikova, Vremya Novostei, April 9, 2003
For the majority of voters these platforms do not contain anything they find interesting. Voters are more attracted to a "brand", charismatic leader, or some kind of election campaign slogan. The exceptions, possibly, are only the Communist Party and Yabloko.

850 million roubles are required to evacuate the population from Tatarskaya Karabolka and Muslyumovo
Ural-Press-Inform (Chelyabinsk), April 2, 2003
YABLOKO proposes that the President of Russia adopt urgent measures to evacuate the residents of these territories that were subject to radioactive contamination due to the Mayak disaster and the flow of radioactive waste into the Techa river.

Stumbling Blocks on the Road to Europe
World Economic Forum, 24.01.2003 (Archive)
Europe is not just a geographical concept, "but an economic, political and civilizational unit..."

Arms Control - updated

Russia-US Relations - updated

Top Russian MPs advocate early ratification of the US arms reduction treaty
ITAR-TASS, April 8, 2003
There is no point in delaying ratification of the Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty [SORT], also known as the Moscow Treaty between Russia and the United States, irrespective of developments in Iraq, according to prominent members of the State Duma, or the lower house of Russian parliament.

Russia Outlook: Will Russia Seize the Opportunity?
World Economic Forum, 01.02.2002 (Archive)
"The president is giving a very clear signal to his partners that the relative success of the United States in Afghanistan is only the end of the beginning, and it is a very long story -- It is better, instead of discussing these minor things which create new problems, to start negotiating strategic military and political alliances for the 21st century that will have a dramatic impact on the internal political situation in Russia as well."

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

Under a Single Umbrella
By Alexei Arbatov, Nezavisimaya Gazeta, April 7, 2003
The unfolding drama of the war in Iraq has pushed less sensational problems to the background, even though these problems may be extremely important in the long term.

The YABLOKO Party to carry out its election campaign to the State Duma in a new way this year
Vremya Novostei, April 4, 2003
Deputy Head of the YABLOKO faction in the State Duma of the Russian Federation Sergei Ivanenko informed a VN correspondent that this campaign would be conducted on the streets, rather than through the media.

Roll-call voting in the State Duma For the Address to the President on introduction of necessary changes into the governmental concept of the reform of the housing and communal services sector (on abolishing a 100% payment of housing and communal services), April 02, 2003 17:04:29

Roll-call voting in the State Duma For the adoption of the Address to the Prime Minister of the RF on creation of a trilateral commission for final development of wages reform for budget sphere workers, April 02, 2003 14:07:54

The State Duma declined the draft address to the President of Russia on abolishing the provisions envisaging an accelerated transfer to 100% payment of housing and communal services
Finmarket Novosti, April 3, 2003
At the plenary meeting of the Duma (on March 2, 2003) 164 deputies voted for the draft address prepared by deputy from the YABLOKO faction Sergei Mitrokhin against a required minimum of 226 votes.

The Strategy of a Compromise
By Grigory Yavlinsky, Deloviye Ludi, March 24, 2003
We cannot neglect the fact that Europe’s borders, separating the region from the most unstable and the most dangerous parts of the world, run along Russia’s borders. Their defense is an all-European concern. Furthermore, a weak and unstable Russia would represent an eternal breeding ground for terrorist threats.
Only a Bigger Europe, which takes advantage of the territorial and intellectual potential and all other resources of the former republics of the Soviet Union, can complete globally on an equal footing with North America and South-East Asia.

Alexei Arbatov: "Election at war time is nonsense."
By Natalya Gorodetskaya, Politburo, March 31, 2003
The voting won't provide an answer as to whether there is a state of emergency in Chechnya today or not; whether you can stop anyone at a control post, asking for bribes or not; whether you can arrest people without the authorization of a public prosecutor or not, etc: This means that the referendum has not resolved the conflict - and there has been a conflict - between the military and the population.

Situation around Iraq - updated

Russia-US Relations - updated

Russia-U.S. ties strained by war
By Anthony Louis, UPI, April 2, 2003
MOSCOW, April 2 (UPI) -- Russia-U.S. ties were further strained by the war in Iraq Wednesday when the Russian Foreign Ministry summoned U.S. Ambassador Alexander Vershbow to protest the continued bombing of an area of Baghdad, this time near the Russian Embassy.

Two deputies from YABLOKO re-elected to the Legislative Assembly of Rostov region
Press release, April 1, 2003
Two candidates from the YABLOKO party won convincing election victories to the Legislative Assembly of Rostov region on March 30, 2003.

War Shows Fragility Of U.S.-Russia Links
By ALAN CULLISION and JEANNE WHALEN, Wall Street Journal, April 1, 2003
"Even during the Cold War, when Moscow and Washington hated each other, "ordinary people" really liked Americans. Now, the sincere feeling on the street ... is taking on a bright anti-American character." says Alexei Arbatov

Putin, Bush ties expected to survive
By Alice Lagnado, THE WASHINGTON TIMES, April 1, 2003
"The war in Iraq will not be the transition to a cold war between Russia and the USA, nor will it ruin the Russian-American strategic relations. This is not in our interests..."