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Three factions of the State Duma - Yabloko, Fatherland
- All Russia and the Union of Right-Wing Forces - are going
to form working groups to develop a package of priority
draft laws. This decision was taken at a meeting of the
Co-ordination Council of these three factions on January
19, 2000.
It was decided that they would begin work without waiting
for an end to the parliamentary crisis, when the deputies
of Yabloko, Fatherland - All Russia and the Union of Right-Wing
Forces and most of the deputies from the Regions of Russia
group left the hall in protest at the non-democratic procedure
for the elections of the Chairman of the Duma and collusion
between the CPRF and Unity in the division of posts of the
Duma committees.
First of all, the participants of the new coalition plan
to submit draft laws on changes to the tax system, ratification
of the Reduction in Aggressive Weapons 2 Treaty, laws on
the refusal by deputies of privileges and immunity and other
laws.
The deputies of Yabloko, Fatherland - All Russia and the
Union of Right-Wing Forces still refuse to participate in
the plenary meeting of the Duma and reject all official
posts in the State Duma.
Based on Interfax reports
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The leader of
the Yabloko association, Grigory Yavlinsky, was proposed
as candidate for the post of President of the Russian Federation
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An initiative group of voters (210 people) proposed the
Chairman of the Yabloko association, Grigory Yavlinsky,
as candidate for the post of President of the Russian Federation
on January 19, 2000.
A well-known defender of human rights and member of Union
of Right-Wing Forces, Sergei Kovalyov, said in a speech
to the meeting of the initiative group that took place in
the Central House of Journalists in Moscow that support
of Yavlinsky’s candidacy represents a “reflection of our
feeling of responsibility for the country”.
According to Sergei Kovalyov, “there is only one man” among
the present presidential candidates “who is deeply rooted
in the liberal intelligencia”. He called for people to “unite
their efforts” to support Yavlinsky and create a “powerful
democratic opposition to the vector of political development
that has been predominant in the country and is targeted
at an authoritarian police state, where the old well-known
Soviet secret service will rule the country directly or,
which is even worse, indirectly”. In his turn, the Rector
of the Russian State Humanitarian University, Yuri Afanasyev,
said that “after Yeltsin's departure, Russia has felt a
breath of cold”. He noted that the developments of the past
months have demonstrated that “not only can some politicians
and factions yield to powerful pressure, but so can Russian
society in general”.
The first Deputy Chairman of Yabloko, Vladimir Lukin, speaking
about Yavlinsky’s chances of victory, said that he “believes
in miracles”. “Our electorate is prone to flux: 80% of the
electorate can vote for one man and then two months later
they can vote for his rival”. Vladimir Lukin also noted
that he thinks that not only the first place, but also the
second or third positions at presidential elections should
be counted as victory, as a victorious result “increases
considerably opportunities to influence the political situation
in the country.”
Yuri Samodurov, Director of Andrei Sakharov’s Museum, thinks
that “Yavlinsky must act in this situation like Sakharov,
as more of a saint than a politician” and call for negotiations
with the representatives of Chechnya. He also said that
Academician Sakharov’s widow Elena Bonner was in Boston
and could not come to Moscow because of illness, but had
asked him “to tell everyone that she also participated in
this nomination and supports Yavlinsky”.
Vyacheslav Igrunov, deputy of the Yabloko faction, said
that “after yesterday’s horror in the Duma, such a concentration
of decent people creates another atmosphere”.
According to another member of the Yabloko faction Elena
Mizulina, “Yavlinsky differs from his main competitor Vladimir
Putin through his clear-cut attitude to developments in
the country. People who vote for Putin can only hope that
their candidate will adhere to democratic principles, whereas
Yavlinsky’s electorate is convinced that he will”.
The initiative group also included Chairman of the Moscow
Helsinki Group, Ludmilla Alexeyeva, Chairman of the Board
of the “Memorial” Society, Arseni Roginsky, theatre producer
Pyotr Fomenko, political scientist Lilia Shevtsova, publicists
Ludmilla Saraskina and Leonid Batkin, journalist Yuri Rost,
Editors-in-Chief of “Obschaya Gazeta” Yegor Yakovlev and
“Novaya Gazeta” Dmitri Muratov, writer Mikhail Roschin,
poets Yunna Moritz, Sergei Gandlevsky and Igor Irtenyev,
Head of the Russian Pen-Centre Alexander Tkachenko, literary
critic Gergi Gachev and singer Alexander Gorodnitsky.
Based on Interfax reports.
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