Press-service

After the parliamentary elections in 1999, Yabloko launched discussions of party reforms, aimed at increasing the party’s efficiency at elections. The first stage of the reform involved a restructuring of the party’s governing bodies to resolve the following problems:

Make the management of some directions of work more effective;
Increase the representation of the regional organisations in the Central Council, the governing body of Yabloko between its congresses;

Party reform was discussed both at regional organisations and at sessions of the Central Council of Yabloko for several months. Proceeding from the results of the discussion, the 8th congress of Yabloko, held in July 2000, adopted a decision to restructure the governing bodies of Yabloko. In particular it was decided to:

increase the number of Central Council members from 41 to 60 people;
reduce the number of Deputy Chairpersons from three to one person (before the Yabloko party reform these posts were assumed by deputies of the State Duma Vladimir Lukin, Sergei Ivanenko and Vyacheslav Igrunov);
establish the posts of Secretaries of the Association to provide guidance in specific work areas.

The 8th congress re-elected the Chairman of the Association (Grigory Yavlinsky) and Deputy Chairman (Vladimir Lukin). The newly elected Central Council comprised only 48 members, as some of the candidates obtained in the secret ballot less than 50% of the votes (under the By-laws of the Yabloko Association a candidacy must be approved by a majority vote of the delegates, which is a mandatory condition for election to the Central Council).

By-elections to the Central Council were held on October 28, 2000 at the 9th congress of Yabloko. The Congress elected seven people; there are still five vacancies in the Central Council.

The meeting of the Central Council held on October 29 elected the new Bureau of the Central Council. The following 13 member of the Bureau were elected:

Alexei Arbatov,
Mikhail Yemelyanov (head of the Yabloko branch in Rostov region),
Sergei Ivanenko,
Vyacheslav Igrunov,
Sergei Mitrokhin,

representatives of the St. Petersburg regional branch of Yabloko:

Anatoli Golov,
Olga Pokrovskaya,
Alexander Shishlov,

representatives of the Murmansk branch of Yabloko:

Igor Lebedyev (head of the branch)

Boris Misnik,

representative of the Moscow branch of Yabloko:

Viktor Sheinis,

representative of the Moscow Region branch of Yabloko:

Alexei Zakharov

and head of the Karelia Yabloko:

Alexander Chazhengin.

The Bureau also includes the Chairman of the Association and the Deputy Chairman.

The Central Council also elected the Secretaries of the Association:

Sergei Ivanenko (work in the State Duma),
Igor Artemyev (elections and interaction with the authorities),
Sergei Mitrokhin (ideology),
Alexander Kuznetsov (general party projects)
Larissa Nikulina (party building).

The secretaries participate in the meetings of the Bureau with the right of deliberative vote.