The Yabloko association re-elects its governing bodies

The Central Council of the Yabloko association has elected the Bureau of the Central Council, a permanent political body comprising 15 people, in particular, the Chairman of the Yabloko association Grigory Yavlinsky, Deputy Chairman Vladimir Lukin, the heads of the regional organisations of Rostov, Chelyabinsk and Murmansk regions, the Republic of Karelia, the representatives of St. Petersburg, Moscow and Moscow region.

Participants of the mourning meeting in Moscow pay tribute to the memory of the victims of Stalin’s repressions

The leader of the Yabloko association and the Yabloko faction in the State Duma Grigory Yavlinsky thinks that “the threat of Stalinism has not perished” and that “there are many other people ready to repeat the past”.

He made this statement on October 30, 2000 at the mourning meeting in Moscow by the Solovetskiy Stone at Lubyanka Square.

Deputies from the Yabloko and Union of Right-Wing Forces (SPS) factions in the State Duma ask the Supreme Court to consider Rutskoi’s complaint before the second round of the election

Head of the SPS faction in the State Duma Boris Nemtsov and Deputy Head of the Yabloko faction Sergei Ivanenko forwarded, together with a number of

other deputies a collective application to the Chairman of the Supreme Court Vyacheslav Lebedev, requesting that he consider the complaint of the present governor of Kursk Region, Alexander Rutskoi, by November 5 (the date of the second round of the gubernatorial election in the region).

The Yabloko Association establishes a system of observers at electoral districts

The Bureau of the Central Council of the Yabloko association approved during its meeting on October 24, 2000, another list of Yabloko’s observers with the right of a decisive vote (93 people) for the electoral districts of the city of Voronezh. At previous meetings, the Bureau approved the appointment of observers of the territorial commissions of the Voronezh region.

The results of the Larissa Yudina contest of regional journalists

Two newspapers and 15 journalists were the prize-winners of the nation-wide contest of regional journalists “Against all Odds” who on October 24 were awarded diplomas and prizes “for honesty and high principles in asserting their citizen’s positions.”

Grigory Yavlinsky concerned about negative situation with the press in Russia

The leader of the Yabloko association Grigory Yavlinsky thinks that an unfavourable situation has developed for the press in Russia. In an interview with journalists on October 24 he called this situation “the most unfavourable for the past ten years”.

Grigory Yavlinsky criticizes the decision of the Kursk regional court to annul the registration of Rutskoi for the gubernatorial elections

The leader of Yabloko association and its faction in the State Duma Grigory Yavlinsky thinks that the “actions undertaken by the authorities against

Alexander Rutskoi cannot be justified”.

Sergei Ivanenko speaks out in favour of the development of electoral laws

One of the Yabloko leaders, Deputy Head of the Yabloko faction in the Duma, Sergei Ivanenko, believes that the present head of Kursk Region Alexander Rutskoi would have lost the gubernatorial elections. However, now he has a chance to contest these results in court.

Yabloko responsible for improvements to the budget at second reading

The deputies of the Yabloko faction think that they have managed to improve the draft federal budget for the second reading. Consequently most of the faction will vote for the draft at the second reading.

The faction is satisfied that during negotiations with the government before a review of the budget at the second reading they managed to “legalise” 30% of additional non-oil revenues (from a total of 88 bln roubles) that had

been detected by the faction.

Sergei Ivanenko: Yabloko and the Union of Right-Wing Forces to pool their forces in discussions of amendments to the budget-2001 in the State Duma

The State Duma factions Yabloko and the Union of the Right-Wing Forces (SPS) are going to “combine their efforts when discussing and lobbying issues with the government and the State Duma” during the adoption of the federal budget-2001. This information was provided by the First Deputy Head of the Yabloko faction Sergei Ivanenko.

Yabloko proposes the march “Farewell of a Slavic woman” as a new hymn of Russia

The Bureau of the Central Council of the Yabloko association has supported the idea of the leader of the party Grigory Yavlinsky to propose the march of 1914 “Farewell of a Slavic woman” as the new hymn of Russia. This decision was adopted at a meeting of the Bureau of the Central Council on October 17, 2000.

Grigory Yavlinsky: state mass media should not serve as a propaganda instrument

According to Yabloko leader, Grigory Yavlinsky “the state mass media should not serve either as a channel or an instrument of propaganda”.

“The state mass media do not belong to any bureaucrat of any level up to the President,” stressed Grigory Yavlinsky during a press-conference in Moscow on October 18, 2000.

Yabloko’s leader discusses with Prime Minister revenues in the 2001 federal budget

On October 16, 2000, the leader of the Yabloko faction in the State Duma

Grigory Yavlinsky discussed with the head of the Russian government Mikhail Kasyanov the revenue component of the federal budget for 2001.

In an interview with the ORT television channel, Grigory Yavlinsky said that they had discussed during the meeting, in particular, the possibility of additional federal budget revenues, estimated by Yavlinsky at “about 88 bln roubles” in 2001.

Yabloko faction completed collection of signatures required for their petition to the Accounting Chamber of the RF on an audit into the use of federal budget funds by the government of the Kalmykia Republic in 1998-2000

The Yabloko faction finished collecting the signatures it required for the petition filed with the Audit Chamber of the RF to audit for the third time since 1998 the use of federal budget funds by the government of Kalmykia Republic in 1998-2000. The petition of the deputies will be sent to the Audit Chamber on October 17, 2000.

Deputy Mitrokhin: Klebanov and Kiriyenko broke the law

Ilya Klebanov and Sergei Kiriyenko broke the law – this was the conclusion of the deputy from the Yabloko faction Sergei Mitrokhin, after his return from Udmurtia, where he was sent by the State Duma to observe the elections of the President of the Republic on October 15, 2000.

The deputies of the Yabloko faction concerned about mass-scale redundancies of Vesti news programme

On October 4, 2000 the Chairman of the GUP VGTRK (Ed. the RTR channel – the State Unitary Enterprise All-Russian State Television and Radio Company”) Oleg Dobrodeyev issued directive No 746 «On the Liquidation of GUP «Vesti», and as part of the implementation of this directive, corresponding orders on the dismissal of the staff of «Vesti» (Ed. “Vesti” is a popular news programme at RTR channel).

Deputy Speaker of the State Duma Vladimir Lukin thinks that the deteriorating situation in the Middle East was provoked by opponents of the peace treaty between Israel and the Palestinians

Deputy Speaker of the State Duma Vladimir Lukin (Yabloko faction) accused the USA of being partially responsible for the escalation of the Middle East conflict, saying that the USA made the process of peaceful regulation of the situation there one factor of their domestic policy. Lukin added, in an

interview on October 9, 2000: The present administration of the United States decided to time a peaceful settlement of the conflict with their presidential elections and exerted somewhat excessive pressure here.

Speaking about the main reason for the escalation of the crisis inthe Middle East, Lukin noted that it was provoked by opponents of the peace treaty.

Vladimir Lukin favours consolidation of the position of the UN Security Council to prevent war in the Middle East

Deputy Speaker of the State Duma, Vladimir Lukin, thinks that owing to another deterioration in the situation in the Middle East , the Security Council of the United Nations Organisation should immediately hold a session and pool the efforts of all the super powers to “impose” its will on the parties involved in the conflict to alleviate the situation.

The budget has the money to start tackling the main issues in the country: military reform, a qualitative improvement in education and judicial reform.

Most of the Yabloko faction will support the draft budget for 2001. However, it will be a free vote. The faction appreciates the government’s consideration of many of Yabloko’s proposals for the budget-2000. The faction supports the reduction in personal income tax and the introduction of a regressive scale for the social tax, the trend to curb external debts and other proposals reflected in the budget-2001.

Alexei Arbatov: developments in Yugoslavia depend on the position of the military

The developments in Yugoslavia depend on the position of the military and the side that the Yugoslavian army takes in the political conflict, said

Deputy Head of the Defence Committee of the State Duma and deputy from the Yabloko faction Alexei Arbatov in an interview with journalists on October 6, 2000.

Mikhail Zadornov forecasts continued economic growth in Russia in 2001

Economic growth will increase in Russia in 2001, stated the Head of the Sub-committee on Central Bank Activities (the Banking Committee of the State Duma) Mikhail Zadornov at an international conference in London entitled

“The Debt and Stock Markets of Russia”.

Deputy Head of the Yabloko faction expresses concern that a civil war may break out in Yugoslavia

Deputy Head of the Yabloko faction in the State Duma Sergei Ivanenko expressed his concern that a conflict between the supporters of the authorities and the opposition in Yugoslavia might lead to a civil war in this country.

Yabloko faction to take final decision on voting on the draft budget on Friday

The Yabloko faction will take its final decision on voting on the draft budget for 2001 on Friday October 6. This statement was made by Deputy Head of the faction Sergei Ivanenko after a meeting of the faction on October 5.

The Yabloko faction discovers additional 88 bln roubles in non-oil revenues in the budget

The Yabloko faction is conducting negotiations with the government to support the draft budget for 2001.

The faction has proposed a number of conditions in the “Basic Proposals of the Yabloko Association” for the Draft Federal Budget for 2001”, forwarded to the Government of the RF on October 2.