On May 24, 2001, the Chairman of the Yabloko Association, Grigory Yavlinsky, Co-Chairman of the Democratic Russia Movement, Lev Ponomaryov, and members of the Coordination Council of the Democratic Russia, Evgeny Ikhlov and Oleg Mustafin signed in the Moscow office of Democratic Russia a joint declaration on the creation of a union of democratic forces - a democratic coalition.

Members of the Central Council of Yabloko Alexei Zakharov and Sergei Mitrokhin also attended the signing of the declaration.

Photo: The Leader of Yabloko, Grigory Yavlinsky, Co-Chairman of the Democratic Russia Movement Lev Ponomaryov sign the declaration on the creation of a coalition. May 24. Photo by Sergei Loktionov, Press Service.

The All-Russia Emergency Congress in Defence of Human Rights (Moscow, January 20-21, 2001) indicated that all the structures of the civil society in Russia must consolidate and act jointly "to protect human rights".

Participation of the consistently democratic All-Russia parliamentary party Yabloko and Democratic Russia which launched the political independent organisation of all the democratic forces in the Russian Federation is an important step in the development of a democratic coalition.

Many political parties of the democratic spectrum have been rapidly abolishing their political independence and transforming themselves into defenders of monopolistic capitalist interests. They are obviously unprepared to implement their main social role - to represent the positions and interests of the democratic part of civil society in politics and in the executive authorities. On the other hand, the formation of pseudo-centrist nomenclatura and bureaucracy parties is in full swing. All this makes it vital to unite t the public and political forces which consistently defend freedom, democracy and human rights.

The union of people at the very outset of the mass-scale democratic movement and others who today consistently and steadily insist on the legal and democratic nature of the state in Russia make it possible to count on a broad-scale and influential union of the democrats.

Press Service of the Yabloko Association

Press Service of the Democratic Russia Movement

See also: