The Yabloko party welcomes the beginning of the work of the All-Russia Democratic Assembly, which opened on June 19, 2001 in Moscow.

Yabloko sees the All-Russia Democratic Assembly as a permanent forum of democratically-oriented political and civil organisations, whose representatives will have an opportunity to discuss without intermediaries the vital problems of Russia and develop, on the basis of mutual accord, a general approach to their resolution.

The following organisations participated at the All-Russia Democratic Assembly: the “Forward, Russia” movement, the “Choice of Russia” movement, the “Democratic Russia” movement, the Democratic Union, the union in defence of human rights “The Initiative Group “Common Action”, the Confederation of the Unions for the Protection of Consumer Rights, the Coordination Council of Refugees and Forced Migrants, the Farmers’ Party of Russia, the Liberal Russia movement, “Memorial”, the Party of Economic Freedom, public organisation “The Right to Life and Civil Dignity”, the Republican Party of the Russian Federation, the Russian Joint Social Democratic Party, the Russian Party of Social Democracy, the Russian Human Rights Research Centre, Free Democrats of Russia, the Social and Ecological Union, the Journalists’ Union of Russia, the Union of Right-Wing Forces, the Glasnost Protection Fund and the Yabloko association. Yuri Afansyev, Leonid Batkin, Yuri Ryzhov and other prominent individuals also participated at the meeting.

The meeting will be opened by the oldest participant of the Assembly Alexander Yakovlev and the first meeting of the Assembly will be chaired by Mikhail Gorbachev. The participants will express their views on the political situation in the country, the tasks of Russian democrats, as well as definite forms and methods of work. In addition, the meeting will discuss a joint Memorandum on Mutual Understanding and the minutes of the Assembly. The participants will also determine the range of topics to be discussed at subsequent meetings of the Assembly.

Work on organising such a forum began during the presidential election campaign in 2000. This was the moment when Grigory Yavlinsky proposed the consolidation of all the democrats in a new political situation, despite the outcome of the elections. Subsequently the form of such an association evolved – the assembly of the representatives of political parties and movements, as well as non-political civil organisations, on the basis of equal rights, the rotational principle for chairing meetings and adopting decisions on the basis ofmutual accord. This was proposed by Yabloko to all democrats at the end of 2000.

Practical work on implementation of this idea began in spring 2001. The organisational committee included Leonid Batkin, Boris Fyodorov, Mikhail Gorbachev, Sergei Kovalyov, Boris Nemtsov, Lev Ponomaryov, Alexei Simonov, Grigory Yavlinsky and Igor Yakovenko.

See also:

The All-Russia Democratic Assembly to schedule the actions of the democratic forces, press release, June 19, 2001

Information on the All-Russia Democratic Assembly

The New Course. What Yabloko supports and opposes.
Theses by Grigory Yavlinsky, Moskovskiye Novosti, June 20, 2001

"Democratic coalition" section of the web-site