The meeting of the Presidium of the Bureau of the Federal Council of the Russian Democratic Party YABLOKO which took place on Thursday, January 15, 2004, adopted the following statement.

STATEMENT

Today, when the number of candidates for the 2004 presidential elections has been determined, the Russian Democratic Party YABLOKO once again confirms its political position developed by the 12th Congress of YABLOKO:

1. The Russian election system has been transformed into a farce. Key components of the democratic election system are missing: an independent mass media, independent financing and independent court. The YABLOKO party has been robbed of its lawful representation in the State Duma, and we shall contest in court the official results of the elections of December 7, 2003. In the present situation we adopted, as is already well-known, a decision not to propose a YABLOKO candidate for the presidential elections, as we have no intention of participating in another political imitation [of elections].

2. We don’t support the candidacy of Vladimir Putin for RF President. We believe that no steps were taken over the past four years to extricate the country from the deadlock oligarchic quasi-capitalism or resolve the key problems in education, security and the armed forces. The socio-demographic characteristics of the country have been continuously deteriorating. The arbitrary rule of the authorities and police has intensified and aspects of totalitarianism have been revived in Russia. The fake fight with the oligarchy has led to increasing authoritarian trends demonstrated by the executive authorities and the potential creation of omnipotent oligarchic rule by bureaucracy and the law and enforcement agencies in the country.

3. The range of possible participants in the presidential race is not homogeneous. It contains clear-cut farcical characters created by the dormant minds of the Kremlin puppeteers. In our opinion an election campaign conducted under the dictat of political adventurists is also very dangerous for the country. Some politicians may be hoping to make their position known to the public. However, we think that they will lose their illusions during the election campaign.

Chairman of the party

Grigory Yavlinsky

In addition, the meeting of the Bureau of the Federal Council of the Russian Democratic Party YABLOKO also discussed the work of the YABLOKO and SPS Joint Democratic Council. The meeting approved the decisions of YABLOKO’s regional branches to coordinate together with the SPS candidates at the by-electionsof two deputies of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg (one from YABLOKO and one from the SPS) and in four electoral districts at by-elections to the Moscow City Duma (two candidates from each party), whereas it was decided to create a single election bloc with the SPS for the elections to the Legislative Assembly of Sverdlovsk Region bloc. YABLOKO's leadership also discussed the forthcoming elections in Altai Territory (for the posts of Governor and Mayor of Barnaul) and by-elections to the State Duma in the 207th electoral district (St. Petersburg). The meeting of the Presidium also drew up the intermediary results of the analysis of the copies of protocols of the elections to the State Duma (which took place on December 7, 2003) that the party has obtanied. This work is still being carried out. As soon as the work is completed, a decision will be taken to apply to court. The Presidium of the Bureau of the Federal Council of the Russian Democratic Party YABLOKO is a working body of the party and consists of the Chairman of the party and his five deputies

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