| Yabloko re-elected Grigory
Yavlinsky as party chairman at a weekend congress and pledged to take
part in the next State Duma elections in a new democratic coalition that
could include left-leaning politicians.
"Yabloko is ready to cooperate with those who affiliate themselves
with the left wing of the politic spectrum," Yavlinsky told the congress
Saturday in the village of Moskovsky, south of Moscow, RIA-Novosti reported.
"Yet, there is a boundary there. We will never accede to any kind
of alliance with those who approve and propagate the methods employed
by Stalin, Beria or Lenin."
The new democratic coalition should include "genuine democrats,"
he said.
Yabloko's first deputy chairman, Sergei
Ivanenko, who took the floor after Yavlinsky, said Yabloko should
be the core of the coalition. He said the liberal party is holding talks
with "renowned public figures," but did not elaborate, RIA-Novosti
reported.
In a clear reference to the liberal Union of Right Forces, or SPS, which
has been calling for the two parties to join forces, Ivanenko said Yabloko
will work with democratic forces that have not been involved in the oft-criticized
reforms of the 1990s.
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