In a comment on the split, Yabloko leader Grigory
Yavlinsky expressed "deep anxiety" about the spreading of
the "dirtiest form of political black PR" and its latest victim,
the Communist Party, RosBalt reported. The Yabloko party also held a party
congress in Moscow Oblast on 3 July, at which Yavlinsky read a report outlining
the party's three major mistakes during the 2003 State Duma elections,
"Kommersant-Daily" reported on 5 July. According to Yavlinsky,
Yabloko should have more sharply distanced itself from the Union of Right-Wing
Forces (SPS); it should not have taken money from oligarchs, such as former
Yukos head Khodorkovsky; and it did not adequately explain to voters its
attitude toward President Vladimir Putin. Yavlinsky was reelected as party
leader with 190 votes, while 59 votes were cast for Yury Kuznetsov, the
head of Sverdlovsk's Yabloko party branch. Kuznetsov favors forming a tighter
association with SPS.
JAC
See also:
12th Congress
of the Russian Democratic Party YABLOKO
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Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, July 7, 2004
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