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21.12.07
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Their Own Slice Of The Pie
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By Yelena Biberman
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As Yabloko’s Influence Wanes, the Natives are Restless
Less than five minutes before the start of his own press conference on Wednesday at the Independent Press Center in Moscow, the featured speaker found himself out in the cold scrambling to find a way into the building. After rushing from door to door, finally, he made a phone call, and someone hurried out to usher him in.
Ilya Yashin, chairman of Yabloko’s youth branch, must have had a lot on his mind. The 24-year-old was about to declare publicly not just his desire to seize the highest post of his party. He also wanted to fundamentally change the way that the party views itself, calling on Russian democrats of all stripes to unite under his opposition mindset.
"Today, there is a new political arrangement,” Yashin told reporters. “We no longer have a choice between good and very good democracy. Our choice is now between democracy and an authoritarian system. Our voters no longer want to choose between different democrats. They need a united democratic party."
But the Yabloko heads are circumspect about the aspirations of the firebrand youth leader. When asked for an official response to Yashin’s program, Yabloko’s press-secretary responded nonchalantly, “We really have nothing to say,” suggesting that the Yashin is not taken seriously at the party level. The official Web site of the Yabloko party made no mention of Yashin’s plan.
Depending on whom you ask, Yashin is either a rising star in opposition politics or a marginal pariah of his own party.
“I personally support Yashin,” said Irina Khakamada, one of the liberal politicians whom Yashin publicly invited to join his initiative. “He has the rare combination of professionalism, youth and courage. I have always been for uniting all democratic forces and all opposition. I believe that it is possible.” She added, “We need more young people in politics.”
Nikita Vorovikov, a representative of the Kremlin-backed youth group Nashi, emphasized Yashin’s lack of real power. “Unfortunately, as the past year has shown, Yashin is a marginal individual within the party,” he said.
Yashin, however, said his program already enjoys the support of young activists from as many as 15 regions, including St. Petersburg, Samara, Yekaterinburg and Tomsk. “Our position is not a marginal one – we have serious support within the party. It may be that by the time of the party congress we will be in the majority,” Yashin said, though he could not give exact figures to quantify his support.
Yabloko Moscow youth branch leader Ivan Bolshakov voiced his full support for Yashin. Although he admitted that members of the youth wing are divided on Yashin’s aspirations. About half support his ideas, while the other half opposes replacing Yavlinsky, who has been in charge of Yabloko since 1995.
“I don’t have a personal conflict with Yavlinsky,” Yashin said. “However, he and I have some serious political disagreements. He is intent on conserving the present situation, but I will do everything to achieve reform.”
Yashin’s Plan
Yashin said the Yabloko Party had made serious mistakes in the past year, specifically supporting Moscow mayor and United Russia member Yury Luzhkov, not opposing the Kremlin’s anti-extremism legislation and distancing itself from an April Dissenters’ March, in which Yashin not only participated but was arrested.
One of the five points of Yashin’s program emphasizes “fierce and consistent” opposition to the present regime, which, according to Yashin, is making Russia into an “Asiatic dictatorship.” Yashin argues that the ruling elites are “taking Russia in the wrong direction by limiting the freedom of speech and independence of the courts, weakening the parliament and creating a single-party system.”
Yashin’s program for Yabloko calls for primaries he says will end the practice of “making decisions behind closed doors, which is one of the major mistakes of the democratic movements in Russia.” His plan for Russia includes greater integration with the West.
Adamantly against any collaboration with the present establishment, Yashin is an unlikely candidate for a Kremlin puppet. In 2005, he had a run in with the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB). In return for his girlfriend’s freedom from incarceration for staging a protest in Moscow, Yashin agreed to cooperate with an FSB agent, he told Buntar, an online magazine. “I didn’t tell him anything, of course, but the very act of me dealing with him terribly bothered me… Finally, I ran out of patience and wrote a long article in Novaya Gazeta about my experience. After this, the FSB people stopped bothering me,” Yashin said.
A Natural Step
Yashin’s program is aimed, first and foremost, at shaking up the Yabloko Party apparatus and bringing about change. According to Sergey Markov, a Kremlin-connected analyst, it is natural that the question of change in Yabloko’s leadership has come up as the party’s influence wanes. The party failed to win any seats in the last two Duma elections. “But, I don’t think that Yashin is ready,” he said.
Although he claims to be “ready for the battle” both with the Yabloko leadership and the Kremlin, Yashin admitted to being open to several alternatives. He said that he does not insist on his own candidacy to head Yabloko if a better candidate is found. He also declared that he would be satisfied if the present Yabloko leadership accepted “the underlying aspects of my ideas.”
Undoubtedly, Yashin is keeping in mind that even if he does become the head of Yabloko, the Russian constitution prohibits him from running for the presidency for at least 10 more years.
Yashin’s plan represents a major event, a natural step, in the political rise of the first post-Soviet generation’s attempt to join “the big game.” It is only the beginning of what may be a long process, during which not only the leaders of Yabloko, but all political elites will face young men and women demanding accountability and change. What would make Yabloko stronger than other parties, which let in only a limited number of like-minded youths and left the majority out in the cold, is its ability to absorb new blood and revamp the democratic movement. Much of the credit for keeping Yabloko alive since the Party’s defeat in the 2003 Duma elections may be attributed to the energetic young activists, who are now seeking what may indeed be rightfully theirs – a slice of the apple pie. |
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