Moscow, February 27, 2006, RIA Novosti. YABLOKO’s leader Grigory Yavlinsky calls to creation of a united democratic party in Russia, however he warns against a broad scale merger of the opposition.

“We shall do all we can so that to create a united Russian democratic party in the country,” said Grigory Yavlinsky at the meeting with the students from the Institute for the USA and Canadian Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences on Monday. At the same time Yavlinsky noted that democrats should unite on the basis of a single programme rather than merely because of negation of the same things.

“Opposition “against” is not enough. Maidan [in Kiev] demonstrated that when opposition assembles only on the “against” basis, it quickly falls apart,” said Yavlinsky.

“We should not fool each other that we shall all gather together and run somewhere all together and overthrow someone, but what will be next? The country will not bear such convulsions and revolutions any more,” said Yavlinsky.

According to YABLOKO’s leader, the party is “ready to a dialogue with any honest democrats.” At the same time Yavlinsky noted that not all the political forces that claim being a “democratic opposition” agree with the programme proposed by YABLOKO.

“Not all agree that it is necessary to amend the results of the criminal privatisation of the mid 1990s,” explained Yavlinsky.

Speaking about a united democratic party Yavlinsky stressed that this implies, in the first place, bringing together the electorates, in particular those of the SPS and YABLOKO, rather than political parties’ leaders.

YABLOKO’s electorate is very sensitive towards politics held by the Union of Right-Wing Forces (SPS) throughout all their history… But I am trying to look ahead, and I have succeeded here, though it is not very easy. A new leader has emerged in the SPS, and we can find common language with him and shall try to create a united democratic party,” said Yavlinsky.

Speaking about YABLOKO’s collaboration with the National Bolshevik’s Party [NBP, Eduard Limonov’s party] Yavlinsky noted that the NBP ideology is unacceptable to YABLOKO in principle.

“People who are calling themselves national-bolsheviks are unacceptable to us in principle, because nationalism and bolshevism are the largest tragedies of the 20th century. And people who don’t understand this and are running about under the banners with a stylized swastika can under no conditions become our partners or colleagues or allies,” said Yavlinsky.

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See the Russian original of the article at RIA Novosti web-site
http://www.rian.ru/politics/parties/20060227/43816176.html

Translated by Olga Radaeva