Sergei Mitrokhin, the leader of Yabloko (LI full member) commented on the news that President Medvedev is going to head the United Russia party at the parliamentary election in December 2011 while Prime Minister Putin will run at the presidential elections in 2012 as “nothing unexpected.” Describing the recent statement of Putin and Medvedev as simply a “rotation in the tandem”, Mitrokhin characterised the proposal as “a way towards a new stagnation rather than modernisation, and this stagnation may lead the country to the same deplorable outcome like the stagnation of Leonid Brezhnev’s era.”
Mitrokhin’s concerns were echoed by Yabloko’s top parliamentary candidate Grigory Yavlinsky, who warned that the announcement should be viewed as the emergence of a “new political reality” and that the system “created during Putin’s presidency implies that it should be maintained for another 12 years, and perhaps 24 years, that is, until 2036.” Emphasising that a return to valid elections at all levels is the only solution, the Yabloko leaders called on citizens to voice their disapproval at the parliamentary elections in December

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