MOSCOW. June 24 (Interfax) - After stepping down as the Yabloko party leader Grigory Yavlinsky is planning to spend more time teaching and said reports about a proposal to enter the executive branch were just "talk."

"I am a teacher, a professor at the High School of Economics and I think there will be more work, more lessons, students and post- graduates," Yavlinsky said in an interview published by the Rossiiskaya Gazeta newspaper on Tuesday.

As regards the reports that the Russian leadership offered him a job in the executive branch, Yavlinsky said: "There is always talk going on."

For his part, new Yabloko leader Sergei Mitrokhin told the newspaper that the proposal to lead the party was received from Yavlinsky back in December after the elections. "I did not accept it in a minute, I took a break to think it over and then accepted," he said.

Asked whether the dialogue is possible with the authorities, Mitrokhin said: "We do need to work with the authorities, but at the same time we cannot renounce our positions: we need to talk, to cooperate, but without turning into a puppet organization. To us it will simply mean death, nobody is going to need us then."

"On the other hand, the authorities cannot be influenced without dialogue, and there is no sense in trying to achieve concrete results simply through a tough confrontation," Mitrokhin said.