#4
Nezavisimaya Gazeta
March 18, 2002
YAVLINSKY HAS NOT FOUND AN ALTERNATIVE TO HIMSELF
[from WPS Monitoring Agency, www.wps.ru/e_index.html]

Moscow-based structures and wings of political parties and organizations are privileged. They are closer to the federal level of power and are therefore more noticeable when there is a quest for candidates to fill posts in the central structures of the party.

The conference of the Moscow branch of Yabloko confirms this assumption. The outcome of the conference showed that like any other Moscow-based structure, the Yabloko is in the grips of a serious personnel crisis, and telling a federal level of an organization from the regional one is virtually impossible. The re-election of Yabloko's leadership confirmed this. Grigori Yavlinsky was re-elected chairman of the Moscow branch of the party. No alternative was available. Yavlinsky became leader of the Moscow branch on the eve of the election into the Moscow municipal parliament when Vyacheslav Igrunov quit the party, citing ideological discord. Six months have passed since then and Yavlinsky has failed to find somebody else worthy of the post. Yabloko activists assumed that the post might be offered to Aleksei Arbatov or Sergei Mitrokhin but both already have too much in their hands. Yabloko must have decided to breed a new generation of leaders. Yavlinsky now has six deputies, and the Political Council comprises 30 activists.

Addressing his colleagues, Yavlinsky assessed the state of affairs as optimistic and said that "a serious conflict was solved", level of representation in the Moscow municipal Duma was retained, and membership in the party doubled. The Moscow wing of Yabloko drew a special program for future election campaigns and adopted a special declaration. Apart from municipal problems, Yabloko intends to solve problems relating to its potential electorate as well. According to party ideologist Mitrokhin, the mayor of Moscow will be asked to "establish a foundation for awards for truthful information on extortion and bribery" to "prevent corruption among municipal officials."