For a moment, it appeared that the anti-corruption crusader and opposition leader Alexey Navalny had united the opposition behind him, as a reaction to the failed assassination attempt upon him and his arrest upon returning to Russia. This opposition was short lived and the founder of the liberal Yabloko Party, Grigory Yavlinsky, published a long essay on the Echo of Moscow site titled "Without Putinism and Populism".[1] Navalny was the populist and his siren song was a repetition of the tragedy of Russian history where the opposition banded together to support the lesser evil losing sight of the fact that the lesser evil always morphed into the greater evil. There was no shortcut to educating the populace on the tenets of constitutional government. Navalny's tactics brought suffering to his supporters without bothering the regime in the least. Even Navalny's vaunted anti-corruption drive was a dead end because the authorities could and would easily outbid Navalny in his populism and find scapegoats to appease popular anger.
Yavlinsky's attack on Navalny and his supporters did not go unanswered. Lev Schlosberg, a member of the Pskov Assembly and a founding member of Yabloko, criticized Yavlinsky for publishing the essay without consulting his senior colleagues in Yabloko. He also attacked Yavlinsky for his condescending attitude towards the demonstrators, thus alienating the same people whom the party should appeal to. The party had also traditionally supported victims of authoritarianism despite political differences and Navalny deserved the same.[2]
Political scientist Ivan Preobrazhensky took the gloves off in attacking Yavlinksy. He dismissed the Yabloko leader as a has been, who desperately sought to save his brainchild. Preobrazhensky even insinuated that by publishing his essay Yavlinsky was appealing to the regime to allow Yabloko to run in the legislative elections and even secure representation in the Duma.[3]
Below are excerpts from Yavlinksy's essay and the rejoinders by Schlosberg and Preobrazhensky..
Yavlinksy: Navalny Did Not Move The Needle, The Regime Is Ultra Stable
"...It has been nearly ten years since the protests of 2011. Over the years our country witnessed street rallies of varying massiveness, and each time people said hopefully, 'It’s quite something else, this time things will turn out differently.'
"In fact, in ten years almost nothing has changed in protest activism either in terms of numbers or in the nature of the protest and that is being optimistic. The protest actions in Moscow in January 2021gathered less people than that of 2011, 2012, and even 2019. 100 million views on YouTube [of the Navalny’s investigation] translated into about 200 thousand protesters across the country and 20-30 thousand in the capital. By today’s standards of “offline life”, this is a large number.
"However, this number is not even close enough to influence the political situation in the country, or to force the authorities into a peaceful meaningful dialogue... At the same time, the waves of protest that periodically roll over the Russia have never being a serious problem for the authorities.
"The main genuine result of this protest activity is an increase in the number of detained and political prisoners, on whose behalf no 'public pressure' is building and who are not going to be released. Against this background, another such cycle of street actions is a path to even greater disillusionment. Even Navalny’s headquarters understood this and stated that they would not put people under the police batons again.
"In ten years, the Russian authority (that the protesters are trying to portray as 'frightened' and 'crumbling'):
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"Twice orchestrated Putin’s election as president (once for a third term in 2012 and once for a fourth term in 2018);
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"Annexed Crimea and unleashed bloodshed in Donbass;
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"Deployed a military contingent in Syria to participate in the civil war;
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"Got involved into more than one armed conflict in Africa via PMCs [Private Military Companies];
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"Passed an entire system of repressive legislation through a fully controlled parliament;
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"Organized a plebiscite to amend the Constitution, including amendments that allowed Putin to remain in power after 2024 for another 12 years;
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"Successfully and consistently created an atmosphere of suppression of free thinking and tracking internal and external enemies."
Grigory Yavlinksy (Source: Polit.ru)
The Demonstrations Will Bring Harsher Repression, And Navalny Will Leave The Demonstrators In The Lurch
"In recent years, the information policy of the authorities regarding the coverage of protests has gone from complete silence in the controlled media to a detailed propaganda analysis of street rallies designed to discredit any opposition.
"In this regard, it is obvious that the regime will use the protests as a pretext to 'tighten the screws' and 'mow the lawn' prior to the so-called Duma elections in the fall of 2021. And one should not think that the protests frighten the authorities or come as a surprise to the Kremlin. The authorities have been preparing for the harsh suppression of possible popular protests for some time. They passed repressive laws, strengthened the OMON [Special Purpose Mobile Unit] and the Russian Guard, expanded the powers of the security forces and consistently canceled any liability of the security forces to the citizens.
"The pension reform (which for obvious reasons was extremely unpopular) showed that the authorities put a stake not on understanding with the people and not even teasing them, but on Bolshevik methods: lies, propaganda, intimidation, repression, terror. And we should not pretend that we do not understand who we are dealing with and what these people are capable of.
"This is a reality that we encounter daily and in which we might have to live for a long time. And after the events of January-February 2021, and after the upcoming protests, there will be the bitter aftertaste: court trials and serious repressions. The current authority of Russia is outside the law. Therefore, another Bolotnaya Square case will undoubtedly happen with the corresponding intensification of regulatory, administrative and criminal measures.
"In this situation, it is necessary to do whatever it takes to resist the repressions as much as possible, to help the prisoners, detainees and their families; to use all available options to protect the rights of people, to demand a release of political prisoners (both those recently convicted and those incarcerated on previous charges).
"At the same time, we must get rid ourselves of any illusions and clearly realize where we are living.
"Symptomatically, when commenting on the latest protests, Putin mentioned the 1993 storming of the White House [the seat of the legislature] in Moscow. Back then communists, nationalists, fascists and other various disgruntled groups dissatisfied united in a protest against Yeltsin and his reforms. Today, this analogy made by the president appears to be a warning about the authorities’ determination to stop at nothing.
"Optimistic calculations made by the regime opponents camp is based on the notion that, given a certain mass and persistence of protests the government will make concessions, because it won’t dare to use large-scale and brutal means of suppression. That is, a bet placed on the humanistic quality of a repressive state system, or on the fact that the Kremlin will be afraid of foreign condemnation.
"In reality, the situation is completely different. For Putin’s system, the behavioral guidelines were set by Yeltsin in 1993 and Deng Xiaoping in 1989, who used tanks in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The events, that unfolded in late January and early February this year on the streets of Moscow and other Russian cities confirms this ]conclusion[..."
Navalny's Return Was Irresponsible
As blogger and whistle-blower, the “auditor” of the upper echelons of Russian power and business Navalny served as an indicator that allowed, via information that he transmitted, assessing the undercover struggle within the elites.
Navalny's Anticorruption Campaign Is A Dangerous Dead End That Can Be Used By The Regime
"But since almost everyone in Russia is convinced of the existence of mass corruption, Navalny’s investigations were taken positively. The economic downturn and impoverishment of the country’s population over the past ten years made it possible to successfully use [in his favor] the increasing level of economic inequality, “Peace to the huts! War on the palaces!” [the slogan of the revolutionary army during the French revolution originally written by Karl Beuchner].
"Moreover, political populism degenerating into nationalism, which, as a result, often leads to violent clashes, is a dangerous global trend. Russia is no exception to this trend.
"Unfortunately, Navalny’s investigations did not and cannot provide any practical results for society. All the exposed remain in their offices and with their assets.
"The problem is not with the age-old tradition of corruption in the state apparatus, but in the fact that during the reforms of the 1990s [under Yeltsin] and, in particular, during semi-criminal (or outright criminal in some cases, for example the loans for shares scheme) privatization a system was created. This system was based on the merger of property and power that did not imply the existence of an independent court, an independent media, a real parliament and fair elections in the country.
"And without the true separation of property and business from the government, without the separation of powers, the fight against corruption is impossible.
"Therefore, the incitement of primitive social discontent is the main socially significant effect, towards which the style of Navalny’s 'investigative' films is oriented. And this as well is not something new.
"The authorities did this when they squeezed out the Yukos Oil Company from [Mikhail] Khodorkovsky in 2003. The incitement of class populism in Russia, provoking a conflict between the poor and the rich won’t lead to anything good. The nationalist whipping up of society for the sake of fighting Putin became one of the prerequisites for the spring of 2014 along with the annexation of Crimea and the war in [East] Ukraine.
"Today, Putin’s system still holds the playing card of 'property redistribution' up its sleeve, but at any moment the Kremlin can play it again for its own purposes which will lead to extremely negative consequences, or even bloodshed.
"People in Russia are impoverished not only because of corruption. Our citizens are losing incomparably more due to the war in Syria and the Donbass, due to the arms race and completely unbounded, non-transparent and uncontrolled spending on the military-industrial complex, because of international sanctions (which Russia endlessly got itself into), but most of all because of ineffective, costly economy of state capitalism (where revenues are private while the losses are the state's).
"Corruption can be effectively defeated only through the changes in the system. Therefore, I repeat, the real fight against corruption is not filming the estates of the thieving officials from drones, but a political struggle for a new Russian state, for a new Constitution, for a Constituent Assembly (see “On the Future”, July 2020).
The Assassination Attempt On Navalny Requires A Thorough International Investigation And Not Navalny's Stunts On YouTube.
As for the attempt to poison Alexei Navalny, everything is very serious here.
[In this case] a comprehensive international investigation, which cannot be replaced by popular 'exposés' on YouTube, is required. The point is not in exposing of the Stalinist methods of the system, which itself does not even hide it... However, Navalny’s poisoning is not just a crime. It might be proof that government-sanctioned “death squads” exist in Russia, which are involved in state terror against political opponents. In addition, another extremely troubling issue in question is the use of a chemical warfare agent. The perpetrators and masterminds of this crime need to be credibly identified, and the entire mechanism of the crime should be investigated. This is vital for the entire society...
Navalny Is A Nationalist And A Populist
"Populism and nationalism are Navalny’s political direction. In my opinion the essence of his politics was most accurately formulated by Valeria Novodvorskaya in 2011, 'Navalny can become the future leader of a crazed mob with a Nazi orientation.'
Novodvorskaya said, that “The fight against corruption can lead to a Belarus scenario. Lukashenko hoodwinked the people with his constant talks on the fight against corruption. He easily tricked the gullible Belarusians. And the halfwit intelligentsia supported him, believed that they could twirl him around as they desired. Well, we see today’s Belarusian landscape ... Arrests are not a political indulgence. The Bolsheviks were also send to hard labor penal colonies. [Red terror boss Felix Dzerzhinsky was in prison for 10 years. Hitler was also behind the bars once (it is a pity that for less than 15 years). Perhaps World War II would not have happened... If the crowd will follow Navalny, then the country will face fascism in the future... The wave [of public unrest] that is rising now is not only against Putin, it is against Russia’s democratic future. The long gone communism or the future fascism rises along with this wave. And Navalny is one of the potential leaders of this new destruction.”
Nothing has changed since then. There is nothing positive about Navalny’s attempts at involvement in Russian politics with his proposed ideas and agenda.
In 2009 when neo-Nazis killed human rights activist Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasia Baburova in the center of Moscow, Navalny was organizing Russian Marches, which, in fact, incited ethnic hatred and such murders. Navalny did not hide this nationalist course during the [2008] war with Georgia, and when he commented on the war in Donbass...
Neither Navalny himself nor his entourage care about the broken lives of citizens who, at their call, joined the unauthorized rallies and ended up behind bars (let’s remember the promises of monetary compensation via the European Court of Human Rights made to the detainees). Navalny’s clique consciously advocate the criminal use of minors for their political goals. Navalny, as the exclusive leader, is focused only on himself and destroys any attempts of a coalition.
Therefore, everyone decides for himself whether to support or not support Navalny as a politician.
But you need to understand, that, democratic Russia, respect for a person, freedom, life without a fear and without repressions are incompatible with Navalny’s policy. These are fundamentally different directions.
Navalny Panders To The Mob, And Is Possibly Still An Agent Of The Authorities
"During the last protest rallies, no organized demand to release political prisoners or to stop the war in Ukraine was put [to the authorities]. Although among the political prisoners there are those who received prison terms during the summer of 2019 at rallies against election fraud and restrictions on the right to be elected i[pm the closest associates of the FBK founder. [The Anti-Corruption Foundation]). All demands concerned Navalny’s personage exclusively.
"Everyone is indiscriminately invited to the coalition oriented personally against Putin: Communists, nationalists, leftists, rightists ... In general, anyone is welcomed except those who are for Putin. And these are by no means new political technologies. This already happened back in October 1993 at the White House.
"One should never follow the mob, the masses' enthusiasm and pressure notwithstanding, whatever the [mob's] aggression against those who are 'out of step', and even more so against those who are moving in the opposite direction.
"Those politicians and public figures who today fear to fall under the bus of accusations for not supporting the protest, or expect to ride this wave, should’ve understood by now, that they will be washed away by this very wave.
"However, the point is not only in the threat of the National Bolshevik revolutionary victory following the 1917 scenario. Navalny, apparently, has stopped being an element of the authorities’ game with society (or with its politically incompetent liberal-creative part) which was carried out since 2011.
"But this does not mean that he and his entourage got rid of the old connections in the state apparatus and dependencies on it. The game has simply changed.
Navalny and his team may be played [by the authorities] without their understanding it, but others will reap the harvest. It is very likely that these people will be from the same Putin system, who got the task to protect it or, to replace its 'façade'. At the same time, it is important to understand and remember that Putin’s system is much more than one person. It was not Putin who started to build it, and it won’t disappear by itself.
Navalny Uses The Same Information Tactic As The Regime
"It is especially difficult to talk about this topic, because in fact we are facing the manifestations of problems, which are being discussed by the entire world and for which no effective solution has been found yet.
"I’m talking about failures in public communication, which are the result of the information revolution; about a disintegration of the information space into radicalized clusters, about formation of “[information] bubbles” whose inhabitants literally do not want to see and hear anything that does not coincides with their point of view. The people of Russia want to change the political reality, they are tired, they need hope.
"Navalny creates an alternative information picture for his supporters, and it consists not of facts against propaganda and not of truth against [the authorities;] lies. Thus, in the film [Navalny’s investigation] about 'Putin's palace', the main thing is not the palace, but the image of Putin, who trembles in fear of Navalny and his investigations. Additionally, one of the authors' ideas was to show the similarity between Putin and [the deposed Ukrainian leader Viktor] Yanukovych, whose tasteless pompous residence has become a symbol of the inglorious end to his power. However, this time, instead of golden bread [the gold sculpture of a bread loaf served as Yanukovych's paperweight], there is a [gold] toilet brush [in Putin's Palace]..."
Navalny And His Supporters Are Naïve In Counting On Foreign Pressure
"Hope exists that following the shock created by the storming of the United States Capitol, leading Western democracies will start thoroughly looking for ways to clean up the modern politics of populism and nationalism... But regardless of what course of actions the collective West will undertake, it must be remembered that due to a systemic misunderstanding of what is happening in different parts of the world, Western politicians are prone to serious mistakes.
"For example, let’s look at the last decades of Western policy towards Myanmar: the glorification of Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to her, her return to power in 2016 … Later due to her connivance military repressions and the genocide of the Rohingya Muslim minority took place in 2017.
Finally, after the military coup of January 2021 Aung San Suu Kyi was imprisoned. And now the West is trying not to mention the Burmese 'human rights activist'.
"Political circles in Europe and the United States understand Russia less and less, and this trend didn’t start yesterday. Do you remember when in June 2001 in Ljubljana, George Bush Jr. 'looked into Putin's eyes', 'felt his soul' and saw in him a 'direct and trustworthy person'? So. it is useful to be aware of Western opinion, but one shouldn’t be guided by it.
"Additionally, the huge global tumult that arose after the poisoning of Navalny, of course, was not connected with him, but with the alleged use of chemical warfare agents by Russia. The West, obviously, is very much afraid of such a possibility, thus a loud information campaign was staged around the strange but convenient poisoning. Such a reaction is quite understandable in the context of the new Cold War, which, of course, was provoked by Russia and Putin personally.
"It is important at this point to recall the murder of Boris Nemtsov in 2015. As a political figure, Nemtsov was much greater than Navalny, but the West considered his assassination to be Russia's internal affair and there were no journalistic investigations similar to the ones today.
"In general, the West, with its stereotyped approaches to democracy in, let’s say, “undemocratic regions” can lose its influence altogether and be left out in the cold if it does not learn to understand the events that occur. By and large, this is also true for Russia. Today the West in complex and unconventional situations uses standard schemes and solutions from the 1990s..."
"[I believe, that] this is an extremely harmful practice to refer to the fact that there are developed democracies in the West, and Russia has Putin’s system, in the fight against which all means are justified. Such an approach is rooted in the cautious and dismissive attitude of the Soviet and post-Soviet elite to the people..."
"No decent future can be built if, here and now, we won’t start treating people as it should be in the Russia we want to create. It is very important for the protest to be politically conscious, civil in the high sense of this word. The basis of such protest is people who openly oppose the Putin system, but at the same time do not support populism, and reject nationalism, the cult of the leader, Bolshevik-style incitement to social hatred. Such people do not accept mob power and manipulation as a substitute for democratic procedures and institutions.
"These people are the foundation of Russia of the future. We will fight to represent their interests.
"Yavlinsky's Critique of Navalny's Electoral Tactics Of Supporting The Candidate Best Placed To Defeat The United Russia Party ('Smart Voting')
"There are those who, after Navalny was put behind the bars, do not know what to do. Although it is easy to understand that the era of post-Soviet modernization (the attempt to create a democratic society and statehood in Russia) ended in failure. And the formal symbol of this failure was the destruction of the Constitution in the summer of 2020, and the establishment [of the regime] of practically permanent and unlimited personal power...
Voting while holding a one’s nose, and subsequent laments like 'who would have thought?' have been characteristic of the Russian (so to speak) 'educated class' since the mid-1990s. If back then everyone was obliged to support Yeltsin, since communism was used as a scarecrow for society, then today’s new propagandists (who call themselves oppositionists) frighten people with Putinism. The very same people, who are tired of the irremovability of power and corruption.
They [new propagandists] deliberately push people to choose the lesser of two evils, but they do not say that a lesser evil, after defeating a larger one, always becomes an even greater evil..."
Two days after Yavlinsky's essay appeared, Lev Schlosberg published a rejoinder in the Echo of Moscow site in the form of an open letter to Yavlinksy.
Yavlinksy's Position Does Not Represent Yabloko
"Dear Grigory Alekseevich [Yavlinksy]!
"Your article 'Without Putinism and Populism' has become the most resonant event concerning the Yabloko party in Russian political life for many years. The public has noticed your article. Public perception of the article is no less significant than its content.
"You know that your personal position, when expressed publicly, is perceived by the majority of Russian voters as the official position of the Yabloko party. When people evaluate your opinion, they evaluate the entire party.
"I do not know a single member of the Yabloko’s Federal Political Committee who knew about the forthcoming publication of this article. I believe that your decision to publish the article lacked a preliminary discussion with your party colleagues.
"The substance and magnitude of the public outcry make a public reaction to your article inevitable. Politicians cannot work outside public opinion, as you know.
"Should a politician speak against a public opinion? Yes, and often it’s even necessary. Often it’s the leader’s responsibility.
"The Yabloko party and Alexei Navalny have long had a difficult relationship... I suppose that if Alexei Navalny was in power, you and I would be both in opposition to him.
As A Political Prisoner, Navalny Is Deserving Of Our Solidarity
"But now I intend to talk about different issue. I’m talking about the life and death of a citizen of Russia, about politician Alexei Navalny, whose poisoning is not 'strange', but terrible, and his brave (whatever the reason) return to Russia brought back public policy to our country, and along with it the chief demand - freedom.
"Alexei Navalny is a political prisoner, like hundreds of others who opposed the police state. Furthermore, he is the personal Vladimir Putin’s political prisoner. For many of his supporters, he is a hostage of the authorities. And this circumstance is essential, when any position on Navalny is expressed publicly...
"At the beginning of the century, in response to a request to comment on one of the articles of Mikhail Khodorkovsky (who was behind the bars at that time), you stated that you would not evaluate the opinion of a person in a Russian prison. This position was, in my opinion, ethically correct considering the [political] disagreements.
"Valeria Novodvorskaya, whose sharp critical opinion about Navalny you quoted [in your article], also said about him [Navalny], 'I consider him to be a victim of the regime. This trial should end, for this is an unjust trial, for this is a violation of justice. After that we will mindfully talk with Alexei Navalny about both his mayoralty and presidential programs. As long as he is a victim of the regime, as long as he is under trial, let not a single democratic hand be raised against him and let not a single democratic stone hit him.'
"The uncompromising Valeria Ilyinichna [Novodvorskaya] flawlessly formulated the condition under which a political compromise with the convictions of another politician can be reached."
Yabloko Must Engage Those Who Demonstrated On Navalny's Behalf
"I see no reason for you to deviate from your own, previously formulated, position [on Khodorkovsky] and moral formula of Valeria Novodvorskaya concerning Alexei Navalny.
"To follow this formula is important not only for the personal relations between politicians themselves, but for the relations between the politician and society.
"Public politics is returning to Russia, despite political repression. It comes back, among other reasons, as a response by society to new political repression of the authorities, including that against Alexei Navalny.
"The key question is the following, 'what politicians, what political force will protect these people and will become their legal political representative?' For a political party and its leaders, answering this question means to fulfill their mission and their practical political work.
"The main task of the Yabloko party now is to see, understand and support the millions of people who have come to politics, including those people who joined peaceful rallies in January and February of 2021 with an open protest in order to demand freedom.
"Either our party will be able to represent these citizens, or we will be left without voters - the only vital essence for political parties.
"The union of street protest and of public representatives of citizens in parliament is the condition for a peaceful change of power in Russia. Our task is to protect these people, to get their support during the elections, to become their voice in the Russian parliament.
"Almost all of Alexei Navalny’s supporters are our [potential] voters, because they are supporters of freedom. These people are not youth, who have been maliciously misled by someone, but citizens who are aware of their rightful place in politics. They are our main audience because they need political representatives.
"An important reason for public outrage and street protests is the inability of people to participate in legal politics, the lack of political representation.
"Your article “Without Putinism and Populism” damaged not Alexei Navalny, but these conscionable people. I think this is not the result you wanted to achieve at all.
"Our voters and our potential voters are wondering whom to support, for whom to vote, who will represent and protect their interests. The answer to this question will decide not only the fate of the Yabloko party, but, possibly, the fate of the country in the foreseeable historical future...
"This is not a question of our political and personal relations with Putin and Navalny, it is a question of the future of our country, a question of the life and death of millions of people. This is a job that no one else will do for us. This is a job for Russian democratic politicians and Russian civil society.
"The political history of Russia will be written without politicians. Our party needs political action now more than political assessments.
"Our main political task is to unite Russian society. This unification can only be based on the principles of political solidarity with millions of people and the support of all those who suffered from the police state and all those who oppose it.
The immediate and most important task of our party is the State Duma elections [of 2021]. This election is perhaps the last chance for Russian society to stop the establishment of Putin’s dictatorship and massive political repression against millions of people...
"You have been able to save the party for almost 30 years. But parties and politicians survive in order to unite society and win, change power, come to power and change politics. Only these tasks justify our existence for people.
'Voters Win Elections, Not Politicians
"The keen public reaction to your article in the vast majority of cases reflects the desire of millions of people to see our party strong and successful, to see their representatives in parliament, and to protect themselves. Voters win elections, not politicians. Without them, we cannot do anything.
"Nowadays, no matter how difficult, painful and unpleasant it might be, but you and I need to hear and understand these very people, including those who are dissatisfied, indignant, offended and insulted. They have the right to demand that we meet their expectations and hopes. They wish good for themselves and for the country...
"Everything except death is fixable: political mistakes are fixable, poorly selected words are fixable. Now I’m talking not about our fate and our place in politics. I’m talking about millions of people whose lives are in danger of ending due to repressions. Everything else is fixable..."
Lev Schlosberg (Source: Pln-pskov.ru)
Ivan Preobrazhensky 'Yavlinsky Is A Political Pensioner'
Political scientist and Rosbalt columnist Ivan Preobrazhensky was brutal in his dismissal of Yavlinsky's essay:
"The mere reproach of “leadership cult" [coming] from the lips of Yavlinsky, who for many years 'purged'” the party of everyone who dared to contradict him, looks paradoxical...
However, the majority of commentators blame the informal leader of Yabloko, for the publication of his “anti-Navalnist manifesto”, at an unfortunate moment, to put it mildly, as well as the style of this document. Yavlinsky invokes the aid of Valeria Novodvorskaya, who has never been one of the successful liberal politicians, but has always been considered an example of directness and honesty. The legacy of Novodvorskaya contains very harsh reviews about Navalny. But at another moment she clearly said: one should not criticize a person who is imprisoned or threatened with prison, for nationalism or other sins.
"Yavlinsky clearly tried to rise above the fight. Choosing a title for his text, he seemed to have appointed himself the arbiter between the political system built by Vladimir Putin and Alexei Navalny and his supporters. The problem is that none of these parties recognizes his right to refereeing. The text has no addressee, which makes it, as has often happened with Yavlinsky, an empty declaration.
"In the eyes of the Kremlin, Yavlinsky today is a political pensioner who fawns upon the authorities in order to preserve the remnants of his brainchild, the Yabloko political party.
"As for Navalny's supporters, I repeat that most of them simply do not know the informal leader of Yabloko. But political activists, those who plan to participate in the upcoming elections and their teams, are not interested in him. They, even if they know Yavlinsky, understand that nothing depends on his opinion, no matter how well he puts words into phrases."
Ivan Preobrazhensky (Source: 420on.cz)
