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“We Must Avert Nuclear Armageddon”

An interview with Grigory Yavlinsky.

This interview with Grigory Yavlinsky, the founder of Russia’s Yabloko Party, comes in the run-up to national, regional, and local elections scheduled for September 20. The regime’s failure to achieve its goals in Ukraine and the increasing costs incurred by its retaliatory strikes across Russia, on cities and facilities that were not impacted even by World War II, is making the regime increasingly insecure, and its response to any critique is rapidly hardening. Since the start of the military operation, five members of Yabloko, including its vice chair and the recent head of its caucus in the Moscow City legislature, have been sentenced to terms in a penal colony, ranging from one to 10 years, and nine of its leading and most recognizable members other than Yavlinsky (who is not seeking office) have been banned from running in the elections.

Whether the Kremlin will allow Yabloko to appear on the national party-list ballot will become known by August 5—the deadline for the Central Election Commission to finalize the registration of the parties. So far, the signals have largely been negative: Just in the past week, Yabloko’s slates were denied registration in two major cities of Russia’s northwest, St. Petersburg and Petrozavodsk, where it has been relatively more popular than in most of the country and was previously represented in city councils; meanwhile, in the only region where its slate has been registered to compete in regional elections (the Republic of Karelia, of which Petrozavodsk is the capital), a nationalist party sued to get that registration canceled. If Yabloko is kept off the ballot, the next question will be whether it is allowed to survive at all, in legal and financial terms, until the end of Putin’s rule.

—Katrina vanden Heuvel 

Yabloko was founded in 1993. The Yabloko party’s electoral platform consists of the following 43 words:

For peace and freedom! For a life without fear!For a cease-fire agreement, for diplomacy and for achieving peace!Our goal is to avert a nuclear war!For a Russia that is free of fear and of political reprisals!For the preservation of human lives, respect, dignity and well-being!Our goal is a prosperous, democratic Russia!

For peace and freedom! For a life without fear!For a cease-fire agreement, for diplomacy and for achieving peace!Our goal is to avert a nuclear war!For a Russia that is free of fear and of political reprisals!For the preservation of human lives, respect, dignity and well-being!Our goal is a prosperous, democratic Russia!

Yabloko is the only party that has steadfastly advocated for the cessation of military operations in Ukraine since 2022.

The Nation’s Nadezhda Azhgikhina spoke with Grigory Yavlinsky, Yabloko’s founder and the chair of its federal political committee.

Nadezhda Azhgikhina: Grigory Alexeyevich, what do you offer in these elections, and what do you expect?

Grigory Yavlinsky: Our message in these elections is the unconditional demand to put an end to the loss of lives, that is, to conclude a ceasefire agreement in the nearest future. This is the gist of our platform. It has merely 43 words in it. These elections are not about taxes, utility fees, salaries or pensions. They are about human lives, freedom, and Russia’s future.

In effect, this will be a referendum. Its plausible number of participants will be over 60 million. Unfortunately, Yabloko is the only party in Russia which stands for a ceasefire agreement with Ukraine, for freedom, and for a life without fear. All the other parties largely support the status quo.

These elections will essentially have two........

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