Moscow police have detained two Yabloko party officials after a protest rally against election fraud. Moscow police have detained two Yabloko party officials after a protest rally against election fraud. The Saturday rally was sanctioned for 300 participants, but police counted...

Yabloko leader Grigory Yavlinsky is accusing the Central Elections Commission of being overly harsh in its interpretation of the law when it removed him from the presidential race for having collected too many invalid signatures...

The Central Elections Commission voted Friday to refuse the registration of liberal leader Grigory Yavlinsky as a presidential candidate. The Central Elections Commission voted Friday to refuse the registration of liberal leader Grigory Yavlinsky as a presidential candidate, RIA-Novosti reported. The commission said more than 25 percent of the signatures Yavlinsky submitted as part of his bid were inadmissible. A candidate is disqualified if more than 5 percent of the 2 million required signatures...

... many signatures submitted to register his candidacy were ruled inadmissible by the Central Elections Commission. Yavlinsky, with support of about 1 percent, poses no threat to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who is expected to win the election, and his Yabloko party said his problems looked like revenge for the role that Yabloko election monitors played in exposing violations in last month's State Duma elections. The Central Elections Commission, however, confirmed that another independent candidate...

Election officials said Tuesday that Yabloko candidate Grigory Yavlinsky would be disqualified from running for president in March, a move that would prevent his party from fielding observers. Election officials said Tuesday that Yabloko candidate Grigory Yavlinsky...

The liberal opposition Yabloko party and the Moscow Helsinki Group are creating a public organization to finance the training of monitors for the March 4 presidential vote and other elections. The liberal opposition Yabloko party and the...

... Moscow and visiting their center from which they will monitor the March election, the RBK Daily newspaper reported. While answering their questions, Putin said he was ready to give election observers affiliated with Grigory Yavlinsky’s opposition Yabloko party an opportunity to monitor the polls. Yavlinsky was refused registration for the election and his supporters claim it was partly because authorities wanted to bar Yabloko’s strong team of thousands of observers from polling stations...

... Putin said, would be charging the businessmen participating in the privatization a “one-time levy” to ensure “the legitimacy of private property.” In an unexpected move, Putin referred to his would-be competitor in the elections, Yabloko party leader Grigory Yavlinsky, giving the opposition leader credit for the idea. “I was discussing this with Grigory Alexeyevich Yavlinsky. … I agree with him that we should end this period,” Putin said. Speaking in a telephone...

... Putin will probably want to show at least 53 percent, which is what he got when he was a little-known novice back in 2000. It is a matter of honor and pride. This may be one of the reasons why the Central Elections Commission announced Tuesday that Yabloko founder Grigory Yavlinsky would be disqualified from the presidential race. Although he was expected to receive only about 1 percent of the vote, if he had been approved as a presidential candidate, more than 57,000 Yabloko members would have...

... expressed doubt that he would be invited, Interfax reported. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is expected to succeed his more liberal protege Medvedev after the election. Putin indicated that he has no plans to start a dialogue with protest leaders. The Yabloko opposition party already proved that even if a party is registered, its representatives will not necessarily be allowed to take part in elections. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court ruled that Yabloko's presidential candidate, Grigory Yavlinsky...

... candidates. He said Putin could not be expected to face Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the flamboyant nationalist leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, on television. "Zhirinovsky can't have a civilized conversation with anyone, whether it's a woman, [Yabloko leader Grigory] Yavlinsky or the prime minister," Govorukhin said. He also said he doesn't think that the Kremlin played a role in barring Yavlinsky from the race. The Central Elections Commission officially excluded Yabloko's candidacy Friday...

... passed a report on election violations to the Central Elections Commission on Friday, Interfax reported. Meanwhile, the Central Elections Commission on Friday officially rejected the registration of Grigory Yavlinsky, founder of the liberal opposition Yabloko party, and Irkutsk Governor Dmitry Mezentsev as presidential candidates in the March 4 election, citing a large percentage of invalid signatures. The law obliges presidential candidates who are not members of a parliamentary faction to collect...

... But political analysts and opposition leaders said Putin's repeated mantra of how he brought stability to the country offers no new solutions to issues that have outraged the middle class, like corruption and tightened Kremlin control over the media. Yabloko party chairman Sergei Mitrokhin described Putin's article as a direct "overture to the middle class," while dismissing it as "a very intelligent publicity stunt." "His advisers told him that the old program of United Russia...

... elections. Attendees proclaimed various messages and represented a wide array of movements and organizations, including a number of fringe groups not affiliated with the liberal opposition movement. Among the groups represented were the opposition parties Yabloko, Parnas and Left Front; the Communist Party; liberal political movement Solidarity; and the feminist, anarchist and nationalist movements, with members of the last marching with white, black and yellow imperial Russian flags.  Supporters of lesser-known...

... proposal to discuss the resignation of Churov himself. Commission member from the Communist Party Kirill Serdyukov proposed adding the issue of Churov's early resignation to the commission's agenda Friday and was supported in his motion by members from the Yabloko, A Fair Russia, and Communist parties—as well as by Churov himself, Interfax reported. The motion did not pass, since only four of the commission's 15 members supported it. Churov proposed adding the topic of his early resignation to the...

... corruption by the Krasnokamsk mayor's office, including embezzlement of budget funds, Interfax reported. The mayor responded that he did not object to the newspaper continuing to be published. The newspaper is published by the local branch of the liberal Yabloko party, and Kolokolova is the head of the party's branch, freedom-of-press organization Reporters Without Borders said in a statement Tuesday condemning the attack. The media watchdog linked the incident in part to the upcoming presidential election...

..., according to a copy posted on the League of Voters website. The letter mentioned Putin's initiative to install web cameras and transparent ballot boxes at voting sites, and his announcement Wednesday that he would invite observers from the liberal Yabloko party to monitor the polls as well. "We thank you for your proposal. We are confident that with our combined efforts, we will be able to ensure fair elections," the letter said. 179742

... Gennady Zyuganov of the Communist Party, Sergei Mironov of the A Just Russia party and Vladimir Zhirinovsky of the Liberal Democratic Party. The ballot has now been finalized and will include only those five candidates, RIA-Novosti reported Wednesday. Yabloko candidate Grigory Yavlinsky's presidential run is expected to be halted later this week, after the elections commission announced that it had found an excessive number of errors in the signatures he submitted. Commission secretary Nikolai Konkin...

... turbulent chapter in the region under an unpopular governor whose team was accused of closing its eyes to corruption and conflicts between the local elite. “For us this is a moment of glory,” Galina Boldyreva, head of the local branch of the Yabloko party, said by telephone. “This man lived only for himself, his team and the prime minister and president.” Medvedev also dismissed the governors of Arkhangelsk and Vologda in recent weeks. Brovko’s ratings were among the lowest...

... for officials the amount went from 5,000 rubles to 50,000 rubles ($1,725). The fine for legal entities also increased tenfold, from 50,000 rubles to 500,000 rubles ($17,250), Interfax reported . Maxim Reznik, a St. Petersburg lawmaker in the liberal Yabloko party, said the bill gives authorities "powerful instruments to put pressure on dissenters" and contains a "corruptive element," local television Neva 24 reported . The United Russia-dominated St. Petersburg legislative body...