"Yabloko is ready to cooperate with those who affiliate themselves with the left wing of the political spectrum," he said. "Yet, there is a borderline there - we will never accede to any kind of alliances with those who approve and propagate the methods that had been employed by Stalin, Beria or Lenin," Mr. Yavlinsky pointed out.
According to him, Yabloko "shares many views of the social democratic platform, and the party's alignment with the latter, Mr. Yavlinsky said, has become even more prominent lately".
Grigory Yavlinsky also said that the democratic coalition currently being set up by Yabloko is flanked by "semi-criminal and semi-political organizations on the one side" and "by groups of easily manipulated yes-men planted into the current political environment like a Trojan horse, on the other".
Mr. Yavlinsky pointed out that the democratic coalition should comprise "genuine democrats" and that Yabloko is ready to do everything in its power to ensure that the next State Duma (Russia's lower house of parliament) has an effective faction of the country's united democrats.
Speaking on the format of the projected democratic coalition, Yabloko's first deputy leader Sergei Ivanenko who took the floor after Grigory Yavlinsky said that Yabloko should be the core of this coalition and that at present Yabloko "is holding a dialogue with the country's renowned public figures".
"Yabloko is going to create a coalition of democratic forces who have not tarnished their reputation with involvement in the 1990s reforms", Mr. Ivanenko told journalists.
"What I am talking about is not a mechanical conglomeration of the so-called "democrats" but creation of a coalition based on a viable joint political platform," Mr. Ivanenko said.
In his opinion, "the developments that have been going on in Russia since 1992" have in the end resulted in the defeat of Russia's democratic forces at the latest parliamentary elections".
Sergei Ivanenko pointed out that the democratic coalition is not going to sit on the fence awaiting the next parliamentary and presidential elections (due in 2007 and 2008 respectively); its candidates will take an active part in the next year's regional elections.
On Saturday, Yabloko held the second part of its congress in the settlement of Moskovsky (Moscow Region). The first part of the congress took place last December. The delegates planned to discuss the party's political platform in the new conditions arising after Yabloko had failed to make it to the State Duma.
"Our objective is to survive now and win at the next elections," Yabloko's first deputy leader Sergei Ivanenko told RIA Novosti on Saturday. "I should say that so far Russia's post-Soviet political history has not witnessed a single precedent when a political party defeated at parliamentary elections has managed to remain afloat," Mr. Ivanenko added.
The poll conducted by the Public Opinion Fund prior to the congress revealed results that are hardly promising for the party's political future. Only 2% of the 1,500 people polled by the Fund in 44 regions of Russia believe that Yabloko would be a strong political party at the next parliamentary elections, with 80% of the respondents totally excluding a possibility that they may vote for Yabloko in 2007.
No changes in the party's leadership are expected to take place at the congress. At the same time, the party's decision-making bodies are going to be substantially expanded to make the party's administration more democratic and encourage influx of new members. As things stand now, the party's chieftains see no alternative figures capable of replacing Grigory Yavlinsky at the helm.
"Alternative candidates may be proposed but only for the purpose of taking the floor at the congress. Mr. Yavlinsky is certain to remain Yabloko's leader," Sergei Ivanenko said.
At Yabloko's December congress, some delegates sought to bring up the issue of the leadership's personal responsibility for the defeat Yabloko had suffered at the elections but in the end the majority voted against including this item into the agenda.
The current congress is going to discuss possibilities for setting up a viable democratic coalition. Yabloko has been holding talks on joining forces with other democratic movements in order to come out (under the auspices of the Committee - 2008) with a common list of democratic candidates at the next parliamentary elections. At a recent congress of the Union of Right Forces political party, its leader, Anatoly Chubais, again called on Yabloko to "extend hands toward each other".
