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Yavlinskiy to head Yabloko party’s ticket for Duma elections

The party’s chairman Sergei Mitrokhin is expected to be number two

MOSKOVSKIY, the Moscow region, September 11 (Itar-Tass) — The congress of Russia’s Yabloko party will continue on Sunday. The delegates have started forming the federal party ticket for the State Duma elections. One of the party’s founders, Grigory Yavlinskiy, will top the list.

The party’s chairman Sergei Mitrokhin is expected to be number two. All in all, Yabloko will have about ten people in the federal part of the list. The party is planning to nominate more than 350 candidates in 82 regional groups.

The ballot is secret and its results are to be announced on Sunday when the congress is going to resume its work to adopt several political resolutions and statements.

On Saturday, the congress adopted the party’s election program “Russia demands change!” proposed by Grigory Yavlinskiy and Sergei Mitrokhin.

After Yabloko’s defeat in the 2007 Duma elections Grigory Yavlinskiy quitted the post of party chairman and distanced himself from the party’s affairs. He’s planning to return to politics now. He explains his decision by the fact that society has become ripe for supporting his party’s program. “Everything what Yabloko said 20 years ago has become a vital need for the majority of people,” Yavlinskiy said in the corridors of the Congress.

Yavlinskiy is sure that apart from material benefits Russian citizens need such inalienable rights as equality before law, freedom of speech and safety for life and property.

Yavlinskiy told journalists that that he had never left politics. “At one time public politics simply ceased to exist. It may be returning now. I will participate in it,” he said.