The liberal parties of the Russian Federation are not yet meddling in Crimea: they have not yet given up on Putin

Moscow - Kyiv, April 7 (PolitNavigator, Mikhail Stamm) - Liberal parties have not yet created their branches in Crimea, but they are still working on the peninsula, supporting the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatars. At the same time, they do not recognize Crimea as Russian and expect that in a year there will be enough people dissatisfied with the new authorities on the peninsula so that liberals can begin their work there.

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According to the main Yabloko member, Sergei Mitrokhin, residents dissatisfied with what is happening on the peninsula began to contact Yabloko. “We are dealing with a whole range of issues. We received an appeal from the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatars, who ask us to assess the human rights situation. A bill that allows the confiscation of any property, which is contrary to the legislation of the Russian Federation, was challenged in a local court. Even the Crimean prosecutor’s office took our side, but not the court,” said the Yabloko leader. He promised to continue the dispute in the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation.

On the question "NG", whether Yabloko plans to open a regional branch in Crimea, Mitrokhin replied that “this is a difficult question, since the party does not consider its annexation to Russia legitimate.” “We are not ruling out anything, but we are in no hurry. We have already been approached with a proposal to create a branch. There is also a group of people with whom we are working now,” Mitrokhin said. “But we cannot accept into the party people who consider the annexation of Crimea legitimate.” At the same time, the party will take part in the State Duma elections, including in the Crimean region, and by that time some format of work will be found: “Perhaps there will be an election headquarters. In general, we will work there.”

Now on the peninsula, many human rights activists assure, the situation with human rights is bad. In this regard, Russian democrats should not forget about the residents of Crimea, believes Sergei Grigorov, a member of the Yabloko party. “Local residents are reproached for voting for United Russia and not for the Democrats. Where are they represented so that they can be voted for? - says Grigorov. “In Crimea, it is also necessary to create a political alternative.” Non-recognition of the referendum results does not prevent the democratic parties from carrying out educational work here, NG’s interlocutor believes: “Our goal is to hold a legal referendum in Crimea, which would be recognized by the international community. It is clear that under Putin and the current leadership of Crimea this is impossible.”

The Progress Party of Alexei Navalny told NG that it is carrying out some work in Crimea and Sevastopol. “We have repeatedly contacted prosecutor Poklonskaya regarding human rights violations of various kinds. For example, regarding the theft of humanitarian aid last year. We don’t feel much support from the Crimean authorities, nevertheless we will continue,” Progress Party lawyer Dmitry Krainev told NG.

RPR-PARNAS “NG” stated that “they will respond to human rights violations in Crimea,” but they do not intend to create a branch and do not intend to participate in local elections either. “For now, our position is that Crimea is Ukrainian territory,” executive secretary of RPR-PARNAS Konstantin Merzlikin explained to NG.

The leader of the Civil Initiative party, Andrei Nechaev, told NG that they do not have a principled position not to work in Crimea. “For now we are concentrating on the regions where elections are taking place now. In addition, the party in power has a strong position in Crimea, which hides behind Putin’s authority. And we have no confidence that the local leadership will even allow us to conduct propaganda work.”

As for the desire of the democratic parties to participate in the Duma elections in Crimea, the newspaper notes that “part of the liberal electorate and representatives of the middle class have already left there for Ukraine.”