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The program presented by the Russian democratic party ‘Yabloko’, the structure formed in 1994 on the basis of the block of the same name, proved to be more sophisticated. At the time most of public organizations had already positioned themselves in the political spectrum, while Yabloko still finds itself at the interfaces between the liberal and the social-democratic movements. That is clearly declared in its 2001 democratic manifest: ‘The new democratic course that RDP Yabloko declares is based upon the revision of vulgar approaches to the past and a clear apprehension of tasks of the future. The course is based upon the contemporary liberal and social ideology’9. With a prefect understanding of what that implies, one cannot help but noting Yabloko’s conscious camouflaging their own stand. The documents also refers to ‘the European economic model’ but, again, fails to provide any specific guidance as to which institutions they have in mind. Likewise, Yabloko’s program documents appear immanently contradictory: while advocating guarantees for private property, protection of economic freedom, liquidation of bureaucratic barriers to entrepreneurs, protection of medium size and small businesses, creation of favorable conditions for any investment, a vigorous resistance to monopolists and supporting competitive environment on the one hand, the party tends to call for non-formalized expansion of government obligations, on the other (‘to raise the minimum wages to the actual subsistence level’); ‘decreasing by three times the number of Russians living below the poverty line’; ‘to liquidate the USSR foreign debt’10. The declaration does not say anything of lowering the tax burden, which just intensifies the concerns raised by the references to the European experiences regarding sources of funding such ambitious projects, that is, raising taxes; of the need for further privatization of government property; of cutting down public expenditures. The same can be noticed in the party’s previous program documents, namely the 1995 political declaration, the 1999 pre-election program, among others.

It is worthwhile noting that Yabloko’s attitude towards privatization is not just neutral. Rather the party is very negative to that. Thus, according to a statement made during the Duma campaign, G. Yavlinsky ‘carries out computations of a single tax to be levied on all those who participated in privatization deals. Its essence is as follows: the net profit over 9 years less the amount paid during privatization is subjected to the 25% tax11.’ Mr. Yavlinsky also argued that there should be introduced an occupational ban for those who had conducted privatization.

In conclusion, the attitude to current urgent challenges by major political parties that participated in the 2003 electoral campaign can be presented in the table form.

Issue	United Russia	CPRF	LDPR	Rodina	SPS	Yabloko
Budget policy	Responsible	N/a	Condemns the financial stabilization policy	Condemns the financial stabilization policy	Responsible	Contradictory
Increase in social obligations of the state	In proportion as GDP grows	yes	yes	yes	In proportion as GDP grows	yes
Tax policy	N/a	Not articulated as a whole	Lowering	Increase of some with decrease of others	Lowering	Lowering
Including taxation of the mineral sector	Increase with some reservations	Increase	Increase	Increase	Increase with some reservations	Increase with some reservations
Including personal income tax and the SST collection system (the 2000 reform)	yes	No	yes	No	yes	yes
Nationalization of large enterprises	No	yes	Yes, with reservations	Yes, with reservations	No	No
Privatization	No stand	No	No stand	No	Yes	No, with reservations
Government regulation of the economy	Strengthening for large companies, loosening for others	Strengthening	Strengthening for strategic sectors, loosening for others	Strengthening	Loosening	Loosening
Accession to WTO	Yes, with reservations	No	No позиции	Yes, with reservations	Yes	Yes
Economic aid to the CIS	No stand	Yes	No	Yes	No stand	No
Attitude to the 1990s reforms	negative	negative	negative	negative	Positive	Negative, with researvations
Professional army	Deadline for the completion of transition is not identified, not earlier than 2008	negative	negative	negative	Yes	Yes

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1 K stoletiyu angliyskykh laboristov// Sovremennyaya Evropa. 2002. # 4

2 Cited from www.edin.ru

3 As Mr. Putin estimated in his TV address on December 18, 2003, the subsistence minimum accounted for 2,121 Rb.

4 For instance, 'ЕImposition of capitalism coupled with exploitation of man by man generated an intense>

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9 The Democratic Manifest of Yabloko party.

10 Op.ed

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