[From The Moscow Times]
The Green Party of Russia has joined forces with Yabloko and will have its own faction inside the party, Yabloko said Monday.
“There are many small parties in Russia that are facing problems getting their voices heard. The Green Party of Russia was one of them,” Yabloko spokeswoman Yevgenia Dillendorf said.
She said the Greens’ faction would tackle environmental issues. She said other new factions would be formed to address women’s and youth issues.
[From Wikipedia:
Yabloko, (official title: the Russian Democratic Party Yabloko, in Russian: Российская демократическая партия "Яблоко") is a Russian liberal party, led by Grigory Yavlinsky. The party stands for the protection of political and media freedoms in Russia, for Russia's integration with the West, including future membership of the European Union, and strongly opposes the war in Chechnya. Yabloko criticises President Vladimir Putin for his authoritarian policies and has called for the removal of his regime "by constitutional means". Yabloko currently hols 2 seats in the Russian State Duma (lower house of Parliament), its deputies being Sergei Popov from St. Petersburg and Galina Khovanskaya from Moscow.
Yabloko (its title was originally formed from the acronyms of the names of its founders - Grigory Yavlinsky, Yuri Boldyrev, Vladimir Lukin) was established as a public organization in 1993 and transformed into a political party in 2001. -RS]
