All across Russia, members of the Yabloko party conducted one-person pickets on 12 March against the reset of the presidential term of Vladimir Putin and other constitutional amendments introduced by the President.

One-person pickets – which do not require any permission from the authorities – were conducted outside the buildings of legislative assemblies and regional dumas in more than 50 regions, and all on the day all regional parliaments are set to give their approval to President Putin’s constitutional amendments.

Deputies from Yabloko voted against Putin’s amendments. In Karelia, the Khabarovsk Territory and the Pskov Region, the only votes against were cast only by Yabloko’s MPs. In the Moscow City Duma, the Yabloko faction was the only faction which did not support the nullification of the presidential terms of Vladimir Putin and his other constitutional amendments. Yabloko deputies in St Petersburg and Asrekhan also voted against Putin’s amendments.

YABLOKO founder Grigory Yavlinsky has described the amendments and “resetting” of the presidential terms as unlawful: “both in content and in form, the entire process of changing the Constitution of Russia, carried out by Putin since January 15, 2020, is unlawful. Everything that happens is a mine for our future. Sooner or later, the Constitution of the country will be justifiably recognised by society or its part as unlawful, and this will become the subject of acute civil conflict.”

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