• Yabloko is a Russian social political movement, comprising 72 regionaland five local branches.
• Yabloko's State Duma faction numbers 44 deputies.
• The following newspapers and media are generally considered sympatheticto Yabloko's ideas: Novaya Gazeta, Obshchaya Gazeta, Nezavisimaya Gazeta,Moskovskie Novosti, NTV television, Ekho Moskvy radio and Mayak Radio.
• Yabloko has its own nationally circulated newspaper, YABLOKO Rossii, witha print run of 50,000 copies. A number of Yabloko's regional branches alsohave publications: Otkrytaya Gazeta and YABLOKO Podmoskovia (Moscow region),Otkrytaya Gazeta (Murmansk), Nevskoe Obozreniye (St. Petersburg), YabloneviiSad (Belgorod) and Vmeste s YABLOKOM (Chelyabinsk).

Excerpts from GRIGORII YAVLINSKII's keynote speech to the Sixth YablokoCongress held at the Otrandoye Resort outside Moscow on March 14, 1998

Yabloko is constantly asked whether it is of a liberal, social-democratic,or, perhaps, conservative orientation. Yabloko is a general democraticparty supporting people's rights.
 ...
Yabloko unites all those who understand the danger and inadmissibilityof the moral and socioeconomic crisis our country faces and the resultingdanger that Russia may find itself excluded from the society of developedcountries in the 21st century. Of course, Yabloko has liberal tasks. Theseare low taxes, the protection of entrepreneurs, the development of allforms of entrepreneurship throughout the country, de-monopolization, intensifiedcompetition, and the protection of the rights of consumers. There are alsosocial-democratic tasks. These are a new pension system, defense againstpoverty, and the preservation of our education system and our intellectualpotential. Yabloko also has conservative tasks. These are to defend ourborders, our families, and all the values that have developed in Russiansociety over the centuries.
'Yabloko is a political party that is setting as its task the formationin Russia of an organized civil society, a civilized state and constitution,and a socially oriented economy.
...
We have given birth to an economic monstrosity, in which 75 percentof all transactions consist of barter and promissory notes; in which non-paymentsbetween enterprises exceed $100 billion; in which unpaid wages comprisebillions; and in which economic categories have appeared that are uncharacteristicfor either a planned or a market economic system.
...
Yabloko is absolutely convinced of the necessity of a radical reductionof taxes, and of maximum simplification of the tax system. Yabloko considersthat only in this case can we really increase budget revenue. But untilmonopolies exist in our country that also provide regular, constant budgetrevenue, we cannot establish low taxes and develop many sectors of theeconomy.

Yabloko formulates its principal objectives as follows:
Genuine privatization aimed at attracting investments and efficientmanagement, not at patching holes in the state budget;
Tougher anti-monopoly laws and mechanisms for their realization. Strictcontrol of the so-called natural monopolies to stimulate their disintegrationand promote free competition;
State support of the small- and medium-sized businesses that are extremelyweak today;
Tax, customs, budgetary, crediting and political levers should be adjustedto stimulate industrial development, with specific attention devoted tothe strategically significant branches of the economy. Measures shouldbe taken to reduce imports and help domestic goods producers win greatershares of foreign markets. Government policies in the spheres of finance,crediting, budget and foreign debt should stimulate economic growth;
Strict and efficient control of budget fulfillment on all levels, irrevocablepunishment for those guilty of misuse of government funds;
Considerable reduction of taxes, simplification of taxation procedures,government patronage of the economy's goods-producing segments, small-and medium-sized businesses and financial-industrial groups;