The Yabloko party holds its 15th congress this weekend to re-elect the entire leadership, including its leader Grigory Yavlinsky.
The congress is also expected to determine guidelines for a long-promised party reform.
Talking about the need for changes in Yabloko began in December last year when the party lost the Duma elections, and Yavlinsky for the first time refused to participate in the presidential election campaign.
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Leader election and a political line choice will be the main and most tense issues on the agenda. For the first time since the party was founded in 1995, Yavlinsky will have challengers. The Petersburg organisation’s head Maxim Reznik intends to contend for the party leader position. The youth Yabloko movement’s leader Ilya Yashin, who earlier also contended for the post, withdrew his candidacy in favour of Reznik a day before the congress. The latter, unlike rather moderate Yavlinsky, is among so-called radicals calling for review of relations with the power.
A few days before the congress, the leaders of the Moscow organisation loyal to Yavlinsky, the head of which is Sergei Mitrokhin, spread a draft resolution on "Inadmissibility of party discrediting". If the congress supports the document, party oppositionists may be expelled from the Yabloko ranks.
Though the congress delegates plan to work for two days, the situation will be clear already by Saturday afternoon. After the report of Yavlinsky, the political platform proposed by him will be submitted to the congress for approval. In fact it will be a vote on Yavlinsky, the party press secretary Yevgeny Dillendorf told Itar-Tass.
Elections are planned for the evening when Russia's soccer team will begin the deciding match for the Euro-2008 semifinal. Congress participants are expected not to drag out agenda discussions. They must be in time before 22:30, since many want to watch the soccer game, Dillendorf said.
Observers suppose Yavlinsky most likely will retain the post and the tough talk about ways of party development will turn out to be just "a storm in a glass". However, unexpected development is possible in politics as well as in sports.
