Sergey Mitrokhin

Chairman of Yabloko (2008-2015)

On 21-22 June 2008, at the 15th Congress of Yabloko, Sergei Mitrokhin was elected chairman of the party;^[5] his candidacy was supported by the former chairman Grigory Yavlinsky.^[6] 75 out of 127 delegates (60%) voted for Mitrokhin's candidacy. Together with Grigory Yavlinsky, Alexei Yablokov, Sergei Ivanenko, and Igor Artemyev, he joined the party's political committee.

On 11 June 2009, Mitrokhin handed over the anti-crisis plan developed by Yabloko to President Dmitry Medvedev.^[7]

In the Moscow City Duma elections in July 2009, Mitrokhin headed the Yabloko list.^[8] Yabloko gained 4.7%, thus failing to cross the electoral threshold. Only United Russia (66.2%, 32 seats) and the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (13.3% of the vote, 3 seats) entered the Moscow Duma. During the vote-counting period, Mitrokhin challenged the voting results at his polling station and achieved a vote recount; the local election commission head was suspended from work. According to the official protocol, at polling station No. 192 in the Khamovniki District, no vote was cast for Yabloko; however, Mitrokhin and his family voted for their party there. He turned to the Investigative Committee of the Russian Prosecutor's Office. However, the Investigative Committee did not initiate a criminal case for falsification of voting results since it did not see "direct intent aimed at distorting the results."^[9]

In August 2009, Mitrokhin opposed the site plan of Moscow, arguing that "the site plan was written in the interests of the commercial construction oligarchy, not Muscovites."^[10]

On 22 January 2010, at a meeting of the State Council of the Russian Federation, he accused United Russia of monopolizing the party system.^[11]

On 3 March 2010, Mitrokhin was detained at the "Churov, shave your beard!" rally.^[12]

In the fall of 2011, during the elections to the State Duma of the sixth convocation, Mitrokhin entered the Yabloko list as number two (Grigory Yavlinsky was number one).^[13] According to the results of the parliamentary elections held on 4 December 2011, Yabloko received 3.4% of the votes. Thus, the party did not overcome the 5% electoral threshold required to receive mandates, but it did overcome the 3% required to qualify for state funding.^[14]

On 16 June 2012, Mitrokhin was re-elected chairman of the Yabloko party.^[15] Party founder Grigory Yavlinsky lobbied for Mitrokhin's candidacy. 105 delegates voted for Mitrokhin; 21 against.

On 14 January 2013, Mitrokhin approved the exit of 13 members of the St. Petersburg branch from the party, including three deputies of the Legislative Assembly: Olga Galkina, Maxim Reznik, and Vyacheslav Notyag.^[16]

In June 2013, Mitrokhin was nominated by Yabloko as a candidate for the Moscow mayoral elections, which took place on 8 September, and was registered by the Moscow City Election Commission on 17 July.^[17] On 8 September 2013, on the single voting day, Mitrokhin took fourth place, gaining 3.5% of the votes.^[18]