MITROKHIN, Sergei Sergeyevich

Leader of the Yabloko Party

 
Sergei Sergeyevich Mitrokhin (Сергей Сергеевич Митрохин) was born May 20, 1963 in Moscow.

In 1985 Mitrokhin graduated from Lenin's Moscow State Pedagogical Institute. In 1986-1987 he worked as a dispatcher in the Moscow City Bureau for Travel and Excursions. In 1987 he began to work as an engineer in the center of assistance to the creative initiative "Cooperation". From 1988 to 1990 Mitrokhin worked as a sociologist in the research center of the co-operative society "Prospect".

Mitrokhin's political activities began in the late 1980s. From 1988 to 1989 Mitrokhin wrote for the samizdat publication "Chronograph" (Хронограф). In 1990 Mitrokhin held the position of deputy director at the Institute for Humanities and Political Studies (IGPI). In 1992 he finished higher courses in sociology.

In 1993 Mitrokhin took part in the founding of the Yabloko party. In the same year he was elected deputy for the State Duma of the 1st assembly as a member of Yabloko. In 1995 he was a part of the office for the central board of the Yabloko association (объединение "Яблоко") ; in the same year he was Yabloko deputy of the State Duma of the 2nd Assembly. In 1999 Mitrokhin was again elected Yabloko deputy for the State Duma of the 3rd Assembly. In 2000 Mitrokhin held the post of Yabloko association secretary on matters of ideology. In December 2001 he was chosen to be the deputy chairman of the Yabloko Democratic Party (Российская демократическая партия "Яблоко").

According to media reports, Mitrokhin in the capacity of State Duma deputy of the 2nd and 3rd Assemblies developed and co-authored bills on the "Maintenance of Constitutional Laws of Citizens of the Russian Federation to Elect and Be Elected in the Organs of Local Government," "Financial Bases of Local Government in the Russian Federation," "Common Principles of Organization of Local Government in the Russian Federation," "Common Principles of Organization of State Power in the Federal Subjects of the Russian Federation," "About the Government of the Russian Federation" and others.

In the 2000 presidential elections, Mitrokhin was the political director of then Yabloko leader Grigory Yavlinsky's electoral campaign.

In 2001 Mitrokhin defended his dissertation on the "Political Analysis of the Process of Formation of Federal Relations in Russia", thus becoming a Candidate of Political Sciences.

In the 2003 elections for the State Duma of the 4th Assembly, Yabloko failed to secured the 5 % barrier required and was shut out of the parliament as a result. Mitrokhin, having lost his parliamentary seat, began to work in "EPI-center" (Center of Economic and Political Studies), founded by Yavlinsky in the 1990s.

In June 2004, in a general meeting of initiative group representatives fighting against illegal building in Moscow, it was decided that a committee on the protection of Muscovites in this matter would be created with Mitrokhin as its chairman. A press release from the Moscow branch of Yabloko informed that the committee intends to attain the resignation of officials who are making illegal town-planning decisions.

In 2005 Mitrokhin won the election in the Moscow City Duma (having put forward a joint list of candidates from Yabloko and the Union of Right Forces {SPS}). As the head of the "Yabloko - United Democrats" group within the City Duma, Mitrokhin was a part of the commissions on matters of security, municipal economy and housing policy, state-sponsored construction and local government, organization of the work of the Duma, perspective development and town-planning, and ecological policy. He also became a member of the budgetary and financial commission.

In 2006 Mitrokhin was elected as the chairman of the Moscow branch of Yabloko.

In June 2008, at the XV Congress of Yabloko, Mitrokhin was elected as the new leader of the party, replacing the outgoing Yavlinsky. 75 out of 125 delegates at the congress voted in favour of Mitrokhin (60%). In securing the nomination as Yabloko leader, Mitrokhin defeated party heads of St. Petersburg branch Maxim Reznik and Karelian branch Vasily Popov, who received 19 % and 16 % of participants' votes respectively.

Related Sources

BBCRussian.com, 'Sergei Mitrokhin becomes Leader of Yabloko' (In Russian)

Last updated August 31, 2008