Under the Putin presidency , Yavlinsky remained an active opponent of military solution to the problems in Chechnya . In 2002 , he took part in the unsuccessful negotiations during the Moscow theater hostage crisis and was praised by President Vladimir Putin for his role in the standoff . His party also campaigned against the imports of radioactive waste into Russia , thus building a crucial alliance with environmental NGOs , as well as with human rights organizations , labor unions , women associations , and ethnic minority groups . He was also an uncompromising critic of the Putin government 's reforms of the housing and utilities sector and of the energy sector . A number of times , the Yabloko faction in the Duma initiated petitioning campaigns for the resignation of the government . At that time , he developed close relations with Mikhail Khodorkovsky , an oligarch who positioned himself as an autonomous economic and political player vis-a-vis the Kremlin . A number of Khodorkovsky 's associates became Duma members on the Yabloko slate ( as well as through the Communist Party )
Moscow theater hostage crisis
Moscow theater hostage crisis
Grigory Yavlinsky