People's Freedom Party

People's Freedom Party Партия народной свободы
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President	Mikhail Kasyanov
Slogan	"For Russia, with free will and without corruption"
Founded	March 14, 1991 (1991-03-14)
Merger of	People's Freedom Party, United People's Party of Soldiers' Mothers, Peasant Party of Russia, Forward, Russia!
Headquarters	Moscow, Russia
Youth wing	Youth committee of Solidarnost People's Democratic Union of Youth
Membership  (2011)	46,158
Ideology	Federalism Liberal democracy Economic liberalism Conservative liberalism Pro-Europeanism
Political position	Centre-right
European affiliation	ALDE Party (associate)
International affiliation	None
Colours	Dark violet
Seats in the State Duma	0 / 450
Seats in the Regional Parliaments	1 / 3,787
Website
parnasparty.ru
Politics of Russia Political parties Elections

The People's Freedom Party (Russian: Партия народной свободы, Partiya narodnoy svobody), or PARNAS (Russian: ПАРНАС), is a Russian liberal democratic political party.

Founded in November 1990 in the Russian SFSR as a pro-reform and pro-democracy party, the later Republican Party of Russia (RPR) became one of Russia’s oldest political parties. In 2007 the party was denied re-registration and declared to be dissolved by the Russian Supreme Court. It was only after the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the denial of registration was unlawful that it could restore its official registration in May 2012. Today, PARNAS is led by Mikhail Kasyanov and is an associate member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE).

History

Formation

The Republican Party of the Russian Federation was founded in 1990 by members of the Democratic Platform of the CPSU, who had become disillusioned with the party's unwillingness to reform. The foundation of the new party took place in November 1990. Nikolay Lysenko, Stepan Sulakshin and Vyacheslav Shostakovsky were elected as the three co-chairman. The Republican Party joined the Democratic Russia bloc, an umbrella organisation of pro-democracy movements. The Republican Party was close to the Social Democratic Party of Russia, that was founded earlier in 1990. The two parties shared similar program and there were attempts to merge. The Republican Party's program has been characterised as liberal and pragmatic; similarly to the Social Democratic Party, however, the Republican Party had internal factions: ranging from democratic socialist to social liberal to liberal conservative.

1990s

File:RPR logo.gif

2005-2012 logo of the Republican Party of Russia

The RPR and the SDP formed a united faction (Объединенная депутатская группа РПРФ/СДПР) in the Russian Congress of People's Deputies (later, they fused with similar groups to form the faction 'Left Centre', which was pro-reform but more moderate than groups like the 'Radical Democrats', which advocated radical economic reforms). In contrast to the social democrats, the Republicans participated in the Movement of Democratic Reforms that was formed in summer, 1991 and included mostly liberal-minded former nomeklatura members (Alexander Yakovlev, Gavriil Popov et al.). The Republican Party initially supported both Yegor Gaidar's economic reforms and Boris Yeltsin in his conflict with the Supreme Soviet; later, some of the leaders turned more critical of Yeltsin. The Republican Party left the Democratic Russia bloc in October, 1993 due to disagreements with the bloc's policies.

The party members won altogether 12 seats in the newly elected parliament in 1993: 5 republicans within the Yabloko bloc and 7 from Democratic Choice of Russia. In the 1995 legislative election, party ran within the Pamfilova - Gurev - N.Lysenko bloc, that failed to cross the 5% barrier. Lysenko and Ella Pamfilova won seat through majoritarian district.

At the end of 1998, Nikolay Lysenko, retaining the post of RP chairman, joined Yuri Luzhkov's Otechestvo bloc, whereas a number of the regional organisations of the Republican Party cooperated with small liberal parties like Right Cause or Sergey Kiriyenko's New Force etc.

In 1999, Lysenko won a parliament seat in a majoritarian district. In 2002, the party was reorganized into the Republican Party of Russia.

Dissolution and Reestablishment

File:Miting9okt2010.jpg

The first meeting of the coalition of democratic forces "For Russia without Lawlessness and Corruption" in Moscow on Bolotnaya Square on October 9, 2010

See also: Case of Republican Party of Russia

In 2007, the Russian Supreme Court ruled the party to be dissolved, according to Ryzhkov because of the opposition to the government. In 2011 the European Court of Human Rights ruled out the refusal to register the party was unlawful. Since 5 May 2012, the Justice Ministry has restored the state registration of the Republican Party of Russia.

In 2006–2010, the RPR was a member of coalition "The Other Russia". Since 2010 it is a member of the liberal coalition "For Russia without Lawlessness and Corruption" and a member of non-registered People's Freedom Party based on this coalition. People's Freedom Party will continue to work on the base of Republican Party and it may be renamed.

In 2011, party's dissolution was held to be unlawful by the European Court of Human Rights. In January 2012, following the entry into force of the ECtHR’s judgment, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation quashed its 2007 decision to dissolve the party.

Merger with PARNAS and recent elections

On its 15th congress on 16 June 2012 RPR merged with PARNAS and took the name RPR-PARNAS.

In 2012 the RPR-PARNAS participated in regional elections in Barnaul (1 seat), Saratov Oblast, Tuva (2 seats).

In 2015 it was rebranded to just PARNAS.

Ideology

The ideology of the RPR-PARNAS is liberalism, federalism and human rights. In his interview, Kasyanov said "there is no higher value for the government than human rights." He defined ideological stance of PRP-PARNAS as right-of-center liberalism.

Cooperation

The RPR-PARNAS cooperates with Yabloko, A Just Russia, Civic Platform, Alexei Kudrin, Vladimir Milov and others.

Leaders

Mikhail Kasyanov

Co-chairs

• Mikhail Kasyanov (since 2006)
• Vladimir Ryzhkov (2012-2014)
• Boris Nemtsov (2012 - until his assassination on 27 February 2015)

Federal Political Council of RPR-PARNAS

Bureau:

• Mikhail Kasyanov
• Boris Nemtsov (until his assassination on 27 February 2015)
• Ilya Yashin
• Valentina Melnikova (former co-chair of the party)
• Sergey Aleksashenko
• Konstantin Merzlikin
• Vadim Prokhorov
• Alexander Berstenev

Others:

• Vladimir Vladimirovich Kara-Murza

See also

• Yabloko
• Another Russia

Sources

• http://partinform.ru/ros_mn/rm_4.htm

External links

• St Petersburg branch of RPR-PARNAS
• The website of Vladimir Ryzhkov
• The 2011 website of the Republican Party (Internet Archive)
• About the party

Articles

• Russia’s Republican Party Legal Again
• Russia’s Republican Party re-registered
• Two Russian parties merge in push against Putin