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Prokhorov’s party registration does not disagree with law – Justice Ministry

State Duma deputy, coordinator of the Civil Platform movement Igor Igoshin (United Russia) appealed to Justice Minister Alexander Konovalov on August 3
Photo ITAR-TASS
Photo ITAR-TASS

MOSCOW, August 8 (Itar-Tass) —— The Russian Justice Ministry thinks the registration of the Civil Platform Party of businessman Mikhail Prokhorov does not disagree with the law.

State Duma deputy, coordinator of the Civil Platform movement Igor Igoshin (United Russia) appealed to Justice Minister Alexander Konovalov on August 3. He said the movement was founded on February 4, 2010, and applied for being registered as a nationwide public organization on June 18, 2012. Yet the name was given to Prokhorov’s party, whose organizing committee applied for the registration on July 9 only.

“The Justice Ministry decided on July 5 after evaluating documents of the Civil Platform interregional public movement in support of initiatives of civil society institutes submitted for state registration on June 26 that the state registration would be denied due to the inappropriate formulation of documents and violations of law revealed in the movement charter,” a ministry source told Itar-Tass.

“Grounds for that decision were explained in detail to the applicant, Igoshin, on July 11,” the ministry said.

As for similar names, the ministry said, “Article 6 of the Federal Law on Political Parties does not allow the use of existent political parties and national public organizations in full or short names of new parties.”

Yet the Civil Platform movement is an interregional rather than national public organization, “which means the registration of the Civil Platform political party did not breach the law,” the ministry said.