The Russian Republican Party is a liberal organization, which was registered under the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights and became the basis for the People’s Freedom Party (PARNAS). A businessman Mikhail Prokhorov delayed again a meeting of the organizing committee for the creation of a party, as he is still undecided whether or not to create it.
The united party PARNAS will refuse from the co-chairpersons and the leaders, the Kommersant daily reported. Current PARNAS co-chairmen Mikhail Kasyanov, Boris Nemtsov and Vladimir Ryzhkov will become members of an enlarged political council. In next few weeks the regions will have meetings to nominate delegates for a congress of the Russian Republican Party, which the current PARNAS leaders will offer to rename in the Republican Party of People’s Freedom, the PARNAS co-chairman Boris Nemtsov told the newspaper. For his part, the co-chairman of the Russian Republican Party and PARNAS Vladimir Ryzhkov noted that meetings in the regions will begin in a week, and now a new registration of members of the Russian Republican Party began and will last until June 12. The Solidarity movement and Mikhail Kasyanov’s People’s Democratic Union will prepare for a congress along with the Russian Republican Party, Ryzhkov said.
The united party will change its structure. The new party structure envisages the abandonment of the posts of leaders and co-chairpersons and the introduction of a collective leadership of the party instead of them, Nemtsov said. “This will be an enlarged political council of 45 people and a bureau of 12 people, and the congress will be a supreme body,” Nemtsov explained. Mikhail Kasyanov offered to give up the institute of co-chairpersons in PARNAS at a meeting of the party political council on April 18 “to give an opportunity to young leaders to show their best qualities.”
Boris Nemtsov stated the party will seek to fulfil the resolutions taken at the protest actions on the Bolotnaya Square and the Sakharov Avenue, particularly the cancellation of the election results in the State Duma and the release of prisoners of conscience. “We find it very important that the party expressed the interests of the participants in the protesting movement,” the oppositionist said.
Before the end of May the organizing committee for the creation of the party of the former presidential candidate Mikhail Prokhorov should have a meeting, the Kommersant daily reported. Sources in his circles told the newspaper that a final decision was not taken whether or not to create a party or a movement. Members of the organizing committee, which includes about 50 supporters of the business tycoon, differ in their opinions. Prokhorov stated before that he will not hurry with the creation of the party, because “the political reform did not bring any result, which the civil society demanded,” and “new parties will have to work in this disproportionate reality in the limited number of political capabilities and high expectations of the society.”
Mikhail Prokhorov delayed again a meeting of the organizing committee for the creation of the party. He is still undecided whether or not to create it, the Vedomosti daily reported. His political activities were actually wrapped up, according to his associates. Prokhorov intends to have a meeting with close associates before June 15 and take a final decision whether a party will be created or just a public movement will be formed, the Vedomosti daily cited Prokhorov’s representative Yuliana Slashcheva as saying. The organizing committee will include those regional leaders (20-25 people), who supported Prokhorov since the times of Right Cause, though some new personalities will appear, Slashcheva pledged.
Losing the presidential elections, Prokhorov stated that the organizing committee of the party will have a meeting in the middle of April, the newspaper recalled. The website announced a voting about the name of the party, the application of bids for membership (over 93,000 people already applied for membership) and regional leaders. The date was linked with a new procedure for party registration that took effect on April 12. The new party registration procedure entered into force, but the organizing committee did not meet, Prokhorov’s representatives reported that the event is postponed to May.
In early May Prokhorov departed from Russia, then he turned up at Vladimir Putin’s inauguration, did not come for a rally on the Bolotnaya Square and criticized the authorities and the dissenters. His supporters complain that Prokhorov’s political activities were actually folded up after the presidential elections. “Nothing is happening, there is already no hope,” a Right Cause associate of the former presidential candidate in St. Petersburg said.
Being aware of Prokhorov’s tactics, which was used, for instance, during the presidential campaign, one can assume that he will keep the intrigue until the very last moment, as everything is ready formally for the launch of the project of a party or a movement, a figure in Prokhorov’s circles underlined.