Russia of the Future

Russia of the Future (Russian: Россия Будущего, tr. Rossiya Budushchego), originally known as the People's Alliance (Russian: Наро́дный Алья́нс; Narodnyiy Alyans) and formerly called the Progress Party (Russian: Па́ртия Прогрéсса, romanized: Partiya Progressa, lit. 'Party of Progress'), is an opposition political party in Russia founded on 15 December 2012 by member of the Russian opposition Leonid Volkov and later refounded on 19 May 2018 by the opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who is also the founder of the non-profit organisation Anti-Corruption Foundation.[6]

Russia of the Future

Россия Будущего
Rossiya Budushchego
LeaderAlexei Navalny
FounderAlexei Navalny
Leonid Volkov
Secretary of the Central CommitteeIvan Zhdanov
Founded15 December 2012 (2012-12-15)
HeadquartersUlitsa Leninskaya Sloboda, 19 115280 Moscow, Russia
Membership (2020)100,000[1]
IdeologyAnti-corruption
Civic nationalism
Economic liberalism[2]
E-democracy
Populism
Progressivism
Pro-Europeanism
Social liberalism
Technocracy[3]
Political position Centre-left[4] to
centre-right[5]
National affiliationOpposition Coordination Council (2012-2013)
Colours  Light blue,   white
Before 2018:
  Turquoise
Before 2014:
  Raspberry,   blue
Website
partyprogress.org

As of 2021 Russia's Ministry of Justice has yet to formally register the party. Russia of the Future opposes Russian President Vladimir Putin and the ruling party United Russia. The party's platform stood for the decentralization of power in Russia, cutting the number of government officials, lustration for those responsible for political repressions and reducing the president's powers, possibly switching to a parliamentary republic under the rule of law and ensuring the independence of the judiciary. It also stipulated "drastically reducing" government interference in the economy, ending censorship, prohibiting the government from owning media outlets and abolishing conscription. The foreign policy plank called for introducing visas with Central Asia, stopping support for so-called rogue states and partnering up with Western countries.[7]

According to Navalny's ally Lyubov Sobol, the goals of the party include "real changes, real reforms", including increased property protections, a fair criminal-justice system and battling corruption, "so that money from the budget does not flow into offshores and is not spent on yachts and palaces". The founding session of the party was attended by 124 delegates from 60 of Russia's regions.[8] The party has a seven-member central committee instead of a chairman.[9]

History
Alexei Navalny was elected as the party's chairman on 17 November 2013

People's Alliance

The People's Alliance party was founded on 15 December 2012 at the party's founding congress. Initially, Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny declined to join the political party which was formed mostly by his followers. During the founding congress of 15 December 2012, Navalny said: "People's Alliance is my party, but I don't think that right now People's Alliance needs another member who spends his time torn between the Investigative Committee and some court hearing involving Rosneft. Yet it is my party; it represents my interests".[10] On 30 April 2013, the Ministry of Justice of Russia suspended the registration of the party[11] and then denied its registration on 5 June 2013.

Supported by the Progress Party Moscow, mayoral candidate Navalny got 27% of votes, more than all the other opposition candidates combined

After participating in the 2013 Moscow mayoral election, where Navalny received 27.24% of the vote, or the second highest number, with Vladimir Putin's ruling party candidate Sergey Sobyanin of United Russia receiving 51.37% of the vote, Navalny said that he was ready to lead the People's Alliance. During his visit to the radio station Echo of Moscow on 15 September 2013, Navalny said: "I shall join it, no doubt about that. If I am elected, I shall lead the People's Alliance. I believe that this party is the closest to me. Yet I stayed out of it for the simple reason I was certain that otherwise it would be denied registration for sure". He also expressed his desire to run for Moscow City Duma elections in 2014 together with the People's Alliance party.[12]

On 17 November 2013, the second founding congress of the party was held in Moscow with 111 delegates from 48 regions participating.[13] The 108 delegates from regional branches gave Navalny 88 of the votes and he was elected as the party's chairman. During his address to the delegates, Navalny said that the People's Alliance party will again file a request for registration with the Justice Ministry. At the party's congress on 17 November 2013, Navalny said: "I hope the party will be registered this time. If it is not, we will get a fresh confirmation of the authorities' empty rhetoric about it being tolerant to the opposition taking part in the elections".[14] Later, it was revealed that economic section of party's platform was created by Sergei Guriev, former Rector at the New Economic School.

On 20 January 2014, the Justice Ministry denied registration to the People's Alliance political party, citing the existence of another organization with the same name.[15]

Party of Progress

On 8 February 2014, the party convention decided to rename the People's Alliance party to the Progress Party.[16]

On 25 February 2014, the Progress Party passed the first stage of registration at the Ministry of Justice.[17] For the party to be fit for the election in autumn, the registration process should be completed by mid-June. Before that the Progress Party was required to register at least 43 regional branches, and after that to file a registration application at the ministry again. On 8 April 2014, the Justice Ministry rejected the applications to register the branches of the Progress Party due to the "mistake in constituent documents".[18]

On 28 January 2015, Moscow's Zamoskvoretsky district court declined the party's protest against the refusal of the Justice Ministry to enter it in the register of parties entitled to take part in elections. Party's lawyer Dmitry Krainev's stated: "From 75 registered parties we have become the only one to be pushed aside from the elections".[19]

On 1 February 2015, the Progress Party held a convention that was attended by 62 delegates from 50 regional branches. Despite the fact that Progress Party was not included in the federal list of political forces allowed to run in elections, it decided to prepare for the 2016 elections to the State Duma and regional legislatures.[20]

At the party's congress on 1 February 2015, Navalny stated: "We will continue working for participation in elections. The probability that we won't be allowed to any elections is very high. But work to prepare candidates should be conducted already now in case snap elections are held". On 28 April 2015, the party was deprived of registration and thereby became an association.[21] As reported by Navalny's live channel on YouTube, the activists will try again with the operative name of Working Title (Russian: Рабочее название, tr. Rabocheye nazvaniye).[22]

On January 11, 2018, Navalny said that the leadership of the association had been trying to register as a party since 2012 and held six congresses to do this. A meeting of the party's organizing committee was scheduled for January 17, 2018, and a founding congress was scheduled for March 3.[23][24]

Working Title

On February 22, 2018, the former deputy coordinator of the Moscow headquarters of the presidential campaign of Alexei Navalny, Vitaly Serukanov, stated on his Facebook page that documents had been submitted to the Ministry of Justice to rename the party Civic Position to Party of Progress.[25] Navalny said that the political strategist Andrei Bogdanov was trying to steal the name of the party from him, as was the case in 2013 with the name “People's Alliance”. On March 19, 2018, the Ministry of Justice registered the renaming of Bogdanov's Civic Position to the Party of Progress.[26]

On March 3, 2018, the founding congress of Navalny's party was supposed to take place under a different name, but on March 2, an hour after Navalny notified the Ministry of Justice of the time and place of the congress, the owner of the premises announced the termination of the contract due to the position of the building's owner. She also said that, in addition to the contract, there are "forces" that are "beyond the control of even the general director", while mentioning that the owner is associated with the government. As a result, the party congress did not take place.[27]

On March 29, a notification was sent to the Ministry of Justice on the formation of an organizing committee in order to prepare, convene and conduct the founding congress of the Working Title party. Navalny said that first the party will be registered under this name, and later it will be renamed.[28]

Russia of the Future

On May 19, 2018, the founding congress of the Russia of the Future party was held, at which delegates also voted for the adoption of a new charter.[29] Ivan Zhdanov was elected head of the party (secretary of the Central Council of the party). On July 18, Navalny said that the Ministry of Justice had suspended registration of the party's creation on July 10, 2018 until October 10, 2018, having identified eight violations in the charter.[30][31]

On August 6, 2018, Navalny's supporters again submitted documents to the Ministry of Justice to resume the registration of Russia of the Future, announcing the holding of a congress and 55 regional meetings.[32] On August 27, 2018, the party was denied registration.[33][34]

On February 20, 2019, Novaya Gazeta published information that the organizing committee would again hold a constituent congress on March 28. For the ninth time, the founding congress, during which a new Central Council of the party and a chairman was also elected, was held on March 28, 2019 in the town of Tarusa in the Kaluga Oblast.[35] The party was again headed by Navalny. On May 16, Anti-Corruption Foundation lawyers for the ninth time submitted documents on registration of the party to the Ministry of Justice, having created 56 regional branches.[36][37] On May 27, 2019, the Ministry of Justice denied registration to the party for the ninth time; this time because a party called Russia of the Future already existed.[38] Despite this, it was not possible to find a party with this name in the database of the Ministry of Justice.[39] Prior to this, the Ministry of Justice had twice registered organizations with the same names as Navalny's parties.[38] On September 21, 2020, the spoiler party was liquidated by the Supreme Court. Anti-Corruption Foundation director Ivan Zhdanov said that the case of refusal to register the party had been communicated to the ECHR, and a new submission of documents to register the party is not yet planned.[40] As of January 2021 the party has not been registered.

Moscow Mayoral elections
Election year Candidate 1st round 2nd round
No. of overall votes % of overall vote No. of overall votes % of overall vote
2013 Alexei Navalny 632,697 27.24 (2nd)

See also

References
  1. Tonya Samsonova. Партия Прогресса (in Russian).
  2. Bennetts, Marc (August 2017). "The man who would beat Putin". Politico.eu. Retrieved 15 December 2017.
  3. Rapoza, Kenneth (11 September 2017). "In Russia's Latest Election, Putin's Party Keeps On Winning". Forbes. Retrieved 15 December 2017.
  4. "Навальный: Демократическая оппозиция должна смещаться в левый центр". Русский Монитор. Retrieved 22 June 2019.
  5. Information Resources Management Association (2017). Media Influence: Breakthroughs in Research and Practice. IGI Global. p. 210. ISBN 9781522539308. Retrieved 15 December 2017.
  6. "Kremlin Foe Navalny Launches New Political Party". RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
  7. "Navalny's Party Holds Founding Congress for Third Time". 18 November 2013.
  8. "Команда Навального учредила новую партию". РБК. Retrieved 2018-05-19.
  9. Ведомости (2018-05-19). "Партия Навального получила название "Россия будущего"". Retrieved 2018-05-31.
  10. "Navalny Declines to Join His Own Party". 15 December 2012.
  11. "Navalny's Party Hits Hitch in Registration Bid". 6 May 2013.
  12. "Navalny Hopes to Run for City Duma With People's Alliance". September 17, 2013.
  13. "People's Alliance party of Navalny's supporters opens founding congress in Moscow". November 17, 2013.
  14. "Navalny becomes People's Alliance party leader". 17 November 2013.
  15. "Navalny Party Denied Registration Over Name". January 20, 2014.
  16. "Navalny caves in to freemasons, renames party". February 10, 2014.
  17. "Opposition party led by Navalny passes first stage of registration". February 28, 2014.
  18. "Mistake in constituent documents prevents registration of Navalny party's branches". April 9, 2014.
  19. "Navalny's Party Forbidden to Take Part in Elections". January 28, 2015.
  20. /"Navalny's party to continue working for participation in elections". February 1, 2015.
  21. ""Партию прогресса" Навального лишили регистрации". BBC Русская служба. Retrieved 2015-05-20.
  22. "Партия "Рабочее название"". YouTube (in Russian).
  23. "Партия Навального начала регистрацию в Минюсте. В седьмой раз" [Navalny's party has begun registration with the Ministry of Justice. For the seventh time]. meduza.io (in Russian). Retrieved 2021-01-29.
  24. "Регистрация Партии Прогресса". Алексей Навальный. Retrieved 2021-01-18.
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  26. "Минюст зарегистрировал "двойника" партии Навального". РБК (in Russian). Retrieved 2021-01-18.
  27. "Завтрашний съезд партии, увы, сорван". Алексей Навальный. Retrieved 2021-01-18.
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  29. "Команда Навального учредила новую партию". РБК (in Russian). Retrieved 2021-01-18.
  30. ""Россию будущего" отложили". Коммерсантъ. Retrieved 2021-01-18.
  31. "Минюст объяснил приостановку регистрации "России будущего" Навального". РБК (in Russian). Retrieved 2021-01-18.
  32. "Сторонники Навального подали в Минюст документы на возобновление регистрации партии". www.kommersant.ru (in Russian). 2018-08-06. Retrieved 2021-01-18.
  33. "Минюст окончательно отказал в регистрации партии "Россия будущего" Алексея Навального". Медиазона (in Russian). Retrieved 2021-01-18.
  34. "Путин ответил, будет ли регистрировать нашу партию". Алексей Навальный. Retrieved 2021-01-18.
  35. ""Россия будущего" Алексея Навального провела очередной учредительный съезд". www.znak.com. Retrieved 2021-01-18.
  36. "Директор ФБК: Партия Навального 'Россия будущего' в девятый раз подала документы на регистрацию в Минюсте". Эхо Москвы (in Russian). Retrieved 2021-01-18.
  37. "Минюст до середины июня решит, регистрировать ли партию сторонников Навального". interfax.az. Retrieved 2021-01-18.
  38. "Название партии Навального в третий раз скопировала партия-клон". Медиазона (in Russian). Retrieved 2021-01-18.
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