For almost half a year now, we have been registering regional branches of the Progress Party. Over the past two weeks, we managed to register two more branches—in the Moscow and Kaluga regions. We now have 15 registered branches out of 43.
The registration of the Progress Party in the Moscow Region is an almost historic event. We were denied registration four times, and finally, on the fifth attempt, we got a positive result.
Kaluga is unusual in this respect as well. Although the situation here was not as extreme (one refusal, one suspension), this is still a major development: this is where we were registered on the basis of so-called “amended documents.” In every other region, the Ministry of Justice had refused since early July to accept such amendments, even though the law treats this as normal practice. But for some reason, only in Kaluga were they not afraid to do it.
But of course, I want to talk not about legal technicalities, but about an interesting pattern we have identified: a weak governor almost always means trouble with registration.
Look: Vorobyov, the governor of the Moscow Region, has a high rating—15th–16th place in the rankings produced by the tame pro-Kremlin media hacks working for the Presidential Administration. Artamonov, the governor of the Kaluga Region, ranks even higher: he is in second place. They believe they have nothing to fear, so they are more willing to acknowledge the “formal opposition.”
We can see that our party is systematically denied registration on absurd pretexts precisely in those regions where the authorities are weak. The less confident the governor, the less support he has, the more aggressively he tries to stamp out any sign of dissent.
Here are a few telling examples.
In Tver, we have already been denied registration three times. The basis for the third refusal was those notorious amended documents—in that region, they decided they were illegal.
The governor of the Tver Region is Andrei Shevelev.
He was not elected by the public, but appointed to the post. Shevelev ranks LAST in the governors’ ranking—he has never managed to win much public affection. And if you watch this video, you will understand exactly why.
Stavropol Krai became the first region where the Progress Party was registered. Not only was it registered, it was also entered into the Unified State Register of Legal Entities (EGRUL, Russia’s official corporate registry). And then it was just as casually removed from it—through an extrajudicial procedure, which no one has the right to do.
The governor of Stavropol Krai is named Vladimir Vladimirovich Vladimirov.
He was not elected either—Vladimirov was appointed by presidential decree. The appointment of a completely unknown official to the governorship of one of the country’s most difficult regions surprised everyone (for example, Oleg Kashin wrote an excellent article about it). To this day, Vladimirov’s main political achievement remains his suddenly inspired idea involving Siberian cranes.
But what matters most is this: Vladimirov plans to take part in the election in September. Naturally, the emergence of opposition forces in the region scares him to death.
In the Novosibirsk Region, we were denied three times. The last refusal was explained by an incomplete set of documents: we sent the copy that the Ministry of Justice claimed was missing a week later. But instead of adding it to the registration file, they issued us two refusals—one for the main set of documents and one for the copy we sent afterward.
What is interesting is that Clause 41 of the Ministry of Justice’s administrative regulations—the very provision under which this “missing” copy was required—had already been declared invalid by the Supreme Court. So the Ministry of Justice was not merely trying to deny us on a ridiculous basis; it was also openly disregarding the Supreme Court’s ruling.
The governor of the Novosibirsk Region is Vladimir Gorodetsky.
He, naturally, was also appointed, and, remarkably enough, he also plans to run in the election. In connection with this, a campaign to eliminate other political opponents has already unfolded in the Novosibirsk Region. It is no surprise that they are afraid to register the Progress Party there as well.
In this region, we submitted documents three times. The basis for the latest refusal was “false information”: the passport issuance and residence details we provided for one person allegedly did not match the records of the Federal Migration Service. Exactly how they did not match was never explained. We checked the passport against the documents we had submitted for registration—everything was correct. Amazing.
This is Oleg Kuvshinnikov, appointed governor of the Vologda Region by a decree from President Medvedev. Kuvshinnikov intends to take part in the early gubernatorial election. Everything is proceeding by the book: in May, he asked Putin to let him resign, then became acting governor until September, and then comes the election. Clearly, opposition activity in Vologda is the last thing he wants.
This case is especially remarkable. The Lipetsk branch is being denied registration because its chairman is supposedly a member of the Green Alliance party. There was even a court hearing on the matter, which our representative lost yesterday—the Ministry of Justice produced a strange piece of paper “confirming” his membership in Green Alliance. Under the law, only a personal application for party membership can serve as proof of that, but the Ministry of Justice never had such a document. Instead, it presented the court with an uncertified copy bearing the signature of one representative of the general meeting.
We cannot publish the entire document because of personal data protection laws, but here are excerpts from it.
Oleg Korolev, the governor of the Lipetsk Region, has held this post since 1998. One would think his position in the region should be stable. But—what a surprise—Lipetsk will also hold an early election in September under the same scheme so beloved by governors. We understand acting governor Korolev. Under no circumstances can he allow opposition forces to emerge in his region.
This list could go on and on, if it were not so monotonous. Weak positions on the ground force the authorities to invent the most idiotic illegal reasons to deny registration to the Progress Party. They can put on a brave face and say that our party will carry no political weight and will pose no competition to the existing institutions, but the situation speaks for itself. We have already been denied registration for regional branches 150 times—that is what fear looks like.
Despite everything, we continue the work of registering the party. Until the Progress Party is able to participate in elections on normal terms, the real opposition will have no political representation.