The Ministry of Justice has just announced that it has dissolved the Progress Party out of court.
Yes, it seemed everyone believed that dissolving a registered party (and the Progress Party is in fact officially registered) was extremely difficult: it could only be done through the courts, and through court proceedings in every region.
For us, as usual, they came up with a legal novelty: they simply struck us from the register, declaring the registration to have “lost its force.”
A perfect illustration of Putin’s recent claim that the “opposition can take part in elections.”
Sure, right. The party “Women’s Dialogue” can. And the party “Born in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics” can. They have no “problems with their paperwork,” everything is fine, they were registered on time and allowed onto the ballot.
But the Progress Party cannot, even though it is more real than 99% of the parties on the Justice Ministry’s list and has already gone through more than 50 court cases over registration refusals across the country. In total, we received and appealed 190 refusals to register regional branches — more than all the other parties combined.
We haven’t even really begun yet, we’ve never appeared on an election ballot, and we already rank fourth in the polls.
Of course, this is a reaction to the creation of the Democratic Coalition and, above all, to our very specific plans for elections in three regions. Now the coalition’s members will be hammered, while all sorts of fake stand-ins and spoiler candidates will be actively promoted. It’s a clear signal to everyone around us: these are unacceptable radicals, don’t deal with them. There are so many nice, quiet parties around — work with them and get your 1.5% without any trouble.
We are taking this calmly: it is an obvious tactic, one that has always been used and will continue to be used.
The coalition will hold firm, go into the elections, and secure political representation for the many supporters of democracy in Russia. I am sure you will help make that happen.
The Progress Party will remain as a political structure, because (as I wrote after every refusal) a party is not a piece of paper, but people and ideas. And we have both.