I’m constantly asked how things stand with the registration of our party.
And it’s obvious why you’re asking about it.
To register a party, all you need is to gather 500 people across Russia. According to the latest opinion poll, my support stands at 11%, which means about 15 million citizens. Without a doubt, we have every right to create our own political party. But we are not being allowed to register it. On our ninth attempt, the name of our party was simply stolen.
But the registration process itself has never stopped for us. We are fighting for it in court; it’s just that now the process is continuing in writing before the European Court of Human Rights.
The closest we came was with the Progress Party, which was registered and then simply struck off the list of registered parties without any court ruling.
And today we received a letter from the Russian Ministry of Justice answering the court’s questions about why our party is not being registered.
The reply is magnificent.
It is simply 33 pages of pure lies claiming that in Russia anyone can register a party and that it’s as easy as going to the store for groceries.
First, the Ministry of Justice spends a long time explaining to the European Court that Russia as a whole is built on a multiparty system.
Then it points out what a great fan of the multiparty system President Putin is:
And of course, it goes on to describe the wonderful, successful life of political parties in our country.
As examples, they cite such “powerhouse” registered parties as Power to the People, Parents of the Future (whose website does not work, though it does at least have a VKontakte (Russian social network) page with wonderful dialogues), and the Small Business Party (which proposes restoring the traditions of the Novgorod veche (a medieval popular assembly), merchant industriousness along the route “from the Varangians to the Greeks” (the medieval trade route linking Northern Europe and Byzantium), and the economic initiative of the population that boldly conquered new lands of Rus’).
Especially ridiculous, in light of how party names are stolen from us, is the argument that we no longer tried to register a party.
Let me remind the Ministry of Justice that we have already made nine attempts to register our party.
Lawyers can fully appreciate the 33 pages of this document.
We are consistently pressing for the party’s registration and firmly expect to defeat United Russia at the very first election in which we are allowed to take part.