Russia’s Republican Party Legal Again

The Russian Justice Ministry has formally restored registration of the liberal Republican Party of Russia, allowing it to participate in elections. The party’s leader and co-chairman of the unregistered opposition movement Parnas, Vladimir Ryzhkov, told the press that his colleagues have received official confirmation from the ministry that the party is re-registered as of May 5. Ryzhkov added that the re-registration took place not under Russia’s new law on political parties, but due to a special order, in accordance with a decision of the European Court of Human Rights that ruled that the refusal to register the party was unlawful. “This makes the Republican Party the eighth officially registered political party in the country that has the right to participate in the elections of legislative bodies at all levels,” he added. The party was created in 1990 and banned by the Supreme Court in 2007 as part of the Kremlin’s broad campaign to weed out Russia’s political party scene, which then numbered dozens of entries.

http://en.ria.ru/society/20120510/173362448.html
http://rt.com/politics/russian-republican-party-re-registered-905/