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NEMTSOV, Boris Efimovich
Opposition politician
01/31/2011Boris Nemtsov (Борис Ефимович Немцов) was born on October 9, 1959 in Sochi. A former deputy prime minister of Russia, Nemtsov is one of the co-founders of the Russian political party Union of Right Forces, and an outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin.
MILOV, Vladimir Stanislavovich
Head of Democratic Choice
09/18/2007Vladimir Milov (Владимир Станиславович Милов) was born June 18, 1972 in Kemerovo, Russia. An engineer by background, he worked for the Federal Energy Commission and later the Russian Energy Ministry in the 1990s and 2000s. A member of the Solidarity opposition movement, he also regularly writes articles for Russian daily Vedomosti.
RYZHKOV, Vladimir Alexandrovich
Russian politician
05/24/2011Vladimir Ryzhkov (Владимир Александрович Рыжков) was born September 3, 1966 in Rubtovsk in the Siberian region of Altai Territory. An economist and politician he served as a State Duma Deputy in the 1990s and 2000s. After a period spent working outside politics, Ryzhkov was one of four opposition figures to attempt to register a new political party, The Party of People’s Freedom in late May 2011.
KASYANOV, Mikhail Mikhailovich
Former prime minister of Russia and opposition politician
05/25/2010Mikhail Kasyanov (Михаил Михайлович Касьянов) was born December 8, 1957 in Solntsevo, near Moscow. He was the prime minister of Russia from May 2000 to February 2004 before being dismissed by then-President Vladimir Putin. He has subsequently become a prominent member of the opposition.
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THE PEOPLE'S FREEDOM PARTY (PARNAS)
06/23/2011The People’s Freedom Party (Партия народной свободы «За Россию без произвола и коррупции») abbreviated as Parnas (Парнас) is a Russian opposition party founded in mid December 2010. Created by Boris Nemtsov, Vladimir Ryzhkov, Mikhail Kasyanov and Vladimir Milov, the party failed to gain approval from the Justice Ministry to run in 2011 parliamentary elections.
Parnas opposes Putin’s regime and positions itself as pro-democracy and pro-Constitution. It was formed from four existing political movements active in Russia: Mikhail Kasyanov’s The Russian People’s Democratic Union, Vladimir Ryzhkov’s Republican Party of Russia, Boris Nemtsov’s Solidarity, and Vladimir Milov’s Democratic Choice. The four groups formed an initial coalition on September 16, 2011 under the banned “For Russia without Lawlessness and Corruption.”
Prominent members of the opposition who have not signed up for the party include Eduard Limonov and Garry Kasparov.
In March 2011 the party released a report on corruption linked to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and in May filed documentation to register as a political party with the Justice Ministry. In order to do this, the party opened offices in over 50 regions of Russia and enlisted over 40,000 members.
On June 22, 2011, the Justice Ministry refused to grant the party registration on the grounds that some listed members were dead and others underage
© Russia Profile, 2011