Liberalism in Russia


Within Russian political parties, liberal parties advocate the expansion of political and civil freedoms and mostly oppose Vladimir Putin. In Russia, the term "liberal" can refer to wide range of politicians –simultaneously to Thatcherism/Reaganomics-related pro-capitalism conservative politicians, to centre-right liberal politicians and to left-liberal politicians. The term "liberal democrats" is often used for members of the far-right nationalist part, the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia. There are Russian opposition and pro-government liberal political parties in Russia. Pro-government liberal politicians support Putin's policy in economics.
There are no liberal factions in Russian parliament at the moment. Centre-left liberalism was represented in the State Duma of Russian parliament by the Russian United Democratic Party "Yabloko". Pro-government liberalism was represented by the Our Home – Russia, the liberal political party founded by Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin. Centre-right liberalism was represented by the pro-capitalist party Democratic Choice of Russia and its successor, the Union of Right Forces.
The Yabloko and the Republican Party of Russia – People's Freedom Party are members of Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party. The Yabloko is also a member of Liberal International.

Liberalism in the Russian Federation

History

Liberalism emerged in Russia before the Russian Revolution and continued to develop among Constitutional Democrats such as Pavel Miliukov living in exile after 1917. After the fall of communism, several new liberal parties were formed, but only one of them Yabloko succeeded in becoming a relevant force. This is a left-of-center liberal party. The Union of Right Forces is a right-of-center liberal party. It can also be seen as a democratic conservative market party. In this scheme, the party is not included as liberal, being considered a democratic conservative party, but it can also be called liberal because of its pro-free-market and anti-authoritarianism stances. The so-called Liberal Democratic Party of Russia is not at all "liberal" – it is a nationalist, right-wing, populist party.

Yabloko (1993–)

The Yabloko is a member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party and Liberal International.

Pro-[Chernomyrdin] and regional party (1995–2000)

Democratic Choice of Russia (1993–1999)

The Democratic Choice of Russia was a centre-right liberal pro-capitalist political party.

Union of Right Forces (1999–2008)

The Union of Right Forces was a Russian centre-right liberal opposition political party.

Pro-[Vladimir Putin] liberal projects

Solidarnost wide movement (2008–)

Solidarnost is a liberal democratic political movement founded in 2008 by a number of well-known members of the liberal democratic opposition, including Garry Kasparov, Boris Nemtsov and others from the Yabloko and former Union of Right Forces.

Republican Party of Russia – People's Freedom Party (de facto 2010–)

is a liberal democratic coalition founded in 2010 by opposition politicians Vladimir Ryzhkov, Boris Nemtsov, Mikhail Kasyanov and Vladimir Milov and their organisations Republican Party of Russia, Solidarnost, Russian People's Democratic Union and Democratic Choice. The RPR-PARNAS is a member of Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party.
In 2012, the coalition merged into the officially registered Russian political party RPR-PARNAS.
The RPR-PARNAS is a centre-right liberal opposition political party and it represented in regional parliament in Yaroslavl Oblast.

[Mikhail Prokhorov]'s party

Russian Empire

Background

is sometimes called the father of Russian liberalism. His ideas were discussed and elaborated by such 19th-century liberal republican radicals as Alexander Herzen, Boris Chicherin, and Konstantin Kavelin. Based on their ideals, various early 20th-century liberal parties evolved, the most important of them being the Constitutional-democratic Party, headed by Pavel Milyukov.

From Liberation Union to Constitutional Democratic Party