Russia of the Future
Russia of the Future, originally the Progress Party and formerly known as the People's Alliance, is a political party in Russia founded on 15 December 2012 by member of the Russian opposition Leonid Volkov and later refounded on 19 May 2018 by Russian government critic and anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny, who is also an opposition activist and founder of Russian non-profit organisation the Anti-Corruption Foundation.
The party is yet to be formally registered by Russia's Ministry of Justice. Russia of the Future is opposed to Russian President Vladimir Putin and ruling party United Russia. The party's platform stood for the decentralization of power in Russia, cutting the number of government officials, lustration for those responsible for political repressions and reducing the president's powers, possibly switching to a parliamentary republic under the rule of law and ensuring the independence of the judiciary. It also stipulated "drastically reducing" government interference in the economy, ending censorship, prohibiting the government from owning media outlets and abolishing conscription. The foreign policy plank called for introducing visas with Central Asia, stopping support for so-called rogue states and partnering up with Western countries.
According to Navalny's ally Lyubov Sobol, the goals of the party include "real changes, real reforms", including increased property protections, a fair criminal-justice system and battling corruption, "so that money from the budget does not flow into offshores and is not spent on yachts and palaces". The founding session of the party was attended by 124 delegates from 60 of Russia's regions. The party has a seven-member central committee instead of a chairman.
History
Origins
The People's Alliance party was founded on 15 December 2012 at the party's founding congress. Initially, Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny declined to join the political party which was formed mostly by his followers. During the founding congress of 15 December 2012, Navalny said: "People's Alliance is my party, but I don't think that right now People's Alliance needs another member who spends his time torn between the Investigative Committee and some court hearing involving Rosneft. Yet it is my party; it represents my interests". On 30 April 2013, the Ministry of Justice of Russia suspended the registration of the party and then denied its registration on 5 June 2013.After participating in the 2013 Moscow mayoral election, where Navalny received 27.24% of the vote, or the second highest number, with Vladimir Putin's ruling party candidate Sergey Sobyanin of United Russia receiving 51.37% of the vote, Navalny said that he was ready to lead the People's Alliance. During his visit to the radio station Echo of Moscow on 15 September 2013, Navalny said: "I shall join it, no doubt about that. If I am elected, I shall lead the People's Alliance. I believe that this party is the closest to me. Yet I stayed out of it for the simple reason I was certain that otherwise it would be denied registration for sure". He also expressed his desire to run for Moscow City Duma elections in 2014 together with the People's Alliance party.
On 17 November 2013, the second founding congress of the party was held in Moscow with 111 delegates from 48 regions participating. The 108 delegates from regional branches gave Navalny 88 of the votes and he was elected as the party's chairman.During his address to the delegates, Navalny said that the People's Alliance party will again file a request for registration with the Justice Ministry. At the party's congress on 17 November 2013, Navalny said: "I hope the party will be registered this time. If it is not, we will get a fresh confirmation of the authorities' empty rhetoric about it being tolerant to the opposition taking part in the elections". Later, it was revealed that economic section of party's platform was created by Sergei Guriev, former Rector at the New Economic School.
On 20 January 2014, the Justice Ministry denied registration to the People's Alliance political party, citing the existence of another organization with the same name. On 8 February 2014, the party convention decided to rename the People's Alliance party to the Progress Party.
On 25 February 2014, the Progress Party passed the first stage of registration at the Ministry of Justice. For the party to be fit for the election in autumn, the registration process should be completed by mid-June. Before that the Progress Party was required to register at least 43 regional branches, and after that to file a registration application at the ministry again. On 8 April 2014, the Justice Ministry rejected the applications to register the branches of the Progress Party due to the "mistake in constituent documents".
On 28 January 2015, Moscow's Zamoskvoretsky district court declined the party's protest against the refusal of the Justice Ministry to enter it in the register of parties entitled to take part in elections. Party's lawyer Dmitry Krainev's stated: "From 75 registered parties we have become the only one to be pushed aside from the elections".
On 1 February 2015, the Progress Party held a convention that was attended by 62 delegates from 50 regional branches. Despite the fact that Progress Party was not included in the federal list of political forces allowed to run in elections, it decided to prepare for the 2016 elections to the State Duma and regional legislatures.
At the party's congress on 1 February 2015, Navalny stated: "We will continue working for participation in elections. The probability that we won't be allowed to any elections is very high. But work to prepare candidates should be conducted already now in case snap elections are held". On 28 April 2015, the party was deprived of registration. As reported by Navalny's live channel on YouTube, the activists will try again with the operative name of Working Title.