Denis Terekhov said the SPS Federal Political Council, headed by party leader Nikita Belykh, wanted the commission to take concrete steps toward unity in late February.
Union of Right Forces, founded in 2001 after a merger between the Democratic Choice for Russia and other smaller parties, is commonly regarded as a liberal opposition party, supporting western-style capitalism, and associated with free market reforms and privatization during the 1990s under the presidency of Boris Yeltsin.
Since the 2003 elections, SPS maintains two seats out of 450 in the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, having failed to negotiate the 5% mark that guarantees the party a certain number of seats in parliament. The party garnered 8.6% of the votes and 32 seats in the 1999 election.
