Alexander Babakov, the former chairman of Rodina's presidium and the party's top sponsor, replaced Dmitry Rogozin as party leader at a congress March 25. Earlier the same day, the congress accepted Rogozin's voluntary resignation.
Rogozin said he would resign from his post but remain a party member.
Speaking to his fellow faction members Tuesday, Rogozin said: "I have made a voluntary decision to resign as faction head, the duty I was to perform throughout the spring session in 2006, since I have to focus on other parliamentary and public activities in our voters' interests."
Rogozin, however, will remain one of four co-chairmen of the Rodina faction in the State Duma, the lower house of parliament. The chairmen, including former Rodina party leader Sergei Glazyev, take turns in leading the faction.
Under Rogozin, Rodina has grown more radical. The party was banned from participating in the December 4 elections to the Moscow legislature after the ultra-nationalist Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) filed a suit with the Moscow city court alleging a Rodina television commercial incited inter-ethnic tension.
The commercial featured three dark-skinned men from the Caucasus tossing a watermelon rind at the feet of a passing Slavic girl pushing a stroller. A voice-over against the background of the Rodina emblem urged people to "remove the rubbish from Moscow."
