Three other left-leaning parties announced they would merge in August and United Russia, the "party of power" as it is known for its Kremlin-backed status, said earlier this month that it would unite with the Industrial Party by early December.
And Gennady Gudkov, the People's Party leader and a member of the lower house of Russia's parliament, said Thursday, "Without unification processes there will be no modern Russian state. Minnow, single-issue parties are now history. We are currently in consultations with parties close to us in ideology about possible unification."
He said this applies to left-leaning parties, but did not identify them.
Gudkov said the People's Party had 71 regional branches with 80,000 card-carrying members.
"Our principal task is to create a united left-of-center structure, based on social democratic values. Today, all prerequisites for this are in place," he said.
The left-leaning Party of Life, Rodina (Motherland) and the Party of Pensioners announced in late August they would unite to form a left-leaning alliance capable of playing an influential role in the country's political life.
