The Russian Justice Ministry agreed on Friday to restore Russia’s Republican Party, which it successfully sought to ban in 2007.
The ministry and the liberal party, headed by opposition leader Vladimir Ryzhkov, reached a settlement, which now has to be formally processed by the Supreme Court, the ministry said in a statement. No timeframe was given.
If no obstacles arise in the courtroom, the Republicans will become Russia’s eight political party and the first to be registered by the Justice Ministry since 2008, when it registered The Right Cause, widely seen as a Kremlin project catering to the underrepresented liberal constituency.
The Russian Republican Party, established in 1990, was a second-tier player on the country’s political scene throughout the 1990s and the early 2000s. In 2007, it was banned by the Supreme Court, falling victim to the government’s attempt to weed out minor parties by tightening requirements for nationwide representation and membership.
The party continued unregistered under Ryzhkov, who also became a co-founder of another unregistered liberal party, Parnas, in 2010. Ryzhkov was among the organizers of sweeping anti-governmental protests in Moscow between December in March, where the red-white Republican flags had a solid visual presence.
The European Court of Human Rights ruled the ban on the Republicans illegal in 2011, but the government ignored the verdict, Ryzhkov said at a meeting of opposition leaders with outgoing President Dmitry Medvedev in February. Medvedev ordered the Justice Ministry to “look into the case” after Ryzhkov’s complaint.
