On March 23, Russia's Supreme Court granted a request by the election registration authorities to close down the right-wing Republican Party of Russia, nine months ahead of parliamentary elections.
The Federal Registration Service said in its lawsuit that the number of party members and local branches had fallen short of legal requirements that came into effect January 1. Under the requirements, parties that fail to comply must either be transformed into public movements or closed down.
"Since the European Court's decisions are obligatory for all European countries, it will be not only a restoration of the Republican Party," Vladimir Lysenko, co-chairman of the party, said. "It could help to drastically change the political situation in our country."
The Republican Party, which was set up on the basis of the Democratic Platform of the U.S.S.R. Communist Party in 1990, was last registered with the Justice Ministry in August 2002.
Earlier, another co-chairman of the party, Vladimir Ryzhkov, said the party, which strongly opposed the Kremlin's military campaign in Chechnya in the 1990s, would appeal against the ruling with the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg and the Constitutional Court of Russia.
"We categorically oppose the Supreme Court decision to close our party, and will appeal against the ruling," he said, adding that the court had failed to closely study the evidence provided by the party.
Representatives of the party brought five boxes of documents to the court to prove that the party had 58,166 members.
"It means that our party fully meets the legal requirements," Ryzhkov said.
