MOSCOW (Sputnik) — United Russia Party was established in December 2001 through a transformation of the Union of Unity and Fatherland national civic association into a political party.
United Russia is a ruling party and has 238 seats in the 6th convocation of Russia's lower house of parliament, the State Duma.
History
The official founding date of the Unity and Fatherland – United Russia national party is December 1, 2001.
On December 24, 2003, it was renamed United Russia.
As a result of 2003 elections, United Russia formed a parliamentary majority in the State Duma, and a constitutional majority in 2007.
In the 2011 Duma elections, United Russia’s electoral list was based on the outcome of primaries, conducted jointly with the All-Russia People’s Front. Following the vote, it again received a majority of seats in parliament.
Party Structure
Structurally, United Russia is comprised of regional and local offices and primary cells. Regional party offices have been established in all 85 Russian regions.
The party’s ruling bodies are the Congress, the General Council and the Supreme Council. The highest elected party official is the Chairman.
The party’s supreme ruling body is the congress which is called, as a general rule, once a year.
The General Council is a standing governing collective body in between congresses and is elected by a party congress for five years by secret ballot by a majority of votes of registered congress delegates. The General Council’s membership is established by the party congress and may not be more than 170. The General Council is subject to a rotation of no less than 15 percent of its membership at a party congress.
The secretary of the General Council is Sergei Neverov.
The chairman of the party’s Supreme Council is Boris Gryzlov.
The party’s top elected official is its chairman. The party chairman is elected at a party congress for five years by open ballot with two-thirds of the votes of registered congress delegates. A Russian citizen who is not a party member may be elected the party chairman.
The incumbent chairman is Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.
Party Logo
The party has a logo and a flag. The party logo is a stylized image of a waving banner with white, blue and red stripes of equal width, representing the Russian flag, which slopes down to the right, above a stylized image of a white and blue bear with its right side turned to the viewer, under which is an inscription running across the entire width of the banner in equal-size blue letters, in two rows: ЕДИНАЯ РОССИЯ (United Russia). Against a dark background the inscription ЕДИНАЯ РОССИЯ (United Russia) is written in white letters.
The party flag is a rectangular blue banner. The flag’s width to length ratio is 2:3. At the center of the flag is the party logo.
