Democratic Choice of Russia

The Democratic Choice of Russia (DVR; ; Demokraticheskiy vybor Rossii, DVR), before 1994 Choice of Russia Bloc (VR; ; Blok «Vybor Rossii», VR) was a Russian centre-right conservative-liberal political party. Later the party was self-disbanded and most members would merge into the Union of Right Forces. Background and establishment At the elections to the State Duma held on December 12, 1993, the Choice of Russia bloc (the predecessor to the Democratic Choice of Russia) received 15.51% of the vote, and consequently, 40 seats in the State Duma. On January 20, 1994, having lost influence over making economic decisions and opposed to the increase of budget expenditure, the leader of the Choice of Russia, Yegor Gaidar, resigned from the government headed by Viktor Chernomyrdin. At that point the Choice of Russia lost its status as a pro-government faction, yet at the same time it continued to support president Boris Yeltsin and Chernomyrdin's government by providing constructive criticism of their policies. On 12–13 June 1994, the founding meeting of the party Democratic Choice of Russia was held. At the meeting, the party's programme was adopted and its governing bodies were set up. Yegor Gaidar was elected as party chairman.