People's Freedom Party

The People's Freedom Party, often known by its short form PARNAS, and formerly the Republican Party of Russia – People's Freedom Party, and initially Republican Party of Russia,<ref>; Respublikanskaja partija Rossii, RPR'</ref> was a liberal-democratic political party in Russia. It was one of the first opposition parties founded in the final years of the Soviet Union. In 2007, it was denied re-registration and declared to be dissolved by the Russian Supreme Court. It was only after the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the denial of registration was unlawful that it could restore its official registration in May 2012. The party was dissolved by Russia's Supreme Court on May 25, 2023 because it did not have the required number of branches and due to claims filed against existing branches by the Federal Taxation Service and the Ministry of Justice. History Formation and early developments (1990–2006) The Republican Party of Russia was founded in 1990 by members of the Democratic Platform of the CPSU who had become disillusioned with the party's unwillingness to reform. The foundation of the new party took place in November 1990. Nikolay Lysenko, Stepan Sulakshin and Vyacheslav Shostakovsky were elected as the three co-chairman. The Republican Party joined the Democratic Russia bloc, an umbrella organisation of pro-democracy movements. The Republican Party was close to the Social Democratic Party of Russia, which was founded earlier in 1990. The two parties shared similar program and there were attempts to merge. The Republican Party's program has been characterised as liberal and pragmatic; similarly to the Social Democratic Party, however, the Republican Party had internal factions: ranging from social democracy to social liberal to liberal conservative.