Right Cause (PD), officially the All-Russian Political Party "Right Cause", was an officially registered centre-right Russian political party that existed from 2008 to 2016. It was created from the merger of three parties: Civilian Power, the Democratic Party of Russia (DPR), and the Union of Right Forces, and it declared itself liberal.
On 26 March 2016, it was renamed to Party of Growth under the chairmanship of Boris Titov.
After this reorganization and name change by the former chairman of the party Vyacheslav Maratkanov, the public movement "Right Cause" was created.
Contents
History
Formation
The Right Cause party emerged on 16 November 2008, as a result of the unification of three right-liberal parties: the Democratic Party of Russia, Civilian Power, and the Union of Right Forces. On 11 February 2009, the party was officially registered by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation, becoming the only registered political force over the period from 2006 to 2011. The media explained this situation by the fact that the project was approved by the Kremlin.
On 16 November 2008, at the party's founding congress, 33 people were elected to the first composition of the party's federal political council, including:
Georgy Bovt, journalist
Leonid Gozman, leader of the Union of Right Forces
Boris Titov, head of Delovaya Rossiya (Business Russia)
Valery Akhadov, film director
Andrey Dunaev, lawyer
Boris Nadezhdin, former deputy of the State Duma
Andrey Nechayev, former Russian Economy Minister
Grigory Tomchin, president of the Fund for Legislative Initiatives
Evgeny Chichvarkin was elected chairman of the Moscow branch. He was also made responsible for the branding of the party. The party was co-chaired by representatives of its three founding parties: Titov from Civilian Power, Bovt from the DPR, and Gozman from the Union of Right Forces. The central office was headed by Andrey Dunaev, an employee of the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation. Later, they disagreed on the purpose of the party and its relationship with the authorities.
On 1 March 2009, the party took part in municipal elections for the first time. The party did not manage to complete registration for the elections, but local candidates of the party in Tolyatti were able to take part under December, a local public movement. The movement's leader was the deputy of the Samara Regional Duma, and a member of the regional political council of Right Cause. Sergey Andreev took second place in the elections with 26% of the vote, losing only to United Russia with 39.5%, and passing 5 deputies on the movement's party list.
Activities of Mikhail Prokhorov
On 26 June 2011, at an extraordinary party congress, billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov was elected its chairman, and new symbols and images for the party were approved. He had received an offer to join on April 25, which he accepted on 16 May. The new head received the right to single-handedly decide key personnel issues, including the rights to approve the lists of candidates for deputies in the elections, to admit new members to the party, and to expel those who had been fined. The minimum goal was a faction in the State Duma following the December 2011 elections, and the maximum goal was to become the second "party of power", and eventually the first. According to The New Times, Prokhorov intended to spend $100 million in personal funds on the party's election campaign, and hoped to receive the same amount from his colleagues in the business community.
In July 2011, Prokhorov invited Yevgeny Roizman, founder of the City Without Drugs Foundation and deputy of the State Duma of the fourth convocation, to the party. Prokhorov suggested that he run in the State Duma elections on the federal party list, so that if successful he would be able to engage in the formation of state anti-drug and anti-alcohol policies and legislation. The decision to admit Roizman to the ranks of party leadership caused dissatisfaction within the party's regional branches due to his conviction in 1981 for theft, fraud and illegal possession of weapons. Prokhorov instructed Rifat Shaykhutdinov, a deputy from the Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR), to head the party's campaign headquarters. In August 2011, Alexander Lyubimov, a well-known journalist and author of the Vzglyad TV program, also joined the party.
On 3 August 2011, the Izvestia newspaper published an interview with the head of the Moscow Region branch of the party, Boris Nadezhdin, who called for cooperation with nationalists and, in particular, admitted that "officers and young skinheads" were entering the branch en masse. Nadezhdin also put forward the slogan "Podmoskovye is Russian land", after which Prokhorov invited Nadezhdin to leave the party if he shared the views of nationalists. Prokhorov wrote in his blog that "if this is his personal conscious position, then he has no place in the party."
In August 2011, political analyst Alexei Makarkin expressed the opinion that the Right Cause election campaign would be very problematic, since Prokhorov lacked both political and party-building experience. Makarkin noted that dissatisfaction with Prokhorov was growing in the regional branches of the party, which he explained by the fact that "they hoped that a new leader, a billionaire, with big money would come, a golden rain would be shed on them," but then it turned out that "it would be far from for all".
Participation in the 2011 elections and further political activities
The program with which the party took part in the 2011 parliamentary election was adopted at the congress on 20 September. The party called for the Russia's immediate filing of an application for membership in the European Union, for "curbing the arbitrariness of officials and security forces", and for the abolition of parliamentary immunity. The party proposed disbanding the Federal Protective Service of the Russian Federation so that "officials feel like residents of their country." According to party leader Andrey Dunaev, "there are too many law enforcement agencies with duplicate functions in the country and, for example, some private agency could protect the top officials of the state". The party advocated for the restoration of universal election of power, including the election of city mayors, governors and heads of constituent entities of the Russian Federation, and proposed a ban on holding elected office more than twice in a lifetime.
According to party leader and main author of the party program, Vladislav Inozemtsev, the party "stands for the most complete freedom of all citizens' initiatives permitted by law, political, economic, social and cultural." Inozemtsev sees the future of Russia "on the path of overcoming ignorance, dogmatism and obscurantism". Inozemtsev sees the first step on this path as "the restoration of the secular nature" of the Russian government. According to Inozemtsev, "the time has come to object to the planting of primitive religiosity in a predominantly atheistic country, which has now become a large-scale business project. Priests have no place in schools, the army, or government agencies. Ships and airplanes should float and fly because they were assembled by skilled workers, not because they were sprinkled with holy water by owners of watches costing tens of thousands of dollars. Religion should become a private matter of citizens."
The party also advocated for a gradual increase in the retirement age and the legalization of short-barreled weapons.
In 2011, in parliamentary elections to the State Duma, the top three on the party's federal list of candidates were Andrey Dunaev, Andrei Bogdanov and tennis player Anna Chakvetadze. Also in the top ten of the list were Vladislav Inozemtsev and Alexander Brod. Boris Nadezhdin, a member of the party's federal political council, refused to be in the top three of the federal list, but headed the party list for the Moscow Regional Duma election. The party took last place in the federal elections on December 4, receiving 392,507 votes (0.6% of the total) and was unable to get a single representative on the Duma.
Renaming
With the return of Boris Titov to the party, a fundamental reform was carried out, the composition of the political council was changed, and the party returned to liberal values and was later renamed the Party of Growth.
In January 2016, Titov, at that time head of the industrial committee of the All-Russia People's Front, announced his readiness for the parliamentary elections in the fall of 2016 to head the list of the party that would defend the interests of medium and small business. He had conversations with several parties: Civilian Power, Civic Platform, The Greens, Rodina and Right Cause, and chose the latter. He considered the party a "tool" for participating in elections without collecting signatures (14 parties had direct ballot access at the time), partly due to the presence of party members in the people's assemblies of Dagestan and Ingushetia. He said success in the election would be overcoming the five percent entry barrier and forming a faction in the State Duma.
About 25 regional divisions of the party opposed the return of Titov, and regarded this as a surrender by the leadership "to a raider takeover". Among the new delegates to the congress were former and current members of United Russia, Delovaya Rossiya and the All-Russia People's Front.
On 29 February 2016, Titov was elected chairman of the party at its 7th Congress. He was supported by 70 delegates with none voting against him. Several businesspeople announced their readiness to join the federal council, including managing partner of the Management Development Group Dmitry Potapenko, Alfa-Bank vice president Vladimir Senin, Internet Ombudsman and member of the Russian General Council of Business Dmitry Marinichev, member of the Civic Chamber and Public Commissioner for the protection of small and medium business rights Viktor Ermakov, and a member of the Presidium of the General Council of "Business Russia" Mikhail Rosenfeld.
A number of media outlets and political scientists called the arrival of Titov coordinated with the Presidential Administration, with, for example, candidates for the presidium and political council being coordinated. Titov admitted that the project of the updated party is connected with the Administration, and that he is supervised by the Administration's First Deputy Chief of Staff, Vyacheslav Volodin.
Electoral results
Local elections
In 2011, the party received one mandate in the People's Assembly of the Republic of Dagestan and one mandate in the People's Assembly of the Republic of Ingushetia according to the party list.
In 2013, the party received one mandate from its list to the City Duma of Syzran, one mandate in a single-mandate constituency, and two mandates in Elektrogorsk.
Ideology
Liberal conservatism, conservative liberalism (until November 2012)
National democracy (November 2012 – February 2016)
National-patriotic orientation
At the party's congress on 24 February 2012, the leader of the Right to Bear Arms social movement, Maria Butina spoke, becoming an ally of the party.
On 14 August 2012, Ivan Okhlobystin was invited to the post of Chairman of the Supreme Council of the party. On 21 August, a press conference of the party leadership was held at Interfax, at which Okhlobystin was represented. Some saw him as a possible future party leader. On 5 October of that year, due to the decision of the Holy Synod prohibiting priests from being members of political parties, he left the party, saying that he remained only its spiritual mentor.
On 3 November 2012, at the party congress chaired by Andrey Dunaev, the party summed up the failed outcome of the 2011 parliamentary elections and a decision was made to change its political orientation, abandon liberal ideology, and become a right-wing party in every sense of the term, taking a course towards national patriotism.
On 26 November 2012, the party leader Dunaev raised the issue of legalizing prostitution in Russia. He said that the party intends to conduct sociological research on this issue and come up with an initiative to the parliamentary parties and a possible collection of signatures for legalization. He believes that this will officially legalize what already exists, and make it possible for sex workers to leave the patronage of criminal and near-criminal structures, as well as unscrupulous law enforcement officers, pay taxes to the state budget, undergo regular medical examinations, and claim pension contributions. He also added that sex workers in today's situation have no rights before their employers, equating them with sexual slavery. Currently prostitution is officially legalized in the EU countries of the Netherlands, Italy, Hungary, Germany. Previously, in 2007, the LDPR came up with a similar initiative, but it was postponed by the Duma. Andrei Bogdanov, former member of the party's federal council, and then-leader of the restored DPR, spoke out against the initiative of his former colleagues, saying that he and his party intended to prevent Right Cause from collecting signatures by launching a campaign against the initiative.
Reversal to liberal orientation
On 29 February 2016, at the party's 7th Congress, the business ombudsman Boris Titov was elected party chairman. He announced a change in the political course of the party to a "party of business", and its rebranding.
Party organization
Central office
From 2008 to 2011, the party's central office was located in Moscow, in the building of the Civilian Power party (which became one of the founders). From 2011 to 2013, the central office was located in the former central headquarters of the Nashi movement. From 2013 to 2014, the central office was located at Bolshoi Zlatoustinsky lane, house 6. In August 2014, the central office of the party moved to Vozdvizhenka street, 7/6 building 1.
Leadership
Boris Titov (Chairman February 29 – March 26, 2016)
Vyacheslav Maratkanov (Acting Chairman 2012–2016)
Andrey Dunaev (Chairman 2011–2012)
Mikhail Prokhorov (Chairman June–September 2011)
Leonid Gozman (Co-Chairman 2008–2011)
Georgy Bovt (Co-Chairman 2008–2011)
Boris Titov (Co-Chairman 2008–2011)
Income and expenses
In 2009 the party relied on donations, with 22.2% income being provided by donations from individuals, and 74.8% being provided by transfers from legal entities. In 2015, the party's income was an insignificant 89,300 rubles ($1400 at the time).
Legacy
Alexander Lyubimov's opinion on the results of the party's activities
They wanted to go to the Duma elections with the Right Cause party, but nothing came of it. It is obvious to me that it is not yet possible to engage in full-fledged political activity in Russia. One must either join the friendly ranks of the members of the party in power, or be prepared to have zelyonka splashed in one's face. As they say, thank you for not [using] acid. I don't like this option. It's not very comfortable to work when you constantly have to think about your own safety and wait for someone to come up from behind with bad intentions.