Fair Russia

   Political party. Known in Russian as Spravedlivaia Rossiia: Rodina/Pensionery/Zhizn’, the party’s name is sometimes translated as “Just Russia.” The party was formed on 28 October 2006 through a merger of Rodina, the Russian Party of Life (Zhizn’), and the Russian Pensioners’ Party. In 2007, the People’s Party also merged with Fair Russia. Sergey Mironov, the former head of the Zhizn’ party and a close ally of Vladimir Putin, is the party’s chairman. In 2007, Mironov’s proposal to merge Fair Russia with the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF) was rejected by the KPRF leader, Gennady Zyuganov. While Fair Russia claims to be a genuine left-wing party, its strong support of the Kremlin places it squarely within Russia’s political center. In 2008, the party backed the candidacy of Putin’s handpicked heir, Dmitry Medvyedev. Despite the fealty of Fair Russia toward the country’s leaders, its aim is to provide a counterweight to United Russia, and establish a genuine two-party political system in Russia built on the notion of loyal opposition. Due to its left-of-center economic orientation combined with nationalistic and sometimes anti-Semitic tendencies, the party has steadily been increasing its popularity at the expense of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia. In the 2007 State Duma elections, the party placed fourth, winning 38 seats and capturing 7.7 percent of the vote. Hoping to wither the KPRF’s position, the Kremlin gave Fair Russia significant support prior to the elections in an effort to put it over the newly initiated 7 percent threshold for gaining seats in the Duma.