A Just Russia


A Just Russia is a social conservative, democratic socialist, and social-democratic political party in Russia. The party is considered to be part of the "systemic opposition" and is generally sympathetic to the agenda of incumbent president Vladimir Putin, including his foreign policy.
The party was formed on 28 October 2006 as a merger of the left-wing factions of Rodina, the Russian Party of Life and the Russian Pensioners' Party. Later, six further minor parties joined. It then called for a "New Socialism of the 21st Century" which guarantees the rights and freedoms of the individual and ensures the proper functioning of a welfare state. In 2011, Nikolai Levichev was elected as party chairman, succeeding Sergey Mironov who led the party between 2006 and 2011. On 27 October 2013, Mironov was re-elected as party chairman, and again on 28 October 2018. On 28 January 2021, the party merged with the For Truth and Patriots of Russia parties.

History

Name

  • : A Just Russia: Motherland/Pensioners/Life
  • : A Just Russia
  • : Socialist Political Party "A Just Russia – Patriots – For Truth"
  • since : Socialist Political Party "A Just Russia"

    Establishment

On 26 March 2006, the deputy head of the presidential administration, Vladislav Surkov, met with Sergey Mironov, then the party leader of the Party of Life, and 30 deputies from the party, where Surkov formulated the idea of building a two-party system in the country, in which the Kremlin could rely on one of two parties, the other being the ruling party, United Russia. Surkov stated: "Society has no 'second leg' to step on when the first one is numb. In Russia, a second large party is needed". Surkov suggested that the role of the "main leg" would be left to United Russia for the near future. In the meeting, Surkov also noted that in the 2003 legislative elections, United Russia received about 37% of the vote, which was about the same as the next three parties, the Communist Party, the Liberal Democratic Party, and Rodina, and said that ideally, the "second leg" should have the same level of electoral support as the three parties. According to researcher Luke March, a second party of power would incentivize United Russia to perform well, or strong performance for A Just Russia would have "Putin's influence spread all over the political field", quoting political commentator Sergei Markov.
A Just Russia formed on 28 October 2006 as a merger of three parties, namely Rodina, the Russian Party of Life and the Russian Pensioners' Party. Of these, the nationalist Rodina was the largest, having won 9% of the popular vote in the 2003 Duma elections. At the time of the merger, Rodina had 37 seats in the Duma. The Party of Pensioners had gained 3% of the vote, failing to cross the 5% election threshold and also been weakened by infighting in its leadership. The social-democratic Party of Life led by Sergey Mironov was still relatively young and had won only one regional election.
As the only party of the three with seats in the Duma, Rodina dominated the unification process. In simultaneous conventions held in Moscow on 26 August 2006, the Party of Life and the Party of Pensioners decided to join Rodina. Two months later on 28 October 2006, the new party held its founding congress which decided to change the party's name to A Just Russia. Mironov was elected the unified party's chairman while Rodina's former chairman Alexander Babakov became the secretary of the central council presidium and the leader of the Party of Pensioners Igor Zotov became secretary of the political council. The next year, A Just Russia expanded further, absorbing three additional small parties in 2007, namely the People's Party, the Party of Entrepreneurship Development and the Party of Constitutional Democrats.
At the party's founding convention, chairman Sergey Mironov expressed support for the direction given to the country by President Vladimir Putin, claiming that "we will not allow anyone to veer from it after Putin leaves his post in 2008". At the same time, he harshly criticised Putin's party United Russia and what Mironov called the largest party's "monopoly" of the nation's political, economic and administrative resources. Mironov characterised A Just Russia as a new "leftist political force" and a "hard opposition", saying that "if United Russia is the party of power, we will become the party of the people".

First election successes

Shortly after its creation, A Just Russia participated in its first elections when the party's candidate won the mayoral race in Samara. The March 2007 regional elections were dominated by United Russia, but A Just Russia also put up a strong performance. In particular, the new party won a majority in the regional parliament in Stavropol Krai.
The emergence of A Just Russia changed Russia's political landscape and demonstrated that the country's leadership had been split between two parties. United Russia supporters in the presidential administration grew wary of the challenge posed by A Just Russia, worrying that United Russia would lose its position as "the president's party". Before the 2007 Duma elections, the Kremlin had withdrawn its support of A Just Russia and threw its weight entirely behind United Russia.
In a press conference on 19 January 2007 dedicated to upcoming Duma elections, Secretary of the Central Party Council of A Just Russia Alexander Babakov announced that the party had approximately 300,000 members.
In May 2007, A Just Russia's chairman Sergey Mironov proposed a merger between his party and the Communist Party of the Russian Federation in order to create a new unified socialist party.

2007 Duma elections

In the run-up to the December 2007 Duma elections, President Vladimir Putin – the country's most popular politician – explicitly and unequivocally endorsed the United Russia party and decided to head its national list. Putin's decision significantly changed the election campaign and resulted in a massive boost to United Russia's popularity. This represented a harsh blow to A Just Russia which also had hoped to ride on Putin's popularity. Polls suggested the party could have difficulties crossing the 7% election threshold.
A Just Russia appointed three persons to its national list, namely chairman Sergey Mironov; Svetlana Goryacheva ; and Sergey Shargunov, a 27-year-old fiction author. In its regional lists, A Just Russia had 553 candidates, taking its total number of candidates to 556. This was more than the Communists, but less than United Russia. Although originally positioned as a centre-left party, under Mironov's leadership A Just Russia campaigned as a socialist alternative to the Communists.
In the end, A Just Russia received 5,383,639 votes, becoming the fourth party to cross the 7% election threshold and enter the Duma after United Russia, the Communists and the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia. As a result, A Just Russia got 38 of the 450 seats in the Duma. The party received its highest share of votes in Astrakhan, Saint Petersburg and Stavropol. In Saint Petersburg, the hometown of chairman Mironov, A Just Russia became the second largest party. Mironov said he would not take up his seat in the Duma himself, but instead continue as the Chairman of the Federation Council. A Just Russia's performance in the elections was a slight disappointment, especially since one of its predecessor parties, Rodina, had won 9% of the votes in the 2003 elections.

Post-election

On 10 December 2007, A Just Russia was part of a coalition of parties which nominated Dmitry Medvedev as their candidate for the 2008 presidential elections.
On 25 April 2008, A Just Russia held its third annual congress, where the party expelled thousands of members who were not aware that they were members. The party's charter was amended at the congress to make mergers easier. The congress also disbanded the party's politburo and transferred its functions to the Central Council. Politburo's chairman Nikolai Levichev, who also heads A Just Russia's faction in the State Duma, was elected as the council's first secretary.
During its XXIII Congress On 30 June 2008, A Just Russia was accepted into the Socialist International, the worldwide organisation of social-democratic political parties.
The United Socialist Party of Russia and the Russian Ecological Party "The Greens" merged into the party in 2008.
In the 2007–2011 State Duma, A Just Russia became a strong supporter of the Medvedev modernisation programme, endorsing President Dmitry Medvedev's view that Russia must move towards a diversified post-industrial economy and democratisation of its political system. A Just Russia also advocated restoration of direct gubernatorial elections and lowering the Duma election threshold from 7% to 3%. A Just Russia voted against Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's anti-crisis plan in April 2009 and also voted against the governments budgets in 2010 and 2011. According to researcher Luke March, in the 2007–2011 Duma A Just Russia clearly moved towards Medvedev. The party has declared absolute opposition to Putin's government while remaining supportive of Medvedev.
On 2 February 2010, Mironov told talk show host Vladimir Pozner Jr. that "to say that we support Vladimir Putin in everything and personally is already outdated information", noting that the party "categorically opposed" Putin's budget. A scandal broke out with the ruling party, leading to A Just Russia and United Russia to sign a political agreement to jointly support Putin and Medvedev on certain strategic issues and agreeing to discuss disagreements between them. However, A Just Russia withdrew from the agreement a month later, with Mironov accusing United Russia of violating the agreement.
In March 2011, Mironov stated that the party would not support United Russia's candidate for the next presidential election, and that it would decide on its nomination later in the autumn. At the party congress on 16 April 2011, Nikolai Levichev was elected party leader after Mironov was removed from the position. In May 2011, Mironov was removed from his position of Chairman of the Federation Council.
In August 2011, the party published its manifesto, announcing its transition to full opposition to the authorities.