Liberal Russia Party To Attract Car Owners for Election Campaign

The majority of Russian parties are unable to overcome the minimum level

The pre-election campaign will be officially launched next week in Russia. It goes without saying, it is a lot harder for newcomers to win: one has to work at the Duma for four years, to make the electorate remember them. Yet, there is an obstacle of the minimum five-percent votes to make for the elections. The majority of Russian parties are unable to overcome it. Liberal Russia will probably become one of such parties.

Liberal Russia Party chaired by Viktor Pokhmelkin, the leader of the Russian Movement of Car Drivers, has formed an election bloc with Advancing Russia and Republican Party (chaired by Boris Fyodorov and Vladimir Lysenko respectively). The new association will be called New Course - Car Russia.

Liberal Russia's rating is extremely low, the maximum that the party can hope for is one percent of votes. Sergey Yushenkov's assassination, scandals with oligarch Boris Berezovsky did not bring any good results for the party. Experts say, Viktor Pokhmelkin's party will be an outsider at the parliamentary elections in December. Liberal Russia failed to become the party of the middle class (there is no middle class in Russia), that is why its members decided to pay attention to car-owners.

Thirty million of car-owners and their families - this is a rather important argument to struggle for a place at the Duma. This is the reason why the new bloc included the word "car" in the title. Spokespeople for Liberal Russia do not deny the purpose to attract the electorate.

Boris Berezovsky's part of Liberal Russia does not sit on its hands either. It was outlawed by Russia's Justice Ministry, which was like a death sentence to Berezovsky. Gazeta.Ru wrote, the oligarch was conducting negotiations with a small party, which had been registered by the ministry. Allegedly, the party is ready to cooperate. Supposedly, it goes about either the united party Rus, which has too many television and street advertising (which is rather suspicious), or the Conservative Party of Russia.

At the same time, the oligarch is looking for a one-mandate region for himself. Berezovsky has suggestions from 20 regions, but he is choosing from only three. They are Karachayevo-Cherkessia, Khakasia and the Kingiseppsky district of the Leningrad region. The last suggestion was received from Estonia, whose residents of the Russian citizenship are registered there. The oligarch is to make his final choice during the coming two weeks.