The Establishment Of A Single Centrist Party To Be Discussed In Moscow

Russia's Unity Party will hold its 3rd congress and the Unity-Fatherland Union will hold its 2nd congress in Moscow on Saturday. Both congresses will discuss preparations for the unification of Unity and the Fatherland and All Russia movements into a single centrist party. The Unity congress will be attended by about 1,000 delegates from the party's 89 regional organisations. According to the acting chairman of the party's Political Council, Franz Klintsevich, the delegates are to make a decision on Unity's participation in the establishment of a single centrist party. Unity leader Sergei Shoigu, who heads the Ministry for Emergency Situations, has said that centrists have a common approach to the solution of the most important problems facing the country. "All forces in the centre that are following parallel roads will, ultimately, embark on one path," he said. Klintsevich said "the centrists are uniting because, objectively, they have common values." Delegates to the congress of the Unity-Fatherland Union are to make a decision on the admission of the All Russia movement into the Union, and to set a date for the constituent congress of a unified centrist party. The new party, based on Unity, Fatherland and All Russia, is expected to be established at a constituent congress in early December.