Liberal opposition parties to unite for elections to Moscow city legislature

A handful of parties from Russia's beleaguered liberal opposition on Tuesday announced plans to unite before December elections to the Moscow city legislature, and called for a broader coalition of democratic forces to take part in the 2007-2008 parliamentary and presidential campaigns.

The liberal parties Yabloko, the Union of Right Forces, the Union of Russia's Greens and the United People's Party of Soldiers' Mothers have agreed to run for Moscow's legislature jointly on Yabloko's ticket with a pledge to fight President Vladimir Putin's "authoritarian and bureaucratic regime."

"Democracy has frozen, its needs to be rebooted," Union of Right Forces leader Nikita Belykh told a news conference, using computer slang, according to the AP.

His party and Yabloko were pushed out of the national parliament in December 2003 elections, a major blow to liberal forces that have struggled to regroup.

T.E.