The Union of Right Forces (SPS; , Sojuz pravyh sil , СПС ) was a Russian liberal-conservative State Duma deputy Anton Bakov joined the SPS. A number of SPS candidates came second in single-mandate electoral districts the party had previously held, such as Irina Khakamada in St. Petersburg, Vladimir V. Kara-Murza in Moscow, or Boris Nadezhdin in the Moscow Oblast. Despite allegations of fraud, Boris Nemtsov accepted responsibility for the election defeat and resigned as SPS leader in January 2004. On 28 May 2005 Nikita Belykh was elected as the new leader of the party.

Plans to merge with Yabloko were shelved in late 2006.

The party won 0.96% of votes in the 2007 elections, not breaking the 7% barrier, and thus received no seats in the Duma.

In 2008, Nikita Belyh left his chair to Leonid Gozman. On 1 October 2008, the federal political council of the party voted to dissolve the party and merge it with Civilian Power and Democratic Party of Russia, forming a new liberal-democratic party called Right Cause, which succeeded the SPS as a member of the International Democracy Union.

Political public organization (2011–present)

In 2011, a group of former members accused the Right Cause of being too close to the Russian government under Vladimir Putin and refounded the SPS, registering it as a political public organization. As a consequence, the International Democracy Union suspended the membership of the Right Cause and returned it to the new SPS.

On 27 February 2014, the SPS formally condemned the 2014 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Electoral results

Presidential

{| class=wikitable style=text-align:center

|-

! rowspan="2" |Election

! rowspan="2" |Candidate

! colspan="2" scope="col" |First round

! colspan="2" |Second round

! rowspan="2" |Result

|-

!Votes

!%

!Votes

!%

|-

!2000

|align=left| Endorsed Vladimir Putin

|39,740,434

|52.94

|colspan=2

|

|-

!2004

|Irina Khakamada

|2,671,313

|3.84

|colspan=2

|

|-

!2008

|

|colspan=5|Withdrew from the elections, supported Kasyanov

|}

State Duma

{| class=wikitable style=text-align:center

|-

! rowspan="2" |Election

! rowspan="2" |Party leader

! colspan="5" scope="col" |Performance

! rowspan="2" |Rank

! rowspan="2" |Government

|-

!Votes

!%

!± pp

!Seats

!+/–

|-

!1999

|Sergey Kiriyenko

|5,677,247

|

|New

|

|New

| 4th

|

|-

!2003

|Boris Nemtsov

|6,944,322

|

| 4.45

|

| 26

| 6th

|

|-

!2007

|Nikita Belykh

|2,408,535

|

| 3.01

|

| 3

| 8th

|

|-

|}

See also

  • Liberalism
  • Liberal parties by country
  • Liberal democracy
  • Liberalism in Russia
  • Union of Left Forces

Notes

References

  • Union of Right Forces official site