A Russian opposition group calling for the ouster of strongman Vladimir Putin was finally legally registered Thursday after the Kremlin promised to ease restrictions on parties after protests. Vladimir Romanov, spokesman for the newly-formed coalition bringing together Parnas and the Russian Republican Party, said the party had been registered late last month. “The date on the registration certificate is July 31,” he told AFP. Parnas, which stands for Party for People’s Freedom, was founded in 2010 by Putin’s former prime minister Mikhail Kasyanov, deputy prime minister Boris Nemtsov, and other opposition figures. Its previous attempts to win legal registration had been unsuccessful. In June, it joined forces with the Russian Republican Party headed by former opposition lawmaker Vladimir Ryzhkov. Ryzhkov’s party was registered in May after a long legal battle that involved an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights. The new combined party is now called RPR-Parnas. The justice ministry on its website listed the party as “Russian Republican Party – The Party for People’s Freedom (Parnas)” among other registered parties.
