Political parties of the Russian Federation

Russia has a multi-party system. Currently there are four parties that make up the Federal Parliament, the State Duma, with one dominant party (United Russia).

The formation and registration of political parties in Russia is supervised by the federal law «On political parties» (2001). This law defined a political party as an organization that must take part in elections and have a membership of 40,000 and branches in at least 50 regions of the country.

In 2012 President Dmitry Medvedev initiated a bill that reduced some of the restrictions. According to the new federal law a political party requires for registration only 500 members. It simplified the restrictions on party activities and the registration process. The new law was approved by the two Houses of the Federal Assembly of Russia and then it was signed by President D. Medvedev in May.

Active vocabulary

branch – отделение

to simplify – упрощать

restriction – ограничение

to sign – подписывать

2 Work in pairs. Each pair will find out the information about one political party. Complete the table and present the details to the others. Turn to Section 1 of the Appendix.

Currently represented political parties in the State Duma

Name		Abbr.	Ideology	Leader	MPs
1	United Russia	ER ЕР	?	Dmitry Medvedev	?
2	Communist Party of the Russian Federation	KPRF КПРФ	The party's goals are to build a "new socialism" in Russia and to nationalize mineral resources.	?	92
3	Liberal Democratic Party of Russia	LDPR ЛДПР	?	Vladimir Zhirinovsky	?
4	A Just Russia	SR СР	A Just Russia's platform is based on the principles of fairness, freedom and solidarity.	?	64

Speaking

Which of the following statements do you agree with? Compare your opinions in group.

1. You can’t believe most of what politicians promise during the politician campaign.

2. Most people think that it is useless to take part in the Presidential elections.

3. The term of the presidency must be shortened.

4. Young people should be interested in politics and political events of the country they live in.

5. Powers tend to be corrupt and absolute power tends to corrupt absolutely.

S tates and Systems

United Kingdom

1 Match political people and places.

1. This person is the head of the government.

2. This person is the head of the state.

3. These people are elected to represent their areas (known as constituencies). They are also known as MPs.

4. This place is where the Parliament meets.

5. This is the name of the main right-wing party.

6. This is the name of the main left-wing party.

_______________________________________________________________

The Queen / The Conservative Party / The Prime Minister / Members of Parliament / The Houses of Parliament / The Labour Party

Reading 1