MOSCOW: The marginalised Russian opposition parties of slain Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov and arch Putin foe Alexei Navalny have announced they will form an alliance for legislative polls in 2016.

Nemtsov’s RPR-Parnas and Navalny’s Party of Progress said on Friday they are joining forces to put forward joint candidates at local elections this year and parliamentary polls next year.

In a statement the two parties accused the authorities under President Vladimir Putin of establishing an authoritarian system that had wiped out opposition, wrecked the economy and plunged the country into a conflict in Ukraine.

The fatal shooting of Nemtsov just yards from the Kremlin on February 27 had shown definitively that rule of law had broken down, the statement said.

The two parties said they were therefore coming together “on a joint platform that does not accept lies, corruption, aggression”, said a joint statement from Navalny and ex-prime minister Mikhail Kasyanov, a co-leader of Nemtso’vs party.

They said that they expected other opposition parties to join their platform.

Russia’s beleaguered opposition has been sidelined during Putin’s 15 years at the helm and does not have any representation in the Duma parliament.

Published in Dawn, April 19th, 2015

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