Three of Russia's smaller political parties are poised to merge, a party leader and the speaker of Russia's upper chamber of parliament said Tuesday. Sergei Mironov, who leads the Party of Life and is speaker of the Federation Council, said the move would unite the left-leaning Party of Life and Rodina (Motherland) with the Party of Pensioners.
"This new association is aiming for the same political segment as United Russia, so competition between us is inevitable," said Oleg Morozov (United Russia), first deputy speaker of the upper house of the Russian parliament.
He ruled out any coalition between United Russia and the new party.
"No electoral coalitions are possible either with the new party or with any other party," he said. "Mandates are not shared either with opponents or with allies."
Mironov said the new tri-party alliance would have about 500,000 members, bringing it close to Russia's traditional left-wing party, the Communist Party, which has 580,000 members.
Neither the Party of Life nor the Pensioners won enough votes in the 2003 election to take up seats in the lower chamber of parliament, the State Duma. The Communists won 12.6% of the vote.
But Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov said the new party would seek to capture left-leaning votes.
"They will dance on the left flank," he said. "Other segments have already been divvied up."
He said the electoral mood both in Russia and in the rest of the world has shifted to the left, and that the new party was attempting to address this change. He said the new party did not differ from United Russia in any way.
According to Zyuganov, the new party would not be independent in its decision making, nor would it be able to clear the 7% hurdle in the 2007 parliamentary election without resorting to "sleight of hand."
Zyuganov said the Communist's task was to "debunk this contrived creation."
