Businesses in Russia that lend support to the opposition are being subjected to harassment, former finance minister Alexei Kudrin said on Friday.

“There have been numerous instances of businesses coming under pressure for supporting serious opposition parties,” he said.

He called for political tolerance, including the right of business groups to finance political parties.

“That is a key to competition,” Kudrin said, adding however that genuine competition in Russia was a long way off.

He cited the Right Cause party as an example of a Kremlin project gone wrong.

The Kremlin “did away” with the party “as soon as it stopped following orders,” he said.

Kudrin, who fell out with the Kremlin and was sacked as finance minister in September, said that he was planning to establish a new right-leaning party.