Russian opposition politician and Kremlin critic Aleksei Navalny plans to establish a new political party, the lawyer of his Anticorruption Foundation, Ivan Zhdanov, says.
Zhdanov posted on Twitter on April 3 an official letter by the Justice Ministry dated March 29 confirming that the documents had been filed with the ministry to hold the founding congress of a new political party titled Rabocheye Nazvaniye, which can be translated as either Working Name or Provisional Title.
Zhdanov wrote on Twitter that the founding congress of the new party will be held on May 19, adding that "since the [party's] name was taken from us, the party's name will be provisional until the congress."
The Justice Ministry said last month that Navalny's former supporter, Vitaly Serukanov, had registered a new party, called Party of Progress. In the past, the ministry refused six times to register Navalny's party under that name.
Navalny, a vocal foe of Russian President Vladimir Putin who has organized large street protests on several occasions and published a series of reports alleging corruption in Russia's ruling elite, was barred from the March presidential race due to a conviction on financial-crimes charges he contends were fabricated by the Kremlin to sideline him.
