Unity (Russian political party)

Not to be confused with Conceptual Party "Unity".

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Political party in Russia

Unity Единство

Leader	Sergei Shoigu
President of Russia	Vladimir Putin
Founded	3 October 1999; 25 years ago (1999-10-03)
Dissolved	1 December 2001; 23 years ago (2001-12-01)
Split from	Our Home – Russia
Merged into	United Russia
Headquarters	Moscow
Youth wing	Youth Unity
Ideology	Conservatism Fiscal conservatism Putinism Russian nationalism Centrism (disputed)
Political position	Right-wing
Colours	Blue
Slogan	"Unity is our strength"
Website
edin.ru (archived)
Politics of Russia Political parties Elections

Unity (Russian: Еди́нство, romanized: Yedinstvo) was a Russian political party that was created on 3 October 1999, supported by Russia’s President Boris Yeltsin, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and dozens of Russian governors to counter the threat which the Kremlin perceived from the Fatherland-All Russia alliance. It was also unofficially dubbed "Medved’" (the bear) or "Medvedi" (bears), as "MeDvEd" was an acronym of its full name (Mezhregionalnoye Dvizheniye "Edinstvo"; Interregional movement "Unity"). Later the party adopted a brown bear for its symbol.

History

The rise of Unity was meteoric given the short time period it had to create an identity, plan its campaign strategy and carry out its ambitious objectives. The establishment of the movement followed a declaration signed by 39 governors expressing their dissatisfaction with the political battles being fought in Russia. The initial meeting of these governors to form a new electoral movement was held on 24 September 1999. It was at this meeting that Minister of Emergency Situations Sergey Shoigu was selected as Unity’s leader.

Prime Minister Putin immediately pledged support for the new bloc, saying it could help stabilize the political situation in Russia. On 24 November 1999 he told reporters that in his capacity as premier, he "should not define his political preferences" with respect to election blocs but "as an ordinary citizen" he would vote for Unity. The party’s leading candidates in 1999 State Duma elections were Sergey Shoigu, nine-times world wrestling champion Alexander Karelin and former senior police official Alexander Gurov. Unity, backed up by popular support for the Second Chechen War, relied on a campaign of verbal attacks to discredit the Fatherland-All Russia alliance. It was also heavily promoted by the ORT TV channel and especially "Sergey Dorenko's Program".

In the 19 December 1999 State Duma election, Unity received 23.32 percent of the vote and won 72 of 441 seats, just behind the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. Later ten more seats joined the faction. Shoigu remained Emergencies Minister and did not go into the new State Duma. On January 12, 2000 the party elected Boris Gryzlov leader of its faction.

The party supported Vladimir Putin in the 2000 presidential election.

In 2001 the same party has created a formal alliance with three other factions represented in the State Duma: Fatherland-All Russia and People's Deputy and Russia's Regions groups, themselves an alliance composed of single-member district deputies who avoided joining one of the party-based factions in that State Duma Convocation. In April of that year the Unity party and the Fatherland - All Russia movement decided to unite into a single political party, United Russia.

Electoral results

Presidential

Election	Candidate	First round		Second round		Result
Election	Candidate	Votes	%	Votes	%	Result
2000	Endorsed Vladimir Putin	39,740,434	52.94	—		Won

State Duma

Election	Party leader	Performance					Rank	Government
Election	Party leader	Votes	%	± pp	Seats	+/–	Rank	Government
1999	Sergey Shoigu	15,549,182	23.32	New	73 / 450	New	2nd	Majority

References

Current Politics and Economics of Russia, Eastern and Central Europe. Nova Science Publishers. 2000.
Nordsieck, Wolfram. "Russia". Parties and Elections in Europe. Archived from the original on 20 October 2003.
Roı̆ Aleksandrovich Medvedev; Roy Aleksandrovich Medvedev; George Shriver, eds. (2000). Post-Soviet Russia: A Journey Through the Yeltsin Era. Columbia University Press.
^ "Sudden rise of the Unity party". BBC News. BBC. 20 December 1999. Retrieved 8 September 2015.
Thomas Remington (2008). "Patronage and the Party of Power: President–Parliament Relations Under Vladimir Putin". Europe-Asia Studies. 60 (6): 972. doi:10.1080/09668130802161215. S2CID 154627794.

External links

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