Civilian Power was a liberal

Liberalism

Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...

 political party in the Russian Federation, which prior to February 2007 was called Free Russia.

According to data from Rosregistration, the party has 55,063 members. The symbol of the party is a sunflower

Sunflower

Sunflower is an annual plant native to the Americas. It possesses a large inflorescence . The sunflower got its name from its huge, fiery blooms, whose shape and image is often used to depict the sun. The sunflower has a rough, hairy stem, broad, coarsely toothed, rough leaves and circular heads...

.

The main ideological postulates are:

• A Free citizen is the highest value.
• Private property
  Private property
  Private property is the right of persons and firms to obtain, own, control, employ, dispose of, and bequeath land, capital, and other forms of property. Private property is distinguishable from public property, which refers to assets owned by a state, community or government rather than by...
  
   is the base of economical development of Russia.
• The state
  State (polity)
  A state is an organized political community, living under a government. States may be sovereign and may enjoy a monopoly on the legal initiation of force and are not dependent on, or subject to any other power or state. Many states are federated states which participate in a federal union...
  
   is a defender of its citizens and a guarantor of stability.

According to the chairman of the Federal Political Council Alexander Ryavkin, "the party expresses interests of Russian responsible business, Russian intelligentsia

Intelligentsia

The intelligentsia is a social class of people engaged in complex, mental and creative labor directed to the development and dissemination of culture, encompassing intellectuals and social groups close to them...

 — people of science and culture, technical intelligentsia, people who form the Russian middle class

Middle class

The middle class is any class of people in the middle of a societal hierarchy. In Weberian socio-economic terms, the middle class is the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the working class and upper class....

". The party enjoys good relations with Vladimir Putin

Vladimir Putin

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin served as the second President of the Russian Federation and is the current Prime Minister of Russia, as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when...

's government.

The organization was called the Network Party for Support of the Small and Middle Business in 2003/2004, then renamed Free Russia, and in 2007 changed to Civilian Power.

Members of the political council include:

• Mikhail Barshchevsky
  Mikhail Barshchevsky
  Mikhail Yurevich Barshchevsky , plenipotentiary representative of the Russian Federation in the Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court and the Higher Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation....
  
  
• Valdis Pelsh
  Valdis Pelsh
  Valdis Pelsh is a TEFI-awarded Soviet and Russian television presenter of Latvian descent and Zolotoi Grammofon-awarded musical artist. Valdis Pelsh currently works as a screen actor and manages child programms subdivision on Channel One...
  
  
• Tatyana Ustinova
  Tatyana Ustinova
  Tatyana Ustinova was a Soviet geologist, who discovered Valley of Geysers in Kamchatka.- Biography :...
  
  
• Maxim Kononenko
  Maxim Kononenko
  Maksim Kononenko is a Russian journalist, writer, TV show host, and political activist, computer programmer. Known on the Internet as "Mr...
  
  

History

The "Free Russia" party was created in 2004, based on small and medium-sized Russian businesses. On October 8, 2006, the party overtook the 7% barrier on the legislative elections in Novgorod District. In November 2006, the 6th party conference was held. On February 27, 2007, Mikhail Barchevsky, the chairman and plenipotentary of the High Council of the Russian government, held a press conference. This was in aid of the party principles of Civilian Power. In the middle of April 2007, an organizational conference was held.

The chairman of the High Council is plenipotentiary of the Government of Russia in Constitutional, Supreme and Highest Arbitral Courts Mikhail Barshchevsky

Mikhail Barshchevsky

Mikhail Yurevich Barshchevsky , plenipotentiary representative of the Russian Federation in the Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court and the Higher Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation....

 (a member since December 2006). The chairman of the Federal Political Council is Alexander Ryavkin.

The party won 1.05% of votes in the 2007 elections

Russian legislative election, 2007

Legislative elections were held in the Russian Federation on 2 December 2007. At stake were the 450 seats in the State Duma, the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia . Eleven parties were included in the ballot, including Russia's largest party, United Russia, which was supported by...

, not breaking the 7% barrier, and thus no seats in duma

Duma

A Duma is any of various representative assemblies in modern Russia and Russian history. The State Duma in the Russian Empire and Russian Federation corresponds to the lower house of the parliament. Simply it is a form of Russian governmental institution, that was formed during the reign of the...

.

Civilian Power supported Dmitri Medvedev as their candidate in the presidential election

Russian presidential election, 2008

The Russian Presidential election of 2008, held on March 2, 2008 resulted in the election of Dmitry Medvedev as the third President of Russia. Medvedev, whose candidacy was supported by incumbent president Vladimir Putin and five political parties , received 71% of the vote, and defeated...

 in 2008.

It merged with Union of Right Forces

Union of Right Forces

The Union of Right Forces, or SPS , was a Russian democratic opposition party associated with free market reforms, privatization, and the legacy of the 'Young Reformers' of the 1990s: Anatoly Chubais, Boris Nemtsov, and Yegor Gaidar. Nikita Belykh was the last party's leader...

 and the Democratic Party of Russia

Democratic Party of Russia

The Democratic Party of Russia or DPR is a former Russian political party that existed between 1990 and 2008. It was founded by Nikolai Travkin. It initially featured Stanislav Govorukhin and Sergey Glazyev, was a prominent democratically-oriented party, member of the Democratic Russia coalition,...

 to form Right Cause

Right Cause

Right Cause is a political party in Russia with representatives in several local legislatures. Founded on 18 February 2009 as a merger of the Union of Right Forces, Civilian Power and the Democratic Party of Russia, the party's main policy stances are liberal free market economy, democracy and...

on 16 November 2008.

External links

• Civilian Power, official site (in Russian)