Dozens of organizations are lining up to be registered as political parties, including some with catchy names like the Good People of Russia and Against All.
A total of 85 organizations have applied to the Justice Minstry after the Kremlin sent legislation to the State Duma to ease the requirements of establishing a party, the ministry said Thursday.
Many of the proposed parties have standard names like the National Conservative Party and the Social Party, the ministry's press service said in comments carried by Interfax. Two have asked to be registered as the Agrarian Party.
But some party names are uncommon. In addition to the Good People of Russia, applications have been filed for the Subtropical Party, the Rural Party, and the Russian Party of the Ten Commandments.
Noteably, two groups want to call themselves Against All — an option on ballots that used to be highly popular among voters.
The Duma removed the "against all" option from the ballot in 2006.
After sailing through the Duma, the legislation to liberalize party politics was passed by the Federation Council on Wednesday, and President Dmitry Medvedev is expected to sign it into law before he leaves office in May.
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