United Civil Front (UCF; russian: Объединённый гражданский фронт; ОГФ; ''Obyedinonnyy grazhdanskiy front'', ''OGF'') is a

social movement A social movement is a loosely organized effort by a large group of people to achieve a particular goal, typically a social or political one. This may be to carry out a social change, or to resist or undo one. It is a type of group action and may ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

founded and led by

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...

grandmaster

Garry Kasparov Garry Kimovich Kasparov (born 13 April 1963) is a Russian chess grandmaster, former World Chess Champion, writer, political activist and commentator. His peak rating of 2851, achieved in 1999, was the highest recorded until being surpassed by ...

. In 2006–2007 it was part of The Other Russia, an opposition coalition active in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

. Upon the organization's founding, in 2005, Kasparov stated that the UCF "will work to preserve

electoral An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operat ...

democracy Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation (" direct democracy"), or to choose gov ...

in Russia." Kasparov concluded the press conference by stating that, "The primary goal of the systemic opposition is to dismantle the currently existing system and create a free political floor on which free elections can be held in 2007–2008. The bottom line is to preserve the Russians’ right to elect a responsible government, both in presidential and

parliamentary A parliamentary system, or parliamentarian democracy, is a system of democracy, democratic government, governance of a sovereign state, state (or subordinate entity) where the Executive (government), executive derives its democratic legitimacy ...

elections."

Programme

The programme was accepted at the 3rd conference on February 25, 2006. it is founded on the four principles. Fair democratic elections #Competition of electoral programmes, removability and responsibility of the power. #Equal access of the parties to mass-media. #Change electoral system from

party-list proportional representation Party-list proportional representation (list-PR) is a subset of proportional representation electoral systems in which multiple candidates are elected (e.g., elections to parliament) through their position on an electoral list. They can also be us ...

majoritarian Majoritarianism is a traditional political philosophy or agenda that asserts that a majority (sometimes categorized by religion, language, social class, or some other identifying factor) of the population is entitled to a certain degree of primac ...

. Restoration of

federalism Federalism is a combined or compound mode of government that combines a general government (the central or "federal" government) with regional governments (Province, provincial, State (sub-national), state, Canton (administrative division), can ...

#To restore federal mechanism of the government. #To liquidate a dangerous disbalance in population incomes between

and other regions. #To return democratic local self-government. #The democratic solution of problems in the national republics. Elimination of

Nomenklatura The ''nomenklatura'' ( rus, номенклату́ра, p=nəmʲɪnklɐˈturə, a=ru-номенклатура.ogg; from la, nomenclatura) were a category of people within the Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc countries who held various key admi ...

system #Reduction of presidential powers. #Liquidation of system of privileges and preferences for civil servants of all echelons. #Liquidation of the Presidential Administration, reduction of staff and functions of the president office. #Enact into law for secret services' intrusion in a social life and government. #Act of disqualification for the present high-ranking officials and secret services chiefs. #Enact into law the criminal liability for illegal enrichment of public persons and civil servants according to the United Nations Convention against Corruption. Government for people, but not people for government #To repay old government debts to the citizens. #To establish social priority of the state budget. #To implement the constitutional and human rights. #To extirpate social discrimination. #To cancel compulsory military service; to make army professional. Discontinue internal military forces. #To ensure access of citizens to all information on activity and decisions of the state and local governments.

Events

The UCF participated in the organisation of almost all the

Dissenters March The Dissenters' March (russian: Марш несогласных) was a series of Russian opposition protests that took place on December 16, 2006 in Moscow, on March 3, 2007 in Saint Petersburg, on March 24 in Nizhny Novgorod, on April 14 for t ...

es. One member of the

Murmansk Murmansk (Russian: ''Мурманск'' lit. "Norwegian coast"; Finnish: ''Murmansk'', sometimes ''Muurmanski'', previously ''Muurmanni''; Norwegian: ''Norskekysten;'' Northern Sámi: ''Murmánska;'' Kildin Sámi: ''Мурман ланнҍ'') i ...

branch of the United Civil Front,

Larisa Arap Larisa Arap (russian: Лари́са Ива́новна Ара́п; born in 1958) is a Russian opposition activist who became a victim of involuntary commitment in the psychiatric facilities of Murmansk and Apatity, soon after publishing her a ...

, is believed to be victim of psychiatric abuse.Case of Larisa Arap (in Russian), http://grani.ru/dossier/m.125365.html In 2010 UCF activists held pickets in Moscow to support the Internet campaign

Putin must go "Putin Must Go" () is a Russian website and public campaign organised for the collection of signatures to an open letter demanding the resignation of President of Russia, President (formerly Prime Minister of Russia, Prime Minister) Vladimir Put ...

References

{{Reflist

External links

The UCF official site
(in Russian)
Manifesto of the United Civil Front
(in Russian) Opposition to Vladimir Putin Politics of Russia Liberalism in Russia Liberal parties in Russia Russian democracy movements