Court upholds cancellation of Navalny party registration
MOSCOW. June 3 (Interfax) - The Moscow Zamoskvoretsky Court has upheld the decision made by the Justice Ministry, which cancelled the state registration of Alexei Navalny's Progress Party, an Interfax correspondent has reported, citing a decision made by Justice Nelli Rubtsova and read on Wednesday after the claim filed by the party's representative Dmitry Krainev had been considered.
The court declined the claim filed by the Progress Party, which had asked the court to invalidate the Justice Ministry's decision to cancel its registration.
The Justice Ministry press service said on April 28 that the Progress Party's state accreditation was cancelled based on the Justice Ministry's decision. The press service said that the federal law On Political Parties requires parties to register their departments in at least half of the regions of the Russian federation within six months from the state registration of the party.
The Progress Party reported the registration of 44 offices in the Russian regions to the Justice Ministry in October 2014. The regional offices were only registered within the established six-month period in 16 regions and the offices in three regions were registered after the period ended and after territorial bodies of the Justice Ministry made decisions to suspend the state registration of the regional divisions.
In 25 regions of Russia, the offices were registered after the six-month period ended and the party filed lawsuits seeking the invalidation of the decisions made by the territorial bodies of the Justice Ministry.
Court decisions upholding the actions taken by the territorial bodies of the Justice Ministry have now taken legal effect, the Justice Ministry press service said.