The Russian Justice Ministry has agreed to register Russia’s Republican Party - the liberal party which was banned in 2007.

      The party's leader Vladimir Ryzhkov and the Ministry have come to an agreement, which now has to be officially formalized by the Supreme Court. No timeframe for that process was given.

      The Republican Party will become Russia’s eighth political party and the first to be registered by the Justice Ministry since 2008, when the Right Cause was registered.

      The Russian Republican Party was established in 1990 and played rather notable role on the country’s political scene throughout the 1990s and the early 2000s. But In 2007 it was banned by the Supreme Court, because of the government’s attempt to weed out minor parties by tightening requirements for nationwide representation and membership.

      The party continued its work being unregistered and even became a co-founder of another unregistered liberal party, Parnas, in 2010. Vladimir Ryzhkov is one of active organizers of the number of protest actions held in Moscow between December and March. 

      The European Court of Human Rights ruled the ban on the Republicans illegal in 2011, but the government ignored the verdict. Changes in the officials' treatment of the opposition force began only after Dmitry Medvedev's personal order. It is also the "first swallow" announcing the coming law about liberalization of political parties' registration.  

Sources: mega-mir.com RIA Novosti Image: slon.ru