The Russian Unity (; ) was a

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

Crimea Crimea ( ) is a peninsula in Eastern Europe, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, almost entirely surrounded by the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov. The Isthmus of Perekop connects the peninsula to Kherson Oblast in mainland Ukrain ...

, registered in October 2008.Політична партія "Руська Єдність"
Database DATA A district court in

Kyiv Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

banned the party "from activity on the territory of Ukraine" on 30 April 2014. Party leader

Sergey Aksyonov Sergey Valeryevich Aksyonov (; ; ; born 26 November 1972) is a Russian politician serving as the head of the Republic of Crimea since 9 October 2014, a territory internationally recognised as part of Ukraine. Biography Sergey Aksyonov was ...

was instrumental in making possible the

annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation In February and March 2014, Russia invaded the Crimea, Crimean Peninsula, part of Ukraine, and then annexed it. This took place in the relative power vacuum immediately following the Revolution of Dignity. It marked the beginning of the Russ ...

.Putin signs order appointing Aksyonov interim head of Crimea

ITAR-TASS The Russian News Agency TASS, or simply TASS, is a Russian state-owned news agency founded in 1904. It is the largest Russian news agency and one of the largest news agencies worldwide. TASS is registered as a Federal State Unitary Enterpri ...

(15 April 2014) The party was based in

, which has a Russian-speaking majority. The party was dissolved on 5 May 2014. Although the party took positions on a number of issues, the party's main focus was Russian language rights and promoting Ukrainian relations with Russia before the 2014 Crimean Crisis, in which it became supportive of secession from Ukraine to join Russia; after this occurred, it merged into the Russian political party

United Russia The All-Russian Political Party United Russia (, ) is the Ruling party, ruling List of political parties in Russia, political party of Russia. As the largest party in the Russian Federation, it holds 325 (or 72.22%) of the 450 seats in the St ...

History

The party was founded in

Simferopol Simferopol ( ), also known as Aqmescit, is the second-largest city on the Crimea, Crimean Peninsula. The city, along with the rest of Crimea, is internationally recognised as part of Ukraine, but controlled by Russia. It is considered the cap ...

under the original name ''Vanguard'' () and registered by the

Ukrainian Ministry of Justice The Ministry of Justice of Ukraine (), Мінюст �країни Minjust f Ukraine is the main body in the system of central government of Ukraine that regulates state legal policy. It is one of the oldest ministerial offices of the country ...

in October 2008. In August 2010 they were renamed Russian Unity.Партія “Авангард" змінила назву та лідера організації
«ОГО» (17 September 2010) It won 3 seats (of the 100 in total) during the 2010 Crimean parliamentary election in the Supreme Council of Crimea. In the

2012 Ukrainian parliamentary election Parliamentary elections were held in Ukraine on 28 October 2012.Parli ...

the party competed in/for 4

constituencies An electoral (congressional, legislative, etc.) district, sometimes called a constituency, riding, or ward, is a geographical portion of a political unit, such as a country, state or province, city, or administrative region, created to provi ...

(seats), all of them located in the

Autonomous Republic of Crimea The Autonomous Republic of Crimea is a ''de jure'' administrative division of Ukraine encompassing most of Crimea that was unilaterally annexed by Russia in 2014. The Autonomous Republic of Crimea occupies most of the peninsula,"Russian Unity" candidates

RBC Ukraine RBC-Ukraine () is a Ukrainian news agency. Founded in 2006 as a division of the Russian media holding RBC Group (short for RosBusinessConsulting), it left in 2010 and in 2015 it completely came under the control of Ukrainian media businessman ...

but it won in none and thus missed parliamentary representation. The party's best result was in constituency 1 (located in

) with 9.12%. In constituency 2 (also located in Simferopol) it scored 4.12%, in constituency 6 (in

Feodosiya Feodosia (, ''Feodosiia, Teodosiia''; , ''Feodosiya''), also called in English Theodosia (from ), is a city on the Crimean coast of the Black Sea. Feodosia serves as the administrative center of Feodosia Municipality, one of the regions into w ...

) 4.11% and in constituency 10 (in

Bakhchysarai Bakhchysarai is a city in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Bakhchysarai Raion (district), as well as the former capital of the Crimean Khanate. Its main landmark is Hansaray, the only extant ...

) 2.28%. In 2014 the party was involved in protests and the seizure of government buildings, including the Supreme Council of Crimea (the parliament of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea), during the 2014 Crimean crisis. Party leader

was named Prime Minister of Crimea on 27 February 2014, and then called for a referendum on Crimea's autonomy. On 11 March Crimea adopted a

declaration of independence A declaration of independence is an assertion by a polity in a defined territory that it is independent and constitutes a state. Such places are usually declared from part or all of the territory of another state or failed state, or are breaka ...

and held on 17 March the

2014 Crimean status referendum The Crimean status referendum of 2014 was a disputed referendum on March 16, 2014, concerning the status of Crimea that was conducted in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol (both subdivisions of Ukraine) after Russ ...

that lead to the 21 March 2014

. The

Ministry of Justice of Ukraine The Ministry of Justice of Ukraine (), Мінюст �країни Minjust f Ukraine is the main body in the system of central government of Ukraine that regulates state legal policy. It is one of the oldest ministerial offices of the country ...

filed a lawsuit at the District Administrative Court in

for the ban of activities of the party (and also for a ban on the party Russian Bloc) on 23 April 2014.Justice asked the court to ban the party "Russian Block" and "Russian Unity"

UNIAN The Ukrainian Independent Information Agency of News () is a Kyiv-based Ukraine, Ukrainian news agency. It produces and provides political, business and financial information, and a photo reporting service. As of October 2022, it was the most v ...

(22 April 2014)
Justice Ministry of Ukraine wants to ban two pro-Russian parties
, Focus Information Agency (23 April 2014) On 30 April (2014) the Court banned the party "from activity on the territory of Ukraine".Court banned the party of Aksenov

Ukrayinska Pravda ''Ukrainska Pravda'' is a Ukrainian socio-political online media outlet founded by Heorhii Gongadze in April 2000. After Gongadze’s death in September 2000, the editorial team was led by co-founder Olena Prytula, who remained the editor-in ...

(2 April 2014) The Court stated that the signing of Aksenov of the treaty that formally sealed the

was evidence of " encroachment on the territorial integrity of Ukraine". In August 2014 the party signed a cooperation agreement with

Latvian Russian Union The Latvian Russian Union (LRU, , ) (LKS) is a political party in Latvia supported mainly by ethnic Russians and other Russian-speaking minorities. The co-chairpersons of the Latvian Russian Union were Miroslavs Mitrofanovs and Tatjana Ždanoka ...

, a Russian political party in

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

, to "strengthen the unity of the Russian world." The party was dissolved and merged into

on 5 May 2014.

Party leaders

* 2008–2010: Maksym Kovalenko * 2010–2014:

References

External links

* {{Russian nationalism 2008 establishments in Ukraine 2014 disestablishments in Ukraine Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation Banned political parties in Ukraine Defunct political parties in Ukraine Organizations of the Russo-Ukrainian War Political parties disestablished in 2014 Political parties established in 2008 Defunct political parties in Crimea Regionalist parties in Ukraine Russian political parties in Ukraine Russophilic parties in Ukraine Treason in Ukraine United Russia Political parties of minorities in Ukraine Political parties of minorities in Russia