Russian political parties put forward candidates in presidential and State Duma elections. Nominations of presidential candidates can be supported by one or more political parties recognized by the Russian Ministry of Justice. Any one president can be elected for a maximum of two six-year terms (extended from two four-year terms in December of 2008.) In State Duma elections, candidates are elected by proportional representation to 450 seats in the State Duma for a period of five years (extended from four-years in December 2008). To gain a seat in the Duma, a party has to win at least 5% of the vote. The other half of the Federal Assembly, the Federation Council, has 2 seats per region and a total of 178 non-elected members.  

List of political parties in Russia 

2008 Presidential elections
In March 2008 presidential elections, winner Dmitry Medvedev was backed by United Russia, the Agrarian Party, Fair Russia, The Russian Ecological Party – “The Greens and Civilian Power. His closest rival, Genady Zyuganov represented the Communist Party, third place Vladimir Zhirinovsky the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia and fourth place Andrei Bogdanov the Democratic Party of Russia.

2007 State Duma elections
 In the Russian State Duma elections that took place December 2, 2007 United Russia dominated the poll, winning 64.3% of the vote, which equaled 315 seats in the State Duma. Other parties to pass the 5% threshold and win seats in the State Duma were: The Communist Party of the Russian Federation, which won 11.57% of the vote and 57 seats; The Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, which won 8.14% of the vote and 40 seats; and Fair Russia, which won 7.74% of the vote and 38 seats.
 Parties which failed to win seats in the election included The Agrarian party of Russia 2.3%, The Russian Democratic Party Yabloko 1.59%, Civilian Power 1.05%, The Union of Right Forces 0.96%, Patriots of Russia 0.89%, the Party of Social Justice 0.22% and the Democratic Party of Russia 0.13%.

2003 State Duma elections
In the 2003 Duma elections four parties passed the 5% threshold: United Russia with 37.5% of the vote, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation with 12.6%, the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia with 11.45% and Rodina with 9%

Dominating the Duma
Since the formation of United Russia in December 2001, it has been the dominant political party in Russia. Supporting first President Putin, and now his successor President Medvedev, it dominates the State Duma. Since the conflict between then president Boris Yeltsin and the State Duma in Autumn of 1993, the Kremlin had been seeking to extend its influence in the State Duma. The State Duma’s lack of accountability to the presidency represented a check on the president’s power. Attempts to promote pro-presidential parties in the 1993 and 1995 State Duma elections failed, when the selected parties did not win more than a quarter of the vote. United Russia’s dominance rests on the high levels of popularity of President Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, and close cooperation between the party and the President’s office.

Key legislation
The key legislation governing the formation and registration of political parties in Russia is the federal law “On Political Parties,” which came into effect on July 14, 2001. The original document stated that an organization that consistently takes part in elections, has a membership of at least 10,000 and branches in at least 50 regions, with each branch having a membership of at least 100, was considered to be a party.
 An updated version of the law "On Political Parties & Movements" which came into force at the beginning of January 2006, requires each political party to have a minimum of 50,000 members and more than 45 regional branches with a minimum membership of 500 each.

The law on political Parties of the Russian federation. Further information and updates on amendments are available on The Ministry of Justice website (in Russian).

History of Political Parties in Russia
In the Soviet Union the one-party system was enshrined in the constitution, which declared the Communist Party of the Soviet Union “the nutshell of the political system of the country.”  Attempts to create the first non-communist parties date back to 1988, for example the Democratic Union of Valeria Novodvorskaya, the National-Patriotic Front Pamyat. But the first officially registered non-communist party was Vladimir Zhirinovsky’s Liberal-Democratic party of the Soviet Union, officially established in 1989.
 In the early 1990s many parties were established, but only the Communist party of the Russian Federation (KPRF), established in 1992, had a stable and wide grassroots structure as well as millions of members. During the 1990s and until now the KPRF was kept in check by the so-called parties of power. Unlike the KPRF, which was founded by former CPSU officials who were unwilling to adapt to the market economy and capitalized on the population’s discontent, these parties represented those members of the old elite who found their place in the new society and their rich and successful friends in the business and government structures. The first parties of power were political movements, not official political parties. In the early nineties it was the anti-communist Choice of Russia movement, headed by former liberal prime minister Yegor Gaidar. Then in 1995 the elite opted for a less liberal and less market-oriented movement in Our Home Is Russia, headed by the then prime-minister Viktor Chernomyrdin. In 1999, after Chernomyrdin’s resignation, Our Home Is Russia was replaced by Unity (Yedinstvo), a movement which defeated Vladimir Putin’s opponents in the parliamentary elections of December 1999 and helped Putin to the presidency in March 2000.  From 2000 to 2003, Unity merged with other pro-government political groupings and became the political party United Russia (Yedinaya Rossiya).  
 The liberal parties established in the 1990s have become less influential since 2000. The Yabloko party, established in 1993 and since then synonymous in the public’s mind with its leader Grigory Yavlinsky, consistently garnered from 5 to 7 per cent of the vote during the 1990s, criticizing the government and suggesting a “milder” version of economic reforms. But in December 2003 Yabloko received less than 5 per cent of the vote, and for the first time since 1993 was unable to form a faction in the Duma. In 2007, it received 1.59% of the vote.