Overview: The NDR has created an informal bloc with the Union of Cossacks led by Aleksandr Martynov ("Red" Cossacks) and the Union of Land Farmers, led by Vladimir Bashmachnikov. The great political advantages of the NDR are neutralized by its bureaucratic style which makes it less attractive in the eyes of the electorate.
Top three Candidates in the Federal Party List: Viktor Chernomyrdin (57); Film Director Nikita Mikhalkov (50); General Lev Rokhlin (48), hero of the Chechnya war.
Political Orientation: The association calls itself a centrist political group, but in reality it provides an organizational umbrella for the "ruling party", whose representatives may have different views (ranging from pro-Gaidar to pro-Zyuganov), but have shared interests. The association is headed by the leaders of the two most powerful lobbies: the fuel and energy sector (Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin) and the metallurgical sector (First Vice-Premier Oleg Soskovets). The NDR movement's council includes more than 40 heads of regional and territorial administrations, presidents and prime ministers of republics within the RF.
Leading Candidates in the Federal Party list: Chairman of State Property Committee, Sergei Beliaev; stage director Galina Volchek; V.Bashmachnikov; A.Martynov; Chairman of the State Committee for Higher Education, Vladimir Kinelyov; President of Kalmykia Kirsan Iliumzhinov; former first secretary of Checheno-Ingushetia Doku Zavgaev, 54, currently head of the Chechen Republic; Pyotr Fedosov, ataman of the Cossacks of the Caucasian Line; former governor of the Sverdlovsk region, Aleksei Strakhov; Culture Minister Yevgeny Sidorov; head of the Tomsk region administration Viktor Kress; first deputy of Moscow Mayor Luzhkov, Vladimir Resin; the wife of St Petersburg's Mayor Sobchak, Liudmila Narusova, 44, an associate professor with the Academy of Culture; actor Mikhail Boyarsky; and about 20 deputies of the previous State Duma (including Nikolai Travkin, Aleksandr Shokhin and Aleksei Aleksandrov).
The closest equivalent to the NDR in the outgoing Duma was the group of 36 deputies called "New Regional Policy - Duma-96".
Overview: An association of the supporters of Vice-Premier Sergei Shakhrai, PRES was created in 1993 by Shakhrai as a party promoting the interests of the regions. It is pursuing a referendum for private owner ship of land.
Top three Candidates in the Federal Party list: Sergey Shakhrai, 39, leader of the Duma faction of PRES; biochemist Valery Bykov, 57, Academician, director general of the All-Russian Center of Herbal and Aromatic Plants and custodian of the mummified body of Lenin; Director General of the Siberian Interegional Association, Vladimir Ivankov.
Political Orientation: Initially PRES was within the NDR but because the latter's list of candidates for the State Duma offered the party no firm Duma seats (only Shakhrai was offered seventh or eighth place in the federal part of the list), PRES resigned collective membership of the NDR and presented its own ticket for the elections.
Leading Candidates in the Federal Party list: Chairman of the Board of Directors of the International Industrial Bank Sergei Pugachyov, Deputy Nationalities Minister Aleksandr Kotenkov; journalist Fyodor Burlatsky; State Duma deputies Anatoly Sliva and Aleksandr Turbanov.
In the previous State Duma the PRES faction had 12 deputies.
Overview: A party formed by Gossanepidemnadzor (State Epidemological Supervision Authority) and the Ministry of Ecology. It was formed on the eve of the 1993 elections. By the time of the 1995 elections it had attracted to its ranks some real vote-getters (actors, poets and show-men).
Top three Candidates in the Federal Party list: Chairman of the party Anatoly Panfilov, 44; actor and showman ("Pole Chudes" TV show) Leonid Yakubovich, 50; State Duma deputy and businessmanArtyom Tarasov, 45, who was involved in much-publicized scandals in the years of perestroika.
Political Orientation: Environmental organizations dislike KEDR (considering it to be pseudo-environmentalist) and do not support it in the elections. KEDR has formed an informal alliance with the Soldiers' Mothers of Russia movement led by Liubov Lymar.
Leading Candidates in the Federal Party list: Chief Editor of the Novy Mir journal, Sergei Zalygin; Chairman of the Board of the Flight Bank, Dmitry Usenko; Director of an anti-AIDS center, Vadim Pokrovsky.
Overview: The movement was created by V.Bauer (the Chairman of the organization committee of State Duma, who was expelled from Russia's Choice Party) and V.Kvasov, former chief of government staff (they currently figure on the lists of the Rybkin bloc and the Labor Alliance).
Top three Candidates in the Federal Party list: Rector of the Higher Commercial School of the Ministry for External Economic Relations, Viktor Burenin, 50; director general of the air corporation "Sukhoi" Mikhail Simonov; and Deputy Defence Minister Georgiy Kondratiev.
In the previous parliament Duma-96 was partly paralleled by the joint group of deputies New Regional Policy - Duma-96 (36 deputies).
Overview: Created around the Stability group of deputies after all the key Stability figures joined Our Home is Russia.
Top three Candidates in the Federal Party list: Former diplomat and former Chairman of the Foreign Ministry trade union, Oleg Petrov, 38; actress Elina Bystritskaya, 67; director general of the joint stock company Association of Servicemen 'Sodeistvie', Aleksandr Gorlov.
In the previous parliament Stable Russia had an equivalent in the group Stability (36 deputies), that appeared in spring 1995 as a result of the break up of Russia's Choice.
Overview: An organization created on the basis of the former Soviet Women's Committee and some organizations of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia (FNPR). Like NDR, it is so-called centrist party (slightly more conservative than NDR), in fact, representing the female half of the "ruling party."
Top three Candidates in the Federal Party list: Alevtina Fedulova, 55, former head of the All-Union Organization of Young Pioneers; Ekaterina Lakhova, 47; chairperson of the Presidential Commission on Women, Family and Demography; Galina Klimantova, chairman of State Duma Committee on Women and Family.
The Women of Russia faction held 20 seats in the previous parliament. Of these, 16 deputies were on the list of Women of Russia candidates.
Contact Address: Moscow 103265, Okhotniy Riad, 1, State Duma, Apt.447
Overview: The bloc of stragglers from the Russia's Choice movement and the Association of Independent Professionals, led by Pyotr Filippov.
Leaders: Co-chairmen of the movement, Duma deputies Pavel Medvedev and Valery Davydov; Chairman of the movement's executive committee, Vadim Zhelnin; and Pyotr Filippov.
Political Orientation: Supports Viktor Chernomyrdin whom the bloc's leaders see as a bulwark against a communist comeback. It is unclear why they decided to run on an independent ticket, apparently, they had gone too far to backtrack. They hope to get the votes of those who usually don't turn up at the polls and not to take them away from the democrats or the NDR.
Leading Candidates in the Federal Party list: The federal list is totally divided into regional groups; the Moscow list is topped by P.Medvedev, 55, deputy of the State Duma and V.Zhelnin; the Petersburg list by Pyotr Filippov, 50, former radical democratic people's deputy of the RSFSR.
Overview: The bloc was officially formed by the United Democratic Center headed by Ilya Roitman and Maksim Dianov and the All-Russian Tatar Cultural and Educational Center, headed by Fuat Yusupov. The leaders are Ilyia Roitman (former secretary of Travkin's Democratic Party); Maksim Dianov and the President's representative in Moscow Vladimir Komchatov. The initial idea of bloc - to unite independent candidates in the districts - turned out to be a misinterpretation of federal electoral law. According to Supreme Court interpretation, an independent candidate can not belong to federal list.
Political Orientation: Supports the liberal wing of the President's Administration. Participation in parliamentary elections is a supporting action, the main aim being to promote Yeltsin as candidate for re-election.
Leading Candidates in the Federal Party list: There is no federal part, the list being divided up between regional groups. The list includes I.Roitman, M.Dianov, F.Yusupov, V.Komchatov, and Yury Zaitsev, a member of the President's staff, deputy Chairman of Yakovlev's Russian Party of Social Democracy.
Overview: A bloc formed by the Congress of Civil Accord of Russia led by Abdulakh Mikitaev, the association of Russian Koreans and the Russian Christian-Democratic Party led by Aleksandr Chuev.
Leader: Chairman of the Presidential Commission for Citizenship Matters, Abdullakh Mikitayev; and president of the Association of Russian Koreans, Chairman of the Presidium of the Congress of National Associations of Russia, Oleg Li.
Top three Candidates in the Federal Party list: A. Mikitaev, 53; Aleksandr Zaitsev, deputy of the State Duma (CPRF); and adviser to the Defense Ministry Makhmud Gareev, 72, former chief military adviser of the Najibullah regime in Afghanistan.
Political Orientation: The bloc has already declared that it will promote Yeltsin for President. Its main aim is to divert the ethnic vote from the opponents of the "ruling party."
Leading Candidates in the Federal Party list: O.Li, chief editor of the Jewish Gazette Tankred Golenpolsky. The second line in the initial list was occupied by writer Albert Likhanov, who has since left the bloc.
Top three Candidates in the Federal Party list: Aleksei Malayev, 53, Chairman of the Saratov Region Bar Association; Gasan Mirzoyev, 48, President of the Guild of Russian Lawyers; deputy of the Federation Council Anatoly Fedoseyev.
Political Orientation: A corporate-type organization headquartered in Saratov. The main aim of participating in the elections is to project the image of its organization and give added political clout to the association's leaders.
Overview: The organization unites the officials of the Utilities Sector. It was set up in early 1995.
Top three Candidates in the Federal Party List: Leonid Chernyshov, President of the Utilities Workers' Union of Russia; Chief RF Government's Investment and Construction Department, Pyotr Surov: and Director of the Construction Ministry's Utilities Department, Valery Avdeyev.
Political Orientation: Motives for entering the election race are unclear.
ELECTORAL BLOC INCLUDING THE LEADERS OF THE PENSIONERS AND VETERANS PROTECTION PARTY, THE PARTY TO ERADICATE CRIME - LAW AND ORDER, THE PARTY IN DEFENSE OF HEALTHCARE, EDUCATION, SCIENCE AND CULTURE, THE PARTY FOR THE PROTECTION OF YOUTH, THE ASSOCIATION OF FREE TRADE UNIONS, THE PARTY OF JUSTICE AND THE PARTY OF NATURE CONSERVATION
(also known as the "DZHUNA BLOC")
ELECTORAL BLOC INCLUDING THE LEADERS OF THE PARTY FOR THE PROTECTION OF CHILDREN (PEACE, WELLBEING AND HAPPINESS), THE RUSSIAN WOMEN PARTY, THE RUSSIAN ORTHODOX PARTY (LOVE, CHARITY AND HOPE), PARTY FOR THE ALLIANCE OF SLAVIC PEOPLES, PARTY OF RURAL WORKERS "MOTHER EARTH", PARTY FOR THE PROTECTION OF INVALIDS, PARTY OF VICTIMS OF OFFICIAL PERSECUTION AND THE DESTITUTE
(the "DIKUL BLOC", or "THE CAUSE OF PETER I")
Overview: These two blocs with long and like-sounding names owe their existence to the efforts of State Duma deputy Andrei Volkov who managed to lure the famous healer Dzhuna Davitashvili who attended to Brezhnev in his time, and famous chiropracter Valentin Dikul into the two respective blocs. None of the parties mentioned in the names of the blocs are registered with the Justice Ministry and some of them simply don't exist.
Leading Candidates in the Federal Party lists:
The list of the Juna Bloc was headed by Dzhuna Davitashvili, 46, an ESP expert; A.Volkov and President of the Handicapped Children Foundation "Our Generation" Aleksandr Pankratov-Chyorniy, 46, an actor. The Moscow list is headed by Aleksandr Ivanovich Lebed (namesake).
The list of the Dikul Bloc is headed by V.Dikul, director of the Center for the Rehabilitation of Patients with Spinal Injuries; President of the Fund for the Protection of Invalids Vadim Voevodin; and assistant to deputy Volkov Yan Koltunov; Roman Volkov, the father of A.Volkov, ranks fifth on the list; and Fyodor Uglov, 91, member of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, prominent surgeon and leader of the struggle against "Jews and Freemasons" in Siberia. The second in the list was director of Moscow Circus Yury Nikulin who had never knew of his nomination and asked to expell him from the list.