United Civil Front
The United Civil Front (Russian Объединённый гражданский фронт, ОГФ ) is a liberal political organization in Russia, which is led by chess grandmaster and opposition politician Garry Kasparov.
It was founded in June 2005 and officially registered by the Russian Ministry of Justice in November 2006. In the manifesto of the United Civil Front called the fight of the political system by President Vladimir Putin, corruption and bureaucracy and securing free elections and an independent judiciary as its primary objective. It also occurs for a peaceful end to the conflict in Chechnya. The United Civil Front is co-organizer of the so-called march of malcontents that are held in larger cities in Russia and is the opposition coalition The Other Russia involved.
Incidents
On December 10, 2006 Kasparov was unloaded from the ARD program Sabine Christiansen. Two days later, on 12 December, the Moscow office of the Civic Front of the Russian FSB officials and a police unit was searched against organized crime and confiscated books and newspapers. A scheduled for December 16 March of the malcontents was canceled by the authorities. One manifestation approved on Triumph Square ( starting point of the actual march ) with 3,000 protesters were against more than 8,500 police officers.
Viktor Gerashchenko, member of the Supervisory Board and former Yukos chief of the Soviet and Russian Central Bank, expressed his readiness as a candidate of the Civic Front to draw in the election campaign of the Russian presidential elections in 2008.
On 28 July 2007, the United Civil Front announced that the opposition journalist Larisa Arap was being held in a closed psychiatric institution in Murmansk since 6 July 2007. The journalist was subsequently released after a six week enforced stay out of the hospital.