The chairman of the central council of the Green Alliance - People's Party and former prefect of the Northern Administrative District, Oleg Mitvol, appealed to the Ministry of Justice with a request to refuse registration of the People's Alliance party created by oppositionist and blogger Alexei Navalny due to the similarity of the names of these two organizations.

“Currently, a group of citizens led by a certain citizen Navalny is creating the All-Russian political party “People's Alliance,” Interfax cites an excerpt from Mitvol’s address to the Russian Minister of Justice. According to him, the name of Navalny’s organization was compiled by removing two words from the name of an already existing political party that is actively participating in political activities. This is the Green Alliance - People's Party, led by Mitvol.

The ex-prefect of the Moscow district insists that similar names can mislead voters and take away some of the votes from his party in the elections. “We are not against the creation of any parties, but the creation of spoiler parties is wrong,” Mitvol emphasizes.

He told the agency that the appeal was dated March 21, 2013 and was sent to the Ministry of Justice about a month ago. Mitvol has not yet received any response from the department.

Navalny’s People’s Alliance party submitted documents to the Ministry of Justice for registration on April 10. Navalny announced this on his Twitter . “I congratulate the People’s Alliance party on the successful creation of regional branches and submission of documents to the Ministry of Justice for registration,” he wrote.

As reported on the official website of the organization, if registration is successful, the party will be able to take part in the next elections. Official registration will allow the party to nominate candidates in elections at all levels.

The Ministry of Justice's decision on party registration must appear within 30 days.

Mitvol accused Navalny of creating a party with a similar name