United Civil Front is a social movement

Social movement

Social movements are a type of group action. They are large informal groupings of individuals or organizations focused on specific political or social issues, in other words, on carrying out, resisting or undoing a social change....

 in Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

 founded and led by chess

Chess

Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...

 grandmaster

International Grandmaster

The title Grandmaster is awarded to strong chess players by the world chess organization FIDE. Apart from World Champion, Grandmaster is the highest title a chess player can attain....

 Garry Kasparov

Garry Kasparov

Garry Kimovich Kasparov is a Russian chess grandmaster, a former World Chess Champion, writer, political activist, and one of the greatest chess players of all time....

. It is part of The Other Russia, an opposition coalition active in Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

.

Upon the organization's founding, in 2005, Kasparov stated that the UCF "will work to preserve electoral

Election

An election is a formal decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy operates since the 17th century. Elections may fill offices in the legislature, sometimes in the...

 democracy

Democracy

Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...

 in Russia." Kasparov concluded the press conference by stating that, "The primary goal of the systemic opposition is to dismantle the currently existing system and create a free political floor on which free elections can be held in 2007–2008. The bottom line is to preserve the Russians’ right to elect a responsible government, both in presidential and parliamentary elections."

Programme

The programme was accepted at the 3rd conference on February 25, 2006.
It is founded on the four principles.

Fair democratic elections

1. Competition of electoral programmes, removability and responsibility of the power.
2. Equal access of the parties to mass-media.
3. Change electoral system from party-list proportional representation
   Party-list proportional representation
   Party-list proportional representation systems are a family of voting systems emphasizing proportional representation in elections in which multiple candidates are elected...
   
    to majoritarian.

Restoration of federalism

Federalism

Federalism is a political concept in which a group of members are bound together by covenant with a governing representative head. The term "federalism" is also used to describe a system of the government in which sovereignty is constitutionally divided between a central governing authority and...

1. To restore federal mechanism of the government.
2. To liquidate a dangerous disbalance in population incomes between Moscow
   Moscow
   Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
   
    and other regions.
3. To return democratic local self-government.
4. The democratic solution of problems in the national republics.

Elimination of nomenklatura

Nomenklatura

The nomenklatura were a category of people within the Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc countries who held various key administrative positions in all spheres of those countries' activity: government, industry, agriculture, education, etc., whose positions were granted only with approval by the...

 system

1. Reduction of presidential powers.
2. Liquidation of system of privileges and preferences for civil servants of all echelons.
3. Liquidation of the Presidential Administration, reduction of staff and functions of the president office.
4. Enact into law for secret services' intrusion in a social life and government.
5. Act of disqualification for the present high-ranking officials and secret services chiefs.
6. Enact into law the criminal liability for illegal enrichment of public persons and civil servants according to the United Nations Convention against Corruption
   United Nations Convention against Corruption
   The United Nations Convention against Corruption is the first legally binding international anti-corruption instrument. In its 8 Chapters and 71 Articles, the UNCAC obliges its States Parties to implement a wide and detailed range of anti-corruption measures affecting their laws, institutions and...
   
   .

Government for people, but not people for government

1. To repay old government debts to the citizens.
2. To establish social priority of the state budget.
3. To implement the constitutional rights in education and health services.
4. To extirpate social discrimination.
5. To cancel compulsory military service; to make army professional. Discontinue internal military forces.
6. To ensure access of citizens to the all information on activity and decisions of the state and local governments.

Events

The UCF participated in the organisation almost all the Dissenters March

Dissenters March

The Dissenters' March was a series of political opposition protests that took place on 16 December 2006, in Moscow, on 3 March 2007, in Saint Petersburg, on 24 March 2007, in Nizhny Novgorod, on 14 April 2007, for the second time in Moscow and on 15 April 2007, again in Saint Petersburg, on 18 May...

es.

One member of the Murmansk

Murmansk

Murmansk is a city and the administrative center of Murmansk Oblast, Russia. It serves as a seaport and is located in the extreme northwest part of Russia, on the Kola Bay, from the Barents Sea on the northern shore of the Kola Peninsula, not far from Russia's borders with Norway and Finland...

 branch of the United Civil Front, Larisa Arap

Larisa Arap

Larisa Arap is a Russian opposition activist who became a victim of involuntary commitment in the psychiatric facilities of Murmansk and Apatity, soon after publishing a story about mistreatment of patients in the same hospital where she was committed in July, 2007...

,
is believed to be victim of psychiatric abuse.

In 2010 UCF activists held pickets in Moscow to support the Internet campaign Putin must go

Putin must go

"Putin must go" is a website and a public campaign of the same name organised for the collection of signatures under an open letter demanding the resignation of the Prime Minister of Russia Vladimir Putin...

.

External links

• The UCF official site (in Russian)
• Manifesto of the United Civil Front (in Russian)