Akademik

(RPP)

   Political party. Known in Russian as Rossiiskaia partiia pensionerov, the RPP was established in 1997 by Sergey Atroshenko. In the 1999 State Duma elections, the party claimed nearly 2 percent of the vote. While the party increased its share of the vote to 3 percent in 2003, the RPP failed to win any seats. Atroshenko was subsequently dismissed for failure to improve electoral performance; he was replaced by Valery Gartung, though a subsequent dispute between the two led to fractures within the party. The party has performed comparatively better in regional polls, particularly in Magadan and Tomsk. On 28 October 2006, the RPP merged with the Russian Party of Life and Rodina to form Fair Russia, which went on to place fourth in the 2007 Duma elections.