Pro-Kremlin youth group picketing congress of Right Cause party

Activists of the youth arm of Russia's ruling United Russia party, Molodaya Gvardia (Young Guard) organized a rally in front of a congress of Right Cause political party, which is taking part in Moscow's World Trade Centre on Saturday. The Right Cause party was founded in late 2008 as a merger of the liberal Union of Rightist Forces, Civic Power, and the Democratic Party of Russia. It has been widely seen as a Kremlin project to create a semblance of a multi-party political system in Russia. Russian tycoon Mikhail Prokhorov, 46, was confirmed as the leader of the Right Cause party on June 25. "We picketing the Right Cause party congress and we believe that Mikhail Prokhorov has no place in politics, because all his proposals so far have been anti-national," a member of Young Guard's public council Oleg Ptashkin said. In an interview with the Ekho Moskvy radio station, Prokhorov said Right Cause had a chance to become the second biggest party in the State Duma. The party is currently not represented in the lower house of parliament, which is dominated by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's United Russia party. Experts say the party may be preparing to back current President Dmitry Medvedev for re-election in the 2012 presidential elections. Prokhorovsaid he had consulted neither the Medvedev nor Putin camps when he decided to lead Right Cause. Prokhorov, the president of private investment fund Onexim Group, is Russia's third richest man with an estimated wealth of $18 billion.