Veteran Russian ecologists form Green party

Some of Russia's leading opposition ecologists joined forces Sunday to launch the Green Russia party which they said could become an influential political force ahead parliamentary elections in 2007. Delegates chose World Environment Day for the meeting in Korolyov, outside Moscow, where they debated the party's charter and were voting on a leadership, Interfax news agency said. The provisional name chosen was Green Russia, Russian television reported.
Alexei Yablokov, a respected nuclear safety campaigner and an adviser in the 1990s to then president Boris Yeltsin, was elected president.
Yablokov, who has also campaigned for human rights in Russia, said there were hopes the Greens could unite other Russian ecological organisations and become a significant minority in the lower house of parliament, the State Duma, in the 2007 elections.