Congress of Russian Communities

The Congress of Russian Communities (CRC, Russian: Конгресс русских общин, КРО, romanized: Kongress russkikh obschin, KRO) is a political organization in Russia. It was created in the early 1990s initially to promote the rights of ethnic Russians living in the newly independent countries of the former Soviet Union.

RODINA — Congress of Russian Communities РОДИНА — Конгресс русских общин
Abbreviation	CRC (English) KRO (Russian)
Leader	Dmitry Rogozin
Chairman	Aleksey Zhuravlyov
Founders	Dmitry Rogozin Alexander Lebed Yury Skokov
Founded	February 1992 (1992-02) (as Congress of Russian Communities) 9 December 2006 (2006-12-09) (refoundation)
Merged into	Rodina (2004–2006), (2012-)
Headquarters	Moscow, Russia
Ideology	Pan-Russianism National conservatism Traditionalism Anti-Americanism
Political position	Right-wing to far-right
Colours	Gold   Black Before 2004:   White   Blue   Red
Website
www.kro-rodina.ru www.kro.su
Politics of Russia Political parties Elections

Logo of the CRC before 2004

The group contested a number of elections to the Duma in the 1990s. In the 1995 Duma election, the group took 4.3% of the vote, just missing the 5% threshold to gain seats. In 1999 it again failed to pass the 5% threshold, although KRO candidates did win a small number of single-mandate district seats.

In 1996 Alexander Lebed used the KRO as the organisational vehicle for his campaign for the presidency. Lebed was surprisingly successful, taking 15% of the popular vote and later going on to become governor of Krasnoyarsk Krai.

In 2006 the KRO was revived by Russian nationalist politician Dmitry Rogozin following the merger of his Rodina party into a new Fair Russia coalition. Rogozin initially stated that he would turn the KRO into a political party to contest the Duma elections in December 2007.

In April 2007 Rogozin announced that he had formed a new party, the Great Russia Party, in conjunction with the nationalist Movement Against Illegal Immigration. The party would campaign for seats in the Duma and initially stated its support for Alexander Lukashenko's candidacy for the Russian Presidency, a campaign which is impossible as Lukashenko is not a Russian citizen.