Moscow, 17 November: The leaders of the newly established party Right Cause do not conceal their contacts with the authorities but say that no-one has guaranteed them seats in parliament.

"No-one has given any guarantees and no-one asked for them," Leonid Gozman, a Right Cause co-chairman, said answering journalists' question at a news conference at the Interfax central office in Moscow on Monday (17 November).

He said that the new party is entering competition. "We will try to be successful and effective in this competition. We believe that we have a serious chance for a victory, to become a normal party that will be able to win a significant number of votes," Gozman said.

As to the contacts with the Kremlin, he said: "We have not concealed this from the very beginning of the project." "We live here, in Russia, and are not going to leave and we want people to live better in this country. That is why we cannot turn away and say: You guys are scoundrels, you are no good to deal with. We have no right to take this stand," Gozman said.

In his opinion, "one should remain critical but to ignore the authorities, to refuse dealing with them is silly, this means ignoring the reality". "The Kremlin is not an abstract place, it comprises state institutions and we need to collaborate with them," he said.

"We do not like the authorities, so let's make them better," Gozman said.