FATHERLAND—ALL RUSSIA

(OVR)

   Political bloc. Known in Russian as Otechestvo—Vsia Rossiia, the OVR was a short-lived alliance of Yevgeny Primakov, Yury Luzhkov, and former St. Petersburg mayor Vladimir Yakovlelv in order to field a political bloc in the 1999 State Duma elections. Rather than representing a constituency, the bloc was based on the interests of its elites, who were generally nationalistic and opposed the policies of then-president Boris Yeltsin. Its primary competition came from Unity, with which it later merged, to form Russia’s dominant political party, United Russia. The bloc enjoyed support from many regional governors, which attenuated provincial opposition to Moscow and the federal government. Despite this, the group placed a disappointing third in the poll, with 13.3 percent of the vote, placing it behind the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and Unity.

   See also Political parties.