The party headed by former Russian prime minister Mikhail Kasyanov selected him to run for president in the March election, a move that could further complicate the search by the increasingly marginalized and fragmented opposition for a unity candidate.
"You and I will cover this difficult path," Kasyanov said at the congress of the Russian People's Democratic Union on Saturday. "We know what needs to be done to lead the country out of this impasse of democratic development."
But Garry Kasparov, a chess grandmaster who has played a key role in organizing anti-government protests, said that fielding a single candidate was the only chance to confront the Kremlin and reverse what he called the country's democratic backsliding.
"We have to work hard to make sure that we can rise above our ideological differences and agree on ... points that could form a united program," said Kasparov, a guest at the congress.
President Vladimir Putin, who is constitutionally barred from running for a third term, is believed to be eyeing a preferred candidate to succeed him as opposition forces complain of increased harassment before the vote.
Russia's embattled opposition groups failed to join forces in the 2003 parliamentary and 2004 presidential elections and support a single party or candidate. That left the parliament virtually absent of opposition lawmakers, with the two main liberal parties voted out of the legislature, and allowed Putin to be re-elected practically unchallenged.
Liberal and leftist forces have since united into an opposition grouping, Other Russia, and have held congresses and increasingly frequent protests, which resulted in detentions and beatings by police. Analysts say, however, that the opposition stands no chance of challenging the Kremlin if it fails to agree on a single presidential candidate.
Other opposition leaders attending the congress as guests included Eduard Limonov, the leader of the banned radical National Bolshevik party, which promotes nationalists and leftist ideas. Also in attendance was Viktor Gerashchenko, the former central bank chief, who has also been mentioned as a potential candidate of the united opposition, underscoring the broad range of potential figures the opposition may have to choose from.
Kasyanov agreed that opposition forces needed to unite, but appeared to indicate that they should do so under his banner.
"We also hope to obtain support from other democratically oriented organizations and we will continue our consultations with them," Kasyanov said. "We should get our efforts united."
How to pick a united candidate is also unclear. Earlier, opposition leaders have talked about holding primaries to determine which candidate is most supported by Russians. But Kasparov said on Saturday that such a vote will be meaningless in Russia, where most media are controlled by the Kremlin and where the opposition is either not covered at all or portrayed as radicals hired by Western powers.
Kasparov said the summer congress of Other Russia would concentrate on working out a mechanism to select a single candidate.
Kasyanov served as prime minister during Putin's first term.
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