It was announced yesterday that two major opposition groups will merge.  Parnas, the People’s Freedom Party, which was denied registration in June of last year, will join forces with Vladimir Ryzhkov’s long-standing Republican Party of Russia, which regained its legal status thanks to a ruling by Strasbourg in April.  Hence the new party RPR-Parnas should be able to register and mount a formalized party political campaign against Vladimir Putin. Experts have been quick to point out that the party is unlikely to make significant gains at any elections.  Analyst Yevgeny Minchenko, Director-General of the International Institute for Political Expertise, quoted by ITAR-TASS, said the party can hope for ‘3-5% of votes in local elections at best‘.