From Russia Today:  The Congress of Russian Communities (KRO), created by Dmitry Rogozin in the 1990s, is reportedly preparing to join United Russia’s Popular Front.

­Moscow’s envoy to NATO Dmitry Rogozin may return to Russian politics after a KRO congress scheduled for September. The event will precede a congress to be held by United Russia, and sources indicate the KRO may join the ruling party’s Popular Front, created earlier on Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s initiative.

Although the KRO, a union that defends the rights of Slavic Russians abroad, has recently been re-registered as a public organization, many expect it to turn into a political force, or at least, to merge with another political party. If Rogozin, who is not officially the congress’s formal leader, joins the Popular Front, he will likely to leave his post in Brussels.

Recent personnel rotations at the Russian Foreign Ministry sparked rumors that Rogozin may return to Russia in September, Kommersant daily said. Every major political party has scheduled their pre-election congress for that month, as elections to the State Duma will be held in December. . . .

In the past, Rogozin’s Rodina (Motherland) party, which grew out of the Congress, was criticized for its nationalistic views. In December 2005, the party was banned from elections to the Moscow City Duma for a scandalous commercial, which, the election commission said, “had incited ethnic strife.”   (photo: RIA Novosti/STF)  (via Paul Belkin, Congressional Research Service)

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