Putin’s relative elected leader of Russian political party

MOSCOW (Reuters) – One of President Vladimir Putin’s relatives has been elected leader of a small Russian political party which he hopes will win seats in the national parliament at an election next year, the party’s website showed on Monday.

Roman Putin, son of Putin’s cousin Igor, was elected head of the People Against Corruption party at a congress on Sunday after becoming a member last month, it said.

Like President Putin, who via a nationwide vote has just won the right to run for president again twice, Roman Putin is a former employee of Russia’s FSB security service.

The 42-year-old relative said the party he now leads, which was founded in 2014 and has 4,000 active members, will take part in regional elections in September, the RIA news agency reported.

He also said it would run for seats in the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, at elections next year. The party is currently not represented in the federal legislature.

The party describes Roman Putin as having broad civil service, political and business experience. The party says it wants to fight corruption but its agenda is not aimed at countering the Kremlin’s policies.

In March, the Kommersant daily reported that he was in the process of founding another political movement, the People of Business, a right-wing conservative project aimed at supporting entrepreneurs and small businesses.

At the time, he was quoted as saying he had not discussed his political plans with the Kremlin leader but did not anticipate any problems.