A popular Russian actor, Ivan Okhlobystin, has been named to head the supreme council of the Right Cause party, its leader Andrei Dunayev said on Tuesday.
Media reports tipped Olkhlobystin, a popular actor, director and ex-Orthodox priest, to head the Right Cause last year, when he announced his presidential bid. The actor, however, created his own political party in spring 2012, which eventually failed to obtain state registration.
"In accordance with the presidium’s decision, Ivan Okhlobystin headed the supreme council of the Right Cause party,” Dunayev wrote in his Twitter.
He said Okhlobystin would play the role of the party’s “additional generator of ideology”, and other Russian celebrities are to join the party soon.
"We have long been discussing not only party issues, but the general situation on the whole. And we came to a conclusion that, to a certain extent, we share similar views. And a decision was made that he [Okhlobystin] will become a kind of additional generator of ideology for the party,” Dunayev said.
Okhlobystin will also be involved in dealing with the party’s electoral technologies and communication with voters.
The Right Cause was founded in late 2008 from the merger of the liberal Union of Right Forces, Civic Power, and the Democratic Party of Russia.
