Nikita Belykh

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Nikita Belykh (Russian: Никита Юрьевич Белых, b June 13, 1975) is a Russian opposition politician and the leader of the Union of Right Forces party. He is a member of the Legislative Assembly of Perm Krai.

Nikita Belykh was born on 13 June 1975, graduated from Perm State University. In 1998 he became vice-president of the "Perm Financial-Industrial Group". In 2001 Belykh was first elected to the Legislative Assembly of the Perm Oblast, where he became chairman of the committee on economic policy and taxation.

In December 2003 Nikita Belykh was a parliamentary candidate for the Union of Right Forces, which failed to pass the nationwide 5 per cent threshold required for entering the State Duma. In March 2004 he was appointed Deputy Governor of the Perm Oblast.

On 28 May 2005 Nikita Belykh was elected leader of the Union of Right Forces, a leading democratic opposition party, succeeding Boris Nemtsov. He thereby resigned as Deputy Governor of Perm. As party leader Belykh adopted a line of strict opposition towards Russian President Vladimir Putin and launched coalition talks with Yabloko party.

As a result of the agreement between Nikita Belykh and Grigory Yavlinsky, reached in October 2005, the Union of Right Forces and Yabloko formed a coalition, Yabloko-United Democrats, to contest the Moscow City Duma elections on December 4, 2005. The coalition won 11% of the vote and became one of only 3 parties (along with United Russia and the Communist Party) to enter the new Moscow legislature.

In December 2006 the Union of Right Forces received 16% of the vote in the regional legislative elections in Perm Krai. Belykh, who headed the party's list of candidates, was elected to the Legislative Assembly.