Description
The Opposition Bloc (Ukrainian: Опозиційний блок, romanized: Opozitsiyniy blok , Russian: Оппозиционный блок, romanized: Oppozitsionniy blok ) was a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine that was founded in 2014 by the merger of six parties that did not endorse Euromaidan. Legally, the party was created by renaming the lesser-known party "Leading Force". The party was perceived as the successor of the disbanded Party of Regions.
In the 2014 election, the party won 29 seats predominantly in the Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk and Kharkiv oblasts. American lobbyist Paul Manafort acted as political consultant for the party.
By January 2019 two wings of the party nominated two different candidates for the 2019 Ukrainian presidential election. Yuriy Boyko for the Opposition Platform — For Life alliance and Oleksandr Vilkul for Opposition Bloc — Party of Peace and Development (the recently renamed Industrial Party of Ukraine). Both these two offsprings of Opposition Bloc took part independently of each other in the 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election, with the Opposition Bloc — Party of Peace and Development (also) named into Opposition Bloc.
