The Agrarian Party of Russia (APR; Agrarnaya Partiya Rossii, Аграрная Партия России, АПР) was an agrarianpolitical party in Russia. Founded in February 1993, it was among the earliest parties in the Russian Federation.
Founder Mikhail Lapshin led the party until 2004; its most recent leader was Vladimir Plotnikov. In the legislative elections in December 1993, the Agrarian Party obtained 37 seats in the Duma and won 8% of the popular vote. Between 1994 and 1996, one of its party members, Ivan Rybkin, was the speaker of the Russian Parliament. In the legislative elections in December 1995, the APR did not make it over the 5% threshold, obtaining only 3.78% of the votes. In the legislative elections on 7 December 2003, the party won 3.6% of the popular vote and three out of 450 seats in the parliament.
In the 1990s, party deputies were usually allies of the Communist Party in the State Duma and advocated for greater government support for the agricultural sector.
The party won 2.30% of the votes in the 2007 elections, did not break the 7% barrier, and thus, had no seats in the Duma.
The year 2012 marked an especially notable period for the party as it was officially restored, and the registered leader Olga Bashmachnikova was elected Executive Director of the Agricultural Association on May 18. This led the party to take a new direction, moving away from the ideologies of agrarian socialism and collectivism towards centrism. The party has abandoned the Alliance with the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF), which was in the union since its foundation. The APR is currently united with the People's Front for Russia and the Russian Ecological Party "The Greens".[2]
According to the results of the elections of 2012, 2013 and 2014, the party failed to win in regional and city parliaments.
On October 21, 2019, the Supreme Court of Russia, following a lawsuit by the Ministry of Justice, liquidated the party for insufficient participation in the elections for 7 years.[3]