The Party "Soyuz" (, Russian: Партий "Союз") is a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine that was mostly based in Crimea until 2014. It was registered in June 1997 under a registration number 867. History The party was founded in 1997 by , one of the richest people of Crimea at the time. The Constituent Party Congress took place on March 15, 1997. Svitlana Savchenko was elected the leader of the party. The congress also adopted the party's program and statute. The party was formed on the basis of the prohibited Crimean Party. The Second Party Congress (October 4, 1997) took place in the city of Simferopol. At the congress the party's pre-election program was adopted. At the Third Party Congress (November 16, 1997), the congress confirmed the list of deputies for the next elections which was registered with Central Election Commission on December 18, 1997. At the Fourth Party Congress (July 11, 1998), the Congress reviewed the election campaign of the party and made some changes to the party's Political council and its statute. The party's flag was adopted as well. The flag represented by a white field (1x2 m) with a dark-blue circle in the middle where a friendly handshake of two hands is depicted. The top and bottom edges of the flag covered by red lanes in 1/8 of the flag's width. During the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election the party supported Viktor Yanukovych. The party won 1 seat in the Ukrainian parliament in the 2012 Ukrainian parliamentary election. Lev Mirimsky won electoral district number 2, located in Simferopol, with 36,45% of the vote. Following the March 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea party leader Lev Mirimsky and his family moved to Kyiv. (Where he spoke publicly against the annexation.) In the October 2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election, the party won no parliamentary seats. Mirimsky suddenly died of a heart-attack on 27 April 2017 (at the age of 57). He was buried at Kyiv's Baikove Cemetery. Election results During the 1998 Ukrainian parliamentary election the party balloting independently won 0.70% of the national vote. Prior to the parliamentary elections of 2002 Lev Myrymsky stated that the party already had two of its representatives in the Verkhovna Rada although officially in proportional representation the party did not win seats in the national parliament and only won a single seat by a single-seat constituency according to the official statistics from the Central Electoral