Civic Platform (Russian: Гражда́нская Платфо́рма, romanized: Grazhdanskaya Platforma, IPA: [ɡrɐʐˈdanskəjə plɐtˈformə]) is a conservative[3] political party in Russia.

According to founder Mikhail Prokhorov,[8] the Civic Platform was founded primarily in order to "participate in municipal elections in cities with a population of 500,000 or more".

However, in September, Prokhorov reversed course and resigned from Right Cause, condemning it as "a 'puppet Kremlin party' micromanaged by a 'puppet master' in the president's office ..., Vladislav Y. Surkov".

[12] Most of the new parties that were created lacked recognizable national leaders, regional cadres or material resources, but the Civic Platform was an exception as it was headed by the billionaire presidential candidate Prokhorov.

Another known political figure was Evgeny Urlashov, Mayor of Yaroslavl from 1 April 2012 until July 2013, when he was arrested by Investigative Committee of Russia and accused of corruption charges.

[15] Urshalov had won the mayoral election with 70% of the vote in April 2012 in a political upset, overwhelmingly defeating Kremlin-backed Yakov Yakushev.

[15] After his arrest, Urlashov stated in a TV interview: "I had been warned that they would get me out of the picture by any means possible", and said that his accuser was a prominent member of the pro-Kremlin United Russia party.

[15] Prokhorov said after the arrest that "the demonstration seizure of the elected leader of the city is a blow to the civil liberties of every Russian citizen".

[15] In the following Yaroslavl regional elections the Civic Platform was barred from the ballot because it had failed to open an official campaign bank account in time for registration.

[16] This was because Civic Platform's financial representative, Natalia Semyonova, had been detained and kept in a police station until the deadline for opening the bank account had passed.

[17] In the concurrent September 2013 gubernatorial elections, all of Civic Platform's candidates had been disqualified from running on formal and technical grounds.