In the 1999 parliamentary elections the SPS won 8.6% of the vote and 32 seats in the Russian State Duma (lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia).

During this time SPS strongly opposed what it saw to be the authoritarian policies of President Vladimir Putin, and argued that political and media freedoms in Russia had been curtailed.

In single-mandate constituencies, SPS candidates Pavel Krasheninnikov, Arsen Fadzaev, and Alexey Likhachyov were elected to the State Duma of the fourth convocation (all three moved to the United Russia faction).

Despite allegations of fraud, Boris Nemtsov accepted responsibility for the election defeat and resigned as SPS leader in January 2004.

In 2011, a group of former members accused the Right Cause of being too close to the Russian government under Vladimir Putin and refounded the SPS, registering it as a political public organization.