MOSCOW. Nov 21 (Interfax) - A single-party system reminiscent of the Soviet times is being restored in Russia now, Yabloko party leader Grigory Yavlinsky has said.

"We are saying that the establishment of a single-party ruling system in Russia, which will be led and is already led by Vladimir Putin, is in full swing now," Yavlinsky said at a press conference at the Interfax headquarters on Wednesday.

Russia is "on the verge of the restoration of a single-party system along the lines of the CPSU (the Communist Party of the Soviet Union)," Yavlinsky said.

"The presence of such political groups as the Russian Communist Party or of Zhirinovsky (the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia) in the parliament does not make any difference," Yavlinsky said.

"The way elections are being organized today looks like the prologue to an authoritarian, totalitarian, and semi-dictatorial system with the intention of preserving President Putin's administration for life," he said.

"The results of this system are corruption, lawlessness, and violence. By violence I mean the falsification of cases in courts whenever it is considered expedient and comes from the politically- motivated conviction of defendants," he said.

"A new element of violence is criminal physical violence through the use of various groups and the manipulation of various groups," Yavlinsky said.

Yavlinsky described the ongoing events in support of the incumbent president to remain the national leader as "the people's oath of allegiance to their leader."

"There are countries in which the leader swears allegiance to his people, and this would be in line with our constitution. But Russia is currently building a system in which peoples and religious denominations swear allegiance to the leader," he said.

Yabloko is determined to combat "these negative trends. As for the establishment of a semi-totalitarian political system in Russia, Yabloko will be doing absolutely everything it can to prevent such a situation," Yavlinsky said.

In particular, Yabloko plans to hold a number of public events in defense of the constitutional system next week, Yavlinsky said. "We consider this to be the most important and most challenging cause in Russia now," he said.

Sergei Kovalyov, number two on Yabloko's presidential ticket, said he believed Russia was building "an imitation of democracy."

"The Soviet ideology and the Soviet system are being modified. Our establishment wants not only to govern but also to be seen to be acting properly. This is why we are copying all that a modern democratic state is supposed to possess," Kovalyov said.

"Lineaments of a totalitarian future are visible now," Kovalyov said. However, these lineaments will not be as radical as they were in the Soviet times, he said.

"Censorship and the GULAG are unlikely to be re-established in the near future but there is no need for this in any case. The authorities have managed to ensure absolute obedience based solely on the fear that has remained since the Soviet era," he said.