YAKUTSK, April 2 (RIA Novosti) – Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev warned his ruling United Russia party on Tuesday not to repeat the mistakes made by the Soviet Union’s Communist Party.

“We do not aspire to be the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, particularly as it did not turn out very well,” Medvedev said at a meeting in Russia's Sakha republic with activists from United Russia, which he has headed for almost a year.

“Let’s go our own way, as Vladimir Ilyich Lenin used to say,” Medvedev said, without elaborating.

United Russia has more than once been compared to the former KPSS (Communist Party of the Soviet Union) by leading political figures. The Soviet Union's last president, Mikhail Gorbachev, described United Russia in 2010 as a "bad copy" of the KPSS.

Last week, Medvedev’s predecessor as party leader, President Vladimir Putin, re-introduced the Soviet-era title of “Hero of Labor” at a meeting with campaigners.

Medvedev also called on the local United Russia party on Tuesday to produce good results at the republic's regional elections in the fall.

United Russia has faced considerable criticism from opposition campaigners over the 2011 national parliamentary election, which they claim was won with the help of numerous documented violations, giving it a majority in the current State Duma.