PR-by-Baiters

The scandalous revelations of the Saratov political strategists who performed dirty work for United Russia forced the correspondent of “New” to find out everything about this profession. How it works: pricens, technologies, allowances for "harmfulness"

As already said, “New”, recently a group of Saratovites decided to reveal the kitchen of black PR. Journalists Sergey Pochechuev and Igor Osinov, who, according to their own statement, for United Russia, who worked, presented a set of technologies from ...

As already said, “New”, recently a group of Saratovites decided to reveal the kitchen of black PR. Journalists Sergey Pochetuev and Igor Osovin, who, according to their own statement, for United Russia, presented a set of technologies - from the release of newspapers with a compromise to watering opponents with shit from a bucket - and Price. The prices, by the way, turned out to be affordable: from 18 thousand rubles per focus with a bucket - up to 75 thousand for the performance of the loyal public. It cannot be said that so far all this was a great secret, but nevertheless, for the first time, black PR managers have declared themselves as representatives of a separate profession. The correspondent of "New" tried to consider this phenomenon in more detail.

“Demonized us. Political technologists are already scared of children, it will soon come to the point that it will be a shame to name his profession, ”Saratov political strategist Denis Hawstreov sighs. He himself prefers to be called a European “political consultant” (the word “political strategist” has no analogues in foreign languages). According to Denis Vladimirovich, Chernushniki and specialists to plunder elected budgets were droven by the reputation of the profession.

Three years ago, Yastrebov became one of the founders of the regional Association of Political Consultants, one of the goals of which stated the struggle against dirty technologies. More than fifty participants signed a charter on compliance with “morality, professional ethics and morality” in the work and agreed to play against each other according to the rules. According to Yastrebov, the members of the association follow a promise, but they cannot force all other colleagues of competing to this.

As Denis Vladimirovich explains, the fact that the inhabitants are accustomed to consider black PR does not exist in nature. There is a "pumping genre of a negative image of an opponent." The whole question is how this is done. You can work beautifully (and at the same time honor the Criminal Code), or you can - clumsy and ineffective, bringing more harm to your client than good.

“The genre of negative pumping is well developed in the USA. A classic example is the 1972 video, the times of the war in Vietnam. The girl takes off the petals of chamomile and counts aloud in the reverse order: ten, nine, eight ... Children's voice turns into the voice of President Nixon, the mushroom of a nuclear explosion grows in the finale. Will you call it black PR? If we worked like that, it could be called art, ”says Yastrebov.

Christmas stories

Agreeing to speak in the “New”, Denis Vladimirovich asks not to consider him a fighter with the regime and avoid “sharply liberal expressions”: “Although I have a democratic past, it is half the clientele there” (shows somewhere up).

By profession, Denis Yastrebov is an engineer-builder. In the late 1980s, the graduateist-catching man read thick magazines, then consisted of democratic Russia, participated in the organization of the Saratov branches of the Socio-Democratic Party and Yabloko. He himself ran in the elections of various levels five times, but did not rise above the second place. “In the early 1990s, there were very correct campaigns, not just vegetarian customs, but directly Christmas stories-for example, male candidates inferior to the candidate of women on the body.” It was fun and cheap: in a single -mandate district, eight (!) Candidates competed in the elections in the 1993 State Duma, Yastrebov received 15 percent of the vote, spending 500 party dollars and the same amount of his own.

Political technologists did not exist then. The American political public guru has already been conducted in Moscow the first seminars, textbooks were brought, on the eve of the 1996 presidential campaign, the first companies created under a particular candidate appeared in the capital. But amateur artists worked in the province with the electorate. Yastrebov traveled to the regions and “elected friends” from Yabloko, “Choice of Russia”, “Our House of Russia”, “Unity”, according to him, sometimes even without a fee.

For fifteen years, Denis Vladimirovich spent 83 campaigns, of which 74 victorious.

Our client!

Denis Vladimirovich is very scrupulous in words. He asks not to call the customer who hired the political strategist, the “master”: “We are not dogs. And not slaves. We are full -fledged market agents. " An interdependent relationship arises between the technologist and the client: of course, the customer may not pay, but the technologist after that can become, let’s say, uncomfortable. Although public speeches addressed to the former client, such shares of Pocochyuyev and Nosovin are considered unprofessional.

Candidates are divided into several types. In the 1990s, one was the “Soviet business executive”-the director of a large enterprise who managed to fit into the market, and now it was required to confirm his social status in politics. In the 2000s, there were more representatives of the “new business” among customers. A new type of candidate has appeared - a representative of law enforcement agencies or a military.

Silver

Once Denis Vladimirovich led a client named Silver. He joined the campaign a month before the election (as he says, “usually a normal campaign of a local scale begins to be done in six months, the State Duma or Governor's - for at least nine months”). “The candidate is Afghan on the prosthesis. The dream of the whole unmarried electorate is blond hair, mustache, blue eyes, but two disadvantages. The first - he did not just swear obscenities, he talked on him. " Psychologists have concluded: it is hopeless, at least six months of classes. The headquarters picked up five proxies who said for the client everything that he could not say: a teacher who allegedly knew Silver with a little, with a curly head, political instructor (in fact an assistant professor of a technical university), who allegedly observed his heroic exploits in the army, etc. Two paragraphs of the text in the spirit of the then fashionable General Swan about the fight against the “gangster lawless” were written to the candidate (the topic was discussed in society as widely as rumors about the activities of Afghan veteran organizations that had benefits for the imports of cigarettes and alcohol).

“The campaign developed well. The candidate for meetings sparkles with medals, laconic, people like it. The incident was supposed to happen - and happened. At a meeting with voters in the hospital, the Internet girl asked: “Here he is beautiful, mustachioed, but why is he silent? Maybe, along with his foot, his tongue or something else was torn off? ” The hall laughs, I push the candidate in the back: “Kolyan, say, well!” He blushed already, poor fellow. And he said: “I, b .., against lawlessness, on x ..!”. We gave a signal, the decoy the orderlies screamed: "Yes, yes, he will bend the bandits!" But where there, in the hall, the walls were shaking with laughter. ”

The second drawback of the candidate was not indifferent to alcohol. After embarrassment in the hospital, Silver disappeared for three days. “Meetings are coming, but there is no candidate, rumors have already crawled. They found him, delivered him to the customer, said that we would not do. I don’t know how the educational process took place there, but the next morning Silver appeared sober and held on for three weeks. ” In the elections, he scored more than 60 percent, such a result is shown today by candidates from the party of power.

Coach, doctor, confessor

The candidate, especially inexperienced, needs to be educated: not to be lazy, even if the victory seems obvious, to keep from the sudden movements that the campaign can damage. To do this, you have to work with the environment, sometimes with the family, and if the candidate and the customer are different persons, to attract the opinion of the sponsor as a decisive argument.

According to Denis Vladimirovich, over the months of the campaign, the consultant “begins to live the life of a candidate; You become not only a coach, but also a lawyer and a doctor, and sometimes a confessor, especially at the end, when the candidate has a pre -election tremor. ” Two to three weeks before the vote, rivals, as a rule, exchange “blows to the head”-organize local actions that are very accurate and painfully beating on the nerves. This can be an offensive leaflet released by the minimum circulation, an article posted in an unpopular media or on an inactive site - the information is addressed to one reader and it will certainly reach him. The services of the Spin-Dettor are required here: the political consultant should not only reflect the external attack on the client, but also put him in order.

A blow to the head

Once in the Arctic (Denis Vladimirovich asks not to indicate a specific city, since the characters are still in politics) two candidates fought, we will call them Petrov and Sidorov. Both did not spare money, but Sidorov was somewhat richer and therefore had a more advantageous position. He had a feature significant from the point of view of the information war - an unconventional orientation. According to a random coincidence in the midst of a campaign in the Moscow magazine for gays, an article was published, praising Sidorov as a community star. Several magazine rooms appeared at Sidorov’s headquarters, in his home mailbox and in his favorite coffee shop. “It was elegant and effective,” says Denis Vladimirovich. “The candidate got the impression that everyone knew about this article, although this was not so, in the Arctic, the metropolitan edition did not spread in free sale. The nerves were handed over, and he himself, of his own free will and his own money, hung the whole city with banners with his image in the company of beautiful girls and the inscription: "I'm not blue." The next day, the “infantry” went, and the inscription received a continuation: “I'm not blue, I p ... p.”

Forwards and Backs

As Yastrebov says, “a political strategist is not a person who sits and writes nasty things about the opponent, this is a strategist who plans a campaign, gains staff, coordinates the work of“ infantry ”, media, placement of visual agitation, organizing meetings with voters.” Often, the team of those whom the townsfolk call “black PR people” (the “whites” may not know about their presence in order to maintain information security) also works in a good headquarters.

A serious sociological study is preceded by a high-quality counterparty, "you can knock out a large amount of the electorate from under the opponent with one elegant click."

The Saratov black PR managers, as they stated at a press conference, were guided by the work not the results of hundred-quality and focus groups, but by the fantasies of the curator. For example, on the eve of the elections to the regional Duma, a brochure with biographies of local politicians was published. According to Sergei Pocochuev, with reference to the wishes of prominent party members, he was handed over to the abstract, which indicated exactly how to describe this or that character. For example, it was necessary to hint at the intimate connection of deputies from the Communist Party and the presence of illegitimate children from a representative of Fair Russia. The photographs had to be “chosen in such a way that the associates of Vyacheslav Volodin look like smart people, and his opponents are under -points, but not vice versa.” Governor Pavel Ipatov had to be presented "as a completely shy and non -self -state figure, which is trying to agree with everyone, including the organized crime group."

A similar situation has developed with the former chairman of the regional court, Alexander Galkin, about which local media published negative articles that did not contain any texture for several months. “Neither we and our customers had facts in order to print Galkin with a gyst of a spinning incriminating evidence. Hence all this frivolous blah blah blah about bags with the products and girlfriends of his wife, ”said Mr. Pochetuev.

To create “chernukha”, a standard set of methods is used. According to my interlocutor, the most common is the release of an unregistered newspaper with compromising evidence. The publication, as a rule, has a catchy name, it is not handed over to voters personally in their hands to avoid unnecessary questions, and at night they are placed in mailboxes. The technique of mirroring is often practiced: incriminating evidence is published in nonresident media, and then reprinted in the local press as a given. Since the Komsomol times, the method of using the dummy public has been known, which creates a resonance around the right topic, “at the request of workers” a power resource or competent authorities are connected.

“Most dirty technologies are designed to draw a person or party in exchange of blows. Ideally, when all this is spilled out in the media and the courts: you can no longer one, but a hundred times to call the opponent a yellow earthen worm, ”says Yastrebov.

The worse the better

Some technologists obviously make the main emphasis on smuggling with “non -portable” methods, arguing that a narrow specialization occurs in the profession. According to Yastrebov, this is a matter of taste, "someone is difficult, uninteresting to build positive campaigns." And most importantly, black campaigns imply an absolutely opaque budget. For example, the black PR manager Sergei Pochetuev claims that in the elections to the regional Duma, an intermediary who transferred a fee for a particular action “drank” 10-20 percent.

Basically, the services of Chernushniki are used by novice politicians who are pleased to heat the opponent with a “club”, so that everyone around has gasped. “A significant part of such shares is needed by the customer personally, to satisfy aesthetic needs. Oddly enough sounds, but politicians are also people and can be prone to the boy, ”Denis Vladimirovich believes. - From a practical point of view, Chernukha is almost always useless. No matter how anyone treats the domestic voter, but in two decades he has already acquired impermeable immunity. ”

According to Yastrebov’s observations, the “prohibited” methods used by rivals only helped his candidates win. In 2003, Denis Vladimirovich kept in elections to the State Duma of United Russia Nikolai Sukhoi (“Then membership in the party did not yet give one hundred percent guarantee of the election”). The candidate was not known in the district, the techno raised their heads, where to start. At this moment, the opponents released a series of newspapers directed against the Sukhoi. “We were so happy! This chernukha became the starting point: dry - the President’s man, the president declared the struggle with the oligarchs, the oligarchs want to soak the President’s man. The candidate, who had almost a minus rating at the start, gained more than 50 percent! ”

Grinded heroes of information wars

According to the political consultant, the administrative resource can become an insurmountable obstacle only if "works directly on the candidate, a person is called and explained-if you do not leave, it will be something with your business." The weakness is in the very principle of organizing administrative pressure: the execution of the team is entrusted with the bureaucratic structure. “It is enough to grate into the head of the official the doubt that the larger boss will not cover him - and the effectiveness of the resource falls at times.” In the elections to the regional Duma of 2007, Yastrebov kept a candidate from Fair Russia Zinaida Samsonov. According to him, “there was a full bouquet against our team:“ turntables ”, cruise voting, state employees, charged commissions. But all this was stupidly not enough. Any falsification has a “tension” limit, and we were ahead of twenty percent. ” Samsonova - the only one in the region won the United Russia in a single -mandate district.

With the “asphalt” of the political field, the Saratov techno tried to expand geography: they toured the regions and neighboring countries in search of elections. According to Denis Vladimirovich, "it became bored, one team dominates when United Russia says that other parties are not rivals, it is true." Now many bright players migrated to marketing, to the civil service.

There was a personnel impoverishment of the profession. “Most of those who are positioning themselves today as black or white PR managers are journalists who once worked in hiring headquarters. It happens even funnier, a person went through an agitator, and now says: I am a political strategist! - says Yastrebov. “For these people, PR is not a profession, but kalym: I want to cut a dough - a weak newspaper.” For such a category of PRARS, there really were hungry years: the number of potential customers and financial scale has narrowed (if the governor’s campaigns were designed for 0.5-3 million voters and were paid respectively, then about 120 thousand voters are covered in the regional election, 35-40 thousand, and cash flows in city elections).

The disappearance of public policy did not lead to the disappearance of information wars and dirty technologies. Where there is a "gray" struggle for power, even more space for chernukha. But the hardware game, the fight under the carpet requires other methods - and black PR evolved. Now even black PR managers do not care about voters, they put a performance for one viewer. The methods have become more sophisticated: the techno study the tastes of a particular LPR (person making a decision) for which the action is intended, respectively prepare and submit information. Кстати, скандальная пресс-конференция Почечуева и Осовина прошла 4 февраля, в день рождения генсека «Единой России» Вячеслава Володина.

Under the text

Меж тем «Единая Россия» взяла на себя обязанности главного блюстителя морали и нравственности в стране. В прошлые выходные ее партийные клубы обсуждали не что иное, как нравственные аспекты модернизации. Провести модернизацию невозможно без общественного согласия по поводу нравственных ориентиров, заявила депутат Госдумы, координатор государственно-патриотического клуба партии Ирина Яровая. А преимущество консервативной идеологии «Единой России» состоит как раз в том, что «она в своей основе имеет высоконравственные ориентиры, которые веками складывались в нашей культуре». По словам Яровой, уже подготовлена концепция духовно-нравственного воспитания. «Мы считаем, что необходим общественный договор по поводу нравственности. Если такого договора не будет, в обществе будет разное понимание ценностных ориентиров в обществе», — заявила она.

Впрочем, непонятно зачем нужно мнение общества для данного договора, так как его нормы уже определены: их несут людям лидеры «Единой России», транслирующие «высоконравственную модель поведения, пример служения обществу». Что касается оппозиции, то она своими идеологическими и политическими тезисами «настраивают людей на безнравственное поведение, побуждают их к ненависти, злости».