Medvedev: United Russia has no competitors

"United Russia" will retain a leading position for a long time, since there is no equal to it in the potential of political forces in the country. According to RIA Novosti, this said Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, who received a party card on Tuesday. "In my opinion, the party has all the possibilities in order to maintain a leading position in the long run. It is a leading position," the prime minister said. “In my opinion, the potential is now in“ United Russia ”,” he added.

Medvedev also spoke out against rebranding United Russia. “She must, if you want, save and, of course, make more attractive,” Medvedev said.

On April 26, Medvedev agreed to lead United Russia instead of Putin, as well as join the party if it was elected chairman. “If such a proposal is to lead the party - I will come to me, and the current chairman voiced it, I will not refuse him. And yet: I think that any party leader should be in it,” Medvedev said in an interview with five Russian television channels.

On April 24, Putin announced his intention to leave the post of chairman of United Russia, proposing to hold a congress in the second half of May in order to decide on the new chairman. Putin put forward Medvedev to this post. "We have such a practice that the president is a superstitial figure. The Constitution does not prohibit the president of being a member of any party, but in the spirit of what we have in political life, nevertheless, the president is, first of all, a consolidating figure for all the country's political forces. In this regard, dear friends and colleagues, after the inauguration, which should take place on May 7 of this year, I consider it right for myself. Fold the powers of the chairman of United Russia, ”Putin said at a meeting with the party leadership.

“I propose to convene an extraordinary congress in the second half of May of this year; and due to the fact that Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev headed the United Russia list in the State Duma elections and due to the fact that, as you know, I will offer his candidacy as the chairman of the government, I would consider it right if he and the party headed, this is a global practice,” Putin said.

In February, Izvestia reported that the leadership of United Russia began a discussion of the future party in power, after the elections a "full rebranding" could be held. “It seems that the United Russia brand is bent. Therefore, now they have been talking about changes very seriously,” said one of the sources of the publication. As the newspaper noted, so far the topic of possible changes has been raised only at the level of discussion party clubs. Higher leadership did not give such discussions. So, in January, the deputy secretary of the Presidium of the Secretary General of the party, Yuri Shuvalov, spoke about the division of the faction in the State Duma into three parts - liberal, social and patriotic. However, then the leadership did not approve of the idea.