Can Sergei Shoigu be trusted?
Last Saturday, leader of the Unity party Sergei Shoigu announced the intention of singer Alena Apina and lead singer of the Lyube group Nikolai Rastorguev to join the Unity party. As Mr. Shoigu stated at a press conference, they and “several other famous Russians” may be issued party membership cards as early as February. However, the artists themselves apparently were not warned about this. “I’m surprised where such data comes from,” Nikolai Rastorguev said in an interview with the Ekho Moskvy radio station. “This is the first time I’ve heard about this. I don’t want to join any party at all, I never had such intentions.” The producer and husband of Mrs. Apina, Alexander Iratov, also stated that neither he nor the singer herself knows anything about joining Unity, and “from the point of view of benefits for the country, being a member of the party or not being a member of the party, Apina brings the same benefit.” . The head of the press service of the Unity faction, Sergei Oleinik, in a conversation with a Kommersant correspondent, suggested that Mr. Shoigu “could have been misled.”

Newspaper "Kommersant" No. 19/P dated 02/05/2001, page 2