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With actions in support of a third term, the bureaucracy, with the help of the people, puts pressure on the president

In recent weeks , massive street protests have taken place across Russia in support of Vladimir Putin's third consecutive term as president . And regional parliaments, one after another, accepted appeals to the president with a request to remain the de facto leader of the country even after the end of his presidential powers in the spring of 2008. Similar initiatives have arisen from time to time before, but never so large-scale and numerous. The scope and geography of these actions suggest a massive and planned campaign. From October 23 to October 30 alone, rallies took place in Volgograd, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Grozny, Voronezh, Pskov, Novosibirsk, and Magadan. True, so far they have not been in St. Petersburg and Moscow.

United Russia is also planning to join the mass actions in support of the third term of the first number on its election list at the Duma elections. Secretaries of regional branches invited to a meeting of the party’s general council and a meeting of the central election headquarters received this instruction from United Russia leaders at the end of last week. “We discussed today at a meeting with the secretaries: if actions are held in specific territories, of course, United Russia members will be happy to take part in these actions,” said Vyacheslav Volodin, secretary of the presidium of the General Council of United Russia, after a meeting of the heads of the United Russia election headquarters.

Although until now the official party line has not provided for a third term for Putin. In particular, answering the question whether the Speaker of the State Duma is ready to support the proposals of the Speaker of the Federation Council Sergei Mironov to increase the presidential term to seven years, as well as to give the head of state the right to hold this post for three consecutive terms, United Russia leader Boris Gryzlov said on March 30, 2007: “ I do not support the statements that are being made regarding changes to the Constitution.” He also added that United Russia will protect the Constitution of the Russian Federation from changes. And on June 8, commenting on the possibility of Vladimir Putin being elected President of the Russian Federation for a third term, Mr. Gryzlov recalled that the Constitution of the Russian Federation provides for the possibility of only two presidential terms in a row. According to him, Vladimir Putin “can be president for the third time, but not in a row.” “I think that it is wrong to change the Constitution for a specific person,” the leader of United Russia said then.

However, since Vladimir Putin, without joining the party in power, became the leader of its party list, the position of United Russia seems to have changed. In particular, in his article in Rossiyskaya Gazeta, Mr. Gryzlov defined the Duma elections as a referendum on confidence in the head of state. The question is, why organize such a referendum if the president, according to the Constitution, must resign in less than six months?

The situation in the Ural Federal District, in particular, shows how large-scale the campaign to keep the current president in power has become. Last week, in one day, three regional parliaments simultaneously adopted appeals to the Russian President with a request to remain in power after the end of his term in 2008, and in Yamal they created an all-Russian movement “For Putin.”

The people's representatives of the Tyumen region were the first to distinguish themselves. On Thursday, after listening to Governor Vladimir Yakushev’s annual message to the regional Duma, they decided to appeal to the Russian President. The initiator was the speaker of the legislative body, Sergei Korepanov, who proposed asking Mr. Putin to “continue active participation in the implementation of Russian state policy.” And so that the voice of Tyumen was heard not only in the Kremlin, but throughout Russia, parliamentarians exercised their right and sent an appeal to the legislative assemblies of all regions of the Russian Federation with a request to support their initiative. Moreover, unofficially, the deputies talk about Moscow sanctioning their action.

The Duma of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug (KhMAO is part of the Tyumen region, but is a separate subject of the federation) also distributed its appeal. “The results of the policy of the current president are obvious: these are economic growth rates unprecedented in the last 30-40 years, this is the implementation of priority national projects and state demographic policy - the largest programs in the history of modern Russia for investing “in people”, improving the quality of their life, this is the revival strategic planning for the development of industries and territories, the implementation of such megaprojects as “Ural Industrial - Ural Polar”, this is the restoration of Russia’s authority in the world as a great power capable of defending its interests and ensuring international stability. But the main thing is that President Putin’s course helped people to again believe in themselves and their country, to regain a sense of pride in the Fatherland and confidence in the future,” the parliamentarians write. They avoid direct calls to remain president, but ask all Russians to carefully approach the voting in the State Duma and the presidential elections in order to “preserve the continuity of Putin’s course after 2008.”

Chelyabinsk also supported the current president and asked him to remain the “leader of the nation.” The initiator was also the chairman of the legislative assembly, head of the regional branch of United Russia, Vladimir Myakush. The motivation of the South Ural parliament differs little from the proposals of the Tyumen residents: “to ensure stability in the country and consolidate successes in the socio-economic development of Russia.”

True, unlike Tyumen, the vote in Chelyabinsk was not unanimous - four parliamentarians abstained. One of them - Vadim Vorobey - did not vote, since the document does not have any legal consequences, and Mr. Myakush could not define what a “leader of the nation” is.

Residents of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug went the furthest - they composed their letter to Vladimir Putin at a rally in Novy Urengoy. In total, two thousand people came to the event, who decided not only to express their attitude towards the president, but also to create an all-Russian movement “For Putin.” “We want the reforms that are being ensured today by the Russian President, his balanced, constructive policies, to be developed in the future. The real results of the development of our country are obvious, as is the enormous contribution of the person who managed to organize the effective activities of the government structures of the state for the benefit of its citizens. We have gathered here to say: today there is a national leader in the country - Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin,” says the letter to all Russians.

In the two remaining regions of the Urals Federal District - Sverdlovsk and Kurgan regions - no applications have been accepted yet. But only for now. Chelyabinsk Speaker Vladimir Myakush has already announced that at the last meeting of the district council of legislators, a joint decision was made to send a letter to Vladimir Putin from the parliaments of all six regions of the Ural Federal District. So appeals from Sverdlovsk and Kurgan residents are a matter of time.

According to Mikhail Vinogradov, general director of the Center for Political Current Affairs, signs of some kind of organization are present when holding “spontaneous” rallies in support of the third term, and at the same time when corresponding initiatives of regional parliaments appear. “I think this is being done in order to present the success of United Russia as a success for Putin personally and to strengthen his position after the parliamentary elections. It seems to me that direct fulfillment of the demand for a third term looks unlikely today,” said the Vremya Novostei political scientist. .

In turn, the president of the Institute for Strategic Assessments, Alexander Konovalov, is not inclined to believe that there was severe pressure from the presidential administration to carry out such actions. “Most likely, this is the pressure of the Russian bureaucracy on Vladimir Vladimirovich. I am deeply convinced that he really wanted to leave. However, he began to get confused in the versions of what he wanted. First he said about the premiership, then he took his words back. He still has there is no plan. He would remain as the supreme ruler and unconditional political leader, but he understands that in Russia you cannot give up power, not just for six months, but even for half an hour,” believes Mr. Konovalov. “As for the third term, there is pressure. Putin’s influence will continue, because for many representatives of the power elite this is a question not only of preserving a source of income, but also a problem of personal freedom.”

Ivan GORDEEV, Mikhail VIUGIN, Ekaterinburg