La Stampa: The victory of Medvedev can only prevent the landing of the Martian landing in the Kremlin

The foreign press on Friday comments on the next event related to the coming elections of the President of Russia on March 2. On the eve of Dmitry Medvedev, the main favorite of the presidential race, who, according to the survey, will gain about 75% of the votes , the site has appeared. According to The Independent , Medvedev is doomed to win, without even bothering himself to visit the television units with other candidates that he refused . But, apparently, in order to demonstrate at least one sign of a serious attitude to the elections, his team launched a pre-election site.

The site contains a biography, selected speeches and a gallery of several dozen photographs of Putin’s heir in a working environment and on vacation. There are photos in which he strokes the giant rabbit, examines the art gallery and sits thoughtfully at the laptop. Many photos show him with Putin. There are not so many photos of Medvedev next to other people - maybe in order to hide his small stature: only about 5 feet and 4 inches.

Probably, a sign that Medvedev will try to use a different tone in communication with foreign and Russian investors is a quote on the main page of the English version of the site. Bred in large print, it was taken from the speech made by Medvedev a year ago: "Today we are building new institutions based on the basic principles of full democracy ... democracy without unnecessary additional definitions." Many considered this a mild abandonment of the term "sovereign democracy" used by the Kremlin ideologists to describe Russia under Putin. In the Russian -language version of the site, this quote is absent. (Full text on the website inopressa.ru )

As the Italian newspaper La Stampa notes, Russia has not yet seen such a president. Formally, he is not yet the president, but only the landing of the Martian landing in the Kremlin can prevent his crushing victory in the first round of the presidential election. But he, Medvedev, is more like a Martian, on the pages of his recently opened site.

On the first page, it can still be seen in the official image, in an ink-blue suit with a tie, but on the next pages the shock follows the shock. A presidential candidate appears in a sky-blue jacket, narrowed in the waist, to demonstrate harmony, albeit with a small physique, and in a striped shirt with an unbuttoned collar. Candidate in a black T -shirt working for a laptop. Candidate for Villa Borghez, in Rome, surrounded by tourists, in shorts. The candidate, incredibly, smiles at the top of the screen, and not ironically curving his lips, like Putin, but showing all 32 teeth.

The gap with all the taboos of the Russian political image: from clearly branded ties with a wide soft triangular knot-to the enthusiasm of the Internet, from shirts with cufflinks-to a sincere statement like this: "Money is a serious measure of status, and an attempt to put as an incentive to nothing good in our country." Putin’s support allows Medvedev to say such that other candidates would have paid dearly, for example, to say that his favorite music is heavy rock performed by Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple, and not patriotic or folk songs binding on Russian politicians. Or report that he spends two hours a day in the pool and in the gym: "To be in shape is important." The president is a cool guy, this has never happened in Russia.

The candidate even feels the need to muffle the brightness of his image of a successful St. Petersburg intellectual and recall that "my grandfather was born in the village," the maternal ancestors were engaged in peasant labor in one of the villages of Central Russia, while he admitted: "In truth, I have never been there."

The gap between generations - Medvedev is only 42 years old - is now more manifested in the image than in politics. The future third Russian president is elected Putin, and he declares himself as the most devoted associate of Putin. But the situation, in which he appears to the Russians, is completely different: in the media tsunami, which fell on Russians from television screens, and TV monitors every step of the appointed heir, students and young families, schools and scientists, children and factories, in moderate doses - NGOs and representatives of civil society prevail. The three other candidates are the communist Gennady Zyuganov, the nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky and the unknown Democrat Andrei Bogdanov, for whom only 0.4% of the voters are ready to cast votes, have disappeared, removed to the background, including the refusal of Medvedev to participate in television battles.

He speaks himself and directs a positive, soothing message, assigning his teacher the task of talking about dangers and quickly solving problems. This is a guy from a neighboring apartment, but he is also a successful “new Russian”, the groom whom any girl would like to present to her mother, and the blonde wife Svetlana, a school girlfriend, who he married immediately after school, modestly holds in the shade (here the tradition is not violated), but she, as it were, says to the voters: Dmitry is a man who can be trusted. (Full text on the website inopressa.ru )

The presidential elections in Russia will be held on March 2, and the inauguration of the winner will be held in May. This week, Putin warned that Russian security forces would track attempts to adjust the course of the current election campaign from abroad.