"Kommersant": Putin can be nominated to the presidency even before the Duma elections

Vladimir Putin can be nominated by presidential candidate before the Duma elections. According to Kommersant, the final decision will depend on the course of the election campaign of United Russia, led by President Dmitry Medvedev. Putin’s nomination to the president should take place at the second stage of the party congress.

Immediately after the Congress of United Russia, the head of the State Duma Committee on Constitutional Legislation Vladimir Pligin said that the second stage of the congress will be held in December - after the elections to the State Duma. Then, the head of the Duma Committee on Legislation, Pavel Krasheninnikov added that after the elections to the State Duma at the second part of the United Russia Congress, will officially put forward a candidate for the presidency. However, now this scenario has changed. According to the publication, the party leadership is inclined to hold the second part of the congress to the Duma elections - at the end of November. This was confirmed by Prime Minister Dmitry Peskov. "To date, we proceed from the fact that the end of the congress will take place before the State Duma elections on December 4," he said.

In turn, in United Russia they said that there was no final decision on the date of the congress and it would be made when it becomes clear how the election campaign goes to the State Duma. Previously, sources reported that, as part of the Duma campaign, joint events of Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin were planned. Putin’s participation in the Duma campaign, in particular, another speech at the congress, may be required if the party, led by Medvedev, begins to “sag”. United Russia has not yet come up with options for embedding the president into the election campaign, and in the Kremlin they decided to conduct the campaign on their own, creating a parallel headquarters under the leadership of the head of the Kremlin administration Sergey Naryshkin.

The central event of the Congress and the Emergency Campaign of United Russia will be Putin’s nomination to the president. Party sources are sure that the date of the congress is transferred for this. When asked whether Putin will be put forward to the Duma elections, Dmitry Peskov replied that he did not know this. However, the legislation allows unicorns to put forward their leader until December 4.

As Kommersant reported earlier, the party was not ready for the fact that the election campaign would have to lead without Vladimir Putin. To the questions about what the United Russia campaign will be, the party members answer that they have a "full gogly". “No billboards, no slogans, no video are engaged in a turnover, and that’s it,” they say. The strategy of the election campaign is not defined.

The elections to the State Duma will be held on December 4. On September 24, at the Congress of United Russia, it became known that the list of the party in the parliamentary elections will be headed by President Dmitry Medvedev. According to Medvedev, United Russia is the closest political force to him, despite the fact that he repeatedly criticized it. Then Vladimir Putin agreed to run for the presidency “I want to express my gratitude to you for a positive reaction to the proposal to run me as the president of Russia, for me this is a great honor,” said Putin.