"MK": Putin will not participate in the debate

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will not participate in the election debate, reports the Moscow Komsomolets with reference to a senior source. According to the publication, the reasons for such a decision "have already been set out by Vladimir Vladimirovich himself in the answers to the question: he intends to debate with opposition candidates or not." “Such a conversation is not on equal terms. But what will I do, this will provide them with the opportunity to compete with a“ younger brother ”on each specific question, I will find people who will be able to answer each of the applicants. Well, maybe I’ll participate in some format,” the premiere said earlier.

“It followed from Putin what was said earlier that he did not exclude the possibility of going to the debate. However, in any case, the prime minister said that he would think about the possibility of participating in the debate of his representatives,” said Dmitry Peskov, in turn.

After a direct line, Putin said that the debate is in principle useful, but the law "makes it possible to participate or not participate." According to the head of government, the opposition "the consequences of decisions made are not important: they simply appeal to the needs of the people and begin to promise everything."

On December 28, Putin said that he did not know if he would go to the debate. “The point is not in fear, but that the opposition is not burdened with a specific work. It sometimes requires the impossible, and then, as a rule, does not perform anything. The dialogue should be, and in what form, we will think about it,” Putin said.

According to the law, either the candidate or his proxies himself can take part in the debate. A participant in the electoral race can have up to 600 proxies. The list of proxies of Putin, according to Peskov, will be ready for several weeks. The "entrusted" cannot include persons replacing state and elected municipal positions: governors, government members, election committees, heads of municipalities, deputies of all levels.

In December, the Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov said that Putin is obliged to take part in the debate. "We officially invited Putin to the debate. I do not know how he will evade this time," Zyuganov said. According to him, "in any democratic country, it is impossible to refuse one of the candidates to participate in the debate, since the elections will not be valid then." "The elections will be full if there are normal debates," Zyuganov said.

On January 10, Gazeta.ru reported that the mobilization of the base electorate of Vladimir Putin during the presidential campaign will be carried out along the line of the All -Russian Popular Front, and United Russia will remain away from the campaign. Putin’s regional public receptions, on the basis of which the ONF branches were created, received the team from the headquarters to update the composition, involve regional public opinion leaders and create primary cells based on large enterprises, closed military settlements and budget organizations.

The election headquarters is headed by film director Stanislav Govorukhin, while the actual leadership of the campaign is being conducted by the former head of the government of the government, Vyacheslav Volodin, a source in Putin’s election headquarters. "The installations are as follows: on the one hand, use the cell system to mobilize the basic electorate, on the other hand, do not carry out rigid mobilization, go to people and talk with them, solve those problems that can be solved promptly," said the interlocutor of the publication.

At the same time, the headquarters relies on the removal of regional functionaries of United Russia from the campaign, explaining this by the reputation losses that the Party of power suffered following the results of the State Duma elections. United Russia, in turn, recalls that Putin is a candidate from the party, so it cannot be eliminated from work in the campaign. "Vladimir Putin was nominated by a presidential candidate from our party at the congress, saying that the party is not participating in the election campaign, at least strangely, the party members will most actively support its candidate," said the first deputy worker of the Party Secretary General Sergey Zheleznyak. "But Vladimir Putin enjoys the support of a much wider circle of voters than members and supporters of United Russia, and therefore active support. The campaign will be carried out by the ONF and other political and social forces that are interested in the stable development of the country. "

On December 27, the head of the Supreme Council of United Russia, Boris Gryzlov, called on activists of the All -Russian Popular Front to "defend his victory." “Now the situation is changing, and, let’s say, the military component of the word“ front ”is increasingly coming to the fore. We need to defend our victory, we need to defend our strategy, we need to defend and choose our President Vladimir Putin again,” Gryzlov said at a meeting of Putin with representatives of his election headquarters and ONF. Gryzlov expressed confidence that participants in the meeting agreed with this, and stated that in this way "we must understand the prospect for the next three months."