"Ours" now "smart"

New project of Vasily Yakemenko

Yakemenko-Projects. The former head of the Rosmolodezh, the face of the odious youth Kremlin movements, Vasily Yakemenko actively treats his reputation. He gives an interview by a fan, masters opposition rhetoric and launches two new projects at once. The Party of Power is his personal project. The Party "Smart Russia" is created by the Commissars of the Movement "Our". Who and why is it needed - the New Times sorted out
“25 interviews - and my reputation problems will end,” Vasily Yakemenko said in his last interview with Novaya Gazeta. The need to solve problems with the reputation has risen for him for a long time. The conversations that the “ours” project will close, and Yakemenko will fly off the post of head of the Rosmolodezhi literally from December 2011, when the opposition mass rallies began in Moscow. Then it became clear that “ours” did not fulfill the role of the brake of the “orange plague” prepared by him. And the first deputy head of the presidential administration Vladislav Surkov, who was responsible for the country's domestic policy for almost 12 years and was considered the ideological father of “ours”, was replaced by Vyacheslav Volodin.

In April, the media reported that Yakemenko at a meeting with the commissioners of the movement announced his closure and termination of financing. Then there was talk that a new party may appear on the basis of “ours”. So it happened. Only instead of one batch there will be two. The once secretive Yakemenko now tells everyone that he is happy in free swimming, that his “party in power” will not be connected with “smart Russia”, and most importantly, he will act as a competitor of the current party in power - “United Russia”, using the rhetoric of street protests of the opposition.
Party Yakemenko
According to one of the commissars close to Yakemenko who spoke on the terms of anonymity, the idea of ​​a new party arose two years ago: “He always said at all meetings that it would be good to create his own party instead of“ United Russia ”. And then somewhere in the fall Vasya came to Surkov and talked about this idea. ” Surkov, as Yakemenko himself said at a press conference on May 21, approved the idea. The new party will try to distance herself from the previous projects of Yakemenko, it has a slightly different target audience: people aged 25 to 40 years. “Those who work in the service sector, media, IT technologies. Those who have now actively showed themselves in opposition activities, in #occupiers and street protests, ”says the same commissar. According to him, the “party in power” is a mechanism aimed at cleaning the ranks of “United Russia”, in fact, a replacement that will make what has not been fully possible. “Putin wants to get rid of EP and everything that is connected with her, but simply can’t eliminate it, because it will be too obvious,” the source says. - Therefore, we decided to go to another cardinal measure - to create a new party. And Yakemenko, like no one, is suitable for this project. He is a fairly specific, ideological, young one, feels good trends, and even despite his reputation and the train, which is behind him, is able to make a party that mobilizes healthy personnel in the shortest possible time. ” “Healthy shots” are those who have nothing against Putin’s personally, but at the same time annoyed by corruption, falsifications in the elections and other things.
In fact, the project has two goals-to the next Duma elections to become a sparring partner of United Russia and extinguish the protest wave: “Instead of fighting the opposition, they will simply take their slogans into service.”
What will be the structure of the new batch, which of the famous people will enter it, how the program will look like - Yakemenko has not yet said. Like, the project is still under development. So far, it is only known that from “ours” he will take an active backbone and try to attract businessmen who will help with financing (now the project exists with the money of Yakemenko himself, the budget - 5 million rubles). The former ideologist of United Russia Alexei Chadaev is engaged in the preparation of the ideological platform. For promotion, according to the source, they are going to attract the famous journalist and editor -in -chief of the Russian News Service Sergey Dorenko and TV presenter Sergei Minaev. Neither Chadaev nor Dorenko answered calls. Sergei Minaev told The New Times that he had not yet received such proposals.

Vasily Yakemenko proves intensely that he had left the authorities

Smart Russia
According to the interlocutors of The New Times, in the movement “ours” among activists, there was a split: far from everything is happy to create a party on the basis of movement. Probably because not everyone can enter there. Personnel will be recruited mainly from those “ourselves” who participated in the Rosmolodezh projects. The initiator and coordinator of the Smart Russia is called the current leader of the movement, 32-year-old Nikita Borovikov. According to activists, on the one hand, this project is needed to demonstrate a certain social elevator of the nurses, on the other hand, the need for movement itself is in doubt in the Kremlin, and the party was invented in order not to “drain” it to no avail. What is subject to complete elimination is the radical wing of “ours” - the “steel” movement. Their offices in the regions are already closing.
“We can say that“ smart Russia ”is a sign of gratitude for the work done. All the most promising and creative people will go to Yakemenko, and the commissars will remain on the budget of Rosmolodezh in Smart Russia, ”says one of the commissioners. On May 23, the first congress of the party was held. It was closed to both journalists and for many “nurses”. They brought there mainly regional commissars. In the party press release, Nikita Borovikov, a member of the Federal Council of the Party, said: “Representatives of youth projects, communities and movements will gather at the congress, ready to participate in the political struggle in order to change the country. The Smart Russia party will become a political platform, thanks to which young and active people will be able to participate in real politics on their own. ”
Prospects
Most of The New Times of experts have doubtfully reacted to both projects and believe that movement activists do not adequately assess the situation. Political scientist Stanislav Belkovsky believes that the Party of Power and Smart Russia is purely commercial projects that are not political content: “Yakemenko is lying when he says that he has nothing to do with“ smart Russia ”. All these are links of one chain. Projects necessary to simulate opposition parties. The only skill of Yakemenko is to “saw budgets” allocated for projects. This is what he will once again do. ” According to Belkovsky, in this way the Kremlin is simply trying to intercept the slogans of Bolotnaya and Sakharov. But nothing will come out, because Yakemenko does not enjoy trust in those layers of society that are potentially ready to vote for the opposition.
The head of the regional programs of the Information Policy Development Fund, Alexander Kynev, does not see the electoral prospects for these projects: “In order to receive votes, you need to either have charismatic leaders using real support, or rely on an administrative resource. In reality, there cannot be several parties of the authorities, it can be alone. From the fact that someone will criticize someone, the opposition’s image will not work. Probably, there is just some kind of budget that needs to be mastered. ” Competition at the federal level, the new parties, according to Kynev, will not withstand, and to participate in the regional elections, the presence of a serious party structure is secondary: “In order to participate in them, you just need to receive registration in the justice bodies, this is enough. We understand how our parties are recorded, if there is a seal, you can not even have support in the region. ”
That both projects look extremely unconvincing, said The New Times and political analyst Gleb Pavlovsky: “It seems that it can be a joke in general. So the parties do not create. Now you can’t just go out and say that we have a project. We must go out and declare: "I believe in that and that." All the same, what, the main thing is that there is a position, and not some kind of technological project. It will be quite funny to watch Vasily Yakemenko, who repeats the slogans of Bolotnaya and Sakharov. ” But exactly this is still the acting The heads of "Rosmolodezh" are engaged in the last days. For now, however, to no avail: no matter how much Yakemenko counts on this, it will be incredibly difficult for him to whiten his biography. Rather, it is simply impossible.