Translated material
"United Russia" without Putin
Power in current restless times demonstrates remarkable activity in all kinds of experiments in a political field. There is not even so much a question of the adoption of different bills directed, directly and indirectly, to the fight against an alternative agenda and just dissent. And not even about the use of the political struggle of the Investigative Committee as an instrument of the political struggle. All this, one way or another, was before, just now it has become a little more.
Sergey Neverov The innovations of the authorities (compared with the previous period of “Putin's stability”) also affected the spheres of highly specialized - say, political technology. Here the Vedomosti newspaper reported that in the election, candidates for governors who support United Russia support will not use billboards with their image against the backdrop of first persons. The publication of a prominent party functionary Sergei Neverov explained that the campaigns - regional, not federal, billboards are ineffective at all, and the bet should be made for personal campaigning, and not advertising of this kind.
True, the press secretary of Dmitry Medvedev told the newspaper that, according to her information, the regional branches of the EP still plan to contact Medvedev for permission to use his image in agitation-he is still a party leader now. However, here we can talk about the use of the prime minister in the elections to the legislative meetings, which will be held in more than 10 regions of Russia. For EP lists, such support, albeit not from the most popular prime minister among the people, may not be superfluous: not the electorate, so the bureaucracy will demonstrate that the United Russians are still important for the country and its leadership.
And how her leader Medvedev on the eve met with the leadership of EP, why not agitation? Yes, not billboards, but quite Medvedev, “our task is that our candidates are as convincing as possible,” the premiere of the party comrades admonished. He reassured them about the possible dissolution of the parliament, saying that the current Duma will finalize his term to the end. In general, he showed care of the party and slightly illuminated its election candidates.
Another thing is that Medvedev had an electoral rating after his appointment by the Prime Minister steadily fell and, it seems, is already somewhere at the level of statistical error. The situation is more difficult with Putin, his rating is still significantly higher. It is worth noting that recently many are looking for where to buy or order T -shirts with Putin , according to Printez.ru. Only now, the elected governors Putin in the framework of their campaign are not completely necessary. For the conditional Sobyanin, the use of Putin’s image, and even more so Medvedev, is a risky solution: it is simply not clear how the metropolitan voter will react to this.
In general, a relatively popular candidate for governors from the authorities does not have much need for additional support. And not a very popular governor has a rather large set of tools to prevent opponents dangerous for him. Take at least the same, much discussed in connection with the elections in Moscow and the Moscow Region, the “municipal filter”. With the help of the filter, they removed, already in the framework of these elections, a candidate from the “Civil Platform” by Alexei Koshelev in the Trans -Baikal Territory: according to the election commission that the court confirmed today, Koshelev did not get signatures.
Igor Morozov In regions where there are no powerful elites conflict, the governor can also go to direct transactions with potential competitors. In Ryazan last year, a candidate from the Patriots of Russia, Igor Morozov, who posed a threat to the candidate from the authorities, himself withdrew the election, receiving the post of senator from the region in return. So the regional authorities and without Putin have many arguments to combat competitors.
In addition, to use Putin’s image in the election campaign, it is not at all necessary to attract his visual image. Putin (the abstract “federal power” and even power in general) is already associated, in a sense, with the governor-the power of the concrete and more close. And Putin does not abandon the fate of the governors at all. He had already met with a number of current governors (in particular, with the head of Ingushetia Yunus-Buck Evkurov and the capital's mayor Sergei Sobyanin), accepting their resignation. Thus, Putin launched the election campaigns of candidates from the authorities, that is, de facto completely took part in agitation.
Finally, the Kremlin has always been jealous of using the image of Vladimir Putin in agitation. This required special permission and, in general, it was infrequently given on regional campaigns. Before the mass cleansing of the governors under Medvedev, a steam locomotive for United Russia was more likely to become the Governor-Slezelves, and not Vladimir Putin at all.
In addition, we now have a bet on improving the legitimacy of elected governors and other democratic completely rhetoric. Against this background, it would be completely obvious to use Putin in local political campaigns somewhat embarrassed, and Medvedev is not unsafe for the candidates themselves. However, let's see again. You never know that there are noners and headquarters of candidates. It will be necessary to win Putin at all costs - one must think, they will allow them to use Putin.