As reported by RBC , the Kremlin and the Central Election Commission (CEC) are planning to prepare a digital strategy for the 2018 presidential elections. Its main task is to attract voters to the elections, and the main contender for implementing the strategy is Mail.Ru Group. This publication was told about this by two sources on the television market, a high-ranking source in the Kremlin, an interlocutor close to the presidential administration, and a source close to the Central Election Commission.

A high-ranking source in the Kremlin explained the choice of Mail.Ru Group by the fact that the company owns the main social networks in the country (VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, as well as the search engine of the same name). As the publication notes, the popularization of the elections will be carried out under the control of the Central Election Commission. A creative competition has already been announced to create an information concept for the commission’s work; one of the elements should be a digital strategy. How much budget funds will be spent on this is still unknown. A high-ranking source in the Kremlin suggested that the cost of the digital strategy “is not exorbitant, less than 100 million rubles.” He is confident that this project is beneficial to both the authorities and the company: “Mail.ru Group has always been loyal to the authorities and understands that Russia is their main, if not only, market.”

RBC notes that the final decision on the general consultant for online promotion of elections will be made in September. A source close to the presidential administration is confident that the project will go to Mail.ru Group if the company writes a good strategy. “And if not, then there will be others,” he noted.

RBC: Mail.ru can be trusted to attract voters to elections