MOSCOW, February 6 (Itar-Tass) —— Vladimir Putin will win the first round of the presidential elections, the prime-minister’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov believes.
"We are sure (the elections) will bring a convincing victory to Putin, of course, in the first round. At least the convincing support we saw at Poklonnaya Gora and the cold figures of sociologists affirmatively indicate the first round," Peskov said in an interview published in the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper on Monday.
"It is good that everything was peaceful," he said about last Saturday's rallies.
According to Peskov, the content of the demonstration on Bolotnaya, where non-system opposition supporters gathered under the slogan "For Fair Elections", is not quite clear. "I do not quite entirely understand the slogan "Putin, Go Away", the press secretary said. "It is voiced by an absolute minority. Perhaps, in this case, it just uses its right to say everything it wants," Peskov believes.
It would be better to hear some constructive proposals on how to make elections more transparent, he suggested.
Putin suggested to install web-cameras at the polling stations. He proposed a concrete project for the entire country provide maximum transparency to the elections. "We hear no additional proposals of such constructivism," Peskov noted.
Poklonnaya Gora (where patriotic forces gathered under the slogan "We'll Prevent the Breakup of the Country" shocked with their sentiments and decisiveness, Peskov said. It was not just a demonstration supporting Putin. The people who came there were outraged over the attempts to shake the situation. They wanted to state it loudly. And they did it convincingly enough, the press secretary believes.
In reply to the question whether Putin intended to take a leave and go to a demonstration in his support, Peskov answered "I do not know."