MOSCOW, April 27 (Itar-Tass) — The core group of the United Russia Party will meet on Friday with outgoing President Dmitry Medvedev to offer him to become member of the party and its chairman, Sergei Zheleznyak, deputy secretary of the presidium of United Russia’s General Council, reported. He said other issues, including the lineup of the future government would be discussed.
On April 24, United Russia leader, Prime Minister, President Elect Vladimir Putin said that he would resign from the position of United Russia Chairman after the inauguration and proposed Dmitry Medvedev as party chairman.
On Thursday, Medvedev accepted a proposal to become a United Russia member and to lead the party. “If such proposal to head the party is made to me, as the incumbent chairman voiced it, I will not reject it,” Medvedev said in an interview with the Russian television channels on Thursday.
“Tomorrow we will tackle this issue,” Zheleznyak said. “It is a very important signal to the people who came to power in Russian regions with United Russia’s support. In other words, Medvedev has demonstrated on his own example that if a person gets office thanks to the party’s support, he or she must be a member of that party.”
The presidium of the General Council has already started preparations for the party congress on May 26. The agenda includes the election of party chairman and party’s priority tasks.
“I believe that any leader of the party should be with it,” Medvedev said earlier. “If he does not join it for some reasons, he will begin to distance himself from the party at some moment. This is possible for some posts, for instance, the presidential posts, but this is wrong in general,” the president believes.
“Therefore, I believe that the chairman of the party should be a member of the party,” he concluded.
Last year, in summer, the president told reporters that sooner or later he would join a party. “It’s not only that I don’t rule that out, I believe that this will happen sooner or later,” he said then.
Zheleznyak said that the future lineup of the government would be discussed at the meeting on Friday. “We will discuss our proposals, how, in our opinion, the party must be represented in the government,” he said. “I am confident that there will be members of our party in the future government,” he stressed.
Among other issues, he also mentioned party’s strategy, a new structure of its leadership that must be approved at the upcoming congress, the strengthening of party’s role in the political system of the country. He also believes the party strategy at future gubernatorial elections would be discussed.