On Sunday, the second stage of the United Russia’s congress appointed the first candidate for the presidential election due on March 4, 2012. The candidate is Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. The party decided to name its candidate before the State Duma elections in order to improve its rating.
The second stage of the congress /the first one was devoted to approval of the lists for the elections to the State Duma, where Dmitry Medvedev tops the list/ was devoted to nomination of Vladimir Putin for the presidential rush, the RBC daily writes. The party decided to name its candidate before the State Duma elections in order to improve its rating, the newspaper says.
Even Vladimir Putin failed to stir the audience, which was sort of tired of the monotony of the event, as he called to demonstrate to him how the audience loves Russia by chanting in chorus “Russia”, the newspaper writes. Observers saw that nobody had mentioned Dmitry Medvedev as future prime minister.
The essence of the event was clear, the final of the nomination was known from September 24, and the event’s organisers faced a complicated task: to liven up the scenario, which had been voiced during the previous meeting, the Nezavisimaya Gazeta reports. It will be Putin’s first nomination where he does not have to collect two million signatures, the newspaper continues. Head of the Institute of Problems of Globalisation Mikhail Delyagin offers his own explanation of the reason: “Collecting signatures is a mighty propaganda activity. An aspirant to the presidency is supposed to tell about his achievements. But what is there to be expected from United Russia, if regions are full of criticism? It may come out that along with two million pros they will collect 20 million contras... Then, for the party and the future president the procedure may turn out to be a counter-propaganda action.”
The expert believes that the nomination is an important means for United Russia to strengthen its authority on the eve of the parliamentary elections, as the prime minister’s rating of 70 percent /according to the Levada Centre/ is much higher than that of the party /officially – 39 percent throughout the country/. Delyagin explains Putin’s high personal rating by absence of an alternative: “This is a diagnosis of the relations between the power and the society. The society follows the principle – it may like him with time, or leave us alone, we are busy...” this situation is dangerous, Delyagin says – the gap between the society and the power may cause growing radical tendencies.
The main character of the congress on Sunday announced evolving and successive political improvements, the Moskovsky Komsomolets writes. The nomination process was accompanied with eulogies for the prime minister, shouting of “Pu-tin! Pu-tin!” and tough criticism of the opposition. Triumph of managed democracy, not less.
Commenting on the speech from the president, the newspaper states it was some new Medvedev. Attacking the opposition, though until then he used to be above the fight. Medvedev, who spoke about Europe’s problems not without gloating delight, used the tough rhetoric of Putin. Well, this is quite explainable: being the leader of the United Russia’s list, he cannot remain any longer above the fight. As for rhetoric of Putin’s style – the party’s electorate is supporting exactly Putin. And still, this speech was not, so to say, becoming to the president. But on the other hand, Vladimir Putin matched his own style quite exactly. Like always, the opposition got it from him.
The Vedomosti says that at the congress of United Russia, Vladimir Putin recited theses of the speech he had made in 2007. The only new topic being the union in the post-Soviet space.
“The past four years may be sent to the bin,” political scientist Vladislav Inozemtsev writes. “Their result is no result.” It turns out that the idea of modernisation contradicts fundamentally the mere approach of the elite towards life, which is based on permanent raise of expenses, revenues, money stealing, the expert explains. “Now, this elite is disappointed both in Medvedev and in modernisation, their confusion and bewilderment are evident; it is not clear what to do, but Putin is adamant that he will make this decision later,” Inozemtsev said.