MOSCOW, May 19. /TASS/. The United Russia political party must react to changes caused by the pandemic to retain its role as the leading political force in Russia, party chairman and Deputy Head of Russia’s Security Council Dmitry Medvedev said during an online meeting with the PolitStartup HR project members.
He proposed to conduct a separate meeting shortly to discuss the proposals on amendments to the party’s electoral platform and its approaches to various issues, put forth amid the changed circumstances. The party chairman underscored that ideological changes are certainly needed.
"The world has changed and there will certainly be no turning back to the previous state; we will have to react to all this properly, and if we manage this, we will be able to stay the leading political force," Medvedev believes.
He added that "this is only the beginning" and that there are lessons to be learned from the current state of affairs.
Commenting on participation of volunteers, non-profits and other activists in the United Russia’s work on provision of aid to the citizens and the businesses amid the pandemic, Medvedev noted that it is important for the party to "keep these people" and to "not squander everything that has been achieved recently."
According to Medvedev, these people have contacted the party in a bid to help and not for a political career. "This is, probably, the most valuable political capital that we could accumulate during this period," the chairman said.
According to Medvedev, such work has been established only by the United Russia, although there are other political organizations with long history and big assets. "But they did not do this," he noted.
End to crisis
The crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic gets prolonged and the employment services in these circumstances are not effective enough, Dmitry Medvedev opined.
"Any crisis story always reveals the weak points. Obviously, this has also happened in our country, just like in the majority of other ones," Medvedev stated.
He mentioned the lack of effectiveness of the employment services as one such weak point. "In circumstances of relative stability they more or less cope with their duties, but when a crisis strikes — and this is not the first crisis, although it is a special one, and, unfortunately, there is no end in sight for this one — it is a flop," the chairman believes.
He proposed to "think about how to enhance these services' performance so that they could really become a bridge between an employee and an employer, to make them not simply shuffle papers and file some data into computers, but be both a facilitator and a controller of this process."
"Maybe, create a working group, include representatives of the Ministry of Labor and Social Development, representatives of the United Russia and public structures and work together," the chairman proposed.
Medvedev ordered to prepare a relevant decision "within the party" to implement this idea.