PRESS DIGEST - Russia - Dec 1

The final showdown begins

The final stage of the election campaign: the ruling party narrows down to Medvedev and Putin.

Tomorrow will be the last day of political campaigning before the December 4 election. United Russia is placing its bets on the media and the positions of its leaders, Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin. Yesterday they handed out awards and cash promises, and today they are holding a final meeting with their supporters. Experts, however, indicate that United Russia’s main advantage is its administrative resources.

It seems that United Russia has decided to decrease the current election’s high publicity level at the final stage. Reports have begun to circulate that United Russia will, allegedly, shift its main focus from direct contact with voters to campaigning through the media, because, in recent weeks, communication with voters has failed to yield much success, while the number of scandals has only increased.

However, according to Nezavisimaya Gazeta’s (NG) sources, in reality the ruling party never did conduct a particularly active campaign. Since the beginning, emphasis was placed on combining the administrative resources with an overwhelming advantage in the media, which has mainly been ensured by United Russia’s leaders, Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin.

The final stage in United Russia’s election campaign will also be carried by them. Yesterday Medvedev visited a youth forum with a campaign-related title: “The future is ours!” This is one of the active slogans of the United Russia party. And today the tandem’s supporters and recent interlocutors will gather for a final session. Medvedev and Putin will hostguests at the Digital October Convention Center. The meeting will also be attended by participants of the so-called “big government”, including delegates of student groups, disabled groups, retirees, etc. – all those who have been supported by the party leaders in the two months of the election campaign. Some of the most active members of the All-Russia People’s Front, such as motorists, have been asked to attend the meeting “for Putin.” Yesterday it was impossible to so much as roughly determine the theme of the event. NG’s sources from the ruling party suggested that it will mark the main transition from one PR campaign to another – the State Duma campaign to the presidential. Meanwhile, one of NG’s interlocutors recalled that usually on the eve of such meetings authorized delegates are requested to pose certain questions to the officials.

Experts are skeptical of the heightened level of activity on the part of the ruling party’s tops officials. For example, Rostislav Turovsky, the vice president of the Center of Political Technologies, points out that United Russia’s election campaign has two dimensions. The first involves propaganda and the second, mobilization. In the second case, the administrative resources are applied: “It’s hard to say which is more important, but for United Russia, the second aspect of the campaign is more valuable.” As for the final stage of the election campaign, the expert suggests that the rules of the genre call for increased public activity on the part of the leaders. Aleksey Mukhin, the general director of the Political Information Center, was more categorical. In his opinion, “in course of the entire campaign, Medvedev and Putin competed against each other, trying to further distance themselves from campaigning for United Russia.” The only exception, he says, were the ruling party’s conferences. Otherwise, they mostly campaigned for themselves. Mukhin considers this an objective factor. Otherwise, why would Putin, for example, need to take on the responsibility of rescuing a political bankrupt? United Russia’s ratings have plummeted. This brand can no longer be restored, and efforts to support it would only lead to the loss of credibility of those who tried doing so. “An old car could, of course, be brought to its maximum velocity – after which it would simply collapse,” says the expert. He noted that the situation in which United Russia finds itself is not only resulting in its loss of votes to the Socialist Revolutionaries, but to the Communists as well.

The Communist Party has recently addressed Russian voters. Socially vulnerable groups have been promised that the country will not experience any shocks, so there is no need to worry. Staff members of election commissions who fail to understand that the situation is changing have been threatened with prosecution for fraud by the Communists.