“I am confident that the front can and must play a positive role in the development of our political system. It will exert its influence on the formation of parties and the election of governors in the regions. It will also play a role in changing the rules for the formation of the upper chamber of parliament.”
“So I believe that the Russian Popular Front will hold on to its influence on the work of the parliament. It must influence it directly, by helping to prepare and draft decisions which will be sponsored by United Russia as well as other parliamentary parties. This is our first goal. Another area for cooperation between us involves the auditing of bills the State Duma is working on. <…> Finally, the third important area involves working with municipal governments.”
“It is possible to give the front the status of a public organisation or movement because we have not registered it legally in any way. This is simply an association and a movement of like-minded individuals, but we can register it and its status would then be defined in charter documents.”
“I assume that the Popular Front will not cease to exist after the election, but will continue working. Secondly, the main political force in parliament, the United Russia party, has fulfilled its promise to the Popular Front: it had promised to include at least 25% of the Popular Front representatives in its election ticket, but in fact it included even more”.
“Undoubtedly, the establishment of the Popular Front also helped reinvigorate the United Russia party. I hope very much that our colleagues in the party understand this and will promote this process, because, on the whole, this new organisation is becoming more viable. We have used the Popular Front venue to discuss a wide range of issues related to all areas of life in the country. In point of fact, we have created a network of direct ties between the authorities and civil society institutions. It was a very important period in our work, and we will definitely continue to promote these initiatives and mechanisms.”
“The idea of the Russian Popular Front is to give a fresh impetus to Russia’s political and economic life, to ensure that new ideas burgeon at the regional, municipal and federal level and unconventional solutions are found to problems facing cities, regions and Russia as a whole.”
“There is no doubt that the Popular Front’s objectives that I have just mentioned are not limited merely to elections and new power formation mechanisms. Perhaps the most important thing is the open discussion of the society and the country’s primary challenges. To implement our strategic goals and bring Russia to a higher level, we will need to take crucial decisions, thoroughly discuss important projects, and choose those priorities that merit special attention. Such decisions should be based on the support of the entire Russian people; they should not be taken solely by officials or experts. And these decisions should be competent and precise as well as comprehensible, in-demand and supported by society. They should meet the interests of the overwhelming majority of Russian citizens, which means that they must be fair.”
“It is very important not to lose people who hold a lot of promise and to use them during regional elections and in forming representative and executive bodies both at the regional and federal levels. We should create a talent pool and draw on it. Certainly, this is very important”.
“I am pleased to note that the ideas underlying the establishment of the Popular Front are being implemented. We managed to create a situation where large numbers of public organisations who joined the Popular Front got a real opportunity to send their representatives to supreme governing bodies using channels offered by United Russia. The fact that hundreds of thousands of people participated in this work confirms it better than anything else”.
“This year’s primaries demonstrated the effectiveness of the mechanisms of the Popular Front. But of course, our ambitions are not limited to elections. Our primary goal is to maintain open discussion and suggest solutions to some key problems related to the development of the nation. Using the platform of the Popular Front, we have already considered some defining issues, including healthcare and education reform, social policies, budget priorities, counter-extremism measures, and the strengthening of civil and inter-ethnic harmony. This work can and must be continued”.