Vedomosti: "Putin has the floor"
Natalya Kostenko, Maxim Glikin, Nadezhda Ivanitskaya
United Russia will hold the shortest Congress in recent years
The key item on the United Russia congress agenda will be Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's report on Concept-2020; the main intrigue is whether or not he will officially become a party member and what steps would follow.
United Russia will hold its congress on November 20. Like all previous congresses, it will be held at Gostiny Dvor, but unlike the previous three congresses, it will last three hours and not two days.
According to the event's programme, President Dmitry Medvedev will greet the Congress. United Russia will endorse the President's address, and then the party's Chairman, Mr Putin, and the Chairman of the party's Supreme Council, Boris Gryzlov, will present their reports. United Russia will then turn to personnel issues and make amendments to its charter.
Mr Putin's participation has been confirmed by the Government press service. Mr Medvedev is expected to take part, a source at the Presidential Executive Office says.
The main substantive issue before the Congress, as planned, will be the concept of the country's development through 2020. Mr Putin's report will deal with Concept-2020, but not only that, says deputy government spokesmen Alexander Smirnov. The Government held two meetings to finalise the theses of the Prime Minister's speech, a government official said.
The Government meeting approved Concept-2020 on October 1, but sent it back to be reworked, giving it two weeks. A source at the State Duma says that unlike the previous congress, United Russia will not focus on Strategy 2020 but will instead discuss how the country and its economy will survive the crisis.
The congress was also expected to adopt the party's programme, sealing its conservative ideology, but after the party's leadership met with Mr Putin on November 7, it was decided that there should be no undue haste: as they stand today, the economic and political sections of the draft are short of concrete material.
United Russia will report on the results of party reform, for which Mr Putin called the congress on April 16: they purged their ranks over the last six months. It will now be more difficult to join the party (the probation period will increase from three to six months) and the General Council: previously, all regional secretaries were ex-officio members, but now only the best of the best (who win 60% of the vote) will be eligible, a source in the party leadership says.
Mr Putin was expected to join the reformed party as early as April. This could become the highlight of the congress, a high-ranking United Russia functionary says, adding that if Mr Putin becomes a card-carrying member, he will be able to take up his seat in the State Duma and become its chairman.
(Gryzlov may move to the Government). In connection with the constitutional reform, notably the new requirement that makes it mandatory for the Government to report back to the State Duma, this scenario was mentioned last week by the opposition Duma parties, the KPRF and LDPR. However, sources in the Government and the Presidential Executive Office believe such a development is unlikely, and nothing has been said as to whether or not Mr Putin will receive a party card.
Alexander Tsygankov took part in preparing this article
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5% purged
During the last six months, United Russia has purged its ranks and expelled 100,000 party members, head of the Party's Executive Committee Andrei Vorobyov said. Before the purge, United Russia was 2 million strong.
