The presidium of the general council of the ruling United Russia party appointed Alexei Chadayev as acting deputy head of the party's central executive committee and head of its political department. Chadayev, who worked for some time at the Presidential Executive Office, is author of the book, "Putin and His Ideology." The party has no reason to conceal that it will strengthen its propaganda work before the elections.
Andrei Vorobyov, head of the party's executive committee, explained to Kommersant that, since the post of head of the party's political department was vacant, "it was important to give it to a competent party worker."
"We have such a person today. We have long worked with Chadayev on the ideological front and in preparation of Strategy 2020."
The party does not conceal that Chadayev's appointment is connected with the forthcoming federal elections. Alexei Chesnakov, head of the public council of the United Russia general council presidium for contacts with the media and experts, told Kommersant that "they have already increased the volume of propaganda and a new intellectual product is bound to appear."
Chesnakov who recommended Chadayev to the party said that he would do a huge amount of work: issue booklets, provide analytical material for regional conferences which are chaired by party leader Vladimir Putin, participate in the post-crisis adjustment of the ideology for Strategy 2020 and draft party programmes for both regional and federal elections.
Chadayev refused to comment on his appointment. He became known after he wrote the book "Putin and His Ideology" in 2005, while being editor of the politics section in the Russky Zhurnal magazine and member of the Public Chamber of Russia. United Russia leaders suggested that the book be viewed as the official version of the Russian leadership's course. Vladislav Surkov, deputy head of the Presidential Executive Office, said that it was a "deep book". Chadayev worked at the Presidential Executive Office until recently.
Chesnakov believes that Chadayev's appointment "will strengthen the party's positions". He said that, apart from Chadayev, "several young and interesting people" would appear in the party soon, that "they are critically-minded people whose position is not that of overall approval".
Apart from appointing the head for the party's political department, the general council presidium relieved two persons from their duties on Friday, i.e., Lyudmila Berlina, secretary of the political council of the party's Irkutsk branch and speaker of the regional legislature, and Svetlana Bragina, head of the party's executive committee. Alexander Bitarov, Berlina's deputy, was appointed acting head of the party's regional branch. "The region is becoming a priority in the party's political work, but we must distribute the authority more effectively; in our case, we deem it necessary to separate the duties of the parliament speaker from those of the head of a party branch," Vyacheslav Volodin, secretary of the party's general council presidium, told Kommersant. Personnel have been strengthened in other regions as well. Thus, the party's general council presidium appointed Andrei Artyukhov, acting secretary of the political council of the party's Tyumen branch, as its secretary. The party's Dagestan branch was recommended to elect Magomed-Sultan Magomedov, speaker of the republic's parliament, as secretary of the party's political council, and deputies of the Trans-Baikal Territory's legislature were advised to elect Stepan Zhiryakov as its speaker.
Maria-Luisa Tirmaste