United Russia, with the participation of its leader, Vladimir Putin, will hold a regional conference in the Central Federal District on the threshold of the spring legislative assemblies elections, where deputies in several regions will be elected. Party leaders head to problematic (for their Party) regions this week, and dozens of State Duma deputies will be starting to work in the regions as well with a view to the State Duma campaign, United Russia told Ъ.
United Russia's next regional conference will take place in February and early March, and the spring elections are scheduled for March 13. The party will most likely hold the first stage of the selection of the best projects in the Moscow Region. The second stage, in which Putin always takes part, will be in one of the cities of the Central Federal District. The Chairman of United Russia's Executive Committee, Andrei Vorobyev, told Ъ that they are considering several places at the moment but have not yet made a final decision.
This week, the ruling party will send a troop of State Duma deputies to the 12 regions where the elections will be held. United Russia leaders have started to inspect those regions that are problematic for the party: Head of the Supreme Council Boris Gryzlov will leave for Tambov, Secretary of the General Council Presidium Sergei Neverov will go to Kaliningrad and Andrei Vorobyev to Kirov. In the Kirov and Tambov Regions, governors did not lead the ruling party lists, but the governor of the Kaliningrad Region, Nikolai Tsukanov, who was appointed at the end of summer of 2010, will lead United Russia's members to the elections. Because of the intensive mood of protest in the region, United Russia is supervising it carefully: Neverov visited the region in December and is going back again. It is unclear whether the party will receive 50% of votes, the goal Boris Gryzlov set for all regions, at the elections in the Kirov Region. Vorobyov told Ъ that he does not have any meetings planned with the governor of the Kirov Region Nikita Belykh, who is not a United Russia member. "We have a pre-election campaign, and so our plans are down to earth – our work is 'in the field,' " said Vorobyev. "Sometimes it's appropriate to disturb governors and meet with them, and sometimes it isn't."
The State Duma deputies who are travelling to pre-election regions are associated with the party's projects, Alexei Chesnakov, head of the United Russia public council, told Ъ. Noting that the March campaign will be the last before the State Duma elections, he explained that the deputies will be working with the State Duma elections in mind. In the past, Neverov has said that "the efficiency of each United Russia deputy" will be assessed by the results that they achieve in the regions, but as it was explained to Ъ in his inner circle, the main thing is to be included in the party list at the Duma elections. "For this reason, the deputies commit to their work, fearing that they will not be on the list," he said.
Ъ's source in the party said that at the last conference with the regional branches on Friday, Sergei Neverov indicated that the campaign should focus only on those projects that are really tangible, such as roads, kindergartens and quality of life. "Nobody's involved in the real, visible work being carried out on the party's behalf. . The local deputies prefer to promote themselves via state bodies." Friday's presidium meeting of the United Russia General Council focused on the election of the managing bodies in all primary, local and regional branches of the party, which must be completed by June. "We will attract as many public opinion leaders as possible to take part in reporting and election activities," Neverov said.
Maria-Luisa Tirmaste
