Izvestia: “Join the front!”
Medvedev supports Putin's idea of a Popular Front.
Speaking at a regular meeting of the Coordinating Council of the Popular Front, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said President Dmitry Medvedev supported the idea. United Russia Supreme Council Chairman Boris Gryzlov did not rule out that the front's members may nominate a candidate for the 2012 presidential elections.
Putin voiced the idea of a popular front that would "unite the efforts of different political forces on the eve of major political events" in Volgograd on May 6.
On the following day, the front's Coordinating Council already discussed the details of the event in the prime minister's Novo Ogaryovo residence.
By its second meeting in Sochi, the council had prepared the front's declaration. Izvestia correspondents had a chance to read the document consisting of two pages only but the struggle is going on around every word of it.
"You are talking about such goals as the 'market economy based on social partnership, support for business people, and employers' responsibility and protecting the working people's rights,'" head of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs Alexander Shokhin said. "But there are two more keywords – 'freedom of business' and 'competition.' I think they are part of the front's programme and will enable it to consolidate broad business circles."
The meeting's participants lashed out against the words about the country's "gradual development towards modernisation and innovations, but without sudden flights to extremes." All of them criticised the adjective "gradual."
Shokhin insisted that Russia's development must be "confident."
Deputy Head of the United Russia parliamentary faction Oleg Morozov also said it should be "fast."
Putin had the last word, and calling "sudden flights to extremes" too colloquial.
"It is very important for people who are not indifferent to come to the State Duma," Federation Council Vice Speaker Svetlana Orlova said, joining in the discussion. "I'd change the word 'indifferent' to 'people who love Russia.'"
Head of the Independent Trade Unions Federation Mikhail Shmakov suggested that the front should invite the Labour Confederation to join. His suggestion won him gratitude from his colleagues as the confederation is his union's opponent.
First Deputy Secretary of the United Russian General Council's Presidium Andrey Isayev developed his idea and suggested inviting the Organisation of Disabled People into the front. Now, there are about 40 organisations in the front, but all in all around a hundred are willing to join.
Putin listened to all the speakers, asked them to submit their proposals on paper and instructed them to finish their declarations and switch to practical action by the end of the week. It is necessary to choose a neutral venue that would not be associated with either the White House (the government) or Okhotny Ryad (the Duma). Most likely, it will be found in Moscow. Then, the front must start elaborating mechanisms to bring ideas to the decision-making level.
"We have discussed all these issues in detail with President Dmitry Medvedev," Putin said, adding that all organisational issues will also be discussed in the Kremlin. "He supports what we are doing."
This was the first mention of the president in the context of the newly established front.
What will be the front's format?
"The front's all organsations are registered domestic public organisations that have their own activists, potentialities and management," Andrey Isayev told Izvestia (ed. United Russia sent him to an informal meeting with Putin held in a Sochi restaurant). "Today, the front will act as a coalition. There is no legal work and we are not going to pass any special law on its formation. The front will not have a massive bureaucratic machine or an overwhelming hierarchy."
Shokhin reiterated his words. He said the front will not be registered as a legal entity or a public movement.
"Therefore, the front may only be legalised in several forms," Shokhin told Izvestia. "First, the front will draft a programme for United Russia that will become a party programme. Second, there will be a list of candidates (ed. at Duma elections). These are the forms of the front's legalisation."
Gryzlov linked the front with the upcoming presidential elections.
"If the front becomes a consolidating force in the December elections to the Duma and will bring to it people who will carry out the programme of Russia's bright future, then it may also become a basis for the 2012 elections," he said.
Meanwhile, political analyst Gleb Pavlovsky told Izvestia that the formation of the front is "amazing for the party's formal leader."
"In effect, the party renounces the right to nominate its own candidate and delegates the decision on a most vital issue to some outside forces," he said. "None of the political forces planning to take part in the elections will renounce their presidential nominees."
Direct speech
President Dmitry Medvedev on the Popular Front:
"I understand the motives of the party that wants to restore its influence in the country. Such an alliance's formation is right in the context of election technologies. However, I hope that other political organisations, blocs and parties will also be most active in the election campaign."
Anastasia Savinykh
3rd federal issue
