Moskovsky Komsomolets: "Putin stuns Cherepovets"
The United Russia's last pre-congress conference has dwarfed Peter the Great's plans. The huge roadside billboards that come into view as you drive from the airport of Cherepovets said that "Vologda Region welcomes the participants" in the United Russia's inter-regional conference, the last to be held before the party congress scheduled for late September. But it was not only the billboards, the roadblocks, and the orders to keep off the windows that put the residents in high spirits. They were regaled with a live broadcast of Vladimir Putin's 1.5-hour-long address at the conference.
The prime minister's message to United Russia seemed even more extensive than the presidential Federal Assembly address. Mr. Putin focused not only on communal services and housing, roads, teachers, disabled people and business, but also on the building of factories, ships and mines (all environmentally safe projects, of course), as well as lumber exports. Usually these subjects are discussed in detail at specialised meetings.
Putin also reminisced about how he and Valentina Matviyenko had recently inaugurated the St. Petersburg Flood Control facility: "Peter the Great founded St. Petersburg more than 300 years ago, and the city suffered from flooding ever since. But the problem is finally solved." Thus, the audience, evidently, was supposed to infer that Putin had outsmarted Peter the Great, because it was he who gave the go-ahead to the dam project several years ago.
In sum, the address was meant not only to enchant United Russia and the Popular Front (the two are supposed to be amenable in the line of duty) but also to instill pride for their country in the hearts of those who have not yet joined the Front.
By implication, what should have made them even prouder was an exhibit of projects to develop the Northwest of Russia, which, properly speaking, was the main reason why the conference was held at all. The Leningrad Region, for example, informed visitors that "We are growing lettuce for you!, while the Nenets Autonomous Area publicised its "Red Teepee," a programme to send travelling health stations to the tundra. As an illustration, there was a life-size (albeit not red) tent with a satellite dish. The prime minister said he liked the exhibition.
The projects he was suggesting from the rostrum were no less impressive. He proposed to do away with the "children's queue" for surgery, to increase young doctors' salaries to entice them to rural areas, and more. The suggestion was to give doctors one million roubles each, provided they work for no less than five years in rural areas. The whole project, according to his calculations, would require comparatively modest sums of public money amounting to a total of 11 billion roubles. Clearly, volunteers are few and far between and would not be seduced either by fine calculations or big bucks.
Yet another suggestion was to introduce a specialised mortgage arrangement for young teachers at 8.5% annual rate and 10% down payment (currently it stands at 20%). He even urged the regions to make the down payment their own responsibility.
There is no wonder that this clearly pre-election address mentioned the elections proper. Contriving to scold and praise United Russia with one short sentence (the party "has very many problems, and complaints in its regard are justified, but it has shown itself capable of development..."), Mr. Putin declared that its State Duma faction would have 50% new members. But at the same time, "we must not lose people who proved that they were able to work for the good of this country." "The party structures and the government will think about it," he said, meaning that some decent jobs would be found for the ex-legislators. He also di not forget those Popular Front members who had won the primaries but were unlikely to make it to the federal parliament. Mr. Putin recommended that the United Russia regional slates include no less than 25% of winners in the preliminary voting.
As this MK issue was sent to the printers, the conference was still in progress.
Viktoria Prikhodko
