Izvestia: "Popular Front members meet with Vladimir Putin"
Today they will meet with Vyacheslav Volodin, Deputy Prime Minister and head of the Popular Front headquarters. Tomorrow regional representatives are scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, the leader of United Russia.
"This will be a meeting with new people from among members of the Russian Popular Front. The meeting will be attended not only by the winners of the primary elections (some of them did not even make it into the top three or the top five), but also by those who most actively participated in the preliminary voting," the prime minister's press secretary Dmitry Peskov told Izvestia.
He said that the meeting will focus on preparations for the upcoming elections.
"Many of these individuals will become fully fledged members of our party – they will have to participate in debates, and will represent the Popular Front," Peskov said.
It appears that the Popular Front does not yet fully trust the new 'recruits'; according to Izvestia's information, at the meeting with the prime minister the winners of the primaries will be accompanied by governors and State Duma deputies.
In addition to the meetings with Vyacheslav Volodin and Vladimir Putin, the guests will attend an event chaired by Sergei Neverov, Secretary of the United Russia General Council Presidium.
"This is a meeting with new individuals who will join the party, with participants in the primaries, who will take part in a number of United Russia and Popular Front events," said Alexei Chesnakov, head of the party's public council. According to him, the objective of this meeting is to articulate the party's "view on relations with the media, and to talk about the specifics of working within television and radio formats."
"I did not win in the primaries, I came in 8th in the Leningrad Region and 22nd in St Petersburg. I am the only nonpartisan candidate to finish in the top ten in the region and the city. I believe that the party will be interested in individuals who are not members of United Russia but have shown good results," explained Alexander Kholodov, head of the St Petersburg branch of the Freedom of Choice organisation. The invitation to come to Moscow came as a complete surprise to him.
Yevgeny Kostyushov, head doctor of the Sertolovo hospital in the Leningrad Region was also surprised to receive a phone call from the prime minister's office. "There were only two other people across the Leningrad Region who were invited to the meeting: Governor Valery Serdyukov, a State Duma deputy, and the gymnast Svetlana Zhurova, an Olympic champion," said Kostyushov.
When asked about his candidacy, Kostyushov speculated that he may have been selected as a result of securing the top spot in the primaries among nonpartisan candidates.
Viktor Malenkov, another participant in the events organised by United Russia and a winner in the primary elections in Sakhalin, told Izvestia that the region's Governor Alexander Khoroshavin, deputy of the regional Duma Georgy Karlov and head doctor of the regional hospital Yelena Stolyarova will accompany him to the events in Moscow.
Olga Tropkina, Anastasia Novikova
