Izvestia: "Members of the Popular Front will not be left with idle hands"
Vladimir Putin met with the winners of the Popular Front primaries and asked them to concentrate also on other issues than the ones related to their seats in the State Duma.
Before the United Russia convention, Vladimir Putin met with the most active participants of the Popular Front primaries. Putin asked them to concentrate on the upcoming pre-election contest and ways to resolve public problems rather than think about their rank on the lists of candidates.
The prime minister sat in a black chair in the middle of a circle consisting of members of the Popular Front and turned in order to face each speaker. Therefore, actor Vladimir Mashkov who has grown a beard, Maria Kozhevnikova who changed her Allochka character's casual style to an official beige suit, and famous chess grandmaster Anatoly Karpov one-by-one found themselves facing Mr Putin's back.
"To address the challenges effectively we should know them and understand them well. There are acute problems that people want to be resolved, so we have to address them rather than pursue some abstract issues that we find important," Putin clarified to the Popular Front members their mission.
He made it clear from the beginning that not everyone present at the meeting would make it through to the State Duma, but he promised that those who wouldn't will not be left with idle hands. They will be responsible for supervising the actions of their more successful Popular Front colleagues who will receive mandates.
The prime minister planned to discuss the coming pre-election contest with the future candidates, however the conversation took another direction – those present at the meeting asked the prime minister for support on pressing issues. Only retired Valery Bazhenov acted differently – he left his most valuable possession, a 78-square-meter three-room apartment for the shared possession of Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin.
"Mr Medvedev has a birthday today, and we will meet in two hours. So I will tell him about your present," Putin told Mr Bazhenov.
Bazhenov suggested that Russian oligarchs should follow his example and it would be a good idea to make a law compelling them to leave a half of their fortune to ordinary people.
"As for the rich, the oligarchs, if we ask them kindly they are not at all greedy," answered Putin.
After the meeting with Putin the Popular Front members went to Chief of Staff of the Government Executive Office and head of the United Popular Front's headquarters Vyacheslav Volodin to discuss the strategy of the pre-election campaign. They already met not long ago. As Evgeny Kotyushov, one of the primaries winners in the Leningrad region, told Izvestia, on September 13 Volodin held a meeting with the potential candidates from the Popular Front answering their questions for nearly two hours.
"There were different questions concerning education and health care. He explained what kind of law-making initiatives they wanted from us. The main thing he told us that laws should correspond to actual situations and not some potential issues that might or might not arise," said Kotyushov. First Deputy State Duma Speaker Oleg Morozov spoke about the 20 years of the State Duma history and Andrey Makarov organized a master class in negotiations and public politics. Kotyushev said that it would be difficult to say over the telephone what kind of advice Makarov gave, as he showed them what gestures to use, how to behave in front of the camera, and how to engage opponents from other parties.
Anastasia Novikova, Olga Tropkina
