Vladimir Putin will prepare his own version of the Popular Programme for the upcoming presidential election.
The prime minister spent the New Year holiday preparing for the main and most dynamic phase of the election campaign. The prime minister's spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, told Izvestia that Putin was preparing his own election programme based on the Popular Programme complied for the State Duma elections. The document will be published before February 12.
"Putin's manifesto will not differ much from the Popular Programme. It will be a shorter version of it but contain many new items as well. It will include a new view determined by the changing world," said Peskov.
The two programmes will be similar in economics and social and international politics. However, Putin's programme will put a new emphasis on certain issues and contain specific proposals on the most serious problems of domestic policy.
"This new programme will offer specific proposals related to the parts of life that people worry about the most including housing and utilities, alcoholism and drug dependency, and crime and corruption," a member of the prime minister's campaign office, Vyacheslav Lysakov, told Izvestia.
The Popular Programme was based on public opinion (on 1.5 million suggestions from the public and was compiled into one document by the Institute for Socio-Economic and Political Studies), while Putin's programme will be one he personally has prepared.
"It will be Mr Putin's personal and political view of many issues, an outline of his vision," explained Peskov.
The prime minister will be consulting his campaign office. The office's director, Stanislav Govorukhin, told Izvestia that he had already met with Putin regarding the manifesto and that he had given him some suggestions. The campaign office has started establishing regional offices. The approved heads of the regional offices and candidates will come to Moscow this week, said Govorukhin.
On the regional level, the campaign will be spearheaded by well-known public figures, leaders with wide popular support. However, there are restrictions preventing civil servants from becoming campaign managers, said Lysakov.
The national campaign office leaders have decided what regions they will campaign in. Lysakov said that some of them would work individually, like him, while others will organise and promote Putin as a group. Lysakov plans to visit the Krasnodar Territory, Pyatigorsk and other regions where he will meet his target audience, taxi drivers.
The campaign will be organised similarly in the regions. The plan includes meetings with the public and representatives of professional groups. Nothing more specific will be expected from the heads of the regional campaign offices.
"The main aim is to ensure our candidate's victory in the election," said Stanislav Govorukhin.
Anastasia Novikova
