The organisers of the campaign team for the presidential candidate, which has been set up in Moscow, are confident of this.
Trainer Tatyana Tarasova, singer Roxana Babayan, director Karen Shakhnazarov, traveller Dmitry Shparo… The small room was packed with big names. Performers, State Duma deputies, businessmen and veterans had gathered here in City Hall. They were all part of Vladimir Putin's Moscow election campaign team, headed by former Deputy Moscow Mayor and currently a Vice Speaker in the State Duma Lyudmila Shvetsova.
"Our campaign team is open to everyone. If respected people, who represent the views of the public, come to work with us, I am all in favour," Ms Shvetsova said. "But we are not going to have any kind of ceremonial bystanders, no hangers-on hoping to land a good job, government grant or other favours. We are only going to have honest, principled people who represent the interests of different sectors of the Moscow population."
TELL THE TRUTH
Why set up a campaign headquarters? After all, no matter which way you look at it, Putin's ratings are already pretty high.
"The election campaign is complex and it's hotting up," Lyudmila Shvetsova admits. "For the first time we are seeing opposition candidates with opposing views uniting against Putin. There have been two large-scale opposition rallies in Moscow. Therefore we should, in fact we are obliged to open a dialogue with Muscovites so that we can explain to them why Vladimir Putin should be elected president. Everyone is open to such a dialogue and coming to a truthful understanding of what is going on in the country."
The campaign team's second challenge is to open up a dialogue with the presidential candidate himself.
"The people who have gathered here can advise him and are not afraid of telling him the truth. They will do this so that he knows how things really stand and can amend his campaign programme accordingly."
Shvetsova says that the most important thing is for the people of Moscow to vote for Putin.
"Moscow is not only a constituent entity of the Russian Federation, it's not just a megapolis. It is the capital of a great country, a city that has been gathering Russian lands for centuries. And it has always played a leading role as a mobilising force through the most difficult times in our history," the leader of Putin's Moscow campaign headquarters said with confidence.
PULL TOGETHER OR FALL APART
Vladimir Dolgikh, who fought in the Battle of Moscow and is head of the city's veterans' organisation, thinks that people should not be voting for a candidate in the forthcoming elections but for their future:
"This is essentially not a question of personalities, but of Russia. Will it pull together or fall apart? Putin can keep the country together. The other candidates - I'm not so sure."
Film director Karen Shakhnazarov agrees with Mr Dolgikh. He said that holding the Russian presidential election without the participation of the prime minister would be absurd and a disaster for the country.
"I joined the campaign team because I could distinctly sense the feeling of the 1990s. That was a horrendous time and one which we should not repeat," the director said. "I think that Putin is the only one of the candidates who can hold back the Caucasus. I can sense outside influences and it annoys me that someone is trying to exert pressure to influence how I am going to vote.
That said, Mr Shakhnazarov confirmed that the Mosfilm studio, which he is head of, has not received a penny from the government for 14 years.
"I support Putin without self-interest, because I can't see any other alternative for Russia," the director said.
Jazz musician Igor Butman, who has also joined the team, said that he is counting on Putin's help to implement projects in the cultural sphere, including in music.
"I am here, as part of the campaign team, but I was and still am an independent jazz musician, I do not feel any pressure from the government and I am not receiving state support.
Incidentally, Igor Butman joined United Russia in 2008 and is currently taking part in a party project called "Culture and Time." As part of this project musicians come together to discuss professional problems.
"There are many problems, like in every area. But we are after all building a new country essentially. And I want to build this new country with Vladimir Putin," the musician said. "I see him as the shrewdest and most clearheaded politician we have. I think we ought to help him now and in the future."
HOW THE CITY HAS BEEN TRANSFORMED
Lyudmila Shvetsova is confident that is thanks to Vladimir Putin's policies that Moscow has been turned into one of the world's most thriving capital cities. And Muscovites feel socially secure.
"In 2000 I began working in the social sector in Moscow. I clearly remember: there was just one challenge facing us, to survive," Ms Shvetsova says. "A huge number of Muscovites, pensioners mainly, were living below the poverty line. And now we have set ourselves the ambitious goal of developing, expanding and growing!"
Shvetsova read out some astounding figures. In the 1990s the city's economy shrunk by a factor of nearly four. But by 2006 Moscow had already turned this recession round. If the average salary in 2000 was 32,000 roubles, in 2011 it was almost 44,000, up by 13.5%! Fair enough, prices went up, but not as much as incomes in the city. And unemployment in the city has been steadily falling through these years. It currently stands at around 0.65% of the working population. As a comparison, in the United States the average rate of unemployment is 9%, 14 times higher! Today the minimum pension in Moscow, together with additional payments from the city, is 12,000 roubles. But only 161,000 pensioners are on this figure, a further 2 million get substantially more.
In recent years the demographic situation in Moscow has improved significantly. In 1999 67,000 children were born, and in 2011 it was 125,000, almost twice as many.
"The number of large families has tripled," Lyudmila Shvetsova reads out the figures. "But would people really be bringing children into the world if they didn't know what would happen to them tomorrow? That means that people have confidence and trust in the authorities.
Incidentally, last year the number of births was higher than the number of deaths in Moscow for the first time. We haven't seen these kinds of numbers since the early 1990s!
A NEW RESPONSE TO NEW CHALLENGES
"Based on the aforementioned, I am confident that only one of the presidential candidates is capable of leading and ensuring the stable development of our country," Lyudmila Shvetsova says. "This confidence is founded not only on my reasoning and knowledge, but on the many election meetings that I have chaired for the election to the State Duma and that I am chairing now. These meetings have been varied. I cannot say that everything has been met only with applause. But I could feel that when faced with a choice, in a fair election, the majority of Muscovites will vote for stability. Our candidate has put forward a comprehensive and well thought-out programme of strategic development for the country. In essence a new Putin has appeared before us, offering, and thinking through many new options. His recent articles present intelligent, clear and precise answers to how we can improve people's lives, how to build a more just society, and what sort of socioeconomic development model we should choose. This plan entails moving over to a new high-tech model of development for our country. And the crucial aspects of it include raising people's standard of living, eradicating poverty, strengthening the middle class and opening up new opportunities for young people by creating a modern new system of social mobility.
ASIDES
Who else is on the campaign staff?
* TV presenter Alexander Maslyakov and Elena Malysheva
* Olga Pleshakova - general director of Transaero
* Alexander Rumyantsev, chief hematologist in Russia, corresponding member of the Academy of Medical Sciences
* Mikhail Shvydkoy - the president's special representative on international cultural cooperation, TV presenter
* Margarita Simonyan - editor of the TV channel Russia Today
Evgeny Fedorov
