What exactly is Putin’s plan?
Wednesday, September 26th, 2007Russian President Vladimir Putin has been keeping Kremlinologists on their toes of late with the several surprises he’s pulled out of his bag. First, he dismissed his cabinet and appointed a relatively unknown technocrat, Vladimir Zubkov, as his new prime minister. Though unexpected, the procedure was in fact quite reminiscent of how Putin himself was appointed as prime minister by Yel’tsin in 1999. Lyndon has an incredibly detailed post on the Zubkov appointment over at his Scraps of Moscow site.
Not much later, when asked about successors to the Russian presidency at a retreat in Sochi, Putin first mentioned three possibilties: Zubkov, Grigory Yavlinsky (Yabloko leader), and Gennady Zyuganov (first secretary of the Russian Communist Party). Zubkov was a ‘given’ on that list, but mentioning Yavlinksky and Zyuganov seemed nothing but a joke. It was only after additional probing that Putin mentioned Sergei Ivanov or Dmitry Medvedev, the two first deputy prime ministers who have long been spoken of as serious presidential contenders. Putin’s been holding his cards closely and many are baffled as to what his real plan and strategy will turn out to be.
“Putin’s Plan - Russia’s Victory” (photo credit: MSLipsco)
Billboards praising ‘Putin’s Plan’ have been popping up all over the country since the end of August. According to an article in today’s Vedomosti newspaper, there are over 2,000 of them altogether. Interestingly enough, there seem to be two variations of the billboard: one features the United Russia logo and the other does not. Veronica has done a great job of rounding up some of the Russian LiveJournal commentary responding to the billboards in her Global Voices translation.
What’s most interesting, though perhaps not most surprising, about the billboards is that United Russia seems to be the only political party successful in installing their adverts nationwide. All other parties are being told to remove their advertising or they have been rejected by advertising agencies.
As the Vedomosti article explains, there are several explanations for this.
First, according to the Central Election Committee, until election campaign budgets are established, parties are prohibited from using outdoor advertisements to persuade the public to vote for or against a certain party or issue, nor to call on them to exercise their right to vote. United Russia spokesperson Viktor Tokarev argues, however, that the billboard does not break the law as it does not call on the citizen to vote one way or another.
Members of A Just Russia and the Russian Communist party say that they are being rejected by advertising agencies in Moscow and Rostov region. In Samara the Union of Right Forces (Союз Правых Сил) had their party’s signs removed due to ‘complaints’; no complaints were received about the United Russia billboards though, explained Valentina Kalgatina, a spokeswoman for the region’s administration. Tokarev himself claims that United Russia is asking the agency to temporarily take them down until election campaign budgets are established, but to this day the Putin’s Plan billboards are standing all around Russia.
By law, registered parties are supposed to be given the same media opportunities in preparation for the election.
The Putin’s Plan billboards were installed by News Outdoor Russia, the country’s largest outdoor advertising agency, which boasts more than 34,000 ad sites in 86 Russian cities and is run by Sergei Zheleznyak, who will more than likely be elected as a United Russia deputy in the December Duma elections. News Outdoor Russia says that they’ve had to turn away other political parties seeking ad placement due to the lack of ad space. “Autumn is the season with the highest demand and parties should have reserved advertising space in the spring, just as United Russia did,” says Natalya Semina.
The real question is, once election campaign budgets are set, will political parties other than Putin’s have an easier time gaining ad space?
