This year’s presidential campaign has a record number of participants. Among them, there are political veterans, and new, still hardly known faces.
Alexei Petrov will tell about those wishing to lead the state and about the current stage of the election campaign.
The CEC’s electronic board shows the countdown. Ella Pamfilova’s mood makes it clear that there will be much work and many candidates.
Ella Pamfilova, the CEC Chairman: "After 6 p.m. on January 31, it’ll be clear who is registered and the signatures of whom we’ll further check within 10 days".
For now, two candidates have secured their positions on the ballot. Vladimir Zhirinovsky is going to the regions.
Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the LDPR Chairman: "Our ideology is the welfare of all citizens. There’s no need to invent anything. We give our proposals on taxes. The Far East will be a tax-free economy. There will be a boom! We must save this small region! Let's get rid of all taxes there. Those who work there won’t pay taxes. No registration of other companies. You’ll see that there will be a boom!"
Despite the pre-election race, the candidate doesn’t forget the friends of his youth. Zhirinovsky was the best man at the wedding of Gennady Avdeyev, a scientist and researcher of the East. There are even photos. And now, they’re celebrating the golden wedding. But the songs they sang were the same as many years ago.
The song: "The frost draws patterns on the window, but our boys don’t like to sit in the warmth".
Pavel Grudinin, the Communist Party nominee, will also be nominated. This week, he received a candidate's ID in the CEC. Grudinin arrived at the meeting with his campaign chief Gennady Zyuganov who criticized the West traditionally with the communist frankness.
Gennady Zyuganov, the Communist Party Chairman: "The country became a besieged fortress, and our so-called Western partners, or rather ill-wishers, are doing everything to blow up the country from within. We can’t let it happen. Therefore, honest, worthy, meaningful election is a way out of this difficult crisis, from this deadlock, and we’re ready for this".
- How do you feel about the election without participating in it?
Gennady Zyuganov, the Communist Party Chairman: "I am participating, I’m the campaign chief, the head of the supreme council. We have a large team, and this is extremely important".
Businessman Grudinin says he knows exactly what to do with the economy.
Pavel Grudinin, presidential candidate: "We developed a joint program with the Communist Party and the National Patriotic Forces, which is called "20 Steps." However, it says "Grudinin’s 20 steps". In fact, these are 20 steps that were jointly developed, and they are what will drive our country out of the crisis".
The discussion of Grudinin's financial well-being was a special topic. At the CEC meeting, they suddenly started talking about the entrepreneur’s foreign accounts. "The first bank is in Vienna, Austria. He has accounts in banks of Liechtenstein, Landysh Bank AG, Vienna, Austria. The current balance is 0 roubles. The second account has the current balance of 16,760,013 roubles. The third account. Money and precious metals stored..."
Ella Pamfilova: "Boris Safarovich, what for are you reading this now? We'll publish all the necessary data. There's no point in reading this now".
When the documents were submitted, the general public wasn’t aware of the left candidate’s foreign assets. After the New Year holidays, party representatives immediately informed the CEC about five accounts in foreign banks and six hundred securities. At the same time, Grudinin immediately submitted the documents proving that all this was in the past. The Communists tried to hush up the misunderstanding. They said that the inconsistencies arose from the error of the bank.
Pavel Grudinin: "I stated everything in the declaration at the beginning, but the bank turned out to have made a mistake that was corrected and, as you saw, having unanimously voted, the CEC agreed that I did everything in accordance with the law".
But Grudinin's financial condition was scrutinized by his opponents, including the LDPR leader who’s also a potential rival. Zhirinovsky’s reaction only emphasizes the intensity of the struggle.
Vladimir Zhirinovsky: "The Communists turned towards capitalism for good. They’re sending their billionaire candidate to the election. Five billion abroad. What does he hide? That he has securities worth a huge amount of five billion rubles. And the most unpleasant thing is that they’re abroad. This is a big drawback of a presidential candidate. The CPSU is the mind, honor, and conscience of our era. Here they are, billions, that Lenin had and that other mafia structures have, and that Pavel Grudinin has. Everything is abroad, in Austria, Germany and so on, and they hide all this from the people in every possible way".
Anyway, the state of accounts and the clarifications received from Grudinin already provoked an impassioned debate The thing is that two years ago, the businessman stood in the elections to the State Duma and the Moscow Region Duma, but nothing was said about foreign accounts in the published declaration for 2016. Moreover, in September last year, Grudinin was elected to the local deputies council of the city of Vidnoye.
It turns out that at the most crucial moment the presidential candidate of one of the leading parties has a strange fuss about financial documents that gives his critics the right to ask uncomfortable questions. In Vidnoye, such inconsistencies already caused obvious irritation.
Valery Ventsal, Leninsky Municipal District Deputies Council Chairman: "We ran together in 2016 for the Moscow Region Duma, and at that time, Mr. Grudinin, when submitting documents for registration as a Moscow Regional Duma deputy, didn’t indicate that he had foreign accounts, that he had securities or any deposits".
But in the end, everything is legally correct. The CEC has no complaints, and the candidate is registered. The decision has already been published on the Rossiyskaya Gazeta website. It features the final data on the sources of income, property, accounts, securities of the candidate.
Nominees from non-parliamentary parties, which must receive the support of one hundred thousand Russians, are also resolutely determined. Signature collection is in full swing. Boris Titov from the Party of Growth visited one of the Moscow pretrial detention centers. The talk was about the rights of businessmen, to whom law enforcement bodies have claims, and liberalization of legislation.
Boris Titov, the Party of Growth Chairman: "Out of four people we met with, three have education in physics and mathematics, which means a lot. The Party of Growth offers great changes in criminal legislation and criminal procedure legislation. Everyone says that any crime can pass under Article 159, fraud. The Party of Growth and I as its representative have long suggested that this article be modified, we have suggested that, first of all, it should be the trial jury that hears the cases on the Article 159, part 4, which is about core crimes with the extensive damage".
Ksenia Sobchak is also in the spotlight. Her appearance at a high-status party on Bali became the reason for a debate. Sobchak herself can hardly be seen on the footage, but the photo with musician Andrei Aleksin published with a geotag provoked reproaches in holding a corporate party for one of the billionaires. However, even if so, Sobchak didn’t break the law. But the candidate herself insists that there were no corporate parties. She went to discuss purely financial issues related to the campaign and the promotion of her program.
Ksenia Sobchak, TV host: "Firstly, the personnel system must be completely changed in Russia. Officials must occupy leading positions not according to their loyalty or nepotism, but according to their professionalism. Secondly, officials and deputies must be held accountable if the decision they made resulted in tragedy or budget losses. Each case must be investigated, those guilty must be held accountable and no longer be allowed to take managerial or elective positions. But this isn’t enough. The main thing is to change the political system. That's what I'm talking about in detail in my program".
Meanwhile, activists continue to collect signatures in support of Ksenia Sobchak.
The supporters of the Yabloko nominee Grigory Yavlinsky, are also quite enthusiastic. Videos and cartoons became part of the opposition politician's campaign. The main character, Mikheich, trying to settle down, asks Yavlinsky for a piece of advice.
Cartoon frame:
"I thought, I am a man! I did the main things. Here's my son. Here's the tree. And I only had money for this house".
"You'll have time to build a house for your family!"
"Are you joking? Explain, please".
Yavlinsky explains how to rise the economy.
Grigory Yavlinsky, the Yabloko Party Chairman: "I believe that in Russia, every person, every citizen of Russia in the European part can be allocated 30 ares of land, and beyond the Urals, it can be even 60. This land can be allocated for free to build their own house. You can’t sell it, you can’t exchange it for anything. But you can build your own house there".
Moreover, such a measure, according to Yavlinsky, will be a breakthrough not only for Mikheich but for the whole country.
Grigory Yavlinsky: "If mass construction begins, there will be a huge demand for building materials, practically for everything, housing construction. Moreover, this will be the construction of not multi-level houses but the construction of this two-story Russia".
Politicians are trying to increase the number of supporters, and the Central Election Commission is ready to check the signature sheets. The process will even go under the supervision of video cameras to exclude any claims.
Posters appeared in the streets of Moscow and other Russian cities, reminding that the presidential election is coming. A little more than 2 months remain before the voting day. The race is underway. And by the 10th of February, we’ll already know whose names will appear on the ballot.
Alexei Petrov, Sergey Dovgal, and Oleg Makarov for Vesti — News of the Week
