The Central Executive Committee of United Russia (UR) held a meeting of the Council of Primary Branches on Thursday. Local party members offered their promising ideas to party chairman Dmitry Medvedev (from “reimbursing the party” to reviving primary production units), and he generally approved them, albeit with comments at times. For example, on the issue of material incentives for activists, Medvedev urged not to forget about a sense of proportion. But he fully approved the proposal to actively manage social networks and at the same time explained to his associates how to understand his own ideas expressed in his personal Telegram channel.
“You are the salt of the earth… At least the earth of the party,” Dmitry Medvedev addressed the representatives of grassroots organizations, not without pathos. And the acting secretary general of the United Russia General Council, Vladimir Yakushev, told how before the start of the meeting he asked the participants whether they were interested in the recent elections and whether they were tired. They, of course, replied that it was interesting and not tiring, and “this is the best assessment,” the United Russia member admitted. In general, the council followed the usual scenario for such events: local residents presented their initiatives, and the party chairman responded with his assessments and wise comments.
Thus, Svetlana Smirnova from Ivanovo expressed the opinion that members of the “ideal primary branch” should communicate and meet at least once or twice a month, both online and offline. “It is necessary to communicate with everyone (and not just with party members). “oh”), even with the inconveniences,” Dmitry Medvedev developed this idea, adding that the task of “the primary ideal is to convey that the truth is behind us.”
The head of United Russia, who runs a Telegram channel and often makes resonant statements there, welcomed the proposal to actively work on social media. “This is the call of the hour,” he explained, urging his colleagues to conduct social media in a reasoned manner, “sometimes offensively,” but with extreme honesty and “not to gloss over the situation.”
Rustem Akhmadinurov from Bashkiria spoke about ways to motivate grassroots organizations and started with the material ones, proposing to introduce “party reimbursement” – when the party compensates active branches for their expenses from membership fees. “For example, a thousand rubles were collected by the primary party, a thousand rubles came from the party,” the United Russia member explained his idea and at the same time proposed that the secretaries of the primary bodies be given certificates of authority, and preferably signed by the party leader. “There must be a sense of proportion here. If we play this too actively, people will ask: are you gathered here to divide the contributions?” – warned Mr Medvedev in response. He approved the idea of certificates, but noted that if he signed them all himself, he would not be able to do anything else.
There was also a proposal to return to the practice of creating primary branches on the basis of enterprises. This was the case under the CPSU, but it only worked when there was a single party, so “there will not be an enterprise, but a kind of political club,” the chairman of United Russia carefully “wrapped up” the initiative. And at some point he suddenly spoke of governors distancing themselves from the party. “When the party adds something to it, it says: yes, United Russia, we are here together… And when something collapses or there are difficult times, the governor says: I am going to the elections now, let’s leave “United Russia” aside,” Dmitry Medvedev was indignant.
At the end of the meeting, Svetlana Zyablova from Volgodonsk returned to the issue of Internet activity and asked Medvedev to clarify his post on Telegram, where he wrote about inevitable revenge and the creation of “a public and open database of our enemies, indicating their personal data.” Ms. Zyablova herself supported this idea and even called for all Western politicians to be included in the register at once.
However, in real life, as has happened before, Dmitry Medvedev’s rhetoric turned out to be noticeably softer than in virtual reality.
To begin with, he made it clear that he did not call for the creation of a state register of enemies or for reprisals against them, because “only the state has the right to violence.” The essence of his idea was that it is human nature to forget, but it is impossible to forget those who called for “killing Russians,” the United Russia member explained. However, one of those who should not be forgotten must still be brought to justice, “or he will have to suffer inevitable retribution,” Medvedev said. “Our opponents are doing this… But why us? Should we forget everyone’s names? You know, this is not a situation where you have to turn the other cheek, it is another situation,” the United Russia president concluded both in his explanations and in the event in general.
