The prime minister — who in 2010 dismissed the Internet as “50 percent pornographic material” — is now embracing online platforms as a tool to increase public accountability, and his site encouraged voters to offer him suggestions online.
And so they did. Andrei Antonenko suggested, “Please leave politics; it is obvious that power is a narcotic, but it is the right thing to do.” Arkady Vishnev said “the most useful thing you could do for the country now” would be to withdraw from the race. Svetlana Sorokina suggested he step down so that, as she put it, “you do not turn the situation into a revolution.
During the first few hours after the website launch, the most popular vox pop suggestion to Vladimir Putin in the feedback section was “to step down.” Enter the all-mighty moderator, perhaps? Later in the day the tables appear to have been turned, as almost all of the unwanted messages were unable to be found via the embedded search engine, remaining accessible only via direct links.
One of the LJ Top 10, Andrei Malgin, investigated further, claiming to show that the “step down” suggestion had been replaced by more VVP-friendly queries a mere 42 minutes later.
The section featuring the accomplishments of Putin’s government in 2011 includes no actual numbers, except for three very telling figures: government-controlled banks allotted 150 billion rubles in loans for “springtime field works,” while another 13 billion rubles was allocated for agriculture. Meanwhile, an oinking 9 billion rubles went toward poultry and pig breeding, which is mentioned twice in the text.
The “Under personal control” section features investigations into allegations of swindling at Russia’s top oil and gas companies, as well as in government procurement. Oh wait, no, that’s not Navalny’s RosPil website. Back here on Putin’s website, under his personal control are the Amur tiger, the white whale, the snow leopard and the polar bear.
The challenge of fighting corruption did feature on Putin website, nonetheless. The presidential candidate is pledging to create “actual mechanisms of public control over the most sensitive, corruption-prone and ineffective sectors – in particular government procurement; road construction’ housing and utilities; and law enforcement.”
The fact that one-third of Russian oil is traded via the Switzerland-based Gunvor reseller, co-owned by Putin’s friend Gennady Timchenko, does not seem corruption-prone to the government. This was perhaps unkindly emphasized by the non-presidential candidate, Alexei Navalny, in his LJ post of the day. He finds the inspiring Putin quote: “If I take something up, I try to either carry it through to the end or at least achieve maximum effect.”
This being Navalny, of course, he follows up with a sarcastic chuckle: “That’s exactly about Gunvor and the Ozero dacha community! ... The maximum effect is there: Timchenko & Co have become billionaires leeching off our oil, and have their money kept in Switzerland. [Putin’s] neighbors at the Ozero dacha community are all billionaires, too, and the country’s new feudal elite.”
The Vladimir Putin 2012 logo pattern, designed in the Russian national flag style and colors (surprised?), is identical to the one used on the official website of Kirov Governor Nikita Belykh – yes, the same governor told off by the prime minister just the other day. If I were in Belykh’s shoes, I’d change my website design colors before it’s too late.
Sadly, there is no video of Putin singing “Blueberry Hill” in the Interests section. But it rocks even without that. “In August 2011 Vladimir Putin took part in the 16th motorcycle show in Novorossiisk, held by the youth organization Night Wolves,” the website helpfully informs us. “As a biker would, Putin wore a black jacket and black gloves, and drove a three-wheel Harley-Davidson.
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