June 7: the opening of the new twenty-four-hour information TV channel in English Russia Today is officially announced.
One of the main reasons for opening the Russia Today TV channel is the aim of the Presidential Administration’s technologists to fortify their positions with the ‘irreplaceable’ for the power people. Earlier, they were maintaining the rating of Vladimir Putin at home, now, however, the field of their projects will stretch outside of Russia. The worries of Vladimir Putin about his image as one of the leaders of the global society make him hold many different actions lately. The biggest event aimed at increasing his points in the world arena was, for sure, the celebration of the 60th Anniversary of the Great Victory.
After the launch of the TV channel, the technologists of the PA provided themselves the opportunity to realize their own projects, including those in the positional field. Now, the Head of State does not want their dismissal. The technologists of the ‘old Moscow’ part of the Presidential Administration should work to become irreplaceable for the new president after Vladimir Putin leaves.
The technologists of the PA practically have only one chance to stay in big politics after 2008 – outstrip the siloviki and advance the election of non-siloviki nominee. The struggle between the technologists of the PA and the siloviki for the control over United Russia Party was won by the ‘old Moscow’ team that managed to maintain firm positions in the UR. Such actions appear to be insulting for the siloviki part of the elite. If siloviki get the full power into their hands, the technologists of the PA will enter the list of the initial victims.
The risks due to the actions of the siloviki make the PA technologists actively search for the allies that will take part in the battle against the siloviki. Thus requires them demonstrating their positional potential and stability. In these conditions, the launch of a major and important project is vital. The new TV channel in English language oriented on the global society provides the PA technologists the opportunity to show their potential allies in the ‘anti-siloviki’ union the stability of their positions and the potential for the future. The opening of such project implies the medium-term future. The technologists of the Presidential Administration can drag the test regime for a long time, which they will use for a positional maneuver. Later, the entire adjusted mechanism of the propaganda work for the west will depend on them.
The party field is becoming one of the most actively developing elements of the political system of Russia. The main players of the party field are preparing for the start, and some has already launched the propaganda campaigns, which will come to the finish by the State Duma election in 2007. Currently, the party field consists of several leaders that cannot be called parties in the full sense of the word. The main struggle unfolds between them. Other structures of the party field are marginal and only try to fit into the general processes.
The deficit of full parties is ambiguous for the political system of Russia. On the one hand, any election in such conditions is a competition of the political technologists. On the other – a good chance to build new full-value parties. The only structure that is close to becoming the true party is the Communist Party of Russian Federation (KPRF). This is why it has survived for such a long time. The Communists managed to stand through the tough struggle against other players in the left field. Even despite the rating drop early in the 21st century, which was due to the Putin’s phenomenon of the President of Hope, the Communist Party managed to perform quite well on the election in 2003.
KPRF is the only party now that is sure to come to the State Duma in 2007. The communists have their wide basic electorate that maintains its rating at 10%, the rest is the result of the work with the electorate. Other parties need to find a similar prop, which is what they are trying to do these days. At that, this is especially typical for the leftist wing, where the electoral field expanded greatly early in 2005 due to the compensation reform.
The main rival of KPRF in the left wing is Homeland. Party’s Leader Dmitry Rogozin is striving to create a structure that will compete with the Communist Party. By now, he has failed to achieve this, but there are big preconditions for this. Dmitry Rogozin can attract the resources of the political technologists from the Presidential Administration, who were the authors of the Homeland project in 2003. Rogozin is trying to establish authoritarian rule in the party. Such strategy meets resistance from the leaders of the marginal political structures that entered the Homeland Bloc back in 2003.
Dmitry Rogozin tried to find his niche through the entire history of the modern Russia, where he could become an effective leader, which could help him obtain a high political status. He tried different political projects, though his main achievement was the high results at the Duma campaign in 2003. The Homeland project was created exclusively for the parliament election. But in the end, it was decided that the bloc had to be modified into a party and a real counterbalance to KPRF out of it.
The main problem of Dmitry Rogozin is the unwillingness of some of his partners in the former Homeland Bloc to enter the party on general terms, abandoning their own organizations and submitting to the authoritarian leader. During the special gathering of Homeland held Jun 11, a part of the controversies had to be resolved and the program of further party’s development had to be introduced. The both tasks are very tough to carry out and are interlinked, because development implies the establishment of a real structure that can be modernized and that will be able to self-develop and evolve. So far, only the target groups to work with are being selected and the head structure is being constructed.
