Putin Promises Not to Abandon Russia
// after 2008 as well
Russian President Vladimir Putin held a traditional live conference with the people yesterday, which lasted for 3 hours. The president gave a strange promise to the voters, saying that he will keep influencing the situation in Russia, with the help of voters’ trust, even after he leaves the presidential post in 2008.
A regular session of communication between the president and the country went according to a well-rehearsed and tested scenario. Ten special sites in various parts of Russia were organized. Beginning from 11 a.m. yesterday, Russian citizens gathered there to ask questions to Putin. Lazy citizens could call the president, or send their question by SMS or to a special website. Thus, as the president announced, he received nearly 2 million questions (53 were read out during the conference) which will be studied thoroughly, and the most sensitive issues will be addressed to the cabinet of ministers.
Citizens turned out to be well prepared for talking to Putin, and hardly asked any borough questions. People in Nakhodka were concerned about ecology and nuclear tests in North Korea. People of Irkutsk asked about flight safety and the dramatic decrease in coniferous timber in Russia. KamAZ engineers from Naberezhnye Chelny asked to support Russia’s machine-building industry and to take care of Abkhazia which is no worse than Kosovo, whose independence had already been acknowledged by the world. Woman of Tver Svetlana Shelkova called on Putin not to allow turning Russia into the West’s raw materials appendage.
Arkady Kakaev, village dweller of Podgorodnee in Orenburg region, made his way through the crowd to the microphone and asked the president straightforwardly: “We all know that you leave after 2008. What will become of us and of Russia?” “Everything will be all right,” Putin reassured Kakaev. The president admitted that he likes his current job very much, but reminded that the Constitution does not allow him to go for a third term. However, Putin promised to keep an eye on the country even after 2008: “I’ll manage to save the most valuable thing for a politician, -- that is, your trust. And using it, we’ll be able to influence what is going on.” Putin did not specify, however, in what position he will be to influence the situation.
Citizens sent questions of no smaller importance to the president’s website, or called by the phone. Only some of those questions seemed somewhat improper. For instance, housewife from Rostov-on-Don Valentina Tsvetkova expressed a suspiciously-looking interest as to when the sale of alcoholic beverages will be improved after the summer crisis.
People of Kondopoga spoke of their local problems due to the recent conflict – about the inaction of the republic’s authorities and their needlessness. It turned out that Putin was concerned with the main issue. He said that a number of Karelia’s law-enforcing officials had already been fired, and complained, somewhat bodefully, that he cannot get in touch with Karelia head Sergey Katanandov, who is “either on the plane, or on vacation”.
It seemed at some point that Putin spent even less time than his voters to prepare for the conference, as he sometimes answered questions a bit absent-mindedly. A man from Nakhodka said he wants to go see his relatives in Kazakhstan, driving his car there, but cannot do it due to the absence of any roads whatsoever. The president answered the man by persuading him that it is Russia, and not New Zealand, which is the country of the rising sun, because Russia’s farthest eastern land is Chukotka. Speaking about the anti-Georgia campaign in Russia, Putin announced that Georgia “voluntarily joined the Russian Federation”. His tongue-slip made him laugh, so Putin giggled and corrected himself to “the Russian Empire”. Yet, the worst slip of the tongue came in the very beginning of the conference, when the president was speaking of what had been done in Russia and what results had been achieved. Putin announced that Russia practically paid out all foreign debts, and suddenly said “no one needs us anymore” instead of the phrase “we don’t owe to anyone anymore”.
However, Putin managed not only the 3-hour conference with Russian citizens, but also managed talking to journalists. Yet, he did not reply to all of their questions. Some journalists wanted to know the name of Putin’s successor. The president said it will be a “Russian citizen, 35 or older, who lived in Russia for a number of years”. Someone expressed an opinion that no political questions were asked during the conference because politics in Russia is tied to one person, a statement to which Putin suddenly agreed. “That is why I explain my stand on 2008. I cannot have Russia’s fate depend on one person, even if this person is me,” admitted the president modestly.
by Alla Barakhova
Quantitative analysis of the president’s live conference
During the 2 hours 54 minutes of the live conference, Vladimir Putin uttered 903 sentences of 13,683 words and 78,250 letters (comparing to 13,781 words and 77,901 letters during the conference of September 27, 2005). If the president hadn’t been disturbed by the program’s hosts and citizens, and if he had spent the entire time of the conference answering questions, the speed of his speech would have been 78.6 words per minute (compared to 78.7 words per minute in 2005).
Social theme was the most popular one yesterday: Putin answered 19 questions (26 in 2005). Domestic policy is second: 11 answers (same in 2005). Third place is shared by economy and international policy: 9 answers for each. Speaking of the world community, Putin mentioned Georgia (18 times), Ukraine (14), South Ossetia (6), and Abkhazia (5). Last year, Latvia was the most frequently mentioned country (10 times).
The president answered 4 personal questions (3 in 2005), 2 army-related questions (8 in 2005), and 1 about soccer (there were no sport-related questions in 2005).
Speaking to Russian citizens, Putin greeted them 9 times, and they said hello to him 57 times. The president thanked people 4 times, and people thanked Putin 41 times. In 2005, the president thanked citizens twice more frequently – 8 times, while people expressed their gratitude pretty much the same number of times – 43. Putin most frequently used the noun Russia and its derivatives – 81 times (48 times in 2005), the word year – 65 (79), and the word government – 39 (29). The three leading pronouns are: we – 138, I – 82, and all – 78. Putin used the word GPS once [Global Positioning System, a satellite navigation system. – Kommersant]. In 2005, the president used neither foreign words, nor abbreviations.
by Alexander Kukolevsky
Teleconference in numbers
A record quantity of questions was submitted for the conference of October 25, 2006, -- 2,334,043, out of which 2,236,312 were asked by the phone, 97,731 (4.2 percent) – via the Internet. There was 4.7 times more questions than during the first conference on December 2001, and 2.1 times more than last year.
The televised conference lasted for 2 hours 54 minutes – just like in September 2005. The first teleconference in 2001 was the shortest (2 hours 20 minutes), then it was 2 hours 37 minutes in 2002, and 2:50 in 2003.
Putin answered 55 questions yesterday, which is less than in 2003 (69 questions) and in 2005 (60), and more than in 2001 (47) and 2002 (51). Yesterday, 30 questions were asked live (the record-breaking number), 8 by phone, 3 via the Internet, and 2 by SMS (all these numbers were the same in 2005). Two more questions were asked by the hosts. Putin selected 11 questions himself, but did not answer one of them – saying that he had already spoke on illegal alcohol sale in detail. Last year, Putin answered 18 questions which he had chosen himself.
TV cameras were set in 10 localities, -- a standard number for such conferences. The number of regional centers decreased, there were only 3 this time – Irkutsk, Bryansk, and Tver. During the first televised conference in 2001, it was Moscow and 8 capitals of the subdivisions of Russia. Then the number of large cities gradually decreased, and the number of regional centers grew (5 this time). Beginning from 2005, there should always be a village among the sites. Thus, the cameras were set in Podgornaya Pokrovka village of Orenburg region yesterday. Traditionally, one of the cameras is set abroad – Dushanbe in 2002, Kant aviation base (Kyrgyzstan) in 2003, Riga in 2005, and Sevastopol yesterday.
All the Article in Russian as of Oct. 26, 2006
|
