Putin to Be Cautious Not to Campaign at Hot Line
In the midday, President Vladimir Putin will start his traditional live-air intercourse with the nation that will be covered by the federal TV of Russia. But the sixth hot line of the president differs from the previous ones.
Today, Putin will address the Russians via the hot line for the last time as the country’s president. At the same time, it will be his first address as a candidate to State Duma and some of his answers could be easily viewed as an early election campaign and give a reason for complaints against the United Russia.
Indeed, most of the so-called hot-line queries usually relate to the social and economic topics, but this year, politics, first of all December elections to the State Duma, will probably steal the show. The tricky point is that Putin will have to answer these questions not only as a president, but also as a leader of the United Russia’s list of candidates to the State Duma. But under the Act on State Duma Elections, even the seemingly unoffending comments could be easily interpreted as the election agitation, which starts in mass media no sooner than November 3.
According to Russia’s laws, the information that doesn’t relate to professional activities of the candidate or where the data on a certain party will prevail (with positive/negative comments of the candidate) and which is disseminated via the media will be regarded as agitation. So, to violate the law, Putin will have only to speak positively about United Russia without mentioning other parties or provide some information that won’t directly relate to his office of president, tell the nation, for instance, about his mountain skis achievements or give some hot news about his Labrador Koni.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Oct. 18, 2007
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