On Wednesday evening, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin met with members of the United Russia party in his country residence. This was their first official meeting with the party's lead
Among the senior party figures who met with the prime minister at his residence in Novo-Ogarevo were Boris Gryzlov, head of United Russia's Supreme Council and a State Duma speaker, Vyacheslav Volodin, secretary of the presidium of United Russia's General Council, and Andrei Vorobyov, head of the party's central executive committee. The head of the government apparatus, Sergei Sobyanin, and the deputy prime minister and deputy head of the presidential administration, Vladislav Surkov, also attended the meeting.
The tradition of meeting separately with senior United Russia members arose during Putin's presidency. The last meeting was attended by ten party members headed by Gryzlov and took place shortly before the Duma elections on November 18, 2007.
"As I suggested before, our meetings will be regular in nature, both with the leadership of the United Russia party, and, I hope, with the faction," Putin said of the tradition, immediately adding that, as head of the government, he will pay attention not only to United Russia members, but also to other political forces represented in parliament.
Putin again reminded United Russia members about the problems of party ideology and said that the party needs to become "a bridge between the people and the authorities in general, and in particular the government". Special attention, in his view, should be given to fulfilling pre-election promises.
At the meeting they discussed the further modernization of the party and the renewal of its ranks. Putin could not have failed to remind his colleagues of his repeated wishes concerning their moral image. However, the United Russia members stressed unanimously that there had been no discussion at Novo-Ogarevo of a future purge of the party.
Putin praised the party's social projects and asked that they be developed further.
The United Russia members were, naturally, satisfied with the meeting. All the wishes expressed by the party's leader will be carried out in the near future. One of the key areas of the work will be developing community liaison offices in the regions at the local and municipal level, Andrei Vorobyov told Expert Online.
The party members are confident that in the future such meetings will take place at least once a month.
As for modernization, the party will speak about it for a month or two, both with the president and without him. On June 11, United Russia members will meet again for a party conference. "This will be a broad internal discussion between the party and the government," Yuri Shuvalov, deputy secretary of the General Council presidium, told Expert Online. In addition to regional United Russia members, officials from the government's economic bloc will take part in the meeting.
Vera Kholmogorova
Photo: edinros.ru
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