6/19/21
President Vladimir Putin proposed Saturday at his United Russia party congress billons of rubles in spending ahead of September parliamentary polls that could see the deeply unpopular party struggle. Addressing several hundred of his mostly mask-wearing and socially-distanced loyalists in a Moscow convention center as the capital set a pandemic high for new Covid cases for the second straight day, Putin proposed deploying billions towards social support. This included 50 billion rubles ($687 million) on public transport, 30 billion rubles for repairing roads and 20 billion rubles to clean up rivers, among other spending projects on infrastructure and healthcare. "The program of the party of the leader has to be the program of the people," the 68-year-old Kremlin chief said in a speech broadcast on state television. He also said the state would be allocating payments and new forms of support for families starting next month. "Our task is to significantly increase the prosperity of Russian families and the incomes of our citizens," Putin said.
Further buoying the Kremlin's prospects in September is the recent dismantling of the movement of Russia's main opposition politician Alexei Navalny. Barring his organizations from working in the country, a Moscow court earlier this month branded them as "extremist," while Putin signed legislation outlawing staff, members and sponsors of "extremist" groups from running in parliamentary elections. Critics say the moves were aimed at ensuring that Navalny, who was jailed earlier this year for two-and-a-half years on old fraud charges he says are politically motivated, does not spoil September's vote for the Kremlin. Despite the clampdown, Navalny's allies are promoting his Smart Voting strategy that backs candidates best placed to defeat Kremlin-linked politicians — a tactic that has seen United Russia lose a number of seats in recent local elections. At Saturday's congress, Putin told his party that they must make sure September's elections are conducted fairly and legally. "Open battle and honest win, hello? You put all your opponents in prison," tweeted Navalny aide Georgy Alburov.
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