By the beginning of 2023, the demand for stability “and attention to the social and regional agenda” may be strengthened

The “People’s Program” of United Russia has become the basis for constant interaction with local communities and strengthening feedback channels with voters, according to a report by the Agency for Political and Economic Communications (APEC), which Vedomosti has read. The program, which United Russia approved at the second stage of the congress on August 24, 2021, includes the construction and renovation of schools, feldsher and obstetric stations, gasification, etc.

The program relies, among other things, on regional budgets supported by United Russia, as well as on federal targeted programs. In 2022, about 35 billion rubles were allocated for its implementation. budgetary funds in those 18 regions where major campaigns for the election of deputies took place, said Deputy Secretary of the General Council of the party Sergei Perminov.

Taking into account the new tasks of supporting citizens in the face of sanctions pressure and assistance to the families of military personnel (including those called up as part of the partial mobilization announced on September 21), work with new regions, new goals in the field of import substitution and infrastructure development, new additions to the document are expected in December 2022, APEC experts say.

“Despite bursts of public anxiety in the face of new challenges during the autumn, United Russia managed to maintain a high level of public support, set at the beginning of a new stage of patriotic consolidation in late February – early March 2022,” the APEC emphasizes. For example, according to VTsIOM and FOM, United Russia’s rating reached one of its peaks immediately after the announcement of partial mobilization (41.6 and 46%, respectively, according to each of the pollsters).

At the end of 2022 – the first half of 2023, “increased public demand for stability and attention to the social and regional agenda” is likely, the authors of this report note. In this situation, United Russia’s focus on the implementation of the initiatives presented by them as part of the “people’s program” during the 2021 campaign “with a high probability” can become their competitive advantage. In the coming months, we can expect a “pairing” of requests for the return of the “peacetime agenda” with a mobilization approach to the implementation of the announced initiatives – “pronounced” manifestations of this trend were already observed during the 2022 gubernatorial campaigns.

The role of the municipal agenda and local communities will increase. “In this situation, both the party’s efforts to involve local community activists in monitoring the implementation of the “people’s program” and the content of the document, in which significant attention is paid, for example, to urban improvement, support of rural areas, environmental issues, issues of social gasification,” APEC says.

According to the “peacetime agenda”, the authorities have worked before, says APEC CEO Dmitry Orlov. The “social trillion” of United Russia in the 2023 budget, for example, was calculated a long time ago,” he notes. In any case, such an agenda is widely represented in the information field, he believes, but mobilization accents have appeared in the methods of its implementation – in particular, the more prompt nature of decision-making.

This could improve the results of the 2023 election campaign, Orlov believes: “First of all, most of the party’s electorate [и так] paternalistic. The social agenda is peaceful and long-term, it relieves frustration and anxiety.”

“People don’t read party programs in principle. But at the same time, they must be sure that such programs exist,” says political analyst Alexei Makarkin. United Russia’s program is linked to the plans of the executive branch, and part of it is being implemented, he notes. And in general, according to Makarkin, the party’s position in the current situation reassures voters, since there is hope that “everything will soon return to the 2021 agenda.”