How presidential candidates work with outdoor campaigning

A month before the main voting day in the presidential election, the campaign period in the media began. By this time, as Kommersant found out, in many regions the candidates had already fulfilled the planned “norm” for outdoor advertising. Opponents of the current president mainly worked on their recognition, while Vladimir Putin himself focused on his achievements. The candidates’ headquarters agree that this time the campaign is more modest than six years ago.

In a number of regions, the most prominent participant in the presidential campaign is still the Central Election Commission (CEC) of the Russian Federation. Thus, in the Amur, Chelyabinsk and Irkutsk regions, in Bashkiria, Udmurtia, Buryatia and the Trans-Baikal Territory, billboards are still dominated by CEC information messages reminding that voting will take place from March 15 to 17. And if in Irkutsk you can still find rare images of race participants, then, for example, in Ulan-Ude and Chita, the headquarters of opposition candidates have not yet posted “outdoor” signs (only Vladimir Putin has them).

However, in most regions, street campaigning is in full swing, and in some places candidates have already even exhausted the planned limits. In Ulyanovsk, for example, the communists, “based on financial volumes,” placed eight billboards of State Duma deputy from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Nikolai Kharitonov, on which he calls for an end to the “game of capitalism.” As Kommersant was told in the regional committee, it will probably not be possible to hang up more posters in support of the candidate: in the month remaining before the vote, the party will distribute booklets and organize pickets. The situation is similar with the Communist Party of the Russian Federation in St. Petersburg. The first secretary of the city committee, Roman Kononenko, explained to Kommersant that all the outdoor advertising in support of Mr. Kharitonov is already hanging, but there is no money for additional money. However, party members will still produce calendars and leaflets and distribute them “by the sweat of their brow,” he assured.

The Amur regional committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation told Kommersant that they were unable to come to an agreement with the outdoor advertising operator and will do without billboards. In the Yaroslavl region, on the contrary, the communists hung 15 banners, but were unable to master small formats – at bus stops and in public transport. “The market is virtually monopolized; one place for political campaigning costs almost 100 thousand rubles. per month,” Elkhan Mardaliev, secretary of the Yaroslavl regional propaganda committee, complained to Kommersant. Communists in the Krasnoyarsk Territory also spoke about the “difficult” conditions for placing outdoor advertising.

However, in general, the Communist Party has no serious complaints against local authorities. “At these elections, we were allowed to hang banners for the first time; this was not the case in previous elections,” the head of Nikolai Kharitonov’s Saratov headquarters, State Duma deputy Olga Alimova told Kommersant. “The authorities probably decided that in this situation it is necessary to combine efforts, and not create conflict situation.” According to the first secretary of the Khabarovsk regional committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Pyotr Perevezentsev, the campaign is taking place in a “calm competitive environment” and he does not see the “lawlessness” that was previously inherent in elections in the region – with the destruction of posters, the confiscation of leaflets. “Campaigning is never enough. We do it based on our capabilities,” added the first secretary of the Chelyabinsk branch of the Communist Party, Igor Egorov.

The LDPR, whose leader Leonid Slutsky uses the slogan “Zhirinovsky’s cause lives on!”, also does not have any particular problems with campaigning. The head of the Kaliningrad branch of the party, Evgeny Mishin, even thanked United Russia Governor Anton Alikhanov for “constructive interaction and cooperation” on this issue. In addition to outdoor advertising, the Liberal Democrats traditionally use campaign buses that travel around the regions and collect orders from voters. They are also conducting an “all-Russian survey” called “Tell Slutsky the truth!”

“We understand that it is necessary to interrupt (Vladimir Putin’s campaigning.— “Kommersant”) we won’t be able to, but we are actively meeting with enterprise teams, conducting surveys and working to recognize our candidate,” Gavril Parakhin, leader of the Yakut LDPR cell, told Kommersant. In Primorye, Krasnoyarsk Territory and Chuvashia, liberal democrats assured Kommersant that they had not encountered any obstacles from the authorities. But in the Perm region, party members were unable to place about 50 banners in support of Mr. Slutsky, the leader of the LDPR faction in the Legislative Assembly of the region, Oleg Postnikov, complained to Kommersant. The problems, he said, are of a “commercial nature” or arose due to the lack of free space.

The headquarters of State Duma deputy from the “New People” Vladislav Davankov is also working on the “recognizability” of the candidate. The youngest candidate uses the slogan “Time for the New!” and also emphasizes the “Yes” syllable in his last name on billboards. “At this stage there were no obstacles, except for hurricane winds and cold temperatures down to minus 30,” Ivan Misyuk, head of the Khakass branch of New People, told Kommersant. In the Novosibirsk region, party members began placing outdoor advertising from the beginning of February and have already hung up more than 40 billboards, the press service of the local branch reported: “In outdoor advertising, we have focused on formats that allow us to increase the recognition of Vladislav Davankov.”

Finally, Vladimir Putin’s billboards are most fully represented on the streets, demonstrating the various achievements of the country’s socio-economic development under the slogan “Russia. Putin. 2024.” For example, in Novosibirsk this is an image of the new ice palace of the Sibir hockey club, and in Voronezh – the updated Petrovskaya Embankment. However, Vladimir Putin’s confidant in Yakutia, chairman of the Republican Union of Afghanistan Veterans Valery Lyuty told Kommersant that external campaigning is not the main thing. “The main thing is to show the unity of our multinational people, that we have not been broken, that we have not caved in to difficulties,” he explained, adding that this is why the republic places emphasis on meetings with teams, members of the SVO and volunteers. And in the Chuvash headquarters of Vladimir Putin, Kommersant even stated that his “main agitator is work”: “The current president every day, through his practical activities, proves to citizens the need for his person as head of state.”

Let us also note that in the “outdoor” advertising of Vladimir Putin’s opponents, regional subjects are practically not used. The exception is Dagestan, where Nikolai Kharitonov appears on billboards against the backdrop of characteristic mountain landscapes, as well as Chuvashia, where the Liberal Democrats plan to post excerpts from Leonid Slutsky’s program in the Chuvash language. And the communists showed up in Ulyanovsk in a completely unusual format: on February 14, the inscriptions “Kharitonov, I love you!” appeared on large snowdrifts there. The regional committee, however, claims that they were left by “caring fans.”

The leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation faction in the Ulyanovsk Legislative Assembly, Vitaly Kuzin, told Kommersant that, in his opinion, “at this stage the election campaign for all candidates is somewhat quiet.” “Perhaps it will become more active closer to the elections,” he suggested. Co-chairman of Vladimir Putin’s Ulyanovsk headquarters, Alexander Lukonin, also agrees with the communist, who told Kommersant that the campaign “is proceeding quite modestly.” “I communicate with people, and they tell me that everyone understands: they say, there are alternatives (to Vladimir Putin.— “Kommersant”) No. There is no need to walk around with flags,” concluded Mr. Lukonin.

Andrey Prah, corset “Kommersant”