How Staraya Square announced preparations for the presidential election

After the March seminar at Senezh, one can unequivocally say that the preparations for the main elections in Russia have started “for real” – that is, they have gone beyond the offices on Staraya Square. No one doubted that this would happen sooner or later.

Now the signal has been clearly conveyed to the backbone of the state apparatus – regional officials who will have to hold elections. Or, to use bureaucratic slang, to “organize” them.

Working meetings have been going on before. But such an event had to be held so that there would be no misunderstanding between the “ideologists” and the “performers”: neither in strategy nor in tactics before March 17, 2024. And in this sense, the seminar for “political” vice-governors in Senezh – an important signal for those who are guided by the Kremlin.

On the one hand, one can prepare for any serious election campaign when the legislature passes beyond the “equator,” but in Russia this happened back in March 2021, that is, at the height of the pandemic and before the start of geopolitical turbulence. And no one would have understood such activity three years before the elections.

On the other hand, it is possible to delay the preparatory stage of the election race even now: the campaign will officially start for the candidate only in December 2023. But this does not make sense for various reasons, including after external signals appeared about the need to start the campaign.

For example, it was in this vein that most observers considered the statements of Comrade Xi Jinping on March 20, during his visit to Moscow. One of his most unexpected theses concerned the Russian presidential elections in 2024.

“I know your country will have another presidential election next year,” Xi told President Putin at the time. – Thanks to your strong leadership in recent years, Russia has made significant progress in achieving results and prosperity for the country. I am sure that the Russian people will strongly support you in your good undertakings.”

And although a Kremlin spokesman later explained that the words of the Chinese leader did not mean that he had any additional information about the possibility of participation of the current head of state in them, they contain at least a hint of support for Putin. This can be called a tradition: in 2017, the Russian leader was not so bright, but quite actively “pushed” to this step by Russian politicians.

On the sidelines of the United Russia congress, the head of the RSPP, Alexander Shokhin, told how he hopes that the proposals he made on changes to the tax system will be included “not only in party program documents and bills,” but also that “it will be possible to get support from side of the leading presidential candidate, who we have no doubt will be Vladimir Putin.”

There is no doubt that this time too many will utter the mantra of supporting the “main candidate” (as the Kremlin candidate is called in bureaucratic parlance). But the choice of a candidate (in such circumstances, it seems quite obvious) will have to be explained “on the ground” by the same state apparatus and United Russia, which has joined it. Therefore, the internal signal is addressed to them – preparations for the elections have started.

Of course, it is quite easy to explain the choice of the “main candidate”: it is impossible to imagine anyone else in this place. In accordance with this choice of candidate, the ideological basis of the campaign was also formed. Its future organizers should remember that the ideology is based on three main theses: Russia is “opportunities”, “traditions” and “achievements”. It is with them (that is, hope, confidence and pride) that people should associate the country (and its leader).

The technological aspects of the campaign were also explained to officials. But how to work with campaigning in messengers is, to put it correctly, a tactical issue.

The task has been set. The level of confidence in Vladimir Putin, as regional officials were told, is about 80%.

So, we can assume that the preparations for the elections have not only begun, but also ended.