The Central Election Commission held a draw for free television between presidential candidates

On February 13, the Central Election Commission held a draw for free airtime on federal television and radio channels between presidential candidates. The campaign period will begin on February 17 and end at zero o’clock local time on March 15. But it starts on the weekend, so the election advertising will only appear on air on Monday, February 19. The first round of debate is scheduled for February 26; Then the campaign participants will have a real marathon: over the course of two weeks they will have to spend from four to six rounds of debates on each of the five federal television channels. The election headquarters does not rule out that at some point the candidates on air may need to be replaced. Thus, the presidential candidate from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Nikolai Kharitonov may be replaced by his predecessor in this role, Pavel Grudinin. Vladimir Putin’s headquarters refused to participate in the debate.

Five federal state television channels “Russia 1”, “Russia 24”, “Channel One”, “TV Center”, “Public Television of Russia” (OTR) and three radio stations “Radio Russia”, “Mayak” are required to provide free airtime for campaigning candidates. and Vesti FM.

CEC Secretary Natalya Budarina recalled that the law guarantees campaign participants one hour of free time on air on state television channels, and parties that have nominated presidential candidates can receive the same amount. Thus, the total amount of airtime that candidates can count on is 7 hours. Half of this time (3 hours 30 minutes) is reserved for debates, the rest they can spend on advertising. In this case, a third of the total volume (140 minutes, or 46 minutes for each) will be received by political parties and another 70 minutes – by the candidates themselves. Each candidate will receive 17.5 minutes to show campaign videos. They will appear on air starting February 19th.

Four politicians are vying for the presidential post: Vladislav Davankov (New People), Vladimir Putin (self-nominated), Leonid Slutsky (LDPR) and Nikolai Kharitonov (Communist Party of the Russian Federation). As Natalya Budarina reported, the commission received written applications for participation from four candidates and three political parties. Vladimir Putin refused to participate in the debate, but his representative, the rector of Moscow State Law Academy, Viktor Blazheev, took part in the draw for slots with advertising time.

The earliest possible debate starts on the Rossiya 1 channel. As Andrey Polivanchuk, head of the VTGRC correspondent network service, said, they will be held on February 26, 27, 28, March 4 and 5, the timing will be 1 hour, the broadcast time will be from 15 to 16 hours, in the fourth time zone (Krasnoyarsk and Novosibirsk) the debates will be go live, in other time zones – recorded. The Rossiya 24 TV channel will host six rounds of debates on February 27, 28, 29 and March 5, 6, 7, the duration will be 45 minutes, the debates will be broadcast live from 19:15 to 20 hours Moscow time. The host on both TV channels will be Dmitry Shchugorev. In total, VGTRK will provide a record amount of free time to candidates and political parties, Mr. Polivanchuk noted: 15.5 hours each on Rossiya 1, Rossiya 24, Radio Rossii, Mayak and Vesti FM.

The debates on Channel One will be held in four rounds: February 27, 29, March 5 and 7, and will be hosted by Anatoly Kuzichev, said Peter Shepin, director of the commercial directorate of Channel One. This is the earliest debate: the broadcast will begin at 7:44 am Moscow time, a channel employee specified. A little later, at 10 am, the debate will be broadcast on OTR. Its first deputy general director Farit Myasumovich said that they will take place on February 29 and March 1, 6, 7 and candidates will receive 52.5 minutes of live broadcast. Finally, the candidates will meet on TVC on February 27, 28 and March 4, 5, 6, the debates will be aired at 17:00 Moscow time. It is assumed that all three candidates (or their proxies) will meet simultaneously in each round. Representatives of TV channels interviewed by Kommersant said that topics for their verbal battles are still under discussion.

Kommersant asked the candidates how they planned to cope with such a busy debate schedule. “The main participant in the debate is Nikolai Mikhailovich Kharitonov himself, but since the schedule is quite tight and partially overlaps with already planned events and trips, it is possible that the headquarters will identify proxies who will represent the position of the party and Kharitonov on air,” they reported “Kommersant” representatives of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. The list of trusted representatives of the candidate from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation “is a large team of people who are excellently versed” in issues related to various industries, the party emphasized: “You can name the director of the state farm named after. Lenin, Pavel Grudinin, head of the Zvenigovsky state farm, Ivan Kazankov, head of the largest livestock enterprise in Siberia, Usolsky Pig Farm, Ilya Sumarokov, former commander of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Navy, Admiral Vladimir Komoyedov.”

The press service of the New People assured that their candidate is committed to personally participating in as many rounds of debate as possible. But at the same time, he continues to travel around the regions, so somewhere his program will still be protected by trusted persons. “Different thematic blocks of the program at Vladislav Andreevich’s headquarters are represented by different proxies, so when choosing a speaker we will be guided by the topic of a particular day of debate,” New People said. The LDPR did not promptly answer Kommersant’s question.

Anastasia Kornya, Grigory Leiba