United Russia held a panel discussion at Sambek Heights before the party congress in December

On Tuesday, United Russia held the first of three panel discussions leading up to its congress, entitled “Proud of Russia.” Participants in the event named many reasons for pride: the party itself with its help to new regions, and Russia’s achievements in various fields, and youth, volunteers and even officials, and the fact that Russia “bent over the entire satanic world,” and, finally, its President Vladimir Putin.

The discussion took place in the Rostov region, in the Sambek Heights museum complex, created in memory of the soldiers of the Great Patriotic War who fought on the Mius Front. Vladimir Ustinov, the presidential envoy to the Southern Federal District, who took the opening remarks, began by expressing pride in United Russia itself. “It is generally accepted that speculative populism, empty and impossible promises are a normal political strategy in the struggle for power. However, this rule does not apply to United Russia,” he declared, recalling that the party in power continues, as Vladimir Putin called for, to perceive its “People’s Program” as a living organism.

The party members chose the deputy chairman of the United Russia Duma faction, TV journalist Evgeniy Revenko, to lead the discussion. “When we talk about pride in our country, each of us has our own images. Someone is proud of the scale and beauty of our country, someone is proud of its glorious historical past, someone is proud of the feat of our guys in the zone of a special military operation, someone is proud of the purity and firmness of our faith… But our most important pride is our people “,” he listed possible topics for other reports. Secretary of the United Russia General Council Andrei Turchak, who spoke next, added another key element to this list – President Putin: “We are proud not only of the past, we are rightfully proud of our present. Russia today is a nuclear power with one of the strongest armies in the world, one of the key players in the market of oil and gas, grain, weapons, nuclear and space technologies. A country with the strongest national leader, who is known and respected throughout the world.” The audience could not help but respond to this thesis with thunderous applause. And Mr. Turchak instructively added that “false modesty, the feeling of being somehow second-rate always demotivates and weakens any person and any nation.”

All subsequent speakers did not experience “false modesty,” and pride in the founder of the party was heard in most speeches. The quintessence of speeches on this topic were the words of history teacher from Sevastopol Elena Lozina: “We believe that Vladimir Vladimirovich should definitely nominate his candidacy for the presidency. And we, the residents of Sevastopol, will support him. The whole country will support. His victory is a victory for Russia.” No one began to argue with this thesis, but no one began to develop it either. After all, Mr. Putin himself has not yet announced his decision on the upcoming elections and, as they say on the political sidelines, he will do so when he deems it necessary.

One of the most striking was the speech of the commander of the Akhmat special squad, Apti Alaudinov. He emphasized that in his squad, 50% are “ordinary Russian boys,” only 25% are Chechens, and another 25% belong to other nationalities. “We should celebrate not the victory that gave us back a piece of land, but the victory when the people of Russia became united. And if we manage to unite and move on together, we will become the number one state,” said Mr. Alaudinov. He further encouraged pessimism, declaring that “Satanism is doing its job” and the world is declining. But this turned out to be just a rhetorical attempt to sound another powerful reason for pride. “We became exactly the force that bent the whole world, this whole satanic world. Believe me, it has already crumbled. Russia is the country to which people will come on their knees. This is the country from which the revival of all spiritual values, God’s values ​​will begin,” the general proclaimed.

The central topic of discussion, as expected, was the North-Eastern Military District and new regions. All four of their governors took part in the discussion and thanked Russia, the party (primarily for humanitarian and volunteer assistance during the hostilities) and Vladimir Putin. The head of the DPR, Denis Pushilin, assured that the time would come when all of Russia would be deservedly proud of Donbass. The head of the LPR, Leonid Pasechnik, said that his region has always felt the support of “great Russia,” and he himself has always considered himself a “Soviet, Russian person”: “Yes, I am Ukrainian by nationality, but I am Russian at heart and always have been.” And Kherson Governor Vladimir Saldo promised that its capital, Kherson, would soon return to the region: “Both the command of the Dnepr group and the Supreme Commander-in-Chief – I talked to him on Friday – are all committed to preparing for this event.” “Many thanks to everyone who came to the Cossacks, to the Kherson people, to the Donbass. My youngest son asked me what pride is. Emotion? Yes. Feeling? Yes. State of mind? Yes. But the most important thing is that this is something you cannot live without, something you cannot take away from a Russian person. This state was returned to us thanks to the fact that the president made a strong-willed decision,” the head of the Zaporozhye region, Evgeniy Balitsky, supported his colleagues.

Chairman of the “Young Guard of United Russia” Anton Demidov, in turn, was proud of the youth, who provided the main volunteer assistance to new regions. And military correspondents Evgeny Lisitsyn and Semyon Pegov raised the topic of pride in politicians and officials. The latter called himself a “rebel” who was far from the parties, but now feels unity both with those gathered in the hall and with other representatives of the authorities. “I, who used to be disdainful of the “Kremlin majors,” watched with pride as the guys from the MGER volunteer company were among the very last to leave the Kharkov region, helping to evacuate civilians under fire… And all the contradictions and prejudices that we had each other against a friend – the front erased everything. (He erased it.— “Kommersant”) and my prejudices against high-ranking officials who spent the night in ordinary sleeping bags with soldiers, washed in a front-line bathhouse, just sat and ate soldiers’ buckwheat and stew with them,” said Mr. Pegov. And Evgeny Lisitsyn spoke about stories he had heard more than once, how a quadcopter brought by an official saved the lives of entire units.

The honor of the last speech went to the commander of the Sparta battalion, the speaker of the DPR parliament, Artem Zhoga (he headed Sparta after the death of his son). He thanked all Russians for their “military shoulder” and helping hand and summed up the discussion in a politically competent manner: “I am proud to live in the same country with these great people. I am proud that I joined the ranks of United Russia, which, as has been said many times, from the first days of the North Military District was in all the hottest spots.”

Andrey Vinokurov