Elections televised debates. Elections are not the time for debate. Morning hours or prime time

The first discussion began at 13:10 Moscow time on Radio Russia. Only the candidate from the LDPR party attended it personally Vladimir Zhirinovsky. Instead of Ksenia Sobchak, Boris Titov And Pavel Grudinina their representatives appeared on air. The law requires the personal presence of candidates on television and radio, and only in case of illness or performance of official duties, the candidate can be represented by proxies. “The three other candidates simply chickened out because they do not understand foreign policy issues,” is how Zhirinovsky explained his vision of the situation to radio listeners.

The topic of the first debate was Russian foreign policy. At the start of the radio program, candidates and surrogates were given one minute each to outline the party's overall position. Nina Ostanina, representing Pavel Grudinin, stated that Russia is currently going through the most difficult period in international relations since the Great Patriotic War, and therefore it is necessary to strengthen the domestic economy so that the United States stops perceiving the country as a weak adversary. Zhirinovsky, in turn, indicated that Russia should take “tough measures” against Ukraine and Syria, but did not have time to explain in the allotted time what they would be.

Sobchak's authorized representative lawyer Elena Lukyanova noted that “the proposed format is not a debate, but a falsification and a simulacrum,” and it is impossible to discuss serious issues in this format. She also outlined her candidate’s position, which is peaceful foreign policy and reduction of the armed forces.

Representative of Titov Sergey Demin began the discussion with discussions about the economy, emphasizing that “the implementation of the politician’s program will help to quickly improve the quality of life of people.”

• “What foreign policy instruments can ensure security of Russia?»,
• “What are the global threats today? How could Russia minimize them for itself?”
• and “How should our country respond to sanctions?”

During the debate Ostanina advocated increasing spending on the defense sector. “The task of our party (the Communist Party of the Russian Federation is ed.) - nationalization natural resources, a progressive tax and a state monopoly on the sale of alcohol,” she said. This, according to the speaker, will become the basis for increasing defense spending. In the "Growth Party" Boris Titov They also consider it necessary to increase spending on defense, noting that Russia has no threats that would be terrible for it, because the country has “a huge stock of nuclear weapons and good diplomats.”

“The main security threat for us is the technical lag behind the rest of the world,” answered Elena Lukyanova. — And the second threat is corruption. We need to switch our brains to the fact that we are looking for threats in the wrong place.”

Zhirinovsky predicted a third on air world war, which, according to the politician, will begin in 5-6 years and accused his opponents of not understanding anything about foreign policy issues. At the end of the program, he even went so far as to insult him, calling all the candidates except himself and Vladimir Putin “garbage” and “rotten.”

Regarding sanctions Ostanina And Demin agreed again, they both said that restrictions should be perceived as nothing other than a chance to activate their own economy and develop Agriculture. I didn't agree with them Lukyanova, which stated that the import substitution policy pursued by the state is not beneficial. In her closing speech, she expressed regret that the first debate began with the topic of war. “We want the army to become smaller, but strong, high-tech and highly paid. I, like Ksenia Sobchak, want women to be in beauty salons, not at shooting ranges. A peaceful and prosperous state will have fewer threats, so you need to vote for a president who wants peace,” she urged Elena Lukyanova.

Confidant Grudinina insisted that “the fatherland is in danger” and must be repelled. Sergey Demin, as expected, called for voting for his candidate: “Boris Titov earned it for his family, he can do it for his country,” he concluded. Zhirinovsky had no time left for his final speech.

The head of the Central Election Commission, Ella Pamfilova, called the absence of most candidates at the first radio debate “strange.” “Many candidates lamented that they did not have enough time and bombarded us with complaints. I hope that at least they will go to the TV debates,” she said after the broadcast and threatened to redistribute the time allocated for campaigning in favor of those who go to the debates.

• On February 28, according to the draw, a debate will take place on Radio Russia between Maxim Suraikin (Communists of Russia), Grigory Yavlinsky (Yabloko) and Sergei Baburin (Russian All-People's Union).
• All radio stations will debate during the day: from 12:00 to 13:00 on Vesti FM,
• from 13:10 to 13:45 on Radio Russia
• and from 14:00 to 14:50 at Mayak.

At the same time, discussions on television will take place exclusively in the morning and evening:

• February 27 on OTR from 21:05 to 21:50,
• from February 28 on Channel One from 08:10 to 08:57,
• and also on “Russia 1” from 23:15 to 00:15.
• From March 1, candidate debates will begin on Rossiya 24 from 19:05 to 19:50
• and on the TV Center channel from 17:00 to 17:50.

The greatest number of debates will occur in last week before the elections.

Ksenia Sobchak And Pavel Grudinin TV channels were criticized for holding election discussions in the morning and late evening. “I will insist that these debates take place not at 8 a.m., but that they really take place during prime broadcast time, at 7-8 p.m., so that the maximum number of people can get acquainted with the candidates’ programs,” the TV presenter said.

Pavel Grudinin and even sent official statements to the management of Channel One and Rossiya-1, in which he expressed dissatisfaction with the organization of the election debates at the proposed hours. If the TV channels refuse to find a constructive solution, the candidate’s headquarters did not rule out the possibility of completely abandoning the televised debates.

One candidate is the current president Vladimir Putin— has already given up free time for debates on television and radio. However, he never took part in them.

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Debates between the candidates started on Russian channels on February 26. Now candidates for the post of head Russian state can convey their election program to voters through radio and television.

On Monday, February 26, a debate began on Russian television ahead of the presidential election. Russian Federation. True, the rules for conducting them cannot be called successful. Claims regarding the organization of this important part election campaign in its statement, the headquarters of the candidate from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Pavel Grudinin formulated. According to the communists, the screening time was chosen in such a way that the debate would be seen by as few viewers as possible. Their point of view was supported by other candidates, including Vladimir Zhirinovsky and Ksenia Sobchak.

What TV channels are the 2018 debates on: Watch VIDEO

Which TV channels are the 2018 debates on: Vladimir Putin refused to participate in the debates

Let us remind you that on the eve of the start of the debate at the Central Election Commission, a draw was held for the distribution of air time on federal television and radio channels. More than 60 hours of free television airtime and 36 hours of radio airtime were allocated for campaign videos and debates.

I would like to note that Vladimir Putin’s headquarters refused airtime on federal television channels and radio stations. The marathon of political battles will take place from February 26 to March 15. The schedule is the same for all days, except for March 4, 8, 9, 10 and 11 - there will be no debates on these days. And on March 7, clashes between candidates on “Russia-1” and “Russia-24” will not be shown.

SCHEDULE BY CHANNEL

“Channel One” from 8.05 to 8.57

“TV Center” from 17:00 to 17:50

"Russia-24" from 19.05 to 19.50

"OTR" from 21.05 to 21.50

"Russia-1" from 23.15 to 00.15.

“In total, each candidate is guaranteed one hour of airtime on each channel. In addition, the law additionally provides political parties that nominated registered candidates, and in fact, candidates, party candidates themselves, with one more hour. That is, a self-nominated candidate receives half as much time as a party candidate. And given that all the time allocated to political parties can be used to post campaign videos of candidates, in fact, a self-nominated candidate receives 4 times less time for election campaigning for these purposes,” the head of the Central Election Commission told reporters.

MOSCOW, February 26. /TASS/. The period of pre-election debates starts on Monday in Russia, three weeks before the presidential election. Candidates will have to argue daily on television and radio stations in order to attract voters to their side, and present the theses of their programs in a limited time.

Free airtime for election campaigning is allocated by five state federal television channels: "Russia 1", "Russia 24", Channel One, "TV Center", Public Television of Russia (OTR), as well as three radio stations of the VGTRK holding: "Radio of Russia", " Mayak" and "Vesti FM". In total, during the draw held at the Central Election Commission, about 60 hours of television and 36 hours of radio airtime were drawn. At the same time, in accordance with the law, a third of the time is allocated to the parties that nominated candidates, and the remaining time is divided in half: half is allocated for campaign videos of candidates, half for debates.

As the Central Election Commission reported, TV channels themselves determine the format of “joint campaign events” - discussions, round tables, debates. During the current campaign, television networks have decided that all candidates will participate in the debates at the same time.

Since the current head of state Vladimir Putin, who is running for a new term as a self-nominated candidate, refused to participate in the debate, television viewers will watch the polemics of seven candidates: Sergei Baburin (Russian People's Union party), Pavel Grudinin (Communist Party of the Russian Federation), Vladimir Zhirinovsky (LDPR) , Ksenia Sobchak (Civil Initiative), Maxim Suraikin (Communists of Russia), Boris Titov (Growth Party) and Grigory Yavlinsky (Yabloko).

Radio debates will feature three or four candidates each.

When to Watch and Listen to Candidates

The cycle of pre-election discussions will open with debates on Radio Russia on February 26 at 13:10 Moscow time. Zhirinovsky, Grudinin and Titov will take part in them. On February 27, debates will begin on OTR, on February 28 - on Channel One, Rossiya 1, and radio stations Vesti FM and Mayak. From March 1, the candidates will begin to debate on Rossiya 24 and TV Center.

Debates on television will be held in the morning and evening: from 08:10 to 08:57 on Channel One, from 17:00 to 17:50 on TV Center, from 19:05 to 19:50 on Rossiya 24, from 21:05 to 21:50 on OTR, from 23:15 to 00:15 on Rossiya 1. The moderator of the debate on “Russia 1” will be Vladimir Solovyov, on “Russia 24” - Dmitry Shchugorev.

Radio stations will debate during the day: from 12:00 to 13:00 on Vesti FM, from 13:10 to 13:45 on Radio Russia and from 14:00 to 14:50 on Mayak.

As CEC Secretary Maya Grishina previously reported, greatest number The debate will take place in the last week before the election.

By law, a presidential candidate must participate in debates on federal channels in person; a trusted person can replace him only in case of illness or performance of official duties. The participation of proxies is provided for in debates on regional television and radio. Putin will be represented at the regional debates by trusted representatives, the Central Election Commission reported earlier.

In the regions, debates will be held on 338 regional television channels and 280 radio stations.

Zhirinovsky against live broadcasting

Busy schedule of debates taking place in live, caused dissatisfaction with Zhirinovsky. He suggested recording part of the discussions and broadcasting them at the scheduled time.

As commission member Sergei Sirotkin, representing the LDPR, explained at a CEC meeting, on some days the candidates are scheduled to have eight live debates. According to him, it is physically difficult for people to talk live for eight hours. In this regard, the LDPR proposes that “some of the debates should be recorded, some live,” Sirotkin said.

CEC Chairman Ella Pamfilova invited the candidates to discuss this possibility. “Maybe they will agree on one or two debates to take, for example, on weekends and then put on the grid.<...>If they find a consensus, the Central Election Commission will contribute; the channels, as far as I know, are ready to meet them halfway,” she noted.

Morning hours or prime time

Sobchak, in turn, criticized the holding of debates in the morning. “I will insist that these debates should not take place at 8 am, but that they should actually take place during prime broadcast time, at 7-8 pm, so that the maximum number of people can get acquainted with the candidates’ programs,” she said during the press conference. conference at TASS. According to her, the morning televised debate will be seen by a limited number of voters, because “8 a.m. is exactly the time when people either go to work or prepare to go to work.”

Similar claims were made by Grudinin’s campaign headquarters. A previously released statement from the headquarters notes that the timing of the debates on air “was chosen in such a way that these broadcasts would be seen by as few television viewers as possible.” “It is absolutely obvious that neither 8 a.m. on Channel One nor 11 p.m. on the federal channel Rossiya 1 corresponds to the importance of the issues being discussed and the nature of the elections being held,” the statement said.

In addition, Grudinin’s headquarters is unhappy with the fact that all candidates will participate in televised debates at the same time, and fear that the discussion will turn into a “noisy booth.” Also, Grudinin’s associates oppose the recording of television debates. “They should only be broadcast live to exclude any manipulation,” the statement emphasizes.

There is a rule in the electoral legislation that airtime for campaigning “must fall during the period determined by the relevant television and radio broadcasting organization, when television and radio programs attract the largest audience.”

The campaigning phase in the media began on February 17, it will end on the night of March 17, when the day of silence begins. The Russian presidential elections will be held on March 18.

On Monday, as part of the election campaign for the post of President of the Russian Federation, candidate debates started on federal air. The first took place on Radio Russia, where Vladimir Zhirinovsky and proxies of other candidates took part. OTR and Channel One also hosted debates on strengthening the country's defense capabilities.

And now the opinions of political scientists have appeared who are clearly not satisfied with the level of competence of the candidates, believing that the candidates were unable to convey to voters an important and interesting information. For example, the head of the expert council of the Expert Institute of Social Research expressed his opinion on Wednesday in a conversation with a TASS correspondent Gleb Kuznetsov.

“So far, mostly [during the debates] there is a spat. In my opinion, if we talk about today, it was not possible to tell something really relevant, interesting and important,” Kuznetsov said, adding that the candidates “rather managed to quarrel and create scandals with each other.”

Gleb Kuznetsov believes that those who participated in the debate failed to express “something meaningful.” “We talk a lot about how this format [debate] doesn’t really take root here, and every time we express the hope that this time everything will be different, new people will come who will do everything differently,” the expert says . “[But now] we see new politicians and we see that they still fail to be bright and interesting like the old ones,” he believes.

At the same time, the political scientist noted that Vladimir Zhirinovsky, for example, managed to prove himself thanks to “the experience that played big role" But the expert’s performance by Pavel Grudinin was disappointing. Grudinin, the expert says, “never learned to answer questions to himself, to reasonable claims about his biography, and looked weak.”

Political scientist, director of International Institute newest states Alexey Martynov, to whom Zhirinovsky’s performance seemed expectedly bright, and Grudinin was “bogged down in his foreign accounts.”

In general, Martynov noted: “If we talk in general about these debates, then, to be honest, as an international political scientist, I am disheartened by the low level of training on foreign policy issues of all the candidates who were present.”

“Even that same Valery Solovey (Boris Titov’s confidant - approx. VIEW), who poses as a prominent political scientist on the current agenda, looks unprepared. Some kind of incompetence. It’s also a mystery to me why the same Zhirinovsky, a man who is guided by the external agenda, also turned out to be unclear in this sense,” Martynov pointed out. According to him, this is simply unprofessionalism, because the headquarters prepare their candidates for debates, sort out who will say what, what will answer, what possible questions, they could at least open the Internet, read some top news.

At the same time, according to Mattynov, the candidate from the “Communists of Russia” turned out to be the most integral candidate in the debate: “Suraikin, Comrade Maxim is probably the most consistent of all, the most ideological.” The interlocutor also noted that Nightingale, Boris Titov’s representative, looked very reasonable.

As expected, “Comrade Grudinin got confused in his accounts again,” Martynov added, assessing the performance of the Communist Party candidate Pavel Grudinin.

“Actually, it’s not even funny. Well, okay, there was some confusion with these accounts at the stage of submitting documents with these accounts, there were some frictions with the election commission, with tax service. It is clear that if the candidate continues his campaign, then, one way or another, these questions have been resolved and some explanations have been received from him. But why, for the mass viewer, for the voter, until now, during all this time, Comrade Grudinin’s headquarters has not invented some clear, simple explanations for all these issues or has not developed an understandable strategy that removes all these questions, including preparing him for the debate ?,” the expert asked, adding that it was obvious that there would be such questions.

“It’s amazing that this headquarters, led by Zyuganov, either simply has no idea what it should do, or is deliberately harming Grudinin, who is their candidate whom they should promote. I simply have no other explanations,” the expert concluded.

“Current Comments” also note that the candidates’ speeches were more emotional than substantive. However, even against the vacuous background, Grudinin was able to stand out. If other candidates spoke general phrases, then the candidate from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation repeated every time about domestic policy, “society of social justice,” which had nothing to do with the topic of the discussion. And, as the publication writes, Grudinin managed to tire the audience with the same phrases. He is perceived as a one-topic candidate who doesn’t really have anything to offer.

Let us recall that the first televised debates held on February 26 at the OTR were attended by candidates Sergei Baburin, Pavel Grudinin, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, Ksenia Sobchak, Maxim Suraikin, as well as proxies of Boris Titov and Grigory Yavlinsky - Evgeny Tarlo and Alexey Arbatov. The topic of the debate that took place on Tuesday was strengthening the country's defense capabilities.

Candidate debates are part of election campaign, the essence of which is to discuss, in the form of a dialogue between candidates, acute problems in the country and ways to solve them. In 2018, debates between Russian presidential candidates will begin on February 27.

On February 17, 2018, a period of public campaigning through means was opened mass media as part of the election campaign. Over the course of a month, candidates who were registered in the Central election commission, can conduct various campaign events: election videos calling for support for a particular candidate, presentations of their programs, as well as television and radio debates in which candidates will defend their interests.

This event has great importance for candidates for the presidency, since this is where great opportunities will open up for them and whether they will be able to take advantage of these opportunities depends only on the participants themselves. The same was emphasized by the Secretary of the Central Election Commission Maya Grishina.

Selection of candidates for the post of President of Russia

The official start of the election campaign was announced on December 18, 2017. To date, two major stages of the campaign have been left behind - the nomination and registration of candidates. Of the 70 people who planned to compete for the presidency, only eight people were registered. Of these, only one candidate is registered as a self-nominated candidate - Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, the other seven candidates are running from parties:

1. Vladimir Volfovich Zhirinovsky from the LDPR party,
2. Ksenia Anatolyevna Sobchak from the “Civil Initiative” party,
3. Boris Yuryevich Titov from the “Growth Party”,
4. Maxim Aleksandrovich Suraikin from the Communists of Russia party,
5. Sergei Nikolaevich Baburin from the Russian People's Union party,
6. Pavel Nikolaevich Grudinin from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation,
7. Grigory Alekseevich Yavlinsky from the Yabloko party.

With the advent of a new stage, almost half of the candidates dropped out of the election campaign. Initially, the Central Election Commission received 70 applications about their desire to take part in the elections. Of these, 46 people were self-nominated, 24 people from various parties. But after the first stage, out of 70, only 36 people remained who, with documents, reached the Central Election Commission to register. Among them were 15 self-nominated candidates and 21 party candidates. Then the number of candidates was reduced to 17 people. Some of the candidates for the presidential position left the campaign on their own and refused to participate, some were unable to register due to a criminal record, some had an incomplete package of documents, some self-nominated candidates never submitted documents for registration to the CEC, and many voter group meetings never took place. Only 17 people were given the opportunity to open an election account and start an election campaign. Grudinin and Zhirinovsky were registered almost immediately, since they did not need to collect voter signatures to register with the CEC. The remaining participants needed to gain the support of voters. Of the self-nominated candidates, only Vladimir Putin and Vladimir Mikhailov reached this stage, who needed to collect at least three hundred thousand voter signatures (no more than 7,500 signatures in one region of the Russian Federation). Party candidates had to collect at least 100 thousand signatures (no more than 2,500 signatures in one region of the Russian Federation). Only 6 of the party candidates collected the required number of signatures and subsequently registered with the CEC.

The Central Election Commission verified 60 thousand signatures from each participant, regardless of the method of nomination. The number of forged signatures in the signature lists did not exceed the permissible 5% for any participant. Secondary sampling was also not necessary for any participants.

Registration ended on February 8, 2018. The CEC immediately approved ballots and candidate information posters, which will be displayed at each polling station on election day.

Thus, today there are only eight participants left who can rightfully compete for the presidency. On the ballot papers that will be issued to voters on March 18, the names of the above candidates will be arranged in alphabetical order: Baburin, Grudinin, Zhirinovsky, Putin, Sobchak, Suraikin, Titov, Yavlinsky.

But there is still almost a month left until voting day, so the candidates will continue to fight. The most striking part of the election campaign, which the whole country will have to watch, is the presidential debate. In the remaining four weeks before voting day, Russian citizens will not only be able to watch the debates, but also watch campaign video and audio clips. All these events will continue until the day of silence. This is the day before the elections, that is, March 17. Any propaganda activity must cease on March 16, since at midnight from March 16 to 17 local time, a day of silence begins for each region in Russia.

In the meantime, the candidates continue to actively fight, and the Central Election Commission continues to do difficult work. Bulletins and posters are now being printed. The first circulation of ballots intended for voting outside the territory of the Russian Federation has already been accepted. In total, the CEC plans to send 1.9 million ballots to other countries for Russians permanently or temporarily staying abroad. The number of Russian citizens staying abroad is 1.87 million. As of January 1, 2018, the number of voters in Russia is 108.9 million people. These numbers are given taking into account the removal of “dead souls” and “doubles” from the lists. Moreover, the Central Election Commission, together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, is working to eliminate double counting of citizens living abroad, but registered in the Russian Federation.

According to the deputy head of the Central Election Commission, Nikolai Bulaev, the degree of correctness of the voter register is already very high, but work to clarify the lists is still ongoing.

Broadcast of debates on television

The candidates' debates will be broadcast on television, because this is the most vibrant, spectacular and interesting part of the election campaign. More than six hundred TV channels will take part in broadcasting the debates in 2018. These are both federal and regional TV channels. Among the federal television broadcasts will be: “Channel One”, “Russia 1”, “Russia 24”, “TV Center”, Public Television of Russia. In total, the TV channels will give viewers more than 60 hours of debates and campaign videos.

According to the law, each candidate is allocated one hour of airtime on each television channel and several hours for the parties that nominated the candidate. Accordingly, each television channel must structure its program in such a way as to allocate 8 hours for candidates and another 7 hours for parties. Consequently, self-nominated candidates, namely Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, have less time than others to broadcast campaign videos on television. However, Vladimir Putin's campaign headquarters announced that it was refusing free airtime for debates on state television channels.

Of all the time allocated on television, half of the free air time is debates. Debates of Russian presidential candidates will be broadcast on each channel for more than six hours. It is known that the candidate must speak in person at the debate itself, but the law provides for cases when a proxy may be present at the debate instead of a participant. These are cases where the candidate is ill or unable to leave his job duties.

Where can you watch the candidates' debates: live broadcast

The first candidate debates broadcast on television will begin on February 27, 2018 on the OTR channel (Public Television of Russia) at 21.05 Moscow time. Further debates will be broadcast according to the approved schedule.

From February 28 to March 15, 2018, the broadcast will be live on the Russia 1 and Russia 24 channels.

Another 36 hours of broadcasting campaign videos and debates are allocated on state radio stations “Mayak”, “Radio Rossii”, “Vesti FM”. Radio broadcasting will begin on February 26 on Radio Russia.

As Ella Pamfilova explained, first a draw took place to distribute airtime between participants on federal television channels and radio stations. The draw began on February 17, 28 days before voting began. The draw will end on March 17, the day of silence.

From February 19 to 25, TV channels will broadcast only short propaganda videos, because this is a holiday week, moreover, the Olympics are currently taking place. The largest number of debates will be broadcast in the last week before the vote: “At the same time, the last day of debate is March 15 (Thursday), which is justified by the fact that in the east of Russia the day of silence will begin nine hours earlier than in the capital,” said the head of the Central Election Commission , confirming that the most convenient debate schedule has been prepared for the participants.

The schedule proposed by TV channels also takes into account that registered participants must speak at the debates in person, except in cases where a proxy can take part in the debates.

“The debate will begin in the morning, from 8:10 o’clock on Channel One. Their duration will be 55 minutes. Then, from 17:00 to 17:45 on TVC, from 19:00 to 20:00 on the Rossiya 24 TV channel, from 21:05 on OTR, the debate day will end with a broadcast with Vladimir Solovyov from 23:10 to 00:15 ", said the head of the Central Election Commission.

Pamfilova expressed gratitude to the TV channels and radio stations for their mutual understanding in drawing up the debate grid, which made it possible for each participant to be fully represented. The head of the Central Election Commission also said that candidates have plenty of time for campaigning; they have the opportunity to fully use the allotted time on air.

The Rossiya 1 TV channel will broadcast live as part of the program with Vladimir Solovyov at 23:15 Moscow time.

The debate on the Russia 24 channel will be hosted by Dmitry Shchugarev from 19:00 to 20:00.

On radio stations “Mayak”, “Vesti FM”, “Radio Russia” the debates will be broadcast at 12:00, 13:00, 14:00 Moscow time.

All debates will be broadcast live, and debate topics will be agreed upon with the candidates in advance.

Who will take part in the debate

As you know, a debate between Vladimir Zhirinovsky and Pavel Grudinin recently took place. The topic of the debate was ways to defend the national interests of the Russian Federation and getting rid of the image of “Baba Yaga”. Zhirinovsky from the LDPR party shared his opinion on the reasons for the emergence of a negative image of Russia. According to Zhirinovsky, this is a historical enmity between West and East, in which the United States took a significant part. Grudinin believes that no one can be frightened by the image of a fairy-tale villain; Russia must be a strong power and use its potential correctly. Zhirinovsky believes that Russia helped the development of China and continues to help other countries develop at the expense of its wealth. Then the debate turned to Crimea. Zhirinovsky believes that America created 2 fires - the DPRK and Ukraine, to fight two powers, China and Russia.

Will Vladimir Putin take part in the debate?

Soon other candidates for the post of President of Russia will take part in the debates. But for many Russians, the question remains whether current Russian President Vladimir Putin will take part in the debate. As is known, Putin has never entered into open disputes before. Why is Putin not participating in the debates and what are they saying about this at his campaign headquarters? The answer is very simple: Vladimir Vladimirovich to this day remains the current president of the Russian Federation, who must fulfill his state duties and not waste time on live debates. Putin makes far more important decisions every day than his opponents.

On January 12, Vladimir Putin announced that he was withdrawing from the debate. This statement was made after the president’s meeting with the head of the Russian “fifth estate”, where an employee of “ Independent newspaper» Konstantin Remchukov. The president explained this by saying that every day he expresses his opinions about the pressing problems of Russians. Everyone already knows the president’s point of view. The purpose of the debate, to some extent, is to familiarize citizens with the opinions of the candidate running for the presidency.

Nevertheless, Putin does not remain aloof from election events. While performing his direct duties, he informs citizens about his program. Daily work Putin will continue until . In accordance with the law, a candidate has the right to send his proxy to the debate if he is ill or cannot remove himself from his official duties.

Accordingly, the head of state will appoint proxies to whom he will assign tasks for the period of the election campaign, since Putin himself will not take part in the debates. Let us remind you that such a decision can only be made by the candidate himself. After such a decision is made, proxies can freely enter into polemics with opponents and defend the interests of the candidate.

Opportunities for free campaigning

Each presidential candidate also received free space in publications. By law, all candidates must receive the same amount of pages, space and even font in newspapers. Newspapers must allocate at least 5% of all material for propaganda materials.

15 publications are connected to the election campaign, in which space will be allocated for campaign material of the candidates:

• "Parliamentary newspaper"
• "Russian newspaper",
• "Crimean newspaper"
• "A red star",
• "Primorskaya Gazeta"
• "Pacific Newspaper"
• "Republic of Bashkortostan",
• "Bashkortostan"
• "Kyzyl tan"
• "Omet"
• "Tolon"
• "Evening Moscow"
• "Youth newspaper"
• "Private auction"
• "Chuvash woman"

According to representatives of the Central Election Commission, all registered candidates accepted the offer to use free space in the listed publishing houses to post their campaign material.

As Maya Grishina, secretary of the Central Election Commission, said: “Print publications are currently in a state of fierce competition with online publications and television. Nevertheless, the printed word, paper, is something that will remain in history. Digital media will go away, but paper is something that will remain forever and, perhaps, will be of interest to future generations.”

At the same time, if free airtime is not enough for candidates to introduce citizens to their programs and ideas, then they have the right to buy additional time on television or in printed materials. In this case, payment is made from the election fund. Such a service can be provided by more than 150 state publications, 94 newspapers, 37 radio stations, 16 TV channels, which notified the Central Election Commission of their readiness for publication and the cost of such services.

Only the candidate himself can make such purchases. The party that nominated the participant cannot do this, because the funds for expenses will be taken from the participant’s election fund. Some candidates have already taken advantage of this opportunity by submitting an application to the CEC for the distribution of paid airtime.

CEC requirements for the media

As CEC Chairwoman Ella Pamfilova reported, starting February 17, the Central Election Commission will carefully monitor all information in the media related to presidential elections. Pamfilova believes that free time, when the media could write what they wanted, is coming to an end. Therefore, she called on all press employees not to violate the equality of candidates and to maintain neutrality and objectivity in presenting material.

Another requirement for the media is a ban on presenting information that promotes the formation of a negative opinion towards the candidates or parties that nominated the participant.

Also, sociologists and journalists must be specific when publishing the results of surveys. public opinion about the Russian presidential elections.

When publishing information about sociological surveys, publishers are required to indicate the exact time and place of its conduct and the exact wording of the question. This is necessary to conduct a static assessment of the possible error and the customers of the study.