| When parties start fighting for the voter's attention,
everything is brought into play. Ranging from films with foul language
which have mysteriously aired or brawls on the Duma floor to high technologies.
There is every reason to believe that during the new election season the
Internet will be in particular demand in party circles.
The latest amendments to election legislation impose fairly tough restrictions
on the media as a campaign and propaganda tool. But the use of the Internet
in election campaigning is not regulated by legal documents. Consequently
there is no threat of warnings from the Ministry of Press or of being
closed down by court ruling. In this respect the Internet proves to be
particularly valuable for party newspapers, after all, even if they are
closed down it will still be possible to disseminate material, albeit
to a more limited audience.
Parties' fondness for the Internet has gone so far that Yabloko members
have even proposed using the Net for public supervision of the elections.
The party believed that conveying data via the Internet as well as drawing
up primary protocols and publishing the results of voter exit polls could
help to prevent data falsification and rigging.
In addition, for most parties the Internet is the simplest way of managing
regional branches from the capital. The latest decisions of the apparatus,
campaign material, photographs, and fresh slogans can all be dispatched
over the Net far more rapidly. Hence, the CPRF, for instance, at its recent
plenum discussed the need to have a computer position with Internet access
in every regional branch with far greater fervor than intra-party disputes
or its election platform. Needless to say, maintaining a web site is a
costly pleasure, hence every party usually has a home page that is produced
in Moscow but only certain regional organizations have enough money to
maintain their own sites.
Sometimes, however, the regional branches' web sites make an even more
striking impression than the capital's web pages. Thus, a report appeared
on 7 January this year on the site of the Kostroma branch of United Russia
that the party was conducting the "Heartache for Russia" action.
People were invited to leave a "piece of their pain" in a special
book. It was promised that they would be analyzed and "aid programs
for the region would be drawn up on this basis."
Parties represented in the Duma -- United Russia, the CPRF, the LDPR
(Liberal Democratic Party of Russia), the People's Party, the Union of
Right-Wing Forces, and Yabloko -- keep a very careful eye on their Internet
pages. The work of the Duma faction is one of the most successful ways
of attracting visitors to your site during the period between elections.
Furthermore web sites are used not just for a party's own propaganda but
also for information-gathering. Thus, the Union of Right-Wing Forces'
site is conducting a poll on the subject of "How do you view the
fact that Vladimir Putin has transferred the functions of the Federal
Government Communications and Information Agency and the Federal Border
Service to the Federal Intelligence Service?" And the LDPR is still
seeking allies for the possible use of non-standard vocabulary, even though
the relevant draft law has already been turned down and is consequently
asking visitors "Do you support the idea of Russian language reform?"
The value of these polls is obvious only to party members themselves:
after all, with the help of these polls web site owners can test their
visitors' potential enthusiasm for party matters.
Other mandatory rubrics encountered on all party web sites invariably
include the work of the press service and press reviews. However, the
trouble with all press releases on the web sites is that they are always
late, the texts are posted at best 24 hours later. Hence it is usually
not clear for whom they might be intended, apart from people wanting to
study poor-quality PR, after all, by that time journalists have already
had time to write their pieces.
The most original rubrics are to be found on the LDPR and People's Party
web site. Zhirinovsky's associates obviously gravitate toward philosophical
reflection, calling their sections "Political Rudiments," "The
Duma from Within," "Such Is Life." The idea of the "Rudiments
of Politics" rubric has obviously been borrowed from the immortal
work "From Two to Five." The Rudiments explain the nature of
men, women, the environment, Ukraine, fascism, officials, and the Russian
question in an extremely unique way. The rudimentary piece about "officials"
begins as follows: "It is possible to combat corruption, but only
if officials are afraid of the president. Officials need to be scared
of the president in conjunction with administrative reform."
Raykov's associates, without beating around the bush, have exploited
the word "people's" to the full in the names of their rubrics.
There are "People's Opinion," "People's News," "People's
Affairs," and even "People's Letters." The idea of placing
working people's letters alongside Raykov's official letters is undoubtedly
a good PR move, encouraging visitors to visit the new party's web site
more frequently.
Lastly, each party web site has several other mandatory pages of information
covering the association's policy and charter documentation and the leaders'
personal data, as well as a page for anybody who wants to join the party.
Most frequently the party leader has his own web site and, by the way,
it is quite possible to judge the relationship between the party leader
and his colleagues from the ratio of information on them on the general
web page. For instance, several new personalized web pages for party leaders
who will evidently be promoted during the election campaign have appeared
on the CPRF web site in time for the campaign. The LDPR web site contains
a fairly large amount of information about party members but it is all
focused around Zhirinovsky. Thus, all you get on the entire LDPR central
apparatus, which is presented as one of the party's "main links,"
is just a piece of the map of Moscow, explaining how to reach this link.
A great deal of space is devoted on the party web site to Grigory
Yavlinskiy's colleagues, furthermore, the information is grouped so
as to indicate which members of the Yabloko Duma faction specialize in
which areas (local self-government, military reform, education reform).
But the leaders also have individual web pages. Boris Nemtsov was one
of the first to open his own personal web site in his days as Deputy Prime
Minister in 1998, furthermore at the time it was visited by 11,000 people
in just three days -- a kind of record. By the 2000 presidential election
of the 12 Russian Federation presidential contenders only Stanislav Govorukhin
and Aman Tuleyev did not have their own web sites. The Union of Right-Wing
Forces currently holds the absolute record in terms of the number of personal
leadership web sites: Each of its five co-chairmen have their own web
site. Interestingly Anatoly Chubais' web site stands out even among right-wingers
who are inclined to bizarre gestures. It contains funny stories and caricatures
of Chubays, which are fairly unpalatable, moreover, like the following:
"A popular people's swear word containing the letters U and Y? Surely
you can guess: 'Chubais'..."
Party web sites are also hacked into. The best-known case is the appearance
on the LDPR leader's web site in December 1999 of a photograph of Zhirinovsky
holding Zyuganov's head in his hands. The second record in terms of popularity
was set then -- 4,000 people visited the site to admire the image. According
to Rambler.ru statistics, there are only four party web sites in the top
100. The CPRF is in 43rd place, the Union of Right-Wing Forces is in 62nd
place, United Russia is in 66th, and Yabloko is in 67th. Admittedly, the
Union of Right-Wing Forces is clearly leading in terms of the number of
visitors since the site was registered -- 178,187, and 25,808 in the past
30 days. Yabloko is visited the least frequently of the four.
Over the past few months party web sites have obviously been refreshed
and current information has begun to appear more frequently. Thus, the
Union of Right-Wing Forces web page contains extracts from the news reel
and on the United Russia web site news of party life, including the regions,
is carried virtually on-line. At the same time there is still not much
blatant PR and that is understandable, since parties are only now writing
their election platforms and dreaming up slogans to attract the voters.
See also:
State Duma Elections
2003
|
