MOSCOW, August 2 (Itar-Tass) - On Monday, the ruling United Russia party placed on its website a video entitled “We are building a new Russia” dubbed by the party’s leader, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. The press service of the head of government noted that Putin has no relation to the video, while the ruling party described it as “popular advertising.” The opposition believes that United Russia launched the election campaigning for the State Duma.

The video begins from showing Moscow City business centre plunged into fog, traffic jams and dirty industries, the Moskovsky Komsomolets daily wrote. Putin’s voice speaks from off-screen about difficulties and restricted financial opportunities under suspenseful music. All this symbolizes the uneasy present. Another part of the video is devoted to the future. Putin speaks about how he would raise pensions, studentships and allowances for servicemen, reduce diseases and mortality. He clearly depicts the future that will come no earlier than in 2012.

Compiled from quotes taken from Putin’s statements the video looks like a single address of the party’s leader, the Kommersant business daily wrote. The prime minister speaks about higher social allowances, healthcare modernization in regions, development of mass sport and United Russia’s role in the country’s modern history describing it as “a cornerstone of stability in politics and economy.” The video ends with landscape pictures and the prime minister’s words “We are building a new Russia.”

The prime minister’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the newspaper that the video was not coordinated with Vladimir Putin and he does not know who authored it. “I am still not ready to say whether we will lay claims for it to be removed or not. I think that if there was something wrong, United Russia would not place it,” Peskov said.

Yevgeny Suchkov, the director of the Institute of Election Technologies, believes that technologically United Russia takes right steps. “It needs to raise its stagnating rating and it does this with the help of Vladimir Putin,” he explained noting that paying more attention in the video to the prime minister and not to the president, the party makes it clear who is more important for it.
Generally speaking, the video creates an impression that the party has already absolutely defined who will be the country’s president after 2012, Moskovsky Komsomolets wrote. Meanwhile, Putin himself has not even given his consent to head the list of candidates for United Russia in December’s elections to the State Duma. Thus, authors of the party’s advertisement put the carriage before the horse, the daily wrote.