The Media Mirror: what's in today's Russian newspapers?

Another installment of Presidential candidate Dmitry Medvedev’s programme is featured in Russian newspapers.

VREMYA NOVOSTEI writes that Dmitry Medvedev continues to present parts of his platform for power. The latest installment was delivered at the First National Forum of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs in Krasnodar. The leading Presidential candidate suggested that business should take a more active role in socially-important programmes, such as infrastructure development, while the state would support its expansion abroad. Dmitry Medvedev also said the elements of state capitalism present in our economy exist only in the spheres where they are necessary, and even there – just for a limited time.

KOMSOMOLSKAYA PRAVDA puts emphasis on Medvedev’s promise to assist in the promotion of Russian products in Western markets. In exchange, says the paper, he required Russian businesses to work more actively in the Russian regions including the remotest of them.

KOMMERSANT calls Medvedev’s remarks a “business plan”. The paper says not all the businesspeople in the audience looked quite ready to work hand in glove with the state. It quotes Alexander Shohin, head of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, who voiced their doubts: the inflation, unclear property rights, the virtual impossibility of resolving disputes in court or to negotiate on the tax reform with the Finance ministry. At the end of his speech, says the paper, Alexander Shohin united all these issues as “material for a Presidential political decision” and expressed his belief that the Putin-Medvedev, or Medvedev-Putin Tandem would solve these problems successfully.

MOSKOVSKI KOMSOMOLETS writes: Dmitry Medvedev’s  remarks in Krasnodar can be seen as Russia’s economic programme if he wins the election. One of the main elements of that program would be the active role of Russian business in foreign markets, specialised government loans for buyers of Russian products, purchases of foreign enterprises by Russian businesses.

The same newspaper has the results of the latest opinion surveys by the Russian Central Institute for Public Opinion. 74.8% of the participants would vote for Medvedev in the coming election, with Communist Gennady Ziuganov as the second with 12.8%, Vladimir Zhirinovski 11.5%. The second survey, its results now on the screen here, shows 74% attributing to Medvedev such personal qualities as intelligence and politeness, 73% saying he is energetic and fast, 53% that he is honest and trustworthy.