Kommersant: United Russia will purge disloyal among formal supporters

United Russia has begun a large-scale renewal of its mobilization base for the presidential elections in 2024. According to Kommersant, citing sources close to the presidential administration and the leadership of United Russia.

It is planned that by the end of 2023 the base should contain 30 million Russians, and all of them should be real supporters of the party and Vladimir Putin. Now it has 25 million people, but about 40% of them are truly loyal to the authorities.

The audit showed that among those formally loyal to the party there are not only those who do not support United Russia, but also people who support the opposition. The verification, according to one of the sources, was carried out, among other things, by analyzing digital profiles: “If we see that a person likes the posts of Alexei Venediktov (editor-in-chief of Ekho Moskvy — ed.), then this is hardly our supporter.”

By the 2024 elections, the level of confirmed loyalty of the updated base should be 90%, and at least 90% of loyalists should come to the elections.

During last year’s Duma campaign, total mobilization was carried out, when everyone was mobilized, a source close to the Presidential Administration noted. According to a source close to the leadership of the United Russia, now the leadership of the United Russia has announced a “mobilization amnesty” for the regions: the party members themselves must begin the “cleansing” of the base, and there will be no sanctions for a serious decrease in the number of supporters. But then the task of building up the base will be set.

The ER newspaper confirmed the update of the campaign and mobilization base, but did not comment on the details: “The work is underway, but this is an intra-party work process.”