Youth problems become one of the important topics of the presidential election
It is necessary to increase turnout, and to divert young people from the protests.
One of the important topics of the presidential elections in 2018 may become the topic of youth: they will give a reason to talk about the future of the country and fit into the concept of image of the future, told “Vedomosti” four people close to the presidential administration. Is preparing a large amount of sociological research on this topic says one of the interlocutors, the other confirms that VTSIOM and FOM will conduct such studies at the request of the administration. General Director VTsIOM Valery Fedorov confirmed this information, the Director of the Foma Alexander Oslon — neither confirmed nor denied.
According to one of interlocutors, the campaign theme of youth will be used as a set of initiatives focused on this group, including those associated with the quality of education, first hiring, employment, credit programs, digital economy, security. Will corresponding ideological support (“the future belongs to the young”), and PR — concerts, forums, festival of youth and students, he says. In the discussion, according to the source, are also the chief editor of “Expert” Valery Fadeev and the political scientist Oleg Matveychev (both refused to confirm). In the presidential administration oversees youth policy Deputy head of Department of internal policy Timur Prokopenko — he, in particular, was at the parliamentary hearings on the problems of youth organized by the state Duma in may.
Last fall, Vladimir Putin said on the sidelines that would like to have the theme of young people rose more active, says another source close to the administration: “the older the person becomes, the more he loves the youth”. In the end, the Federal Agency for youth Affairs and the presidential administration began to develop their programs, the White house also received appropriate instructions — the fall will be a presentation of government programs, all this will happen during the presidential election, he says: “it is Clear that it will not be the main theme of the campaign, but she will be raised”.
After meetings on 26 March, many experts noted that they involved large numbers of young people, the government also spoke about the problems of youth.
In the state Duma held parliamentary hearings, the President signed a decree on “the decade of childhood”, which within three months must prepare by the government. Putin at St. Petersburg international economic forum stated the need to create a forum on the basis of the youth section, as the “young generation is the future”: “these are the people who build the future and who live in it. Members of this section could work together to analyze, to shape, to design the image of the future of their countries and civilization as a whole.”
In may, experts of the Higher school of Economics published a study on the value orientations of students, under which two-thirds of students believe that corruption is the main problem of the country, the majority of respondents do not trust any politicians or officials. On Wednesday, the Federal Agency for youth Affairs presented its annual study on the situation of young people. According to the head of the Agency Alexander Bugaev, in 2017, there was a surge of interest in youth policy. According to this study, 27% of young people disturbing the unstable situation in the country, and 17% did not consider themselves patriots. On the first place among the concerns young people have is the fear of not realize themselves in life, but only 27% say they see happiness in work. One in five is ready to participate in protest actions in case of violation of his rights, and the same number say they would join any political party.
The experts who participated in the study, I believe that you must create for young people social mobility and give her the opportunity to participate in politics.
The ideology of the new political block of the Kremlin youth the topic was outlined in the President’s message 2016, reminiscent of a former Federal official. Then Putin said that he sees in the young generation “reliable, firm support of Russia in the turbulent, complex twenty-first century”. “I believe that this generation is not only able to meet the challenges of the time, but also to participate equally in the formation of intellectual, technological, and cultural agenda of global development”, — said the President. Now young people want to build in the presidential campaign and to keep the leadership of Putin in the audience, at the same time mobilizing for the elections, said the source: “Youth is heterogeneous and dynamic, today, the minority does not wish to vote for Putin, but the situation may change”. In this topic there are risks, because on top of social mobility the rise of the children of officials, he admits: “on the other hand, if together with them will grow a number of young people, it will look at least decent”.
In Russia there is a youth policy, nothing prevented her to use earlier, said another person close to the administration: “the Theme of human capital is important, but it is not clear how it will be used. Nobody thought about the current strategy, the government carried out including mutually exclusive steps: took child protection laws and promoted the people who said it doesn’t matter that the child lives in a dysfunctional family, the main thing — his”. According to the interlocutor, the topic will be included in the political agenda, only if it meets the real needs of citizens.
The theme of young people has become urgent due to the fact that the presidential election would vote a big number of those who had not voted, said Fyodorov. Moreover, young made a bid Alexei Navalny and eventually at the meetings on 26 March to 20% of the participants were young people, stresses the sociologist: “the Young people can go to the land, and can stay at home. However, it is unclear for whom they will vote, therefore, for her fighting different political forces”. In his opinion, the youth of the subject will remain in focus for at least the next year:
Millennials — a very strange environment for all. And here not only political interest, but the interest of business and employers — these people come to the labor market, and employers need to build a communication with them.
According to the Deputy Director “Levada-center” Alexei Grazhdankin, young people are most supportive of the current system, but the least politically active, and because of demographic circumstances, this group is not very large. “Potential support of the system in which they grew up, it would be possible to use, for example, influencing them through the parents. But at the same time, the youth could be used for the campaign because the young people cause sympathy and their appearance could also have an impact on the audience,” — said the sociologist.
Meetings became an occasion to conversation about young people, believes the head of the expert Council AISI Gleb Kuznetsov, “there were not more young people than usual.” He noted that the topic of youth was used in the elections and now there is always the opportunity to pick it up. Thus now there is an attempt to expand the ideological field, sudivshegosya in recent years — that’s why the President recently met with the makers of the cartoons, because they create content that is most popular in the West, and it’s in Russia, Kuznetsov stressed: “the Expansion of this field will occur at the elections, including through the inclusion of youth without trying to divide it into right or wrong. Necessary to give the possibility to implement everything.”
The youth has always been an important element in support of the current President, but its always used in different ways, says the expert of the Moscow Carnegie center Andrey Kolesnikov: “[Vladislav] Surkov — as a weapon against the opposition. Now we need more active electoral “meat”, apparently there is doubt in other age groups. Need to raise a generation of conformist minded people. Influence and the fact that the youth has become very noticeable to protest and the ideology helps to prevent their participation in protests”. Sociologists say that the youth is more conformist and inert, like an expert: “They didn’t see anyone but Putin want to solve everyday problems. They are looking for work and a realistic understanding of the labour market want to work in government agencies — hence the conformism and dependency”. Talking about social mobility in the system where there is no free economic competition, pointless, Kolesnikov stressed: “Here, social mobility is only for sismologie and specdata. The rest is artificial and will not move. How many conversations that participation in the “Young guard”, or “Our” is social mobility, but in the end they worked only for units. The same thing will happen now: social mobility there are two buttons, up and down, but to work, one must be a son, as a minimum, members of the present Politburo.”