Russia: Putin unhappy with One Russia's crisis performance.

Text of report by Ivan Rodin: "Putin Says No More PR to United Russians" by the website of heavyweight Russian newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta on 26 June

During the summer, the deputies will have to monitor the situation in the regions rather than resting.

Next week the State Duma will end a session, and the deputies will disperse on vacation. But the United Russia [One Russia] members are not so lucky. The party leadership has set the goal for the summer of not so much resting as monitoring the situation in the regions so that it will be possible to react effectively to another Pikalevo. The decision was made after a recent meeting between United Russia's management and its leader. The problem, experts claim, consists of the fact that today the party's ratings continue to lag significantly behind Putin's ratings. And it turns out that United Russia is not helping so much as creating superfluous worries for him.

A meeting between Putin and the chairman of United Russia's Supreme Council, Boris Gryzlov; the secretary of the General Council's Presidium, Vyacheslav Volodin; and the head of the United Russia Central Electoral Commission, Andrey Vorobyev, took place back on 8 June.

In order to think about its results and draw up the corresponding positions, the party of power required two weeks. At the beginning of this week, Volodin and Vorobyev held discussions with all deputies that constitute United Russia's Duma faction. Of course, not individually, but collectively. Each of them gathered at a session of United Russia's two inner-faction groups. Briefly informing their colleagues about the essence of the conference that took place at the highest party level, they set the goal of not wasting the summertime vacationing in exotic places in the world, but to follow constantly the situation in the regions, from which they were elected to the State Duma.

In addition, the secretary of the General Council Presidium told NG, monitoring is not simply enough; it is obligatory to solve the problems arising for people because of the economic crisis. According to Volodin, the deputies were told: "The problems of some factory in your district are your problems and not just the problems of the people who have encountered them."

According to NG's information, such statements are a mild paraphrasing of Vladimir Putin's ...