Medvedev actively involved in regional election campaign – press secretary Timakova

MOSCOW. July 13 (Interfax) – Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s press secretary Natalia Timakova has dismissed as untrue a report by the newspaper Vedomosti, which claimed that United Russia chairman Medvedev has not joined the election campaign and has not been visiting regions which will have a gubernatorial election in September.

The newspaper explained the “meager activity” of Medvedev by his low rating, a source of which was the investigations conducted by Alexei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation.

“This is absolutely wrong. As the party chairman, Medvedev is actively participating in the election campaign,” Timakova told reporters commenting on the newspaper report.

“The newspaper did not bother to carefully study the prime minister’s website, which reports each of his trips and provides information on meetings with governors,” Timakova said.

As of this moment, the prime minister has five trips to the Russian regions that will vote in the September election on his schedule, Timakova said. “He has already visited two of them and is going to visit the other three, namely Veliky Novgorod, Krasnodar (on July 24), and Udmurtia,” she said, adding it was the minimal number of trips Medvedev would have.

Medvedev has met with the governors of eight regions where elections will take place over the past four months, Timakova said.

“The need to visit a particular region is discussed with the party leadership and the presidential administration,” Timakova said. “In fact, some of those regions are visited by the president. There must be no overlapping as you understand,” she said.

Any comparison with the last year is wrong, as the year of 2016 witnessed a federal election campaign, she said. “Of course, we paid way more visits and, by the way, the results were good. Much better than many were expecting,” she said.

Besides, Medvedev “is doing a bit more than interacting with regions which are due to have an election,” Timakova said. “The budget process is ongoing, and several meetings are held every day, which is no less important for the country than regional trips,” she said.

[featured image is file photo]