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The 11th Congress of the United Russia party in St. Petersburg on Saturday approved a new party program and amendments to its charter. From now on, United Russia will brandish a new ideology – “Russian conservatism.” While greeting the delegates, President Dmitry Medvedev still urged the party members to pursue a course towards modernization, however.

Some 3,000 delegates and guests gathered at Lenexpo – the traditional venue for the International Economic Forum. According to the supreme council’s head Boris Gryzlov, the choice was deliberate, as the party faces the task of hammering out steps to lead the country out of the economic crisis.

The crisis has already forced certain parsimony on United Russia's congress, as the event clearly lacked the scope seen in more fertile years. Food and drinks were to be bought during breaks, while the desire to save up during preparations nearly caused a tragedy. In the conference room, the organizers left gaps open between amphitheater rows, and two high-ranking officials fell while coming down from their three meter high rows.

Program speeches delivered by President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin were the main highlights of the congress. The Russian leader reiterated the key points of his address to the Federal Assembly, but specifically stressed the need to modernize the party itself. “Unfortunately, some regional departments of both United Russia and other parties have reduced political activities to staffing intrigues,” Medvedev noted. The regional United Russia leaders polled by RBC Daily did not, however, find that the allegation had anything to do with them.

Meanwhile, head of the party’s supreme council Boris Gryzlov was responsive to the president’s criticisms and declared that the party should not turn into a “closed caste,” calling for a party purge. “It is all well and good to put candidates forward, but we also have to push back those falling short of expectations,” he said. This time in St. Petersburg they reshuffled the supreme council, a move which saw nine members leave. The three vacant seats were taken by Valentina Matviyenko, Fyodor Bondarchuk and Alexander Shokhin.

Vladimir Putin, in turn, used his speech to address the economic situation in the country. He spoke of the government’s anti-crisis measures, and what still needed to be done. Head of the State Duma budget and tax committee Yury Vasilyev shared his impressions with RBC Daily: “It is a good idea for people to turn in their cars that are older than 10 years for scrap metal for RUB 50,000 (approx. USD 1,735),” he said, and stressed that later on, foreign cars assembled in Russia could also be accepted.

Putin also focused on the need to support certain companies. However, this will not apply to those who, instead of upgrading their operations, have taken out many loans and are now looking to the government for help. Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov told RBC Daily that the key priority was to maintain the real economy’s potential. Otherwise, the oil and gas revenue could be short of taking us out of the crisis.

“The president’s and the prime minister’s programs differ in many important aspects,” head of the public organization Business Russia Boris Titov told RBC Daily. While the president spoke of modernization, the PM focused largely on stabilization of the nation’s macroeconomic indicators. In Titov’s opinion, although the president “spoke correctly,” he did not provide any “roadmap.” “We would like to meet again and thrash out our modernization program to submit to the government,” he said.

Analytical department of RIA RosBusinessConsulting