21 Nov 1999 Jahr - Pavlovsky helps stage manage Putin's election

Beschreibung:

In August 1999, Putin was named Prime Minister. When Yeltsin resigned before the end of his term – very much a part of Pavlovsky's plan – Putin automatically became acting president. The next step was to have him win the election: “He had to be elected to be as president, and this was our job.”

The team first invented a political party for Putin – the Unity Party – and then constructed an identity around him based on polling data: “We wanted to know how people picture their heroes… We realized that we need a young, strong, powerful intelligence officer.”

The team then aggressively sold Putin via the media, as they did during the Yeltsin campaign: “We had meetings every week, and during the election campaign, we had meetings every day, and it was decided what TV channels would show what news, what kind of articles would be published in different newspapers, what would be posted at different websites.”