Putin launches his poll campaign with a poodle

On the eve of formally launching the campaign, chief of Putin’s campaign staff Dmitry Medvedev said that, “Wars, including information wars, are not the best way of settling relations. Quite honestly, Vladimir Putin cares more for the mood of the voter than for attacks by his opponents.”

In the run-up to the elections, Putin’s opponents have called him “a black box”, “a piece of white paper,” and “Russia’s modern day Andropov,” accusing him of trying to keep everyone guessing on his policies, managing to be all things to all men.

Even some politicians have alleged that Putin might impose dictatorship, if he is elected President. His arch-rival Communist Gennady Zyuganov has officially challenged him for a debate on national policy.

After the approval of his nomination by the Central Election Commission on Tuesday, Putin promised that he will soon announce his manifesto.

“The main aspects of the programme have already been announced by Putin himself, including the dictatorship of law through the establishment of proper legal order all over Russia, the defence of citizen from crime and terrorism, civil liberties, the priority of rights of the individual, stability and the inviolability of the right of ownership”, Medvedev said, referring to Putin’s manifesto. Yet it is the toy poodle Toshya that millions of Russians will remember the longest, as they got their first glimpse of Putin during a recent television interview. The poodle is a favourite of the Putins, almost a family member.

Toshya scampered across Putin’s lap, starring in a carefully staged scene aimed at putting a human face on a man known hitherto as a career KGB spy, an unsmiling technocrat and author of Russian campaign against Chechen terrorists.

Toshya replaces the Putins’ former canine pal, a Caucasus sheepdog ho was run over by a car when the family was living in St Petersburg. Putins’ daughters, Masha, 15, and Katya, 14, who usually assume the family dog-walking duties, persuaded their parents to get another dog after the accident.

The show removed any doubts that Putin cares a lot about how he is perceived by voters in Russia and the world community, even though he is far ahead of his main rivals Zyuganov and liberal Yabloko candidate Grigory Yavlinsky. Various opinion polls show Putin winning support of up to 55 per cent voters, while Zyuganov has up to 20 per cent and Yavlinsky about 5 per cent. Meanwhile Russian troops targetted Southern Chechnya mountains, according to Defence Minister Igor Sergeyev: “Here we will not hurry. The main thing is minimal losses and the proper destruction of the bandits so that they cannot slip out anywhere,” Ria news agency quoted Sergeyev as saying.