Moviemaker Govorukhin agrees to head Putin's presidential campaign staff
MOSCOW. Dec 8 (Interfax) - Prominent moviemaker Stanislav Govorukhin has accepted Vladimir Putin's proposal that he head his presidential campaign staff.
"Surely, this is a great honor and huge responsibility," Govorukhin said in response to Putin's proposal.
"I will engage in this activity wholeheartedly," he said.
Putin earlier suggested moviemaker Stanislav Govorukhin head his presidential campaign staff and build it based on the Russian Popular Front.
"I would like your humble servant's campaign staff not to be a technologically administrative structure but be open in nature. If you don't mind and if you support it, I would like to set it up on the basis of the Russian Popular Front," Putin said at a meeting of the Popular Front's federal coordinating council.
"I would like to ask Stanislav Sergeyevich Govorukhin to head this staff, surely if Stanislav Sergeyevich sees this fit for himself," Putin said.
Popular Front is a supra-party organization comprising different people holding various political views, Putin said.
"It is certainly important not just to use this mechanism. I would ask you to make the staff up of authoritative people, who are well known and who are trusted," he said.
Putin described Govorukhin as open with a principled position.
Putin also suggested that 11 other public figures join the campaign staff along with Govorukhin. He added that this list is open-ended and could be adjusted if more proposals are made.
Govorukhin is known for his active sociopolitical activities.
After perestroika, Govorukhin became one of the leaders of the Democratic Party of Russia. He made a documentary entitled 'We Can't Live This Way Anymore' in 1990, for which he received the Nika award. In 1992, he made the films 'Alexander Solzhenitsyn' and 'A Russia That We Have Lost'.
Govorukhin was a State Duma deputy from 1993 to 2003 and led the culture committee for some time.
After the 1993 events, Govorukhin came over to the left wing and supported Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov in the second round of the 1996 presidential elections.
In March 2000, Govorukhin ran for president and garnered 0.44% of the vote.
In 2005, Govorukhin joined United Russia and was elected a State Duma deputy again. In June 2005, he, among 50 public figures, signed a letter in support of the conviction of former Yukos heads Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev.