December 12, 2012 saw the launch of the www.putin2012.ru website which is the official web portal of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin who will run for president in the March 2012 elections in Russia.

The website contains Putin’s pre-election campaign program, his biography, interests, photographs and popular opinions. On the website, visitors will be able to thank or criticize the presidential candidate. Also, they will be able to leave their suggestions in the “Let’s change Russia together” section, the PM’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said:

It is difficult to build a website which could contain new or unique information about a man who has been involved in the country's leadership since 1999, Peskov says. This is why visitors will not find any sensational materials on the www.putin2012.ru website. At the same time, this is an extremely cutting edge and reliable online resource which contains all the necessary information about Putin as a presidential candidate, Peskov concludes.

In his election campaign program, Putin focuses on economic issues, pledging to stimulate investments and innovations. As for investments, they are due to be increased to 25% of Russia's GDP by the middle of the decade as opposed to today’s 20%. “Our goal is to create at least 25 million quality jobs which will pay worthy salaries for doing interesting work in the next 20 years. Creating new manufacturing industries in Russia will be more profitable than in other countries,” the document says.

It also draws attention to the fact that last decade’s model of economic growth based on high oil prices has already exhausted itself. This is why it is essential to take the energy industry, manufacturing, agriculture to a new, hi-tech level, as well as enhance the development of modern branches of production, according to the document. Additionally, Putin has pledged to create “all the [necessary] conditions for stimulating private initiative.” In his pre-election program, he says that “we will develop and guarantee entrepreneur freedoms, first of all, protection from any attempts to infringe their private property rights.”

Introducing innovative technologies is of paramount importance to Russia's economic growth, according to Putin who says that the government will promote technological modernization and will help businessmen get access to high technologies. The Skolkovo innovation center, as well as all the “innovation territories”, including scientific research centers, will play a key role in this, the document says.

Shoring up the agro-industrial complex should become another priority, Putin points out, urging the simplification of the process of setting up new business related to agriculture production.

The www.putin2012.ru website will only be available in Russian. After the March 4 election, it will be frozen. The website was designed at the cost of about 300,000 dollars allocated from Putin’s campaign account.