KIEV, Dec. 29 – President Viktor Yanukovych’s campaign is devising a plan to spend $3 billion in cash to buy votes to secure his re-election in March 2015, a newspaper reported Saturday, citing sources.

The plan calls for legally hiring up to 15 million people as ‘campaign staff’ in the run-up to the vote, paying each up to $200 to secure the successful vote, the sources said.

Yanukovych won the presidential election in February 2010 by scoring support from 12.4 million voters, while his opponent, Yulia Tymoshenko, received 11.5 million votes, according to the Central Election Commission.

The plan, codenamed Agitator, seeks to capitalize on the fact that up to 30% of voters in Ukraine may be ready to sell their votes to the highest bidder, the sources said, citing opinion polls.

The tactic was successfully used on a smaller scale in certain districts during Ukrainian parliamentary elections. It was recently selected by Andriy Kliuyev, the head of the Yanukovych campaign, Yulia Mostova, the editor of the Dzerkalo Tyzhnia, wrote, citing sources within the campaign.

“It was improved by Russian political strategists and adopted by the Kliuyev staff,” Mostova said. “The point of the plan is not simply to massively buy the votes, but to make the process legitimate.”

A spokesperson for Yanukovych was not available for comments on Saturday and Sunday.

Kliuyev, the secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, the top security body under the president, is now thought to be Yanukovych’s key crisis manager.

The plan will require up to $3 billion in cash and the campaign staff has already started to open a web of bank accounts throughout the country to accumulate the funds.

“Farmers, importers, traders are forced to make contributions to these accounts,” Mostova said. “The money is accumulated and will be used to sign contracts with people whose job will be to campaign for the presidential candidate.”

Meanwhile, the money shouldn’t be the problem for Yanukovych after he has recently secured a $15 billion no-strings-attached two-year loan from Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“Yanukovych decided to give a chance to himself - as opposed to giving a chance to the country - by surrendering to the Kremlin,” Mostova said.

The plan calls for appointment of 34,000 Yanukovych campaign supervisors for each of the country’s 34,000 polling stations. Each of these supervisors will work to create a network of hundreds of ‘campaigners.’

Each of these campaigners will sign an official contract to work for the Yanukovych campaign and will receive a banking ATM card along with four payments of 400 hryvnias each. Three payments will be made ahead of the vote, while the last payment will be made after the election.

The staff if currently debating on the size of those payments and whether to expand the plan to eastern regions that are expected to vote for Yanukovych anyway, Mostova said.

Te Agitator plan will be deployed if Yanukovych decides to make his re-election look legitimate in the West. Should he decide to cling to power at any cost, he will simply “ensure the victory by a proven method of mass re-writing of protocols of election commissions,” Mostova said.

In this case “he will save from $1 billion to $3 billion,” Mostova said. (tl/ez)