You probably know that Russia has something called the "Public Chamber."
And I’m absolutely sure that 99% of you have no idea what it actually does. That fact alone captures the full pathetic nature of this "tent," as activists themselves call it.
This "tent" was invented by the Kremlin riffraff when, after the Beslan terrorist attack, they abolished gubernatorial elections. Supposedly as a kind of "compensation." The terrorist attacks have continued, gubernatorial elections were almost brought back and then promptly canceled again, while the "Public Chamber" has quietly kept consuming budget money—living its own life, unknown to the citizens of Russia.
If you want the perfect, typical member of the Public Chamber, it’s the "political scientist" "sergei" "markov".
He could serve not only as a characterization of the Public Chamber, but also as the encyclopedia entry for "political prostitution."
In the 1990s, Markov literally worked for the Americans and was paid by them, and now he lectures the country about patriotism and tells us that "Vladimir Putin’s personality is more important to society than state institutions."
Markov sits on the Public Chamber commission "on the health of the nation" (don’t laugh, it really exists). Just look at him: this is what a healthy nation looks like in the Public Chamber’s view.
Fake civic activists representing fake organizations. Of course, among these stooges there are a few unquestionably respected people. Their role is precisely to be the "respected people among the stooges."
So that when someone says, "That Public Tent is just a gathering of stooges," they can indignantly reply: HOW CAN YOU POSSIBLY SAY THAT? WE EVEN HAVE SO-AND-SO ON THE ROSTER. Then they name some decent person, and you suddenly feel awkward, as if you’ve lumped that person in with the stooges too.
Fortunately, all the genuinely decent people in the Public Chamber treat the body itself with irony, and their own place in it with self-irony. So, on the whole, they consider the statement "The Public Chamber is a useless body made up of stooges" to be fair.
One surprising thing has happened in the life of the Public Chamber, and that’s why I’m writing this post. This year, part of it is being formed through online voting. That’s genuinely very cool. As a supporter of direct democracy and electronic democracy, I can’t ignore such an entirely proper initiative. We should take part in it.
The voting is taking place through the ROI–Gosuslugi system, which we know well. Through it, we collected 100,000 signatures in favor of banning officials from buying expensive cars, and through it we are collecting signatures for an initiative on introducing a visa regime with the countries of Central Asia.
That’s where the good news ends. Carefully take a look at the candidates up for a vote.
It’s a list of obscure people heading nonexistent organizations, heavily diluted with such nasty creatures that even the current members of the Public Chamber look decent by comparison. All sorts of Potupchiks, Yakemenkos, Korobkov-Zemlyanskys. The bottom rung of the Kremlin riffraff food chain, the people responsible for internet bots and paid-for posts. The coordinators of those 11-ruble payments for comments in the style of "putin_is_the_best_and_he’s_fighting_corruption."
I really do strongly recommend that you scroll through all 27 pages of candidates. It makes an impression. This is what the most "advanced" public-minded class of Putin’s Russia looks like.
An analysis of the list shows that there are seven candidates worthy of support:
Andrei Vladimirovich Babushkin
Grigory Arkadyevich Melkonyants
To be clear, of course, I don’t know everyone. And of course there are probably some other good, decent people on this list besides the ones named here. I apologize to them in advance. But not a single Anti-Corruption Foundation employee, and not a single genuinely respected civic organization, such as "Agora," chose any other names.
But that’s still not all the bad news. Naturally, the crooks arranged things so that the handful of decent people are competing against one another.
For example, on the list:
Melkonyants from "GOLOS".
Babushkin (I’ve known him forever. A real human rights defender. Back in 2003, we did inspection raids together at police stations (then still called militsiya in Russia)) and
Butina, who lobbies for the right to civilian gun ownership and is practically the only one running a proper campaign,
you can choose only one.
I’d very much like to see all three of them win, but if I have to choose just one, then of course Grisha Melkonyants, the star of the famous video "You are Surkov propaganda." He does enormous work fighting election fraud. He should be elected if only so he can tell these "tent-dwellers," "you are Volodin propaganda, and your elections are rigged." And not just say it, but prove it, the way he knows how.
The same goes for the group dealing with social support for citizens (people with disabilities, service members, women, children, youth, veterans, pensioners, and other categories). You’ll have to choose between Alshanskaya, Gerasimova, and Altshuler. Fortunately, the very useful Lukyanova can be supported in her group without competition.
To sum up, here is the list of people worth considering at all: Boris Lvovich Altshuler, Elena Leonidovna Alshanskaya, Andrei Vladimirovich Babushkin, Maria Valeryevna Butina, Elena Sergeyevna Gerasimova, Elena Anatolyevna Lukyanova, and Grigory Arkadyevich Melkonyants.
Given this idiotic system, I personally urge you to vote for the following list: Boris Lvovich Altshuler, Elena Anatolyevna Lukyanova, Grigory Arkadyevich Melkonyants
To vote, before May 30 you need to click the link with the candidate’s name and then simply cast your vote:
That is, if you are registered on the Gosuslugi public services portal. If you’ve forgotten your password, just click the "forgot password" button when logging in.
If you are not registered on the Gosuslugi public services portal, you need to do so at https://www.gosuslugi.ru/.
And let me remind you: it’s important not only to vote yourself, but to make sure someone else votes too. So post on social media about whom you are urging people to support.
One last thing—I’ll answer the obvious question right away: do you think they won’t rig these elections? I think they will.
I consider the probability of that to be very high.
Let them rig it. We’ll see it, and everyone else will see it too. That’s useful.
P.S. If you’re already on ROI, then vote for the visa regime initiative, if you haven’t already.