A huge thank you to everyone who is joining our #20 campaign against illicit enrichment in any way they can.
Many people ask why the vote on ROI is the main element of the campaign.
That’s not the case. Collecting votes for the initiative is a very important part of the campaign, but it is not the main one. Our long-term goal is specifically the ratification of Article 20 and the introduction into the Criminal Code of an article on “Illicit Enrichment”, not just to make noise or score points against the government.
To do that, we have to accomplish a massive task: one way or another, we need to reach several million people through campaigning. That is much harder than, for example, the campaign against "United Russia" (the ruling political party), because everyone already knows about United Russia, and they already know there are thieves there. All we had to do was say out loud: "United Russia is the party of crooks and thieves."
Here, though, we have a different situation: if you ask anyone whether people should go to prison for illicit enrichment, they answer: yes, absolutely.
But that’s only if you ask. If no one asks and no one talks about it, the idea will not just occur to people on its own. There is no such discussion in the political or public sphere; lawmakers do not talk about it, and TV talk shows do not debate it. This issue, like many other worthwhile ones, has been artificially pushed aside by all this noise about fighting "gay propaganda," foreign adoptions, "Banderites" (a derogatory term in Russian discourse for Ukrainian nationalists), evil Americans, dancing in churches, and whatever else the presidential administration has come up with to fill the airtime.
They say the return of the death penalty is about to be pushed everywhere now. So that will become the next staged battle of the "plain folk" against the "sellouts."
So we need to force our issue into the political agenda.
The vote on ROI is very important at the first stage of the campaign, as
A way of formalizing the proposal: the government will be faced with this issue, and it will no longer be able to ignore it in silence, as it does now.
A tool for our own mobilization: building a core of the idea’s strongest supporters. And a large core at that—100,000 verified votes, which is a very, very large number.
One of the key tools for persuading the people mentioned above. We will be able to say not just, "here’s an idea," but "there is a ready-made bill on the table, signed by one hundred thousand people." The same answer works perfectly for all the TV demagogues with their "sure, corruption, we get it. But what exactly are you proposing?" This is what we are proposing. And not just proposing—we have collected enough signatures to put the bill to a vote within Putin’s own system.
That is why the vote on ROI is very important, but it is far from the whole story.
It is simply the beginning of the work that needs to be done. Let’s do it together:
15,000 votes have already been collected. It’s the weekend, which means you have time. Read the text explaining why you should vote on ROI.
Here is a text explaining where to get the password for voting.
Vote, take a screenshot, and post it on your social media as a proud symbol that you stand against corruption and illicit enrichment.
Don’t forget to share the campaign’s main link: https://20.navalny.com/.