As you may remember (I hope), the country will hold elections in September. The Democratic Coalition, based on RPR-PARNAS, is taking part in the elections in three regions: Kaluga, Kostroma, and Novosibirsk.
To draw up our list of candidates, we are holding primaries.
To register the list of candidates (that is, to be allowed onto the ballot), we will need to collect signatures: 4,500 in Kaluga, 2,800 in Kostroma, and 11,700 in Novosibirsk.
Novosibirsk Region is the toughest case: the tightest deadlines and the largest number of signatures.
We fully understand that any attempt to keep us off the ballot will involve declaring our signatures “bad,” “fake,” “fabricated,” and so on. That is what United Russia always does.
So our task is not only to honestly collect 13,000–14,000 signatures (to have a safety margin), but also, throughout the collection process, to show and prove every day that this is a real signature drive and that the signatures are flawless.
To that end, we have approved a “Signature Collection Standard” for all the regions where we are running. It is a set of mandatory procedures for the collection process. Roughly speaking (we will refine it and draw up a chart), it looks like this.
How is this connected to Sergei Neverov, owner of the dacha, the mother-in-law, and secretary of the General Council of the United Russia party?
Our Novosibirsk campaign office told us that Neverov is the one overseeing the election in the region, holding all sorts of meetings on the subject of “how to obstruct democrats in the election.” That is exactly why the word “United Russia members” appeared in point 10 above.
We decided to get ahead of them and invite them directly to inspect our signatures before we submit them, in the presence of journalists.
How do we invite them? By a lucky coincidence, Neverov is the only high-ranking United Russia official I know personally—I saw him in court, when he demanded that I acknowledge his dacha as his mother-in-law’s dacha.
It is not much of a personal acquaintance, but there was no one else to choose from, so the campaign team decided: call him.
Kira found his phone number, and I called him from it. I asked what kind of schemes they were planning against us there, and why. I suggested meeting in Novosibirsk on the 7th, when I will be there. Neverov said that he is handling the elections not only in Novosibirsk, but everywhere. He said he was not plotting anything, and that United Russia is, in fact, in favor of democracy. He mentioned Zhora Alburov and said he would only be in Novosibirsk on the 10th.
I am telling this whole story in such detail because my call made such a strong impression on Sergei Ivanovich Neverov that he decided to write about it on his Facebook, publishing Kira’s phone number in the process. Now she is cursing him (Neverov, not the phone), because people have been calling her all night.
In short, we have to admit that Sergei Neverov has disrupted our little dramatic setup somewhat, and now there is no way to formally present him with a nicely prepared document inviting him to come, watch, and inspect our best-in-the-world flawless signatures, and then publicly testify before the whole world that they are flawless.
All right then—since Neverov is so impatient and decided to tell the whole world about my call, I am inviting him and his representatives here and now to our headquarters to assess the quality of the signatures.
We are confident that they really will be flawless.