It’s incredibly interesting to see how all this will end. It’s a decisive battle between real politics and political manipulation. Putin’s administration and the local authorities have thrown absolutely every resource and every creative idea they have into fighting PARNAS.
It’s obvious why: it is critically important for them to prove that democratic forces have no support in the regions, otherwise something unpleasant for them could happen in 2016. For us, naturally, it is important to prove the opposite.
Our campaign arsenal consists only of the cheapest and most straightforwardly political methods: in essence, the campaign comes down to holding meetings and doing explanatory outreach on the streets. People driven by conviction are simply telling people the truth.
Here is an incomplete list of the tools being used against us. It is worth studying, because all of this—only on a much larger scale—will be used in any election where genuinely independent candidates are allowed to run.
This is already the second print run of this hellish newspaper, delivered to every apartment in Kostroma Region. Its circulation exceeds the combined circulation of all our leaflets put together. Yatsenyuk–Bandera–Yashin.
At the top of the ballot there will be a special Kremlin-backed “Against All Party,” handing out leaflets in our color scheme with the slogan: “If you’re against crooks and thieves, vote against all.” As we’ve been told, the Presidential Administration expects this to take 1.5% to 2% of the vote away from us.
Above PARNAS on the ballot is PARZAS, which is also distributing huge numbers of leaflets resembling ours. This is a Presidential Administration tactic aimed at undermining our strategy of working with elderly voters. The idea is that a grandmother we persuaded will read the ballot, see a familiar name, and immediately put a check mark next to what she thinks is us—but isn’t.
In fact, 9—nine, CARL—small parties taking part in the election are being used by the Presidential Administration solely to spread all kinds of smear material against us. Enormous amounts of money are being spent on this.
The fake report, “Navalny and PARNAS Meet with the American Ambassador” (even the video’s creator has already admitted that he never saw any such meeting), is being aired across all media outlets so heavily and so often that there is no one left in the region who hasn’t seen it.
This was obviously conceived and written personally by Volodin—bringing all his fantasies to life. A massive print run of “Kostroma Gay Truth”:”
At every one of my meetings with voters, and at every meeting held by Yashin and Andreichenko, there are hired thugs ("titushki," pro-regime provocateurs) whose job is either to shout about the U.S. or, in recent days, to directly provoke fights.
Last weekend, just as I was traveling through the region’s small towns, NTV aired a film called “Navalny Organized the Bolotnaya Riots” (a reference to the 2011–2012 anti-government protests in Moscow).
This weekend, right before the election, there will again be a film claiming that the opposition itself rigs elections.
This morning in Kostroma, “PARNAS marches” with American flags and the slogan “Take Kostroma, Take Russia” started appearing.
I have no doubt that by evening all of this will be turned into TV news reports.
Meetings are being held at the largest universities on the theme of “under no circumstances vote for PARNAS.”
And there is plenty more like this. You could put together an entire exhibit for a freak show.
The funniest part is that this is what they call “the Presidential Administration has decided to hold fair elections.”
What can be done here? Only the obvious:
— if you live in Kostroma Region, come to the polls and vote for RPR-PARNAS.
— if you live in Kostroma Region, bring as many friends and acquaintances to the polls as possible. Persuade them to vote for PARNAS. (We’ll also release a DMP leaflet today.)
— if you do NOT live in Kostroma Region, think of a friend or relative from there and call them.
Real politics will defeat political manipulation—there is no doubt about that. The only question is whether we can make it happen in this election already.
Become an election observer. Become a volunteer (there is still a full day of campaigning tomorrow, and a lot can be done). Send a donation.