Democrats, of course, will never unite. People who, in 2016, are still calling on democrats to unite should just be thrown off a cliff so they stop wasting our time.
Democrats did not unite in Russia after 1991, democrats did not unite in Russia after 1993, democrats did not unite in Ukraine after the first “Orange Revolution,” democrats did not unite in Ukraine after the second revolution. Democrats did not unite in Belarus.
In 2013, in the Moscow mayoral election, when everything was already perfectly clear, the democrats still failed to unite, and YABLOKO for some reason put up Sergei Mitrokhin as a spoiler candidate against me.
People often say: well, once the authorities really start squeezing everyone, they’ll unite on their own. That is a major delusion: look at Syria—there is a civil war, and the opposition still does not unite. In the USSR, dissidents operating underground could not unite either, and their various circles were hostile to one another.
Right now in the United States, Trump is running for office; he ought to mobilize absolutely all democrats against him, and yet many supporters of the democrat Sanders are saying Bernie or bust, refusing to unite around Hillary Clinton.
Democrats will never unite, and even if they come close, the Kremlin will always create some dependent pseudo-democratic party, which will largely strip that unity of its meaning. There have been so many of them: Civic Platform, Civic Force, the Party of Growth, and so on.
However, the fact that democrats cannot unite should not mean that they ought to do stupid things. And the stupidity is right here, in this chart:
These are 15 electoral districts in Moscow, the city where democrats have their strongest support. It is a list of candidates nominated by democratic parties.
As you can see, there are only three candidates backed by both YABLOKO and PARNAS: Babushkin, Gudkov, and Zubov.
In Babushkin’s case, moreover, this is more likely part of a deal between YABLOKO and United Russia: the United Russia candidate was withdrawn from the district, and Babushkin is supposed to get through there, representing YABLOKO in the State Duma. That would be good—Babushkin is a great guy, I’ve known him for many years. Still, the victory is not in the bag yet, because Mitvol, who is also running there, could take the seat.
And the situation in the Central District—the best district in Moscow—is downright idiotic. YABLOKO and PARNAS spent a long and painful time negotiating. Along the way, apparently out of jealousy, they dumped the best candidate—our Lyubov Sobol. But then, to everyone’s delight, they finally did reach an agreement and jointly backed Professor Zubov, a good candidate for the Central Administrative Okrug (central Moscow district). Hooray! Hooray! A rare occasion! And then—bang—Open Russia popped up for some reason and put forward Baronova.
In all of Moscow, only Gudkov in District 206 and Babushkin in District 200 are running without the problem of splitting the electorate; this post does not concern them.
So what does the table in the image show?
There is no alternative to primaries, but I’m not going to write about that now—there is no point at this stage.
At this rate, none of the democrats will be elected. This is a pre-programmed failure. And we are being invited to take part in these “elections” and participate in a pre-programmed failure.
Originally, this post was supposed to be called an “open appeal,” but I changed it to a “public request.” There is no point in applying pressure here, so let’s just ask instead.
Dear YABLOKO, PARNAS, and Open Russia.
Dear Grigory Alexeyevich, Mikhail Mikhailovich, and Mikhail Borisovich.
Today and tomorrow are the last two days when candidates can withdraw themselves from the race.
Please take the obvious step to increase your candidates’ chances of victory, even if only a little.
Because you yourselves know the terrible secret: this way, no one will get elected to anything.
Let’s at least clear up three more districts by putting forward united candidates. Somehow, somewhere—anything.
To me, personally, it seems fairly obvious:
a) YABLOKO’s Mitrokhin should withdraw in favor of PARNAS’s Lyaskin. Mitrokhin is a national-level politician—why does he need some ridiculous district? He does not even have the time to work it properly; he should be dealing with all of Moscow and all of Russia. Lyaskin, meanwhile, is running an excellent volunteer-driven campaign and is not afraid to tell the blunt truth.
b) PARNAS’s Makarov should withdraw in favor of YABLOKO’s Galyamina. Makarov, unfortunately, is not really campaigning at all, while Galyamina has shown good results in the district.
c) YABLOKO’s Rusakova should withdraw in favor of PARNAS’s Jankauskas. Rusakova is very good, and some sort of compromise for the future is needed here, but in this campaign Jankauskas is more active, and the more difficult part of the district—Zyuzino—is his base.
d) PARNAS’s Mikhalchenko should withdraw in favor of YABLOKO’s Goncharov—he had a strong result there in the Moscow City Duma elections.
e) Open Russia’s Baronova should withdraw in favor of the joint YABLOKO-PARNAS candidate in the Central District—Professor Zubov. If parties that are usually so hard to deal with have managed to reach a compromise, that should be encouraged, not sabotaged.
That is the minimum program. Unfortunately, out of 28 names, there are 10 I do not know at all (which surprises me in itself—if I do not know these people, then no one knows them; how can such people be nominated in single-member districts?), so I cannot give advice on every district.
Doing this would be very easy. A couple of phone calls. Maybe one meeting.
It would be a wonderful step toward common sense and toward the hundreds of thousands of people with democratic views who do not much want to go to these “elections” as it is, but who would at least have some motive if this were done.
And one more request to everyone: if you support my appeal, help spread it.