Even though not a single democratic party is running a particularly strong campaign, even in Moscow, residents of some districts in our city still have someone worth supporting—and helping—before September 18.
In that sense, residents of the South-Western District are lucky. Konstantin Yankauskas—one of Moscow’s best municipal deputies—is now running here for the State Duma (the lower house of Russia’s parliament). There are several reasons to help Yankauskas defeat United Russia candidate Morozov (incidentally, he is the richest single-mandate candidate in the country, with a campaign budget of 35 million rubles (about $540,000 at the time)). First, because during his years as a municipal deputy in Zyuzino, he proved that he does his job exceptionally well. He succeeded in stopping several infill development projects, saved the district’s only maternity hospital from closure, protected Zyuzino Park from mass tree-cutting, and did plenty of other useful things. Thanks to Yankauskas, an independent local civic group, Zyuzino Headquarters, was established in the district. These wonderful people run many valuable projects; in 2013 they campaigned for me in the mayoral election, and now they are actively helping Kostya’s campaign.
Second, Yankauskas is no coward. Before the Moscow City Duma election—which he should have won—he, along with Kolya Lyaskin and Volodya Ashurkov, was hit with an absurd criminal case over alleged violations of the financing rules for my campaign. There were no violations, of course, and to this day the case does not have a single victim. Even so, Kostya spent exactly one year under house arrest. But when he was released, he went after the crooks with even greater force. Among other things, he won a case in the Constitutional Court over his unlawful exclusion from the Moscow City Duma election.
Finally, third, Konstantin has run the most energetic campaign in District 209. Since April, he has held more than 300 meetings with residents, distributed more than half a million copies of the excellent Besedka newspaper at campaign stands and through mailboxes, and sets up 15 to 20 campaign cubes every day. I very much hope that the leaders of PARNAS and Yabloko will still manage to reach an agreement in the final hours today, and that Kostya will become the single opposition candidate in the district, with a real chance of defeating the United Russia nominee.
In any case, Yankauskas’s campaign headquarters urgently needs help in the final five days of the campaign. Sign up as a campaign volunteer at the cubes and/or as an election observer. Donations for the final stretch of the campaign would also be extremely useful—for paying for the call center, delivering personal letters to supporters, and other needs. Instructions on how to donate are posted here.
If you live in Akademichesky, Gagarinsky, Zyuzino, Obruchevsky, Lomonosovsky, Konkovo, Tyoply Stan, or Cheryomushki and don’t know whom to vote for on September 18, vote for Yankauskas.