Today we opened our campaign headquarters in Voronezh—the 14th overall. Navalny is still being held in a special detention center, but we decided that postponing openings in the regions was not an option—otherwise they might start thinking they can disrupt the campaign simply by arresting us.
As has already become routine, local provocateurs in costume tried to create a crush at the entrance to the headquarters and force their way inside; and, just as routinely, we invited their representatives to come in for a discussion and to ask any questions they wanted. But for some reason, the two Cossacks (members of a traditional paramilitary-style group) who did step inside beat a retreat after three minutes, saying it was “too stuffy.” We stopped being surprised, though, when we saw that the Cossack picket was being led by Demidov, an “Anti-Maidan” activist and the subject of Alexander Plushev’s recent post about the “grief factory.” In other words, this man is literally trailing us around the country, posing in every city as part of the local “outraged public.”
In the end, nothing interfered with the opening of the headquarters. Leonid Volkov spoke about the work ahead, the tasks facing volunteers, and tried to answer all the audience’s questions. He also promised that Alexei Navalny would return to Voronezh more than once.
In total, we already have more than 500 registered volunteers in Voronezh, and nearly 3,000 people have pledged to sign in support of Navalny’s nomination for the presidential election. The headquarters, which will begin operating on Monday at 70 Friedrich Engels Street, will do everything possible to collect the required 7,500 signatures by the end of the year, train 1,500 election observers, and campaign across all of Voronezh and the surrounding region.
Tomorrow, according to the plan, it’s Rostov-on-Don and Krasnodar; the day after that—Stavropol.