We opened campaign offices in Komsomolsk-on-Amur and Vladivostok.
The road to opening the office in Komsomolsk ran along the Khabarovsk–Komsomolsk-on-Amur highway. After the 2013 flooding, the whole route looks like footage of roads after a bombing. Every local driver told the same grim story: in 2013 the flood washed everything away, then for two years they merely pretended to do roadwork, and in 2015 they ceremonially reopened the road after its “repairs.” On the bright side, we gained one more supporter—the driver.
The city is small, the office is cozy, and we opened it in the presence of around 150 volunteers—and it is already fully up and running as of today.
People here are especially angry with the local authorities (with roads like these, no wonder), and there were lots of questions about the June 12 protest rally.
And then came Vladivostok!
A wonderful city led by the unhinged Miklushevsky. When we arrived, the city seemed to launch a full-scale special operation: the FSB (Russia’s security service) showed up at the venues we had rented for the opening (not everyone would fit into the office itself—we already have 5,000 sign-ups on the website here) and simply pressured the owners.
Volkov and the team had a hellish trip from the airport. Because of repeated stops and document checks “against the database,” they had to switch cars four times and lost several hours. Volkov’s phone was bombarded with spam calls every 20 seconds.
Still, they managed to break free and reach the office at the appointed time. But by then, the owner had been pressured that morning and had changed the locks. People had already started gathering, so we decided to hold the meeting right in the courtyard by the office, next to a Buddha statue!
In the end, it turned into one of our best openings. It was outdoors, with a huge crowd of people who did not fall for the trick pulled by the local FSB officers, who had sent text messages around the city with a fake office address. Especially satisfying was the fact that the windows of the local university—Far Eastern Federal University (DVFU), where Miklushevsky had served as rector for many years—look directly onto the courtyard where our meeting took place. He had tried so hard to stop it.