Meet Pyotr Milovanov. Pyotr is one of more than 34,000 wonderful people who have donated money to the campaign supporting my run for president of Russia.
We love every one of them equally, whether they sent us 100 rubles or 0.0001 bitcoin, and yet we love Pyotr just a little bit more than everyone else. And not even because Pyotr sent a lot of money (and he really did send a lot — 300,000 rubles), but because he recorded this video:
It’s such a simple video, but it says so much:
— Pyotr does not support me unconditionally or blindly; he has questions for me. But he understands (and explains) why my participation in the election matters to him personally, and he is ready to say so publicly, and to turn that support into concrete financial action,
— Pyotr transferred his 300,000 rubles back in December, and did it publicly, without hiding from anyone; six months have passed, and as you can see, nothing terrible happened: no one persecuted him or fired him from his job (on the contrary, he took the first step toward becoming a YouTube star),
— Pyotr made his contribution to the campaign as effective as possible, not just by sending money, but by informing at least 3,000 people about the campaign through his “like drive.”
Pyotr is awesome, many thanks to him. Be like Pyotr.
We really need stories like this. They help the campaign because they make people less afraid. We still do not have an established culture of funding election campaigns through donations from ordinary citizens—some people are afraid, while others think their contribution will not make any difference. That is why any public account of donating to the campaign has tremendous persuasive power. Maybe only 50 of your friends and acquaintances will read it, but for 40 of them it will be news, and a surprise, that this even happens at all—that people in Russia really do donate money to a political campaign. And 20 of them will stop believing the propaganda about “State Department money” (a reference to claims that Russian opposition is funded by the U.S. State Department) as soon as they see that the sponsor of our campaign is you, a real person they know personally. And 10 of them will start wondering whether they themselves should send us 300 rubles.
Support the campaign and tell people about it on any social media platform, in videos and in writing—say that you are doing it, and why you are doing it. That will be a huge help to our common cause.