Exactly one year ago, I published this video, opened my campaign headquarters, and launched my presidential campaign.
Everything that has happened since then has convinced me that it was the right decision. And the main feeling I have is gratitude. Because throughout this entire year, I have been working, meeting, talking, engaging, and corresponding with absolutely amazing people who never cease to inspire me.
They are here at headquarters in Moscow, they are in each of the 83 regional campaign offices we opened over the year, and they are at the rallies I hold. They are even there in the cell of the special detention center, where I spent a good part of this year.
No matter the pressure, these people are not afraid, they do not give up, and they do not lose heart. There can be no greater source of strength and inspiration than meeting with them. With you.
That is exactly why, together, we did something no one had ever done before in Russian politics. We made the campaign and the political struggle real. Volkov wrote a very good post about this while under arrest.
I very much hope that after our campaign, the style of politics that goes, “do nothing for four years, then three months before the election shoot a video and go on a TV talk show,” will die out. That is not how you win voters’ support, and that is not how you fight for victory.
And we have spent this entire year showing how it can be done. We created—for the first time in modern Russian history—a real, massive political organization in the regions, built on campaign offices in 83 cities and nearly 200,000 volunteers across the country.
We are not allowed to hold meetings with voters, but even so, as of today we have held major rallies in 27 cities alone: Murmansk, Yekaterinburg, Omsk, Novosibirsk, Vladivostok, Khabarovsk, Orenburg, Arkhangelsk, Astrakhan, Ivanovo, Kursk, Tambov, Irkutsk, Kemerovo, Volgograd, Izhevsk, Smolensk, Perm, Vladimir, Nizhny Novgorod, Chelyabinsk, Saratov, Pskov, Samara, Barnaul, Novokuznetsk, and Kaliningrad. To do this, I have already flown and traveled 63,000 kilometers (about 39,000 miles). And if you include the openings of our campaign offices, then I have traveled across the entire country, and in some cities I have been more than once.
This is what an election campaign is. It can only be run this way, and there is no point even supporting someone who does not work like this—they have no chance of success, because they are not seriously fighting for votes.
We have raised 241,301,000 rubles in donations, and we are the only ones who can proudly say: everyone knows where the money in our campaign comes from. It is transparent. And we have every right to count on your continued support.
So, looking back on the year, I want to say: friends, thank you very much. Together, we are doing work that no one else can do, and it is not for nothing that we aspire to power. When we win, we will be able to use it for the good of the people. And I have no doubt about our ultimate victory.
And today I would also like to say more about our election platform and ask you to take part in discussing it. I want our platform to be a tool of campaigning as well, not just a PDF file buried deep on the website.
Take a look. The components of the platform:
My text, “The Beautiful Russia of the Future”.
Stories. Pay special attention to them. No one here has done this before. We decided to move away from abstractions and explain our policy proposals through the stories of real, specific people in short videos. So far, there are five of them.
Take a look—it is quite possible that in some of them you will find your own story as well:
Many thanks to the wonderful team of experts who worked on the platform and helped develop it—both those listed here and those who preferred to remain anonymous. You are wonderful people.
Share what you like. Write to us about what you disagree with. Most importantly: discuss it. That is what elections are for—to discuss the country’s path of development and compare politicians.