This message is probably not addressed to you. You may have thought that the “main participant in an election” is the voter. In Russia, of course, that is not the case.
Here, the main participant in the process is the ordinary Russian schoolteacher, beloved by everyone, who has been falsifying election results for many years.
Sadly, that is exactly how it is. The main villains sit in the Kremlin and in regional and city administrations, but it is the ordinary teacher who furiously stuffs thick stacks of ballots into the ballot box.
It is to them that I am speaking, and I ask everyone to support this appeal by sending it to the teachers you know.
Dear teachers, don’t do this. We understand that you are being pressured, but no one is holding a gun to your head.
Look at the electoral maps: two identical schools. At one, United Russia gets 60 percent; at the other, 25 percent.
That means that in one of those schools, the teachers simply do not take part in falsification. They do not do it. They see no need for it. They refuse. Or they have made it clear enough that no one even asks them.
And interestingly, nothing happened to them. They were not shot. Putin did not drop an atomic bomb on them. These teachers did not falsify ballots or stuff ballot boxes, and in the evening they went home just like those who did, then returned to work the next morning the same as everyone else.
There are no real punishments. It is simply your habit of doing whatever your superiors tell you. If you refuse, nothing will happen. By March 19, everyone will have forgotten about it.
Remain honest with yourselves, your children, and your students. Do not falsify turnout in this election.
And for all voters:
Each day that remains, do something to persuade the people around you not to help Putin secure another term. Do not recognize this vote as legitimate, and do not take part in it. At the very least, post about it on social media.
If you have signed up as an observer, choose your polling station.
If you have already chosen a polling station, go to the campaign office in your city and get your assignment letter.