What a remarkable letter to Google from the Central Election Commission. Putin disliked the video "Live Until Retirement" so much that this time, in addition to the usual National Guard (Rosgvardiya) and Center E (the anti-extremism police unit), he brought in the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service as well, and the head of that agency, Artemyev, set everything else aside and called on his old friend Pamfilova.
Just imagine: an entire super-agency—the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service, whose job is to fight cartels and monopolies and tackle rising gasoline prices—has thrown itself into fighting our videos. It is also noteworthy that Artemyev is a member of the political committee of the Yabloko party.
Read this:
How is a rally against raising the retirement age connected to the elections? Campaigning means urging people to vote for or against a candidate in an election. Even a failing schoolkid can understand that a rally against raising the retirement age is not campaigning. The rallies on September 9 are entirely lawful. The claim that holding rallies on voting day creates a risk of violating the "day of silence" (the legal ban on election campaigning immediately before and during voting) is especially cynical. When Putin and United Russia hold rallies with Putin posters and flags on the day of silence and on voting day, Artemyev and Pamfilova are not bothered by it.
Our lawyers wrote a response to Pamfilova, reminding the head of the Central Election Commission what campaigning actually is.
The September 9 rallies against raising the retirement age are fully in accordance with the law. We invite employees of the Central Election Commission, the Anti-Monopoly Service, and indeed all agencies and departments to attend, see this for themselves, and speak out against this pension robbery.
Moscow — Pushkinskaya Square, 2:00 p.m.
St. Petersburg — Lenin Square, 2:00 p.m.
Other cities:
Facebook group for the rallies
You can do your part. Here you will find invitation images for the rally in different cities. Download an image, send it to all your contacts on WhatsApp, Viber, and Telegram, and to every group you belong to. And ask them to forward it on.