Well, finally. Hooray!
In September, elections will be held for the Moscow City Duma. It is a very important body, and this is a place where United Russia can and should be seriously challenged (I explain this in detail, with numbers, in my post about "Smart Voting", where everything is calculated specifically using the Moscow City Duma as an example).
But where are the candidates? It is rather bleak to fight United Russia only by backing the Communists in places where they just need a little extra to turn second place into first.
We need our own pool of real candidates. Not to nominate unknown screwups of a "liberal persuasion" in all 45 districts, but a few people who are capable of real work and real political struggle, and whose record over the past several years we actually know.
And now, finally, I see someone I am ready to support with all my strength.
Vladimir Milov is running in the district that includes the Konkovo and Tyoply Stan neighborhoods.
I urge everyone who lives there to help him: volunteer, help organize meetings with voters, talk about the district's problems, or contribute financially.
In addition—and right now this is the most important thing—those who are officially registered in the district can leave their signature in support of Milov's nomination: fill out the form on milov2019.ru or contact Milov directly (his direct contact details are listed on the site).
Those who live in other neighborhoods but are also ready to help should still get in touch, but unfortunately your signature will not count toward election registration; you will simply be able to help the campaign.
Milov is running as an independent candidate, which means he has to collect an enormous number of signatures from district residents—more than 5,000. They will have to be gathered at the most inconvenient possible time, in July, so Vladimir is beginning a preliminary collection of signatures from district voters who will be ready in the summer to officially sign in support of his nomination in full compliance with the rules. Absolutely the right approach.
Milov himself has lived in Moscow's South-Western Administrative Okrug since 1983, finished school in Tyoply Stan, lived there for 20 years, and has been actively working on the district's problems.
Milov has worked in government service, knows everything about the Moscow budget, and will quickly expose all of Sobyanin's schemes (here is his detailed lecture on the Moscow budget at Navalny's Moscow headquarters last summer).
Vladimir's program "Where's the Money?" is the country's most successful educational show about economics. It consistently gets more than 100,000 views, has strong audience retention, and a very clearly defined audience of people who watch it every week.
In that sense, if we think about it in purely rational terms, by supporting Milov we are helping a well-known politician with a stable base of support numbering in the tens of thousands. He is not just a local neighborhood activist, with all due respect to neighborhood activists.
He is someone who will put up a real fight in the election and represent us excellently if he wins.
So let's help him win.