What would you say looking at this photo?
Most likely: Oh, that's the well-known singer Pavel Artemyev.
Or: that's the curly-haired guy from the band *Korni*.
At the very least: you know, the one who sings "and I'm losing my roooots."
But under no circumstances would you deny that this person exists, or that he is capable of—and entitled to—signing his own name.
But V.V. Putin and S.S. Sobyanin do deny it. Or rather, it's unclear which of them exactly does, but judging by the fact that Lyubov Sobol still cannot become a candidate for deputy on the tenth day of her hunger strike, it appears to be their joint decision.
The point is that both Pavel Artemyev and his brother Zakhar live in the district where Sobol is running, and both personally signed in support of her.
And their signatures, like hundreds of others for Sobol and tens of thousands across Moscow, were declared fake by Sobyanin's so-called handwriting experts.
The Artemyev brothers turned out to be decent people and even agreed to spend their time taking part in this "prove you're not a camel" procedure (a Russian expression meaning to prove something absurdly obvious). First you signed. Now you have to write a statement saying that yes, you did sign.
After that, an official will graciously look you over and decide whether he believes you exist.
As we remember, that didn't work in the cases of Ilya Yashin and Ivan Zhdanov. They brought not only written statements but actual living people. But they were told: a person's presence and testimony prove nothing. We know better whether he signed or not.
Right now, the candidates are meeting with Ella Pamfilova from the Central Election Commission. The livestream is here.
Yesterday, Pamfilova already said that in her view, the signatures of candidates who were denied registration should be reviewed again.
It sounds nice, but so far it is being framed like this (at least that's what the Moscow election monitoring headquarters is proposing):
If a handwriting expert rejects a signature, but the candidate brings a statement from that voter, then the signature is counted.
Great. That's exactly the "prove you're not a camel" game.
For Zhdanov, the "handwriting expert rejected" 572 signatures.
Go on, Zhdanov, get to work. Go to the person's home. Wait outside their door, and when they come back, ask them to write a statement. And if they don't live at their registered address, then somehow find out where they actually live, go there, and wait outside that door instead. Do that 572 times. You might just make it by September 9. And right after that, bring the Central Election Commission a gold-embroidered carpet with all of Mother Russia spread across it.
Sobol has to do the same thing 450 times. And all the other candidates have to do it hundreds and thousands of times.
I'm sure this is even more of an outrage.
There can only be one way, and no other: if some "handwriting expert" casts doubt on Pavel Artemyev's signature, and Pavel Artemyev proves with his statement that the expert is lying, then that expert must be removed, proceedings must be initiated against him, and all of his expert findings must be annulled.
If a "handwriting expert rejected" Professor Lukyanova's signature among Sobol's signatures—then that's it, goodbye to the expert and his analysis. It cannot be trusted.
If sociologist Yudin states that he signed for Rusakova, then everything "rejected by the handwriting expert" must be overturned.
As I write this post, I'm watching the livestream from the Central Election Commission. Pamfilova keeps talking about "pressure from the rally."
There is no pressure from the rally. There are simply real, living people whose signatures you declared invalid. You insulted them. Stripped them of their voting rights. And now you're also saying they have to bring special additional statements confirming that they exist.
And this is against the backdrop of the fact that United Russia candidates didn't collect signatures at all. Right there on the Moscow City Election Commission website, there is posted a dissenting opinion from a commission member who registered our Metelsky, the owner of Austrian hotels. It plainly says that the signatures for Metelsky were forged.
We want justice for Artemyev, for Sobol, for Yashin, and for all of us.
If there is no other way to achieve justice except by taking to the streets, then we will take to the streets.
On July 27, the unregistered candidates called on us to come to Moscow City Hall (Facebook group, VK group). We have to be there. For us, this is even more important than it is for them.