And the speed at which the signatures were collected tells us how much the country has changed over the past seven years.
You and I were the first to collect 100,000 verified signatures in support of a legislative initiative on the official government portal.
In April 2013, I launched a campaign for an amendment to the law under which officials would be barred from buying cars costing more than 1.5 million rubles.
On April 5, the initiative was published. On July 10, we collected 100,000 signatures.
It took us three months back then.
This time it took us 18 hours. Yesterday at 12:58, I published a post announcing the start of the drive and suggested collecting the required number of signatures within 24 hours.
By 7:38 this morning, we had finished. In fact, we picked up so much speed that before the system shut the collection down, another 3,700 votes had been piled on.
If the crooks at ROI (the Russian Public Initiative portal) hadn’t desperately started deleting votes and falsifying the results yesterday, the collection would have been finished at around 10 p.m.
In any case, this is the fastest submission of a federal legislative initiative in the entire history of ROI (the Russian Public Initiative portal).
And that gives us something to think about: three months versus 18 hours.
First of all, far more people are now registered on Gosuslugi (Russia’s public services portal). In 2013, we had to push everyone onto it; now people are already registered.
Internet access has expanded.
The demographic changes have been quite significant.
The audience that can be reached while bypassing the media and its censorship has grown tenfold.
And of course, there have been truly dramatic changes in public sentiment. 2013 was the first year when the government failed to deliver economic growth. It promised 3.5% GDP growth and achieved 1.5%.
Since then, real household incomes in the country have been falling for seven years in a row.
The current paralysis and stupor of the executive branch (Putin in his bunker, Beglov in a respirator, Rakovа in Kiton, and not a kopek of support for ordinary people) will lead to discontent flooding the political landscape.
And it is important to understand that we are capable of much more — in elections (after all, we collected the signatures despite the falsifications), in mass public events, and in campaigning.
Putin, his government, and his party are in the minority. They will never again win the support of a real majority — simply because they will never again be able to do anything useful for the country. These skis are only moving downhill, on a slope called “decline.”
It is important for us to unite at a new level and put pressure on the authorities in a way they have never experienced before. Taking part in “Smart Voting” and supporting the “5 Steps” campaign are examples of that kind of pressure. We need to increase it, and from this moment on you can confidently explain to everyone around you that there is an initiative before the Russian government backed by more people than any political party can claim. And this document contains the demands of all of Russia: direct cash assistance for every adult: 20,000 rubles per person; 10,000 rubles per child, regardless of age; suspension of utility payments for the duration of the restrictions; financial support for small businesses; a one-year tax holiday for small businesses.
If they do not deliver, they do not get a single vote.