“Nothing can be changed in Russia.” “The people at the top have already decided everything for us.” “What’s the point? That’s just how things are done here.”
How many times have we all heard, read, and thought these things? It’s like a record with the huge word “hopelessness” stamped across it, put on for us every year at the beginning of September, playing on repeat: “Sit quietly, stay out of politics, _nothing_will_come_of_it_anyway_.”
It can work. But not by itself.
This Sunday, elections will be held in 39 regions of Russia. In some places, people will be voting for city councils; in others, for regional legislatures; elsewhere, for governor. And this is exactly the moment to break that stupid record.
We’ve figured out how to do it. There is a simple way to finally break out of the endless self-reproducing cycle in which a United Russia candidate buys a seat in the legislature, then fleeces and robs you, and then uses the stolen money to buy that seat all over again.
Smart Voting. And with that in mind, there are several important things I want to convince you of.
United Russia is, in fact, an unpopular party. It is a party that, as we are sure you know from your own experience, is hated by literally everyone. It is hated even by the people who lead it and run under its banner—that’s why now, everywhere, they are no longer “United Russia candidates” but “independents.” You don’t have to look far: Putin himself is embarrassed by his own party. There is no “party of the majority.” That is a television myth, an invention.
Second. It is possible to win elections. Khabarovsk is a city free of United Russia politicians, and that happened precisely thanks to Smart Voting. In Irkutsk, United Russia was routed. In Moscow, the chairman of the United Russia party humiliatingly lost the election in his own district—that is not a fantasy, it happened last summer. And it happened because people voted strategically. A city or regional parliament with no United Russia members at all is not a dream or a fantasy—it is possible. It just takes a lot of joint, coordinated effort.
In many of the districts where elections are being held now, it takes just 20 or 30 votes to defeat United Russia. All it takes is for a few people to decide not to stay home, to go to the polling station, and to put a check mark next to the candidate who actually has a chance of winning.
The worst thing you can think right now is: someone else will do it for me. Or: it’s hopeless anyway. No, it is not hopeless—these elections are won by a handful of votes. But you have to be the one who believes that and takes a step toward it.
Third. Any deputy is better than a United Russia one. A Communist, an LDPR member (Liberal Democratic Party of Russia), a member of A Just Russia, a random passerby on the street—any one of them would be a better representative for you than a corrupt official who has spent 20 years sitting under Putin’s portrait and showing up in front of you once every five years. And if there are not just one or three such people, as there are now, but 10, the situation will change. Even if that is not a majority. It means there are enough of them that they no longer have to toe the line and obey a United Russia boss. They become independent.
Let’s be honest: the political landscape now, in the 21st year of Putin’s rule, is bleak. A scorched field instead of political competition; real, strong opponents of the authorities are barred from running, jailed, buried under fines, and hit with bogus criminal cases. And Putin likes that very much. It is the perfect system for him. Exactly what he wants.
Do you want to please Putin and United Russia? We don’t. Especially since it is so easy not to. Your polling station is probably somewhere right in your neighborhood. The Smart Voting website is just one click away. Go to it, enter your address, and find out whom to vote for. This is the minimum that literally everyone can do to be, by Monday, just a little closer than today to the beautiful and free Russia of the future.