**ON THE ELECTION RESULTS** I spent a long time searching for the right words to write this honestly. Technically, what we’re seeing is a huge success for “Smart Voting.” And in Moscow and St. Petersburg, it’s nothing short of a triumph. Swipe through the carousel (all charts by Mediazona @mediazzzona) and look at the Moscow results with and without the fake electronic voting. But honestly, the overall outcome can’t be called a “victory.” Our result was simply stolen. They redrew it in the most primitive way. As a result, United Russia, the party of Putin’s thieves, crushed by voters, once again gets a majority in the Duma (the lower house of Russia’s parliament). What we have here is the classic situation of the match itself and the scoreboard announcing the result. In the past, we sometimes managed to draw matches, and occasionally even win. And the crooks would tweak the numbers on the scoreboard to make their victory look more convincing. But now we united, focused, and with the help of Smart Voting we absolutely crushed our opponents on the field. But the scoreboard is theirs. So once again, they drew themselves a victory. Here’s what I want to say. Winning an election in Russia consists of 3 parts: 1. Getting more votes from voters.
 2. Deploying observers and catching anyone who tries to steal votes red-handed (and they definitely will try).
 3. If the votes are still stolen, going out into the streets and taking them back. Defending your right to fair elections.
 Over the years, we have done points 2 and 3 with varying degrees of intensity. And point 1 was always the huge problem. It gnawed at us, this heavy thought: yes, they falsified the results, and we observe-rally-protest. But overall, even without the fraud, they still got more votes than we did. Well, not anymore. The scoreboard is showing a fake result.  Our observers were dragged out of polling stations. Intimidation and repression have broken many people’s resolve, and people are simply afraid to go out into the streets. But the thought that “they still have more support anyway” is gone. That is the main result. “We are the majority,” “we are the power here” — since September 19, these are no longer slogans, but the result of the vote. I’m not even going to write the traditional “don’t lose heart and don’t give up.” Fine, be down for a little while, and then remember that we have only one country, no matter where we live geographically. And the struggle for it is not a sprint, but a long, hard marathon. And take heart from the fact that we’ve already learned how to cross the finish line first. (To be continued in the carousel)