Solidarnost’s idea of nominating Nemtsov for mayor of Sochi was absolutely brilliant. I supported it enthusiastically, despite being fairly neutral toward Nemtsov himself. They really managed to stick it to the authorities there. But this whole push — if you can even call it a push — to nominate a slate of “non-system” candidates in single-member districts for the Moscow City Duma strikes me as completely limp and misguided. As I see it, Solidarnost had two possible courses of action: - the best one. Nominate Kasparov alone in either the Central or University district. Throw every possible resource into signature collection and campaigning. The authorities would not be able to kick Kasparov off the ballot — just as they did with Nemtsov in Sochi — without losing face. The result could have been more than 30%, or even a win. That is entirely realistic, and I say this as someone who headed Yabloko’s list in the University district in the last election. Back then, through the combined efforts of me and Yashin, we managed to mobilize a lot of good people, and in our district YABLOKO posted its strongest gain in votes. - a decent one. Nominate Yashin yashin in the University district, and Milov v_milov in the Central district (or Yasenevo, where he is now). Don’t nominate anyone else. Put all efforts into collecting signatures. If they somehow get registered — which is unlikely — then run a campaign focused on going after Luzhkov and his gang of crooks. Unfortunately, the Solidarnost people chose some strange third option. They nominated a bunch of random, obscure people in all the districts, and on top of that they couldn’t even sort out who would run where among themselves (Yashin/Kataev). Of course, I don’t want to make baseless claims that all the candidates are losers or anything like that. What I can say is that I simply don’t know most of them. And without meaning to sound boastful, I’ll say this: guys, I dealt with Moscow’s problems for many years, I co-founded the Committee for the Defense of Muscovites with Mitrokhin, and I still remember and know all the city’s construction-related conflicts, and so on. So if I don’t know who you are, then nobody in the city knows either. And if I know nothing about your achievements on behalf of city residents, then those achievements simply do not exist. As for Yashin and Milov: one has worked on city issues more, the other less. But I’m confident about both of them: they will actually run campaigns, they’ll have at least minimal funding (maybe not quite minimal), and they understand what elections and signature collection involve. So anyone who helps them in the election won’t be wasting their time. But the others — again, I wouldn’t get involved with them. Sorry. I don’t mean to offend anyone. Who else is worth supporting? If you are in fact going to take part in the election and are even willing to spend some personal time helping a candidate, the choice is limited: The aforementioned Yashin and Milov Pyotr Miloserdov vojk — he traditionally runs in the north of the city, traditionally fights the authorities hard, and traditionally gets a strong result (20% or more) DPNI (the Movement Against Illegal Immigration) has nominated Vladimir Yermolaev (Biryulyovo, Orekhovo, Zyablikovo, Brateyevo). A worthy candidate and a good choice on DPNI’s part. And yes, you can be outraged, but I’d support Mitrokhin. Obviously I wouldn’t work for YABLOKO right now, but Mitrokhin himself is a good guy, energetic, and genuinely engaged with the city’s problems. Ah, if it were possible to vote against YABLOKO but for Mitrokhin, I would. Schizophrenic, of course. I don’t know whether Andryusha Babushkin is running in Medvedkovo, but if he is, then you absolutely should help and vote for him — he is the country’s only real human rights defender. So that’s about it. Greetings from Greece. Here’s another link. A specialized community. http://community.livejournal.com/mgd2009/