Since this morning, people have been sending me a ton of links to funny posts: "Despite Navalny's campaign against United Russia, it is leading in every region. Oh no. Everything is lost."
I hope no one here seriously thought that three posts on LiveJournal and a poster contest could change the political regime. Three clicks and done, so to speak. Let me repeat the key point once again: the results are not of fundamental importance. Of course we should monitor these "elections" and try to influence them — that puts serious stress on the system — but we should not overestimate their significance. The rule of crooks cannot be replaced through elections organized by crooks. The task is to reduce real support for the Party of Crooks and Thieves, not to chase after the figures written into the official protocols. In that sense, the campaign against United Russia has no fixed term, no schedule, and no deadlines. What we have managed to do so far is this: through the efforts of a couple hundred people, spending 0 rubles and 0 kopecks, we have made it so that at least a million people in this country, when asked "What is United Russia's real name?" will answer without hesitation: "The Party of Crooks and Thieves." And when asked, "What should be done in the elections?" they will answer: "Show up and vote for any party against United Russia." We need to keep working until there are ten million such people. We will definitely achieve that, because what we are doing is not political spin: we are not imposing a meme, we are helping to formulate it. Because it is simply the truth. The task does not look easy: on the internet, fashions and obsessions change quickly. Today it's cool to bash United Russia, tomorrow everyone has forgotten about it and is obsessed with the Witness from Fryazino (a viral Russian internet meme). The day after tomorrow they've forgotten the Witness and moved on to Nikita Dzhigurda (a flamboyant Russian actor and media personality). We do not need any hysterics or hand-wringing in the fight against United Russia, but this is not just fun for fun's sake either. If someone is bored and no longer interested, nothing can be done about that. Go follow Dzhigurda instead — that's not so bad either. As for these specific "elections," it is also interesting to study their results. The best comment on the subject came from ivand on Twitter: The vote count results in Kirov and Tver regions showed the Communist Party in the lead, but United Russia won. I am not a sociologist and cannot say anything pseudo-scientific about this, but the fact that the Party of Crooks and Thieves headquarters canceled all nighttime briefings and declined to release the exit poll results is highly telling. The crooks were only able to fabricate more than 55% in regions where the results are traditionally just drawn up out of thin air — places like Dagestan, Adygea, and Chukotka. A remarkable story happened in Kirov Region. Last night we went to bed with reports that the Party of Crooks and Thieves was in second place there, behind the Communists. Some United Russia people even put on a rather curious public outcry over it. No one doubted that by morning the miracle math of the election commissions would fix the situation. And that is exactly what happened: they added 36.6% for the Party of Crooks and Thieves and gave it first place. But that is wonderful, really: despite outright fraud, unimaginable amounts of money, every possible media outlet, the removal of inconvenient candidates from the ballot, and a personal appeal letter from V.V. Putin to every voter in the region, they got 36%. They know it is fraud. We know it is fraud. They know that we know. What does that mean? It means that at any moment, a group of three thousand patriotically minded residents of Kirov Region could walk into the regional legislative assembly building and literally kick the Party of Crooks and Thieves out. With the full support or silent approval of the rest of the people of Kirov. Because the truth, and complete moral superiority, would be on the side of those patriotically minded residents. And no OMON riot police would help. And even the United Russia people themselves, while getting kicked out, would be thinking: "Ow, that hurts! But to be fair, we had it coming..." That is the moment when a legitimate change of power will take place. Update: if you want serious analysis of these elections, I recommend the article by alexander_kynev