I flew back from Yekaterinburg yesterday. I’ll write separately about the trip itself, but for now, here’s the thing. At one of the meetings, well-known singer Alexander Novikov came up to me (a huge guy, by the way. A head taller than me) and said: “I made a short musical cartoon against those bastards from United Russia. Put it up on your site. We need to go after those swine.” It’s an interesting thing: the common view is that “this whole internet opposition” is an active but relatively small layer of big-city residents. Basically, “hipsters and bloggers.” The people who live online and on social media. But supposedly “real, plain-spoken Russia” — people with real-life experience — doesn’t support the fight against the Party of Crooks and Thieves. Well, here you go. People are joining the slow-building uprising against the Party of Crooks and Thieves who know how to speak to an audience for whom “hipsters and bloggers” are completely irrelevant — even if they tried their hardest, they wouldn’t strike the right emotional chords. You need people like Novikov here; no one can say to them, “you don’t know real life.” That’s because the truth is the same for everyone. For hipsters and for performers of urban romance songs (a Russian chanson-style genre) alike. And here’s the cartoon itself:
http://youtu.be/O_TnzpotrnI Let’s consider this A. Novikov’s gift to today’s United Russia party congress.