There’s one experimental thing we want to try as part of DMP, and we’d be extremely grateful if you took part in this experiment. Look: Russia has about 70 million internet users. But that absolutely does not mean they live in the same information space as you and me. The overwhelming majority of these people use Odnoklassniki and VK from time to time, check the weather, and so on. They don’t know internet memes, don’t understand what a “demotivator” is, and, most importantly, they’ve never heard of the “Magnitsky case” or the embezzlement at Transneft, and so on. In other words, they are internet users, but they live in an information environment created by the zombie box (slang for television). That’s why these nice people periodically do terribly foolish things they would never do if they were just a little better informed. For example, they vote for Putin or even for “United Russia.” So, very roughly speaking, for the purposes of our experiment, Runet (the Russian-language internet) can be divided into two parts: “our internet” — people who get their news online every day. There are about 8 million of them. the “big internet” — people who use the web but get their news from television. Very roughly, you could say that this “big internet” overlaps with the daily audience of VK and Odnoklassniki. And here’s the striking thing: all opposition politicians keep whining, “ugh, we need to get beyond LiveJournal and Twitter and reach the big audience, where the real, plain-spoken Russians are.” Well, here they are: those 42 million plain-spoken Russians. Technically speaking, you can reach every single one of them for 0 rubles and 0 kopecks. Of course, there are another 50 million really plain-spoken people who don’t use the internet at all, but let’s at least reach these 42 million. So we have a hypothesis: that the “small internet” can carry out effective raids on the “big internet.” That’s exactly what we want to test with the “Krasnodar” experiment. Here’s how I sketched it out schematically — and, as you can see, without involving a designer:
The last thing that pushed us toward this idea was the “Gazaryan case.” You all know about it: he’s an environmental activist fighting the crooked governor of Krasnodar Krai, Tkachev. Tkachev built himself a huge dacha. Illegally. He fenced it off, along with a piece of relict forest. Illegally. When complaints were filed, the local prosecutor’s office replied, “the fence does not exist.” But when Gazaryan wrote “Tkachev is a thief” on that fence, he got a 3-year suspended sentence. The verdict was handed down yesterday. You can read the details in Gazaryan’s LiveJournal or here: дачаткачева.рф So, everyone defended Gazaryan and tried to help him, and Greenpeace even collected ten thousand signatures in his support. The signatures were solemnly handed to Medvedev at a Human Rights Council meeting, and Medvedev tossed them in the trash with a nasty little chuckle. And that’s what finally got to me: why spend so much effort collecting signatures that will just be thrown away?! Medvedev is just as much of a crook as Tkachev. Now, if those ten thousand signatories had spent 20 minutes writing to ten residents of Krasnodar Krai through VK, that would actually have been useful. For defending Gazaryan. For putting pressure on the crook Tkachev. And for preventing another “Gazaryan case.” Ten thousand people would directly tell one hundred thousand residents of Kuban (a region in southern Russia centered on Krasnodar) what’s going on. Some of them, if asked, would tell their neighbors. And so on and so on. The total reach would be very substantial. Some engineer is just living his life in the city of Kropotkin, and then he gets a VK message from someone in Novosibirsk telling him about Gazaryan, the fence, and Tkachev’s niece. I’m sure that engineer in Kropotkin would remember it — and then tell his coworkers about it at work. A good, conscientious campaign would get all of Kuban buzzing. And just imagine how all those thieves in the regional administration would start squealing. Information spreads, and there’s nothing they can do about it. You can’t block it, you can’t cut it off. If the experiment is judged a success, then these kinds of internet raids could be carried out against individual cities or regions, as well as specific social groups. Why not, for example, write explanatory letters to every OMON riot policeman in the country (they’re all on VK) about the shady dealings of their bosses and about their pay? There’s a lot we could come up with. So, here is the dedicated website for the “Krasnodar” project: http://krasnodar.mashina.org/ It lets you log in using your VK account and will randomly suggest a user from Krasnodar (you can switch if you don’t like their face) whom you can send a private message to. It’s always better if you write your own text. But if writing isn’t your strong suit, there are ten ready-made letter options there (they change when the page refreshes). The text goes something like this: ***Hi! I’m one of the thousands of people who have joined together to break through the information blockade that exists in Kuban. We want to tell you that the trial of environmental activist Suren Gazaryan, who has been fighting for the environment in Krasnodar Krai, has just ended. He was accused of writing “Sanya is a thief” on a fence. This fence surrounds the luxury villa being built for the governor of Krasnodar Krai, Alexander Tkachev. The dacha is being built in a relict forest that is being cut down. Suren has now been given a 3-year suspended prison sentence with a 2-year probation period. And there is one very strange detail: when environmental activists complained about the illegal installation of this fence, the prosecutor’s office replied that the fence DOES NOT EXIST. In other words, environmental activist Gazaryan was effectively given a 5-year suspended sentence for writing on the fence around the governor’s dacha — a fence that supposedly does not exist. This judicial and police lawlessness is happening thanks to one of the biggest thieves and corrupt officials in Russia — United Russia governor Alexander Tkachev. Tkachev, together with his party, United Russia, has organized a real gang on the territory of Krasnodar Krai and shamelessly robs its residents. Do you really believe that his 24-year-old niece Anastasia is so talented that she became a billionaire at such a young age? She is a co-owner of major businesses and a poultry complex. It is obvious to all of us that this young woman is a front, and that the real owners of this money are the brothers Alexander and Alexei Tkachev, members of the United Russia party. United Russia members in Kuban are not only thieves, but murderers too. All of Russia was horrified to learn that United Russia member Tsepovyaz, who was accused of involvement in the monstrous murder of 12 people in the village of Kushchyovskaya (where children were burned alive), was “sentenced” to a fine of 150,000 rubles. His accomplice, the main organizer of the massacre, is also a member of United Russia. It is precisely because Tsapok and Tsepovyaz are United Russia members, party associates of the governor, that they can buy their way out of murdering people. Everything I am writing to you is the absolute truth. Spend 5 minutes checking these facts on the internet, and you will see for yourself. Krasnodar’s media are silent, covering for thieves and murderers. Federal TV channels fawn over United Russia members and do not say a word about their role in the Kushchyovskaya massacre or about the governor’s 24-year-old billionaire niece. But that does not mean we should stay silent. I ask you to think about what is written here and do everything you can to make sure this information reaches your relatives, friends, acquaintances — any residents of Kuban. Let everyone understand that it is their own wallet being stolen from. Let everyone realize that the lawlessness of United Russia members could affect their family too, and that they would get no protection from either the police or the courts. We must stand together. We, free citizens, will not hand it over to the crooks, thieves, and murderers from United Russia.*** How it works in practice: 1.
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That’s it. Let me answer the obvious questions right away: Y**ou’ve created a spam machine. **This is not a spam machine; we are writing deliberate personal messages on an important subject. B**ut Nashi activists (pro-Kremlin youth movement) could use the project to write whatever they want in the box, any nonsense at all, like “Putin is an honest man.” **There really aren’t that many Nashi people. Maybe a hundred paid crooks across the whole country. Each of them runs ten accounts and writes comments for Potupchik. Of course they can use the machine for their own purposes, but there are tens of thousands of us and only a couple hundred of them. The harm they can do will be insignificant. Obviously a couple of idiots will write nasty things, send them, and post screenshots, but that’s not a big deal. It won’t be possible to use a bot. Still, in the future we plan to give access to sites like this only to those who have become part of DMP, by registering in it. I**s this legal? Won’t Tsepovyaz and the fence sue us? **Everything’s fine, these are your private messages. Write whatever you want. Go to http://krasnodar.mashina.org/ and please take part if you want to upset Governor Tkachev, his deputy brother, his billionaire niece, his murderer friend Tsepovyaz, his dacha, his fence, and their whole filthy United Russia party. This is an experiment, so please be forgiving about bugs, unfinished features, and so on. We’d be very grateful for constructive feedback, publicity, and extremely active participation. Let’s strike a blow against the Crooks and Thieves with our small, cozy internet.