First, the political compass. Take a look—it’s an interesting little tool. You can answer 25 questions describing your basic political and economic views and compare how closely they match those of different candidates—who is closer to you, and who is not. I guarantee you’ll be surprised. Second, yesterday we had the chance to enjoy a long-forgotten spectacle: live candidate debates. There are a lot of candidates, so the first round is extremely tough: 30 seconds for an opening statement, 30 seconds to answer a question. In the second round they’ll start questioning each other, and that’s when it will get really interesting. You watch it and understand why our politics—including opposition politics—has degraded so badly: we haven’t done anything like this for a very long time. And after all, it’s not Putin personally stopping us from holding debates, is it? This is exactly how leaders can and should emerge. This is where newcomers can challenge the old guard. This is where, as happened yesterday, director Mirzoev—previously almost unseen in political battles—can suddenly look more convincing in 30 seconds than any veteran politician. We badly need things like this. A real competitive environment. This is not the 137th taped “debate” between Zhirinovsky and Prokhanov on Solovyov’s show. The candidates are fighting for viewers’ support. The winner is determined by voting, and to vote you need to register (the same registration will later be required for voting in the CC elections). A reminder: there is now a very simple way to register/verify your identity—take a photo of yourself with your passport (some enthusiasts even made a video guide with a blonde and a brunette). Verification via Yandex.Money is also now available, so make use of it. By the way, Sobchak was at yesterday’s debates. Today, among others, Kasparov and Ashurkov will be there. Starting at 12:00 a.m. on the TV Rain channel (an independent Russian TV channel). Register, watch, and choose the winner. You can vote for the debate winner within 24 hours, so you can still watch the recording now and cast your vote for someone. Be sure to do it. Third, and this is incredibly cool, electoral blocs have appeared in the CC elections. At the very least, I know of: The Kasparov Bloc - The “Renewal” Bloc - Yashin, Gudkov and co. The “Green” Bloc - Chirikova, Gazaryan and co. The Civic Platform - Sobchak and a large team The Progressive Bloc - Smirnov, Pryanikhov and co. The “December 5 Party” Bloc - Bilunov, Davidis and co. and my personal favorite, the bloc "Seven Candidates from Seven Projects", which includes the guys from RosPil, RosYama, and all our other projects. They are determined to fight hard and have already stunned everyone with their campaign video:
http://youtu.be/oI46PL2op3c Isn’t it wonderful that candidates are organizing among themselves to improve their chances of getting in? The CC may be an informal body, but there is a real political struggle underway for seats in it. And they’re not fighting for a “green light from the administration”—they’re fighting for voters’ support. We haven’t seen that in a long time. Fourth, a promotional video for the CC elections has been released. I absolutely love it:
http://youtu.be/h6MkX3dz3QQ If you like it too—even if not quite as much as I do, but simply like it—please help by sharing it. Twitter, Facebook, VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, forums, personal websites. Fifth, once again: register at https://election.cvk2012.org/account/signup. Your candidate, whoever that may be, needs your support.