Whew, that was quite a job.
When we first started trying to get through this "municipal filter", everyone who knows the real makeup of the district councils in Moscow predicted we would get 35 signatures at most. Everyone knows those 35 most independent deputies and regular participants in protest actions, and it was assumed that they were the only ones I could count on. But together with you, we did the impossible. Hundreds of people called their local deputies and demanded that they cast their support "for Navalny." It really worked: almost every deputy I called told me, your people have already driven me crazy. A couple of deputies told me outright: I don’t like you very much, but I’m signing because my voters are demanding it.
A colossal amount of work went into finding deputies’ mobile phone numbers. If not for you, we never would have been able to find them on our own. Hundreds of emails containing bits of information sent to navalny.moscow@gmail.com were analyzed, and we compiled mini-dossiers on a whole lot of deputies. Down to things like, "rumor has it she was recently fired from a local clinic and is therefore unhappy with the authorities." We also got enormous help from super-mega-activists who literally went around on foot to see every deputy and speak with each one. For some districts, we had spreadsheets with every phone number and brief notes: would like to sign but is afraid; wavering and wants to talk in person; no chance — a hardline United Russia loyalist and so on. Katz’s "Anti-Filter" project helped tremendously; its results were highly revealing, and we got a base of people ready to sign for the opposition.
I personally called 578 deputies. That is, not 578 dial attempts, but 578 actual conversations, lasting anywhere from 20 seconds to 45 minutes (the record was with one curious United Russia member). That’s all I did for the last few days. I’ve never talked on the phone this much in my life.
(from here) It’s important to remember that every signature had to be notarized. We built an entire logistical machine around working with notaries. Some deputies were taken to the notary closest to us. Some were driven by our volunteers to the notary closest to them. And to some deputies, we brought the notary ourselves. We fought for every single signature, and sometimes it turned into a real quest:
(This is chief of staff Volkov, who is responsible for basically everything, including the municipal deputies.) Municipal deputy Elena Pushkareva (Khoroshevsky District) was on vacation 120 km from Thessaloniki, Greece. We found a volunteer, Vsevolod Romanenko, who arranged Elena’s transfer to Thessaloniki, certification of her signature by the consul, and emergency delivery of the documents to us.
Bulgaria. One very organized deputy (he asked that his name not be disclosed) traveled 200 km to the consulate and, in the final hour of consular office hours, got everything certified. The documents are in transit right now; we’ll submit them in time. Vladimir Region. Alexei Efremov, a volunteer from the People’s Alliance, went to the Vladimir Region and got Marina Makarova from Losinoostrovsky District to sign there. We picked up Yekaterina Vasilyevna Minaeva, a deputy from Cheryomushki District, from the hospital where she was staying, took her to a notary, and brought her back to the hospital. A heroic person — she’s in the hospital with a leg injury. In the end, we collected about 85 signatures. I say “about” because one signature is currently coming by airmail, and a couple more are being processed today. We’re ready to kiss every one of those 85 deputies — they’re fantastic. It’s important to remember that most of them signed for me back when Sobyanin’s “Rakovа headquarters” was calling municipalities and strictly forbidding them to “sign for Navalny.” This may not be very visible from the outside, but it was a huge undertaking that we accomplished together, and we’re very proud of it. In fact, we independently collected more deputies’ signatures than any other candidate except Melnikov from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, who started out with 205 deputies in 86 districts. And now for the second act of the ballet. We all understood perfectly well that the "municipal filter" was impossible to get through. Even old man Katz said so after conducting a survey. The filter is just another scam by United Russia to keep undesirable candidates off the ballot. That was Sobyanin’s original plan: don’t let Navalny in, and let in only those candidates whom it would be convenient for us to beat like children in the election. And here Moscow public opinion played a crucial role, as expressed in this letter from cultural figures calling on municipal deputies to sign for the opposition, because otherwise an "election" is not an election. A great deal was said and written about this. In the end, the “PR people” “from” “city hall” were forced to change tactics and effectively abolish the “municipal barrier” in Moscow specifically. Of course, this was accompanied by outrageous lies that “Navalny collected very few signatures,” and yesterday and today it has been followed by even more outrageous lies: “United Russia” gave Navalny 110 signatures, and he collected nothing himself". AMOM (the Association of Municipal Formations of Moscow), which had been tasked with formally dismantling the municipal filter, was officially collecting signatures for all candidates, with a notary stationed on site. Here are the official figures for how many signatures each candidate received there: S*ocialist Russia candidate Nikolai Levichev received 95 signatures from the council,** Mikhail Degtyaryov (LDPR) received 78 signatures, and Sergei Mitrokhin (Yabloko) received 82 signatures.* And here is our document from this morning:
Sobyanin forced all those unfortunate doctors and teachers — who just a week earlier had been forbidden under pain of death to sign for me — to run in and urgently submit their signatures, just so they could air TV segments on the propaganda box saying “United Russia helped Navalny.” It was also pretty disgusting to watch them humiliate their own party members, who the day before yesterday were screeching on Twitter “LOCK NAVALNY UP,” and yesterday were trudging gloomily off to sign the paperwork for my nomination. When we selected those 49 signatures, we tried not to take signatures specifically from United Russia members, though of course there are some among them. All of this once again shows that this United Russia “municipal filter” is a disgusting abomination and must be abolished immediately. In Moscow they got scared of a scandal and removed the filter. So why should the Vladimir Region be any worse than Moscow? Or any other region? That’s how it is. We’ll soon publish the full list of all the deputies, and separately the hero-deputies. The “filter” has been passed, and soon we’ll submit the registration documents. I want to thank the hundreds of people who took part in the “Mundep” project. It was incredibly cool, and you provided enormous help. I especially want to mention a few people who made the impossible possible: Head of the “Mundep” headquarters — Roman Rubanov
Anna Biryukova It was with her that we made those 578 phone calls.
Alexander Khomenko Maksim Sychev Anna Yudina Yevgeny Patekha Natalya Bychkova Galina Koposova And of course, Maxim Katz. The municipal deputies who supported us and helped others make the right choice. Without them, none of this would have been possible. Konstantin Yankauskas Alexei Beskorovainy Vladimir Garnachuk Also providing invaluable help were: Grigory Tolkachev Elena Barkova Mikhail Fignerov Mikhail Timonov. And dozens and hundreds of other people I never even met and whose names I do not know, but who did tremendous work. It was you who abolished the “municipal filter” in Moscow in this election.