The staff gathered for the morning flight. They share their achievements: “Even my parents went and voted for Yabloko, although my dad doesn’t go at all!” “And how many people I campaigned yesterday! I don’t know which of my friends to write to go vote - everyone goes like that.”
Chief of Staff Maxim Katz is instructing. The task of the headquarters workers today is to greet those going to the polling station with the words “Vote for the future!” Campaigning on election day is prohibited, but Katz is sure that in the area where the staff officer spent a lot of time going around apartments and campaigning on the streets, people will recognize him by sight and remember Gudkov.
“Man-agitation material,” laughs a pretty blonde with glasses.
One or two campaign material people go to close more than 240 polling stations in the Tushino district. The girls are wrapped up from head to toe, one even in a fur coat: they are preparing to freeze. You cannot leave your post. “Neither ‘quickly’, nor ‘if you have time’, nor ‘to the neighboring district’, nor ‘vote’ – no way!” - the head of staff is categorical. The campaign is not counting on election observation, but on increasing the number of ballots for Gudkov in ballot boxes: otherwise an honest count will not help. “And if no one meets people at the polling station, we can get an impulsive vote for Baburin, as was the case last time,” Katz believes: two years ago he himself was nominated for the Moscow City Duma in Shchukino, which is now part of Gudkov’s district, and, like at Gudkov, competed with Sergei Baburin, a well-known and strong candidate. Katz then lost to both the communist and United Russia Oleg Soroka. United Russia is also very prominent in the district - the former chief medical officer of Russia, Gennady Onishchenko. Together with Defense Ministry council chairman Igor Korotchenko, writer Eduard Bagirov and municipal deputy Ilya Sviridov, they are tearing apart conservative voters, allowing Gudkov to accumulate protest votes.
Polling station, Strogino, 3 p.m.
On the wall, for the first time in 13 years, there are not only descriptions of parties, but also portraits of single-mandate candidates: the mixed system was returned only this year.
“Don’t you know Onishchenko? What, you don't watch TV? He won’t get out of there, ”the old woman points to the portrait of the United Russia member. Her friend objects that she has already voted - for Sviridov: "He is for the clinic, in general, for the people." The girl with purple lipstick squints, meticulously compares education, professions, incomes of deputies: “He has something decent,” points to Baburin. - What about this one? - reads the description of Gudkov's merits. And he recoils: - Oh my God, he's from the "Yabloko"! Baburin has an income of 900 thousand, comparable to mine, but this one has how much! The annual income of State Duma deputy Dmitry Gudkov is 4 million rubles.
"I want to know what they offer something!" insists the girl with purple lipstick. To do this, one had to look around oneself a little earlier: the campaign turned out to be hot in the district, all the streets were filled with agitation, and even United Russia organized meetings in the yards, not to mention its competitors. But there are still quite a lot of such voters, who only at the polling station begin to be interested in the future choice. A blue-eyed young man in a plaid jacket, with a swirling chic mustache, came in company with his father and knows no candidates: “I just pointed my finger at the sky, who has more honest eyes.” Both the candidate from the government and the main opposition leader of the district are equally unpleasant to his elderly father:
- Both Gudkov and Onishchenko did not like me for their aggressiveness. Like taxi drivers at the station: “Me, no, me!” Stand in line until you are chosen!
I meet Gudkov's staunch supporters — two long-haired metalhead brothers, and an even more ideological pensioner Democrat who want their vote to mean something so that an empty ballot is not put in a pack for the ruling party. “I came in the hope that something depends on my voice,” a girl in sneakers with large glass beads and a toy terrier trembling on a leash literally repeats their words. And she votes for United Russia: "I hope that the government will support me in the future." When asked what good this party did, he answers: “This is the party of our president. And I have respect for our government, if only for the fact that it maintains peace. We live in peacetime and help other countries to take on the same fight against terrorists. At the level of world politics, I believe that there is no equal to our president.” At the gates of the school, a pollster from VTsIOM approaches the girl, and it turns out that the voter no longer remembers the name of the United Russia single-mandate member for whom she voted.
Alexander, an observer from the Communist Party, admits that, in general, he treats United Russia well:
- They have one course, that of "ER", that of the Communist Party - for the prosperity of the country. And what should the opposition fight for? In Ukraine, it was clear: some wanted to be with Russia, others with Europe. And here - either to be a great power, or to flirt with the West.
Alexander carries cargo on a truck - he is against Platon, which, however, did not touch him, and he knows very well that "outside the Moscow region, roads in Russia end", because officials steal on asphalt. He is also a Crimean, and until March 2014 he was a citizen of Ukraine. “I saw enough of the political games there. The new government divides and takes everything anew every time. And when one has nestled, let it stay.”
Before school, 7 p.m.
- For me! the boy replies confidently.
In front of the cameras, the candidate talks about the 251 meetings he held, because of which he put his vote down, that his main opponent “hid in the TV”, about how much even a small faction in the Duma can change. The Russians have an hour to get her to the Duma. The candidate's wife is in the corner of the school hall photographing the children. A woman in a uniform apron sells sandwiches in the school locker room and watches intently as Gudkov gives foreign television comments in English.
Photo: Evgeny Feldman / Novaya Gazeta It got dark. On the way to the polling station next to the headquarters, a young man jumps up to the voters: “Good evening! Vote for the future! Boris, shivering from the cold, explains that everyone “spudded” their parts of the district, where they found supporters, so that they would already agitate their friends and neighbors. So here his face is familiar to many: "True, those who recognize me, and so are our people." For Boris, this is the third election campaign. “The main thing you understand while working for a campaign is that people are different. A man opens the door for you - blind in one eye, with tufts of hair, in a vest, as if he had been drinking for the last three years. You think - now it will pour on me. But it turns out the opposite!”
“American lackeys, you don’t have a present, let alone a future,” a woman wrapped in a scarf suddenly shouts to Boris, having moved to a safe distance.
“They think the truth will hurt me,” Boris shrugs. - Vigilantes, members of the electoral committee come up to me all the time here and start to put pressure on me. But if they do not react, they understand that they cannot do anything. Can't react. Our entire state is built on intimidation.
Headquarters, after polling stations closed
At nine o'clock, the headquarters is filled with guys and girls who have stood all day at the polling stations, who tell without stopping:
- And they answered me: “Yes, we are for the future - for Putin!”
I beat the police! They realized that nothing could be done with me, and left.
And they just took me away!
Judging by the stories, the police tried very hard to find propaganda in the words “Vote for the Future”, several guys were taken to the department, and for some reason one detained employee of the headquarters was recorded in the protocol that he campaigned for the “Party of Growth”.
Boris returns to headquarters. Turns out it's his birthday today. “I outlived all the vigilantes who were assigned to me - they withstood a maximum of an hour on the street,” he says, receiving a glass of tea. The result from the PEC, before which Boris was on duty, becomes known first: Gudkov won almost twice as many votes as Onishchenko.
Photo: Evgeny Feldman / Novaya Gazeta On the plasma screen is a table of the votes of the first three candidates, which is updated as soon as new data arrives. At the first few PECs, Gudkov is in the lead, but soon begins to fall behind United Russia. “We have the second everywhere in the Yabloko district,” the candidate remarks: he confidently chalks it up to his campaign.
The lag behind Onishchenko is considered “with crooks” and “without crooks”: a crowd of military men was seen at one of the polling stations, and the result of the municipal elections, which are held in Shchukino simultaneously with the federal ones, was canceled there. So there is a chance to review the results of the Duma vote. However, the gap is widening: when 17% of the votes are counted, Gudkov is 1,040 ballots behind Onishchenko.
Meanwhile, in US cities that are assigned to the Gudkov district (Miami, Boston, Washington and Chicago) it is still daytime, and voting is in full swing. The headquarters really hopes for two thousand votes from there to catch up with United Russia. True, so far the turnout of Russians in America is small. “But there are only ours,” the candidate believes.
Gennady Gudkov, the candidate's father, silently wanders back and forth around the headquarters. The candidate himself is gloomy before our eyes, he sits ruffled and eats lozenges from his throat. The employees of the headquarters - among them it is difficult to find someone over thirty - do not succeed in sitting gloomily. At first, they clap every time someone reads good results from the next PEC. When the separation of United Russia from Gudkov becomes serious, they run to the nearest supermarket for cupcakes and cola, and from the second floor of the headquarters there is a ringing of guitars and the many-voiced “My heart has stopped ...”
“We will lose from one to four percent,” predicts Katz.
- Losing one percent to United Russia - isn't it a victory anyway? I ask.
“Who needs such a victory,” Gudkov shrugs.
Gennady Gudkov refused to recognize the results of the gubernatorial elections in the Moscow region, which Vorobyov's team held according to the "Chechen scenario."
The falsifications were massive, the results were painted.
The candidate from "United Russia" Vorobeva "stretched" almost 80%!
Let me remind you that Putin in the presidential elections in the region scored 56%, and United Russia in the parliamentary elections - 33.5% of the vote.
Even the lickers from VTsIOM gave Vorobyov less.
Hundreds of such letters come from citizens to my mail:
Dmitry Gennadievich, hello, we sent this letter to the address of the headquarters, but I don't know. whether they read mail there, we send it to you, sorry if this is superfluous, but I would very, very much like to express my support for Gennady Gudkov.
We are from Voskresensk, the entire sane electorate of our city and Kolomna, of course, voted only for Gudkov, Gudkov is our governor.
These elections, 80% that Vorobyov made, is a disgrace to the Moscow region, terribly ashamed. In our city, at enterprises, budget and non-budget, they were forced, under threat of dismissal, to vote for Vorobyov, sign papers with photos and passport data stating that you support only Vorobyov, there are real cases of dismissal of acquaintances for refusing to participate in this, but they they are afraid to say it loudly, to complain, only in the kitchen they pass it all on to each other, these are people of the older generation.
They were intimidated that the ballot boxes were transparent and they would keep track of who voted for whom. No one knew who the candidates were except those who were told by their children who knew information from the Internet, and those who were forced to vote for Vorobyov.
People were afraid to say for whom they voted if they did not vote for Voroviev, and no one voluntarily voted for him (especially for Gudkov, "among the people" Gudkov was a very popular candidate, but this is again whispering "in the kitchen", but not open statements They brought people, almost like in Stalin's time, everyone is afraid.)
Of course, we, our generation, would never do such a thing, we cannot be intimidated, but the older generation, apparently remembering the Soviet regime, succumb to such intimidation. At the same time, many people still voted for Gudkov, under pain of dismissal, acquaintances. parents, relatives (about the younger generation, and so it is clear), plus those who work in Moscow, but our votes, apparently, were not counted.
The problem in the Moscow region is that it is fragmented, there is no single platform, protests are hardly possible, we go to Moscow for rallies, and there we also support Gennady Vladimirovich Gudkov.
This is just a letter of support and shame for the suburbs.
But we will win!
Thank you for the fact that there are such people, real people, real men, like Gennady Vladimirovich, who do not make a deal with their conscience. I don’t know if Gennady Vladimirovich himself will read this letter, but I would very much like to support him and you!
Daria and Andrey, Voskresensk.
Here's what happened in the suburbs.
We have not been able to raise money for an active and offensive campaign, but nevertheless we know how people voted.
Vorobyov - almost 90%
Gudkov - 0.7% (total 500 votes).
Brazen crooks! We do not recognize this fabricated victory.
Read more details and details later in G. Gudkov's blog.
Independent candidates with the support of Dmitry Gudkov's headquarters, the Yabloko and PARNAS parties, according to preliminary data, are winning the elections held the day before in 14 municipalities of Moscow. This is reported by "Echo of Moscow" with reference to the data of the headquarters. Ballot counting continues.
Earlier it was reported that 190 candidates were elected to the councils of municipal deputies in Moscow, who were supported by the headquarters of the United Democrats Dmitry Gudkov. Candidates from the headquarters, in particular, received the majority of mandates in the councils of deputies of Yakimanka, Ostankinsky, Presnensky, Tverskoy, Gagarinsky, Krasnoselsky, Lomonosov, Akademichesky, Basmanny districts and Khamovniki. "They've taken the centre," Maxim Katz, head of the headquarters, told Novaya Gazeta.
Opposition candidates showed themselves best in Akademichesky and Gagarinsky districts, where they will receive all 12 mandates. By the way, President Vladimir Putin voted at one of the polling stations of the latter.
Oppositionist Ilya Yashin also won the municipal elections. The leader of the Solidarity movement, together with his associates, received the majority of votes in the Krasnoselsky district. "Solidarity" - seven mandates, "United Russia" - three. In both districts, the first places are ours. The complete defeat of United Russia," the politician wrote in Twitter.
Journalist Ilya Azar and activist Lyusya Shtein also received a majority - they were supported in the Khamovniki and Basmann districts. Independent candidates also win in Zyuzino, Konkovo and Izmailovo. The Yabloko party announced the victory of 180 of its candidates in the municipal elections. In seven districts, the party's candidates received a majority, they overcame the five percent threshold in another 19 municipalities, Igor Yakovlev, Yabloko's press secretary, told TASS.
What will change a small municipal revolution in Moscow
The United Democrats, led by Dmitry Gudkov, managed to make a small and unpleasantly surprise their opponents.
Growing authoritarianism against the backdrop of general apathy finally collided with grassroots democratic activism. This deviation from the well-known logic "do not change anything" launches some new political processes, there is a slight cancellation of unanimity in Russia, Novaya Gazeta writes today.
In those municipal assemblies where the opposition has received a majority, deputies will have real powers, and local authorities will be forced to coordinate budget expenditures with them, and two-thirds of the votes of deputies is enough to remove the head of the council. The architecture of municipal elections in Moscow is such that one winner does not take all. This means that it is more difficult for a conditional chief acting on behalf of the administrative resource to appoint himself a representative of the will of the people. In addition to him, in multi-member districts, other people can get into municipal assemblies ... Based on preliminary data, the opposition gathered 12.6% in Moscow.
For comparison, elections to the State Duma are arranged in such a way that the winner takes all - because of the combination of single-member constituencies and the 5% threshold for party lists. Because of this, a paradoxical situation arises when even official sociology records a significant and actively dissatisfied minority, but this does not affect the parliament in any way.
The authorities did not expect a serious blow, they did not prepare all sorts of barriers and filters, and they used administrative resources less than in elections at other levels. The result was the return of 14% of citizens to political life - at least in symbolic terms. And this leads to the collapse of the fictitious parliamentary opposition. Now, at the level of the Moscow municipal assemblies, United Russia will remain face to face with the oppositionists, who come from the united democrats, and this polarization can be considered a positive sign.
The municipal revolution became possible due to a miscalculation of the authorities. Having staked on the maximum, they eventually lost - albeit having received the majority of mandates, but still getting irreconcilable opponents in the councils everywhere. In the elections on September 10, the turnout in Moscow was a record low 12%.
And, as the newspaper notes, we should not forget that the current municipal elections are a step towards the unexpectedly competitive elections of the mayor of Moscow in 2018. Both for Dmitry Gudkov, who intends to run for mayor, and for the young Yabloko candidates, the municipal elections have become an instrument of political recruiting.
Opposition and observers complained about violations
CEC members did not record serious violations during the Moscow elections, Ella Pamfilova, chairman of the Central Election Commission, Maya Grishina, secretary of the commission, and Alexander Klyukin, a member of the CEC, told reporters. However, the opposition and independent observers throughout the election day complained about large-scale home-based voting and low turnout by the authorities, RBC notes.
Most complaints were received about "abnormal" voting at home and stuffing, representatives of parties and observers told RBC. This was stated by representatives of Yabloko, the Golos movement, the headquarters of ex-State Duma deputy Dmitry Gudkov, Open Russia, and the Just Russia party. Thus, the Golos movement counted 284 violations in the course of voting in Moscow.
On Sunday morning, Gudkov reported a high percentage of home-based voting. Later, RBC's information was confirmed by observers from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and a candidate for local deputies in the Krasnoselsky district, a member of the Bureau of the Federal Political Council of Solidarity, Ilya Yashin. The increase in the number of "home workers" could be organized by United Russia, which thus "gathers" the necessary votes, Yulia Galyamina, a candidate for municipal deputies in the Timiryazevsky district, told RBC.
A large number of calls to the Yabloko hotline were connected precisely with home-based voting, party spokesman Igor Yakovlev confirmed to RBC. The opposition in different districts of the capital complained that at several polling stations the number of applications for voting at home was abnormally high, and social workers persuaded pensioners to vote at home and helped them make the "right" choice - in favor of United Russia candidates. Sometimes agitators even attached booklets with campaigning for candidates from the ruling party to their ballots, Timur Valeev, executive director of Open Russia, told RBC.
In turn, the chairman of the Moscow City Electoral Committee, Valentin Gorbunov, told reporters that the number of "home-workers" in the current municipal elections was not as large as the oppositionists say: only about 66,000 people.
"We'll have to resolve the conflict, let's say"
Dmitry Gudkov and his team can be called the beneficiaries of the past Moscow municipal elections. The fact that the composition of the metropolitan deputies of the municipal corps has become much more oppositional than before is also their merit (76% of the metropolitan mandates were received by United Russia). However, today Dmitry Gennadievich is forced to answer not only pleasant questions.
Dmitry, you declared victory, although not complete. But in the context of plans for next year, the intention to nominate a candidate for mayor, it still looks more like a defeat: the municipal filter is still insurmountable.
Whatever they say in the Moscow City Electoral Committee, we must admit the obvious fact: we have become the second political force in Moscow. By a huge margin from the rest. There is no other real parliamentary opposition in the city. We are 250 independent deputies. At least, this is the order - we don't know the exact number yet.
The head of the Moscow City Electoral Committee tells us that no one will be able to overcome the municipal filter without the help of United Russia. And I say that no legitimate elections are possible anymore in Moscow without our participation. The second political force will somehow find an opportunity to take part in these elections. How it will be technically designed - no longer matters.
- But how do you see it anyway?
In general, the municipal filter must, of course, be cancelled. This is a shameful barrier. But we have 250 deputies. And you need 110 signatures. Therefore, let them change the Moscow legislation, let them not impose such conditions that signatures should be from each district.
In a number of districts where your team ran, there were alternative teams that opposed the authorities. In this connection, some colleagues in the opposition camp accuse you of spoiling, that you contributed to the dispersion of democratic forces.
And what, for example, prevented you from finding a common language with the city defender Alexandra Parushina, who ran in Khamovniki? (Parushina, already very well known as an active current Mundep and walking under the auspices of Yabloko, took first place in her district in the area where no United Russia party was elected - MK).
We were ready to add Parushina, but she went into conflict with our team. I wanted to meet her, talk, discuss the situation. But she didn't even agree to that. However, now this conflict will have to be resolved, let's say. Now we have to work together. Now Parushina has the opportunity, together with our deputies, to form a majority and really influence the situation in the region...
Meanwhile, at today's press conference, the head of Gudkov's headquarters, Maxim Katz, said that he wants to remove the head of the capital's Yabloko, Sergei Mitrokhin, from his post and hopes to head the party branch himself, since Mitrokhin, although a "wonderful person," is ineffective. Asked why Navalny did not support Gudkov's project, Katz suggested personal hostility and added that the election boycott strategy, which the founder of the Anti-Corruption Foundation staked on, had a negative impact on the turnout, although in the end it did not materialize.
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The municipal elections held on Sunday, September 10, in Moscow demonstrated an obvious fact - the leader of the non-systemic opposition was Dmitry Gudkov. Alexei Navalny, who until recently had his own target audience, albeit a small one, found himself far behind the scenes.
On the whole, the Single Voting Day that took place on September 10 was not too rich in surprises - in the elections of regional top officials, as expected, the incumbent governors or acting governors won by a wide margin. The vast majority of seats in the regional legislature, just as expected, were taken by representatives of United Russia, with occasional inclusions of communists, liberal democrats and fair Russians. This time it was the local elections, and specifically the elections of municipal deputies in Moscow, that turned out to be truly significant for Russian political reality.
Expert of the "People's Diplomacy" Foundation and the "Future Today" Expert and Analytical Club Andrey Ryazantsev in an interview with a correspondent of the FAN noted: the coalition "United Democrats" Dmitry Gudkov, which included in its ranks representatives of the parties "Yabloko" and "Parnassus", as well as the social movements "Solidarity" and "Open Russia", received 266 mandates of the municipal level out of 1502 in 62 districts of the capital. In addition, in at least 16 districts of Moscow, representatives of the Gudkov coalition took the majority of seats in municipal representative bodies. This fact makes it possible to draw a number of conclusions that are by no means of local, but of quite federal significance.
“Firstly, the liberal idea has a certain electorate, which does not tend to zero, as many radical patriots have come to believe in recent years, and if it is mobilized, it can be represented in the authorities. Secondly, there is nothing wrong with such representation, since the liberal opposition is thus included in the process of real state and municipal government on the ground, burdened with political responsibility for their words and deeds. Thirdly, the thesis that there is “real opposition” (that it is impossible to win elections in Russia, and therefore supposedly the only way of political struggle is to provoke street protests) has been refuted,” Andrey Ryazantsev added.
The expert noted that the example of the municipal elections in Moscow clearly shows that the forces that can unite and competently conduct a campaign can win, and quite convincingly. Consequently, elections as a mechanism for forming the political representation of citizens in Russia really work, and politicians like Alexei Navalny, who deny the possibility of achieving a political result legally, consciously choose the path of provocation for themselves.
“In addition, it has been demonstrated that the authorities are ready to enter into a dialogue with any force that represents the interests of society, expressed in a legal way. The development of these trends can only be welcomed,” Andrey Ryazantsev concluded.
Political scientist Ivan Arkatov in a comment, the FAN noted that the non-systemic opposition still has disagreements, and it does not act as a united front. Dmitry Gudkov actively worked to win the municipal elections. And it turned out at a good level, because he did not go alone, but also helped other representatives of the opposition. He was able to unite some part of the people.
“Such an opposition is needed to heal the political field and create constructive competition. Gudkov promotes young politicians and uses methods of political struggle accepted all over the world. But we can say that in our country there are also representatives of an inadequate opposition, which act only with the help of provocations and violations of the law. Of course, this is Navalny and his henchmen. While he was resting on the seas, Dmitry Gudkov worked, getting real results in the political struggle. A political counterbalance in the form of some part of the opposition, which is now in fact led by Gudkov, is a positive symptom, ”said Ivan Arkatov.
And here, the expert noted, the question arises whether our country needs such an opposition, which is led by populists and provocateurs in the person of Navalny and his henchmen. If Alexei Navalny is fighting for power, as he claims, then why did he not take part in the elections, why did he rest, and did not work in the election arena? Most likely, he has some goals of his own, and in achieving them he does not shun anything.
“For Navalny, it has already become the norm to set up, throw his associates and supporters into difficult situations. He uses the youth, attracting them with beautiful and loud slogans, and nothing else. The same Gudkov eventually promoted his like-minded people, gave them a chance to prove themselves. Why doesn't Navalny do this? He could act as a flagship and unite the opposition, but on the contrary, he worked to split it. What is Navalny aiming for? There's a lot to be said, but the deeds speak for themselves. Based on Navalny’s actions, we can say that his goal is not a legal way to come to power at its various levels (although he constantly declares this), but chaos and destabilization in the country,” Ivan Arkatov concluded.
