A candidate named Rabinovich intends to run for office

Among the participants in the upcoming presidential elections there may be a candidate named Rabinovich. A resident of Moscow orphanage No. 3, Anatoly Rabinovich, who now heads the National Pension Association and the board of trustees of the Solnechny Krug rehabilitation center for people with disabilities, announced his intention to run. And his maximum goal is to become a single candidate from the entire opposition.

This is not his first attempt to participate in the elections: in 2018, he submitted a statement of intention to nominate himself as a candidate to the Central Election Commission, however, this was the end of his participation. “Then I had only this goal – to be included in the Central Election Commission documents on the 2018 elections – and that’s all,” Anatoly Rabinovich explained to Vedomosti. True, six years ago – in December 2017 – he explained the meaning of his own nomination somewhat differently, deriving it from the specific perception of his surname, which had long become a household name in the mass consciousness of Russians. Rabinovich hoped to “test Russians for tolerance”: “Can a person with this last name or another, for example, Tatar or Bashkir, become president?” He considered this important at the time, as he feared the growth of nationalist sentiment in the long term and therefore was preparing to put himself up for presidential elections in the next 20 years.

The events of the last month in the Middle East and the last days at Makhachkala airport have confirmed and strengthened Rabinovich’s previous fears, he says. In addition, the potential candidate believes that it is important now to gain political capital for the future. At the same time, he has no illusions about the results of the upcoming elections: “Vladimir Putin will win (he has not yet announced his nomination – Vedomosti).” But for Rabinovich it is important that the counterbalance to the winner is “a politician from the 45-plus generation with at least 20% of the votes.” He allows for the technological possibility of this, provided that all opposition forces nominate a single candidate.

If the leading opposition parties nominate their leaders again, then each of them, according to Rabinovich’s forecast, “will collect 3-5%.” “Therefore, I am going to send official letters to the leadership of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, the Liberal Democratic Party and Yabloko with a proposal that they do not nominate their own presidential candidates, but support Rabinovich,” he said. He sees no ideological or programmatic obstacles to this. “I completely share the current foreign policy of Russia, like the communists or the Liberal Democratic Party, but I do not agree with the domestic policy. In the social sphere, my program completely coincides with the guidelines of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, in the economy and in relation to civil liberties – with the guidelines of Yabloko.

If the opposition does not accept his proposals, he will go to the polls as a self-nominated candidate. Rabinovich participated in the elections of Moscow City Duma deputies when he was a member of Yabloko (he was deputy chairman of the Moscow branch until 2011). Since 2013 he has been a member of the All-Russian Popular Front. In 2021, he was nominated as a candidate for State Duma deputy on the list of the Party of Pensioners. A self-nominated candidate, according to the law “On the Election of the President of the Russian Federation,” can be nominated by an initiative group of at least 500 people. In order for the Central Election Commission to register him as a presidential candidate, a self-nominated candidate must collect 300,000 signatures of Russians in his support.