Fight for peace until the last mandate – Newspaper Kommersant No. 152 (7353) of 08.22.

The Moscow branch of Yabloko held a conference of candidates for municipal deputies on Saturday. According to the party’s leadership, out of 179 of its nominees, 151 people were admitted to the elections, and the rest were subjected to “political pressure due to their anti-war position.” But the remaining candidates will not change it: the main goal of their campaign will be to promote democratic values ​​among voters and provide them with the opportunity to express their disagreement with the military special operation in Ukraine. The members of the Zemsky Congress, an all-Russian meeting of opposition municipalities, Zemsky Congress, decided to support “value-close” candidates throughout Russia, in particular, those who advocate “peaceful politics,” who discussed the corresponding list at a forum held on the same day.

As announced at the Yabloko conference, at the moment the election commissions have registered 151 party candidates in 43 districts of Moscow. In total, 179 people were nominated by Yabloko this year, although there were more than a thousand of them in the 2017 municipal elections. True, at that time most of the candidates were not members of the party and were proposed for nomination by the United Democrats project, headed by politicians Dmitry Gudkov and Maxim Katz (both included by the Ministry of Justice in the register of foreign agents).

Explaining the small number of nominees, Yabloko leader Nikolai Rybakov recalled that the party made the anti-war position the basis of the election campaign, and not the regional problems of Muscovites. “There were 150 people who agreed to this. Talking about parks and bike paths is much calmer, but this (anti-war position.— “b”) is an important civic act that so many people have decided to do,” Mr. Rybakov emphasized. He added that for Yabloko the number of mandates received, by which “the current elections are not measured,” will not be fundamental either. “We have made leaflets that say “For Peace” and will be reaching out to a lot of people with this position. And if this brings peace even for one day, we will recognize the elections as successful,” the party leader explained.

Moscow City Duma deputy from Yabloko Sergei Mitrokhin, however, added that “in addition to the anti-war position” the candidates “should have other topics that will attract a broader voter.” “If we don’t involve him, then we don’t do anything to win,” he explained his approach. “At the same time, when we attract him, he begins to think about these issues and then he will understand everything.” Mr. Mitrokhin also noted that “the question of war and peace is not the main issue” for Muscovites, although the party still considers this topic a priority in the election campaign. Other party members, however, assured the audience that it was the residents of the capital who were most interested in this topic and were ready to vote for Yabloko in order to “legally express disagreement with Russia’s foreign policy.”

Speaking about party values, Nikolai Rybakov said that he considers it unacceptable to support people who go to the polls from the parties that approved the special operation. Even if these are people of democratic views, who consider the nomination from such a party only as an opportunity to receive a mandate, they “put the label of this party on themselves, promoting it among the people” and “deceive the voters,” Mr. Rybakov noted.

In parallel with the Yabloko conference, the Zemsky Congress forum was held online, the participants of which were also concerned about the values ​​of the candidates. Earlier, the Zemstvo announced that they would compile a list of candidates from different regions for opposition-minded voters. Applicants were asked to sign a declaration in which they agreed with the values ​​of the “Zemsky Congress”, such as adherence to the ideals of local self-government, support for the decentralization of power, disagreement with authoritarianism, the desire for dialogue and compromise.

At the time of the forum, the document was signed by more than 100 people, but some of the candidates raised questions from the congress participants. In particular, Deputy of the Novosibirsk City Duma Sergey Boyko (an associate of Alexei Navalny, is abroad due to criminal prosecution for participation in an extremist community) said that the list includes candidates from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and Just Russia – For Truth, who support a special operation in Ukraine . “Very important values ​​are listed in the declaration, but the most important is human life. I would designate such candidates as a “risk group” and propose to revise the list,” the deputy said. “I understand that the candidate today cannot oppose (special operations in Ukraine.— “b”), but he may not compete for.

The drafter of the declaration, St. Petersburg municipal deputy Vitaly Bovar, noted that he “tried to create a document that would be unacceptable for signing by supporters of Russian foreign policy,” but did not rule out that some signatories simply did not read this text. The congress participants agreed that the list should be revised to create a “real, not Potemkin democracy”, and that the declaration should be supplemented with a clause on commitment to a “peace policy”. However, part of the Zemstvo noted that the list should be corrected “cautiously”, seek compromises and try to avoid dividing the opposition into “good and bad Russians.” The municipalities plan to revise the list in the near future in order to have time to publish it by the time of the vote.

Kira Heifetz