Recommendations have entered the competition – Picture of the Day – Kommersant

Opposition activists published four versions of the list of recommendations for voters at the municipal elections in Moscow on September 9-11 at once. All projects call for voting for candidates who are not members of United Russia and are not affiliated with the mayor’s office in order to consolidate protest votes in each district. Most of the compilers of the lists were guided by the beliefs of the candidates, which did not allow “closing” all the districts with recommendations, and differences in the requirements for the “correct” candidates could eventually “disperse the protest votes,” the expert believes.

Oppositionists have started publishing lists of recommendations since last week. The first to do this was political strategist Petr Miloserdov, who launched a chat bot in Telegram “There is a choice”. The list, according to him, was compiled on the basis of sociology without reference to the political views of the candidates and their attitude towards the special operation in Ukraine. He calls his project “purely volunteer” and emphasizes that he is not a member of any party. The selection, according to Mr. Miloserdov, included “the strongest opponents of pro-government candidates” in the amount of 1389 people (1417 mandates in total).

Recommendations were also issued by one of the largest platforms for supporting independent opposition candidates, “Nomination” (it is supervised by the former candidate for the State Duma from the Communist Party Mikhail Lobanov and the deputy of the Zyuzino district Alexander Zamyatin). The platform has brought more than 100 of its candidates to registration, and in general, its list of 349 people includes candidates “capable of representing the views of Muscovites who disagree with the current policy of the authorities,” as well as those who share the position of the platform “on fundamental political issues.” At the same time, candidates from parties that “publicly declared other positions” were also included in the list, if they do not in fact support the position of the parties that nominated them. To identify such candidates, the opposition analyzed their social networks, campaigning and consulted with activists in the districts.

The widest in terms of coverage in Russia and the smallest in Moscow (110 candidates) list of recommendations was compiled by the All-Russian Association of Municipal Deputies “Zemsky Congress”. His list included those who signed a declaration of agreement with the principles of the “Zemsky Congress”, which, among other things, indicates “commitment to a peaceful foreign policy.”

Recall that earlier the lists for the consolidated protest vote were made up only by supporters of politician Alexei Navalny as part of the Smart Voting project. Their concept was based on the support of the oppositionists with the highest rating, regardless of their ideological beliefs and party affiliation. In the summer of 2021, the organizations created by Mr. Navalny were declared extremist and banned, after which the courts began to recognize publications about Smart Voting as a public demonstration of the symbols of an extremist organization (Article 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses).

This year the authors “Smart Voting” decided to support in Moscow only candidates who criticize the special operation in Ukraine (the list included 778 people). After that, some oppositionists expressed fear that politicians included in this list could be accused of being associated with extremists or discrediting the army and removed from the elections, while others criticized the very change in concept, which eventually gave rise to the creation of alternative lists.

Most candidates from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation supported the UG and Miloserdov’s project, most of all Yabloko and self-nominated – “Zemsky Congress” and “Nomination”.

Yabloko is most dissatisfied with the Smart Voting list, which includes almost all the candidates they nominated. Yabloko even urged supporters not to use the project as a guideline, calling it “harmful, dangerous and politically unacceptable.” “We believe that we should vote for those who are for peace. The principle can only be like this, ”the party explained to Kommersant.

The competition of recommendation lists will worsen the results of the opposition, political analyst Alexei Makarkin is sure: “Earlier, there were, of course, different recommendations in the municipal elections in Moscow, but the list of the United Democrats strongly dominated. Now it will be difficult for a person to understand a large number of lists. An apolitical voter who wanted to come to the polls because of the protest mood will not compare different lists, but will take the one he comes across on the Internet.” As a result, the abundance of recommendations will “disperse” the protest votes, and only those candidates who are simultaneously on different lists will get an advantage, the expert concludes.

Kira Heifetz