You are welcome, Sergei Semenovich!

On this cloudy day in the coming summer of 2012, realpolitik returns to the country. It is on June 1 that the law on the election of heads of constituent entities of the Russian Federation, which seemed an unattainable dream a year ago, comes into force.

Of course, the morally incurable government tried to lay straws for itself in the form of various “filters” and restrictions. However, they made the bed softly, but they would hardly have to sleep.

I’m ready to make a bet with inquisitive readers: the longer Sergei Sobyanin postpones the early termination of his powers and participation in the direct elections of the Moscow mayor, the less chance he will have of winning these elections. And if he plans his election campaign for October 2015, then this will clearly be empty troubles and a road to the government house. Don't go to a fortune teller...

At the same time, yesterday’s statement by Sergei Semenovich ignited my liberal soul. Just think, he harshly reined in the Moscow City Duma deputies: he demanded that self-nominated candidates be allowed to run for mayor, and also that the volume of the “municipal filter” be reduced from 10 to 6 percent.

At the same time, Sergei Semenovich made an extremely far-sighted and wise decision, declaring that he would run for mayor as a “supra-party candidate,” as a real business executive. Sergei Sobyanin felt the Cheyne-Stokes breath of United Russia in time and went a different way.

To be fair, we note that this tactic has already been used in Moscow: in the municipal elections on March 4, all United Russia candidates hid their party affiliation and ran as self-nominated candidates. But this did not help everyone.

One of the mandatory virtues of an official in the “vertical of power”, the key to his political survival, is a quick and correct understanding of not only the direct instructions of his superiors, but also certain signals and hints. What dog handlers call “superior instinct.”

I think that with his yesterday’s statements, the mayor of Moscow gave an unambiguous signal to the Moscow City Duma: it’s time, before it’s too late, to voluntarily resign and go to early elections, without relying on the notorious “administrative resource.”

And besides, the gloomy silence of trained lambs about the monstrous violence of law enforcement officers during “public festivities” nullifies the last remnants of trust in these “people’s representatives” on the part of Muscovites.

An equally significant event for Moscow political life was S. Sobyanin’s intentions to reform the city management system, giving local governments more powers.

As the unsuccessful attempt of the Presnensky deputies to legalize “folk festivals” by establishing the local festival “Summer of Freedom” showed, they do not have the right to independently decide even on the installation of a non-stationary public toilet. This is an issue of national importance, and today there is no way to solve it without the Moscow government.

Laughter is laughter, but the direction of movement towards decentralization of the Moscow management system was chosen correctly and in a timely manner.

I dare to suggest that Sergei Semenovich got acquainted with the initiatives of municipal deputies who united within the framework of the socio-political supra-party project “RVS - Real Power to Self-Government”.

We announced our goals and work plan for 2012-2013 at a press conference on April 12: we are seeking full, real powers for local self-government in Moscow, and prefectures and councils are being liquidated as unnecessary.

To do this, we are preparing a new edition of the city Charter and the Law “On the organization of local self-government in the city of Moscow”, and in the spring of next year we will submit them to a citywide referendum.

Thematic round tables are scheduled for June this year on the main issues of organizing city life - urban planning and the urban environment, housing and communal services, the social sphere, and so on. We invite Sergei Semenovich, the Moscow government and Moscow City Duma deputies to participate in them.

In a month or a month and a half we should come up with a concept for urban management reform, and by September we will prepare the texts of bills. In this case, the referendum in April 2013 is a more than realistic and feasible task.

So, Sergey Semenovich, everything is on time! And note that primaries are gradually becoming part of political life and are beginning to be perceived as a necessary and useful tool in the struggle for voters’ sympathy. With just one clarification: they should be held not a week before the elections, but at least six months in advance.

Deputies of municipal assemblies united in the RVS project and caring Muscovites who have joined them are ready to begin casting candidates for the Procrustean chair of the Moscow mayor.

You are welcome to the real Moscow primaries!

To the platform, after passing through which the candidate will be able to soberly assess his chances, first of passing the “municipal filter”, and then of winning the elections.

We will inform you additionally about the time and place of the event.