Translated material
According to Pareto's law
Almost 90 municipal deputies agreed to give signatures for Navalny
“At the moment, we are faced with the implementation of the Pareto law: 20% of efforts give us 80% of the result, and another 80% of the efforts should be spent on achieving the remaining 20% of the result,” comments Leonid Volkov, head of the election headquarters of Alexei Navalny, on the collection of deputy signatures.
“Collecting 80% of the signatures costs nothing,” Leonid Volkov explains in a conversation with The New Times during the presentation of Navalny’s election program on July 1. “But as for the rest, each one is taken simply with a fight, with some tricks, an assault ... Each next (signature) is much more difficult than all the previous ones put together.” When asked how many signatures have already been collected, Volkov replied: "80% is."
No guarantees
37-year-old lawyer, member of the Opposition Coordinating Council (CCO) Alexei Navalny has been nominated as a candidate for mayor of Moscow from the RPR-PARNAS party. To pass the municipal filter when registering as a candidate, he needs to collect 110 deputy signatures from 110 municipal districts. So, approximately 88 deputies have already given their consent to him. Candidate registration closes July 10.
“The problem is that we have only a few dozen physical, that is, real signatures, and we have a verbal agreement on the rest,” Volkov explained to the magazine. “But there is no guarantee that all the deputies with whom we have such an agreement will not change their minds – what if they have profitable “commercial offers” in the remaining days?”
Appeal to the minority
The presentation of Alexei Navalny's program took place on the fourth floor of the Renaissance Moscow Olympic Hotel. The round hall for 380 people was about half full. In addition to journalists, volunteers came to listen to Navalny, who help him with campaigning. Actually, he addressed them from the stage: “Until this day, we distributed only the main theses around the city, now we have a program,” he said.
The main backbone of his team rose to the stage - almost 20 people involved in the projects of the Anti-Corruption Fund, RosPil and others. Navalny himself, in trousers and a blue shirt, went on stage with his wife Yulia. “We are here to make the world a better place. And we will definitely make it better,” he said into the microphone.
At the beginning of the presentation, Sergei Guriev, former rector of the New Economic School, delivered a video message from Paris. He was one of those who participated in the writing of Navalny's program. Sergei Guriev advised everyone to remember this day (July 1): “Today, real politics begins in Russia,” he said. “Real politics is not about big black cars and spacious offices with coats of arms and portraits. The real politics are the volunteers, the citizens who spend their time standing up for their right to decide how their country will be organized. And they do it not for personal gain. Moreover, in our country, honest politics is not a safe occupation. I know this firsthand (Why Sergey Guriev was forced to leave the country - in the material "Brains to Departure" )".
Guriev himself believes that Navalny does not give out empty promises and will definitely implement the plans that he voices. And the fact that there is still a minority behind him, let no one be embarrassed. “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful and dedicated citizens can change the world. Moreover, they were the only ones who ever changed it,” ex-Rector of NES quoted American anthropologist Margaret Mead as saying.
About people
Alexei Navalny outlined the main theses of the election program, as if passing them through the stories of his team members. It sounded something like this: “Here is a story about Lyuba,” Navalny points to Lyubov Sobol, a lawyer with the Anti-Corruption Foundation. - Once Lyuba decided that it would be great if flowers grew near her entrance. Lyuba knows that a lot of money is allocated from the city budget for the improvement of Moscow. She went to the public procurement site and found out that money had been allocated for planting flowers at her entrance. But these flowers are not. Therefore, today Lyuba is with us, because our program provides for control over all expenses of the city of Moscow.”
Having told about a dozen such stories (most of all, the public was shocked by the story of the girl Lena, who, having lived in Moscow for 30 years, according to Navalny, spent 1.5 years of her life in traffic jams), Navalny said: even if he is not registered as a candidate, the election the campaign will not be stopped: "It will continue until the single voting day, September 8, and beyond." According to him, the main goal is to “crush the wall of censorship” and convey to people what can really be changed in the city with an honest, open government that will work absolutely transparently.
And one more thing: to date, Aleksey added, 5,000 people have already signed up for volunteer groups ready to assist him in the election campaign.
What Alexei Navalny offers and how experts assessed his program - read in the material "Interrogation with prejudice for Alexei Navalny" in No. 23 of July 1, 2013.
photo: RBC