Who is behind Navalny

The New Times all day pursued a candidate for mayors of Moscow from the Party of the RPR-Parnas and interfered for several days from working to his headquarters, finding out who the people he calls his team

Alexey Navalny: "The best audience is really grandmothers"

“Well, why do you need this Navalny, Evgenia Nikolaevna? In Russia, a good person will not strive for power, ”says a gray -haired stooped man of a professorship to the interlocutor - a magnificent lady of about 55, in an air dress with patterns. “Not true, he is completely different,” she answers and begins to bend his fingers. - He is young, educated, studied abroad, he has live eyes. He is not a fish! Hear, his eyes are not fish! "

The couple stands far from the stage, next to the store "Women's clothing, discount". August 21 - Alexei Navalny performs in the area of ​​the Shchelkovskaya metro. Opposite the scenes are dilapidated high -rise buildings, whose inhabitants go out to listen to the candidate for balconies. There are few people - 200 people. Older people settled on chairs at the scene itself, the rest are standing, surrounding Navalny with a dense ring. Two in the afternoon, hot.

Navalny looks tired, haggard and weighty. This is his 63rd meeting from the beginning of the election campaign and the first in the day. On weekdays, he has three such events, on the weekend - up to five. He gets up at 7-8 in the morning, at 11 he arrives at the office of the Corruption Fund or to the election headquarters in Lyalin Lane, is engaged in current affairs and, by two o’clock in the afternoon, leaves for the first meeting with voters. The task is to hold 100 such meetings until September 8.

His speech to voters is always the same. “When I change the prepared text, I see that it goes worse,” Navalny admits in an interview with The New Times. - Therefore, I say the same thing close to the text, joke the same joke, make the same pauses and all that. I want to hold 100 meetings, but you won’t write 100 speeches. ” He welcomes local residents, says that a real candidate must meet people, briefly tells himself and his family, and then sets out the key points of the program, each of which ends with the words: “I want to become a mayor to change this situation!” He speaks very loudly, constantly keeps contact with the public - he asks questions: “How much does your janitor pay?”, “Who will call at least one large industrial enterprise built over the past 13 years?” People react vividly, shout answers.

“In order to win the elections, I need one and a half million people. I don’t know how many of you I can convince, but I’m sure that, relying on you, I will reach hundreds of thousands, ”says Navalny from the stage.

At the largest meeting with voters (August 25 on Sokolnichesky Square), Alexei Navalny was detained, letting go after an “educational conversation” in the department

“He says beautifully, and really wants to believe him, but only how will the authorities allow him to win? Draw numbers, punch. And in the TV there is not enough - there Sobyanin is fighting with traffic jams, he builds bicycle paths, - Sergey sighs, 35 years old, in a blue shirt and light summer trousers. - This is also God if they do not put him after the election. Although, maybe if his Muscovites support, then there will be no prison, they will be afraid. ”

The meeting lasts an hour. Navalny says goodbye, gives out autographs, accepts wishes, photographs. He has two more such meetings ahead - on Izmailovsky Boulevard and next to the Semenovsky shopping center. And by 8 o’clock you need to be at a meeting at the headquarters. Accompanied by Nikolai Lyaskin, the head of the Moscow branch of the unregistered party "People's Alliance", full -time photographers and volunteers, he goes to the car - a black minibus. "And this car is it?" - A gray grandmother in a colored sundress turns to Lyaskin, nodding towards a minibus. “No, they rented for trips,” he answers. "And that, well, there is no car?" - “There is, but the wife. It seems "Ford". - "Here, they are all so, they rewrite on wives!" - the grandmother shakes her head.

16.30. Izmailovsky Boulevard
"The Navalny team is who?" - shout from the crowd. Navalny just finished his speech and said that he was ready to answer questions. Around the scene, 300 people are busy and all boulevard shops, many are in the shadow of trees. “The Navalny team is primarily you,” the candidate answers predictably. And he adds: - To a lesser extent, the Navalny team - those who work in the Corruption Fund, to a greater extent - 12 thousand volunteers who distribute leaflets on the streets of Moscow for free. And they do this not because they love me, but because they love and want change. ”
“Oh, this is all the way Yeltsin reminds,” says Vladimir, a gray -haired man of about 45, with a dark briefcase in his hands. “He also said everything correctly, and then took it and became the most important corrupt official.”

How does the headquarters begin

While Navalny travels to meetings, work is in full swing in the headquarters in Lyalin Lane.

“I remember when we arrived here at the end of June, I turned out to be the only one who found a drill and tools in the car. There were absolutely bare walls, there were no furniture; Dirty floor covered with drywall, ”recalls the volunteer Dima Masalsky. - Then they brought tables from Ikei and furniture from the Rain television channel.

The headquarters of Navalny in Lyalin Lane, 22, is a six -story brick building. In the afternoon, up to 50 people are pushed here. It used to be even more until the technical employees and the newspaper editor were transferred to the office in Krivokolny Lane. In the last month of the campaign, the headquarters grew into three premises: 2 thousand volunteers work constantly, in total 14 thousand were registered.

Lyalin Lane, 22. Volunteers register volunteers

The transparent door is all in agitas-tickles, through it you get into the first room no less than 40 square meters. meters where volunteers and project coordinators are sitting at the tables on brilliant plastic chairs. Down, to the basement, leads a steep staircase over which the Moscow map hangs, where campaign points are marked with different markers. Below there are three communicating rooms, a toilet and a tiny kitchen, where all the time someone cuts a melon or lays a pizza on plates. Here they conduct trainings of volunteers, solve organizational issues. An agit product has been placed throughout the headquarters, plastic boards with cube schedules are placed. Above the board with the inscription "We need cubes!" There is a “Keep Calm and Cube on” sign (“Be calm and cubic”, that is, work in a cube - a paraphrase of an English poster of the Second World War Keep Calm and Carry ON).

Back in June, the headquarters was in the office of the Corruption Fund. “There were 15–20 people of us. Basically, people who used to work with Alexei, ”says Nikolai Lyaskin, an activist of demotion, who at one time led the election campaign in Khimki Evgenia Chirikova; At the headquarters of Navalny, he is responsible for holding meetings of the candidate with voters and, by the way, works for free, as, however, most of the main people at the headquarters (Volkov, Ashurkov, Katz and others). “But the campaign grew, and we began to interfere with the fund, sat almost on our heads.” In the 20th of June, Lyaskin opened one of the sites on the rental of premises and found the office within three days. “The owner is an ordinary businessman. He reacted calmly, only when they signed the documents, once joked: “Well, Putin will call and ask us to drive you out?” And I say: "Putin is unlikely." And he: "Well, okay."

The head of the IT-entrepreneur, Leonid Volkov, during a conversation with the New Times correspondent in Lyalin Lane, manages to answer calls, as well as accept visitors, read Twitter and view mail. Suddenly, a man of about 60 in a turquoise jacket and a yellow cervical scarf approaches him. “I would like to talk with Alexei,” he begins insinuatingly. "About? Want to offer something? " - asks Volkov. “According to the election campaign, there are several ideas ...” The citizen is asked to write their proposals by e -mail.

“When a person comes up and asks“ do you have only 10 minutes for me? ”, I want to laugh: the time is painted almost seconds,” Volkov says. And adds: “A million flies in the air. We need those who come to realize these ideas. ”

Head of the headquarters Leonid Volkov says that ideas are the last thing Navalny's team needs

However, it is a sin to complain to Volkov, to embody ideas who just does not come. There are students, engineers, designers, accountants, entrepreneurs, there are even an artist in light. “Today, a woman with NTV came, not a correspondent, but a technical worker,” says a volunteer at the reception Yuri Kirillov, a fair -haired blue -eyed young man. “Having called her place of work, she closed her eyes with her hand, they say, ashamed.” He himself works in a web studio, but took a vacation during the election campaign-now he campaigns in cubes, and spreads invitations to meetings with voters.

About a third of students at the headquarters, some of them are the employees of the “city projects” Maxim Katz. There are many people whose work is related to the Internet-personnel come even from the largest Russian Internet companies, and top managers take vacations at their own expense, spend their money, work, of course, for free. “We also have philologists, for example, the girl Anya, who is now working as a makeup artist, made Alexei Grima for television battles,” says Alexander Potashov from Emcraft Systems. - We also have a boyfriend who is engaged in the coordination of drivers and applicants of cubes. So he is a theoretical physicist from the Physical Institute. Lebedeva. " Potashov himself first folded leaflets, then sat in the Call Center, and now he is engaged in cubes.

17.10. Izmailovsky Boulevard
Navalny says goodbye to voters. Grandma baptizes him and blesses him in the end. A group of volunteers, 10 people, begins to disassemble the scene and campaign cubes. “Two sets are traveling around the city on white trucks,” Lyaskin explains. “The cube is taken from the first meeting to the third, while Navalny is in the second.”
“My son works like this in Cuba,” says Lyudmila, a woman of about 50 in a knitted blue jacket. - That's why I came here, he warned me - they say, go, listen. So I would not have found out about the meeting - we have leaflets at the entrance. And my son threw me to drink thanks to Navalny: he runs with a volunteer. ”

Cubes and Cubists

“How did I come up with a cube? I slept, Mendeleev comes to me and says: “Kolya, you still won’t remember the table, so you have a cube!” - laughs Nikolai Lyaskin. - And seriously, during the trial of Alexei Navalny in Kirov, when I headed the support group, I felt that we needed a stable and unusual design that would contain a maximum of information. I'm tired of all these standard posters that are at the subway. So a cube arose. "

About 30–35 cubic meters are worth it all over Moscow. To install such a design, volunteers are collected, who campaigning next to the cube. But the main thing is to find the applicant, that is, a person who will file a notification of the picket in the district prefecture three days before the event. The applicant, in fact, takes on all responsibility for the cube - he is not obliged to campaign, but must be nearby during the picket in case the police check the legality of the action. The cube itself can be taken from the headquarters or get already at the site of the picket - it will be brought and collected by volunteers. Applications are submitted both to the headquarters and in electronic form through the site cube.navalny.ru . With those who are ready to apply for eight cubes, they conclude an agreement - they pay money from the election fund.

Cuban Cube, which was invented by Nikolai Lyaskin

Several times a week at the headquarters, volunteers are training. The New Times visited one of them.

“How to make contact? No need to try to attract the attention of a passerby with miserable cries "Sorry, please, Navalny!" - moves Andrei Matveev, a brunette of a hipster species in glasses and a sweater, specializing in personal training systems in the field of active sales, leading trainings for volunteers. The meeting takes place in the main headquarters in Lyalin Lane, on the basement. Volunteers - 50 people, mainly young people - are sitting on folding chairs. Matveev and his partner Alexei Kirillov, another professional coach, a pleasant fair -haired guy, tell how to behave on cubes: first you need to talk to a person, then make him think about the elections, and then call for action, for example, for voting.

The words "compliment technique" sound. Matveev asks the volunteers what compliments they made to passers -by.

"I say this:" Oh, what beautiful girls, do you want to take a leaflet? " - says a feeble guy, student. Volunteers for a long time cannot come up with compliments to men. As a result, they find: “You have a confident look” and “smart eyes”.

“Some volunteers make such a mistake: they are trying to prove at all costs that they are right. As a result, the dispute comes out, the goals of communication are not achieved, and the potential voter leaves the irritated, ”Matveev instructs. And he says that if a person is “not his own” (that is, Navalny does not support), he just needs to give a leaflet and make him think.

“I read on Twitter at Maxim Katz (deputy of the Municipal Assembly of the Schukino district, one of the key people in the Navalny team, deputy head of the headquarters for organizational work. - The New Times) that the headquarters needs a coach and a manager. I realized that I could not be a manager, and decided to go to the coach, ”says Matveev The New Times. He is engaged in about the same in a large foreign bank: he teaches the department of personnel and promoters.

“He came to the headquarters, and Katz, hearing what I do, said that this is very cool, but they could not afford the services of such a specialist. I said that I was ready to be a volunteer. My partner and I prepared the first training - it was that Saturday when Alexei came from Kirov, after he was released from prison. He entered the headquarters, looked what was happening there, and began to listen to Julia with his wife Julia. They stood for two and a half hours, after which he said that this is what really needed. " According to Matveev, the main “feature” of their technology for working with voters is not manipulation, but humanistic techniques aimed at ensuring that a person thinks that there is another point of view. “We took all the best that is in business,” he said.

18.20. Semenovskaya Square
The absolute record, according to the calculations of the organizers, is 1,600 people. Behind the stage, a group of young guys sits and pouts red balls. They don’t want to answer questions, they say: “We work.”
Navalny talks about ineffective projects for the construction of roads in Moscow: “I will become a mayor who will not be able to implement projects more than 1 billion rubles without international examination.” “Pustobrah! What do you know? - An elderly woman is torn in a purple sweater to the right of the stage. Navalny does not hear her. - What money does he live for? He doesn't work anywhere! " The people around are trying to reassure her. “He works, he is a lawyer,” he rushes from different sides. “Listen, you can’t do anything at all, they began to build a garage in our yard, they didn’t ask the residents, and Sobyanin says that there will be no point development,” a man in glasses tries to take into a discussion.
At this time, a beautiful blonde in a tight T -shirt gives out newspapers to people. Her name is Anya, she is 25, she works as a lawyer: “She went to protests in Moscow, and now she decided to work as a volunteer. To do this, even at the headquarters, it is not necessary to call. I went to one cube, I was given newspapers there. ”

Navalny in the area

“In the newspapers we have two projects. We make a newspaper common for the whole of Moscow, the circulation of which is 4 million copies, and there are also district newspapers that make Navalny’s meetings with voters, and then distribute in those areas where the candidate performed, ”says Victor, a professional journalist who works in one of the Prochrevsky media, and helps in his headquarters in his free time. There are many people like him here - people from state news agencies and pro -government newspapers come. They don’t look at the background here, although the security service of the headquarters carefully checks everyone. One correspondent was expelled after such a check.

TV presenter Ksenia Sobchak and her husband actor Maxim Vitorgan look at a copy of the district newspaper

District newspapers are supervised by Dmitry Shorzhin, a smiling guy of 27 years old. It works in a company that is engaged in systemic integration and automation in hotels. Now he has a dead season at work, so he willingly take up any work at the headquarters. “At first I was engaged in the organization of events, and when Navalny came up with district newspapers and Maxim Katz wrote in early August on Twitter that people were needed for this project, I decided to get it - I was always interested in how the print press was arranged.”

The New Times correspondent was present when creating a layout of the district newspaper on August 2. The creative room was organized on the lower floor of the headquarters in Lyalin Lane. Shorzhin interviewed people and wrote down their data in a notebook: "What do you know how?" “I work as a freelancer, I can go to meetings and write reports,” answers a tanned fair -haired girl named Olga. "And you?" - He turns to a low dark -haired woman. “I can work as a corrector. And my husband takes pictures well. ” “And we are from ... - Further, the name of the State News Agency follows. - We can draw graphs. Дизайнеры у нас на работе тоже готовы подключиться».

Так, в течение трех часов собирается целая редакция — приходят корректоры, верстальщики, графики, студенты журфаков, один дизайнер позвонил, сказал, что может работать в удаленном доступе после 6 вечера, и работал. Все они увидели объявление в Facebook и Twitter. Макет газеты был сделан в течение дня. Пилотный выпуск, который утвердили Волков и Навальный, — в течение трех дней. Сейчас на одну газету уходит 48 часов. «Редакция у нас виртуальная. Координируемся через специальную группу в Facebook, материалы скидываем в dropbox, — рассказывает Шоржин. — Корреспонденты выезжают на мероприятия, потом пишут репортажи, их правят редакторы. Потом все верстается, финальный вариант вычитывает корректор, затем юрист. Потом отправляем все в Московский издательский дом (там 22 августа прошел обыск — искали незаконную агитпродукцию по наводке кандидата от «Справедливой России» Николая Левичева. — The New Times). Сейчас мы все так автоматизировали, что лично у меня на газету уходит два-три часа в день».

19.00. Семеновская площадь
Навальный раздает автографы и фотографируется. Очень серьезный мужчина лет 30 подходит к худенькой девушке в очках, которая стоит за сценой, и говорит, что агитация организована плохо — в районе не было оповещений. Девушка объясняет, что она и ее коллеги делают все возможное: раздают газеты, листовки, программки, клеят объявления. «Но их срывают», — жалуется она. Помимо газет в толпе раздают наклейки — красный круг с именем кандидата.
«Моя девушка попросила захватить ей такую, хочет на айпад наклеить. Этим летом Навальный стал очень модным, — говорит Иван, 28-летний менеджер. — Я, правда, большую такую (наклейку) на машину наклеил, так мне стекло два дня назад разбили».

Онлайн и офлайн

Помимо привычных уже москвичам кубов штаб разработал еще несколько агитационных проектов. Например, «автокубы» — места, где можно получить агитационные наклейки на машины. «Мы поняли, что лучше клеить материалы, чем просто раздавать их: у многих нет времени заниматься этим или стекла грязные», — рассказывает куратор «уличного» направления (кубы, автокубы и баннеры) Галина Копосова, молодая девушка с длинными светлыми волосами. По ее словам, каждый день на таких кубах клеят от 30 до 50 наклеек, а таких точек ежедневно около пяти. Недавно автовладельцы стали жаловаться на битые стекла или другие повреждения, которые появляются на машинах с наклейками в поддержку Навального. «Весь этот ущерб мы возмещаем, — уверяет Галина. — Сейчас даже думаем о том, чтобы просто страховать стекла машин».

С автомобилями связан и еще один проект — агитмобиль. Арендованные машины загружают агитационными материалами и отправляют в город: волонтеры раздают агитку, водитель подзывает москвичей в мегафон.

Наконец, еще одно важное средство наружной агитации — баннеры на балконах. На сегодняшний день штаб выдал почти 900 баннеров. «Сейчас очень много случаев, когда их срывают, — признается Копосова. — Это около десяти процентов от числа выданных материалов».

21 августа, Семеновская площадь. По оценкам организаторов встречи, Навального пришли послушать 1600 человек

У предпринимателя Михаила Дорогавцева, с которым побеседовал The New Times, баннер снимали дважды — оба раза это сделали выходцы из Средней Азии в оранжевой форме ДЕЗа. «Они поднялись по стропам на шестой этаж, где был прикреплен плакат. Я их буквально за руку поймал. Первый раз пожалел и отпустил, а на следующий день опять увидел — снял на камеру и вызвал полицию. Вообще это кража среди бела дня, но пока уголовное дело открывать не торопятся», — рассказывает Михаил.

В начале кампании Навальный объявил, что сосредоточится на офлайне, чтобы охватить аудиторию, ранее о нем не знавшую. Однако и программисты в штабе трудятся не покладая рук: три отдела занимаются коммуникацией, аналитикой и разработкой. «Главная функция нашего интернет-направления — мобилизация сторонников и их координация. Онлайн — это инструмент», — объясняет The New Times координатор Екатерина Патюлина, проработавшая в профессиональном интернет-секторе шесть лет. Всего в интернет-команде Навального около 20 человек, и большинство из них приходит через социальные сети.

Кроме онлайн-расписания кубов глобальных интернет-проектов у штаба Навального три. Во-первых, запущен сайт «Агитируй Москву» , суть которого в рассылке сообщений в социальной сети «ВКонтакте». Для участников проекта подготовлено несколько текстов, которые сайт автоматически предлагает отправлять совершеннолетним жителям Москвы — нужно только подключить свою учетную запись. Второй проект — ресурс «Навальный в каждый дом»: на сайте dom.navalny.ru нужно зарегистрироваться по месту жительства, и рядом с домом на картах сайта появляется надпись: «Этот дом захвачен Силами Добра». Адептам «Добра» предлагаются простые задания — проверить доставку газет или рассказать друзьям о выборах.

И наконец, последняя онлайн-инновация — сайт «Мосвписка» . «Когда стало понятно, что Алексей Навальный баллотируется на пост мэра Москвы, мы стали читать отзывы в духе «Ой, как классно, что вы можете выбрать Навального, а вот мы не можем». Мы поняли — не совсем справедливо, что те люди, которые далеко, могут помочь только рублем», — вспоминает Патюлина. Сейчас на ресурсе зарегистрировано несколько тысяч пользователей — все они либо ищут жилье в Москве на время избирательной кампании, либо предлагают свои квартиры. Принятых заявок, по данным штаба, уже более 100, и это число ежедневно растет.

«Все, что мы делаем в офлайне, давно придумано до нас, но то, что мы делаем в интернете, — абсолютное новшество», — уверен руководитель штаба Леонид Волков.

For wear

После всех встреч Навальный обычно едет к 20.00 в штаб на летучку — так здесь называют общее организационное собрание, которое, как правило, проводит Леонид Волков.

Максим Кац проводит летучку во внутреннем дворике штаба

Но 21 августа, когда корреспондент The New Times сопровождал кандидата, до штаба ни Волков, ни Навальный не доехали. «У нас форс-мажор», — сказала по телефону пресс-секретарь Анна Ведута. Летучку проводил Максим Кац.

Собираются не в помещении, а во внутреннем дворике дома, где находится штаб. Сотрудники, человек 30, встают кружком. Кац — в белых джинсах и голубой рубашке, — как всегда, сутулый и немного нервный, говорит, что не привык долго выступать перед таким количеством людей, и предлагает сразу перейти к делу. Говорит, что было принято решение увеличить количество агитационных кубов в городе в последние две недели предвыборной кампании до 140. Спрашивает, как идет планирование тренингов для волонтеров и наблюдателей. Ирина, невысокая женщина средних лет, отвечает: «Мы можем довести обучение до тысячи человек в день».

Вся летучка занимает минут 15, штабные говорят, что когда ее ведет Волков, она может идти целый час. Так что в этот раз всем повезло.

«Вообще мы, конечно, на износ работаем. В фильме «Бойцовский клуб» есть такая фраза: «Бежал я до тех пор, пока кровь не превратилась в кислоту, и тогда я побежал еще быстрее», — резюмирует Ляскин.

Алексей Навальный приезжает домой в 1-2 часа ночи. Ужинает он рыбными консервами: жена Юля сейчас в отпуске.

В интервью The New Times Алексей Навальный рассказал о своем штабе, роли телесериалов в кампании и ошибках

фотографии: Антон Машанов, Евгений Фельдман, Дмитрий Серебряков, скриншот с YouTube