Translated material
Yaroslavl: Between the prison and the Duma
Why Boris Nemtsov is a place in the regional parliament
On September 8, elections to the regional Duma were held in the Yaroslavl region. The struggle went over 50 mandates, 20 parties were listed in the ballot. The RPR Parnas managed to get 5.23%, this means that one person will work as a deputy-Boris Nemtsov. United Russia won the elections (41.91%), although in the elections in previous years she showed some of the worst results in the country. About the details of the tense campaign, where there was a battle between the Party of Power and the opposition of all stripes, in its midst was written by The New Times
Boris Nemtsov held several meetings with voters in the yards every day
“Oh, look, it's Nemtsov! - A mustachioed peasant in a cap pulls an elderly woman by the sleeve, who weighes the small -salted cucumbers. She wipes her hands with a towel and replies with a laugh: "This is not him, this is a double, now so many doubles have divorced."
“I am not a double. I am Boris Nemtsov, ”-the former governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region, a former Deputy Prime Minister, former State Duma deputy, one of the leaders of the non-systemic opposition Boris Nemtsov, his own person, approaches the merchants of alcohol cucumbers in the central market of the city of Pereslavl-Lake Lake and Boin of Peter the Great.
"Will you go to the polls on September 8?" - leaning, he asks. It is surrounded by women and men - buyers and sellers. Laugh, ask for permission to take pictures.
American spy
“At the disposal of Putin - 20 palaces, villas, residences, want to read a book about this? - continues Nemtsov. Tall, tanned, sports, in a white T -shirt and an elegant jacket, it stands out against the backdrop of the inhabitants of the provincial town (population of 40 thousand) 150 kilometers from Moscow: women in colorful scarves and skirts, men in caps, shabby jeans and intercourse sneakers.
Young guys from the election headquarters distribute election leaflets, programs of the RPR-Parnas party, reports “Life of a slave on galleys”, “Winter Olympiad in Subtropics”. The line is built from those who wish to get autographs. “I’ll sell it later,” the man laughs, selling honey, showing the autograph to another merchant - small glasses, in dark glasses. He sits on a folding chair and drinks coffee from thermos. When Nemtsov passes by, he shouts: “Tell me honestly, why did you go to the American embassy? Are you an American spy? The Russian people will not allow you to choose those who go to the American embassy! ”
Nemtsov goes on to the market, stops at the pavilion with fur coats and leather jackets. The young woman in a red wig for selling them. She smiles coquettishly to the visiting policy: “We all know you very well. They didn’t think at all that such people would appear in our market. ”
“Vote for our Party RPR-Parnas,” Nemtsov campaign. - Our number 20. Last. But the latter will be the first. " A middle -aged woman runs behind him: “I will find you on Facebook. I will vote for you. "
The market is glued with posters with photographs of candidates for the municipal meeting of Pereslavl-Zalessky. All candidates are from United Russia.
Not a steam locomotive
“Again these foods,” Nemtsov throws with annoyance. “The whole city is hung with them, but we are not allowed to place our billboards and posters either in Pereslavl or Rybinsk, only in Yaroslavl.”
But in Yaroslavl, where the number of voters is about 440 thousand, exactly half of all voters of the region, billboards with a modestly smiling Nemtsov hang both at the station and on the streets. In the last election week, new ones should appear, on which the inscription of the red color will appear next to the former governor of Nizhny Novgorod: “Vote for the opposition!” Local candidates from other parties assured the correspondent of The New Times that “Nemtsov was launched in the polls because he agreed with the authorities. Nemtsov laughs: “Here is a story about“ agreed ”. The owners of the company's outdoor advertising stubbornly persuaded us to remove the word “opposition” from the billboards, 50 times called the chief of my headquarters Ilya Yashin, and he insisted. As a result, they said this morning: "Damn you, we will hang it!" They let me go to television and on the radio only because they understand: I'm not going to go to governors. In this sense, I'm not dangerous. "
| *Evgeny Urlashov is accused of attempting to receive a bribe in the amount of 14 million rubles from the director of the Yaroslavl LLC "Radostroy" Viktor Shmelev. On July 16, on the central square of Yaroslavl, a seven -thousandth rally in defense of the mayor took place, after which he was urgently transferred to Moscow in the Sailor Silence. |
Nemtsov and his headquarters, in which young activists from St. Petersburg, Moscow and Yaroslavl work, come up with different methods of promoting the RPR-Parnas batch, which in the region almost do not know: stencils on the asphalt with the symbols of the party, Nemtsov’s television plots with his daughter Zhanna, the Volga embankment. 53-year-old Nemtsov should run five kilometers in a T-shirt with the inscription: "Guys, stop thumping!" In the list "RPR-Parnas"-30 people. All local, except Nemtsov. He holds several meetings with residents per day. From 10 to 70 people come. The main questions: why did he come to Yaroslavl, will it remain here to live and why did the mayor Evgeny Urlashov put it here?*
“I'm not Urlashov’s lawyer,” Nemtsov patiently explains. “I don’t know if he took a bribe or not.” But they arrested him at the direction of Putin. This is a political reprisal. He was removed as a competitor two weeks after he said that he would go to the governor’s election. He must be released for a recognizance not to leave. I suggest that the regional Duma give a guarantee for him. ”
“Everyone rushed to“ select ”Evgeny Urlashov’s electorate,” says Alexey Yakovlev, local political consultant and deputy director of the NTM television channel. - “Fair Russia”, the Communists, “Democracy”, Nemtsov with his party - there. ”
Remember about Urlashov
Remember The 3-RD JULY-stencil inscriptions of this content can be seen today in Yaroslavl on the walls of many houses. On July 3, 2013, the mayor Yevgeny Urlashov, in April last year, the mayor of the candidate from United Russia, Yakov Yakushev, was detained in Yaroslavl on Freedom Street by employees to combat the economic crime of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In the region, the campaign for elections to the regional Duma began, Urlashov was going to head the list of the Civil Platform party, which, according to the forecasts of local analysts, had every chance to squeeze the uninstairs deputies. Now the “civilian platform”, whose leader billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov publicly took under the defense of Urlashov, does not take part in the election not only because the first party list in “sailor silence”. The party did not have time to open an election account in time. The versions of what happened change depending on the political belonging of the interlocutor. Vladimir Tikhomirov, who is chosen in the regional Duma from the “Civil Platform”, says that the financial authorized party Natalya Semenova was supposed to open an account on July 29, but she was called for interrogation to the police, she did not manage to the bank, then she left the city and no longer supported the contacts with the party’s colleagues. The head of the regional parliament Unicorn Ilya Osipov believes that the withdrawal of the “civilian platform” from the election occurred by law.
“I have two financial authorities,” Osipov says. - Why did they have one? This is at least unprofessional, although I admit that they themselves were interested to be removed from the election. When you understand that nothing shines on you in a political sense, you must somehow beautifully leave. ”
There were two dozen candidates in the “Civil Platform” list, now there are three or four single-mandate-all of them are removed under various pretexts from the elections. However, a purely visually “civilian platform” in Yaroslavl is represented: walking around the city, you pay attention to a tent with blue symbols. Next to the tent of the young man and the girl in T -shirts with the inscription: "And no one will break us, and no one will bent us." They collect signatures under Putin’s letter in support of Urlashov.
Elected "Dvizhuha"
About the arrested mayor of the city, a conversation comes with anyone related to the election campaign. “Life in our city has changed dramatically after the arrest of Urlashov,” says 36-year-old Andrei Alekseev, a representative of the Narodnaya Alliance, which goes to the regional Duma according to the RPR-Parnas list. - Those who used to be passive and watched strange relations between the city and regional administration, after our people's mayor was taken away from us, were involved in politics. It began even earlier: when Moscow went to Bolotnaya, we went to youth Square, listened to mayor's candidates; When the country chose Putin, we chose a new mayor of Urlashov, who embodied all our protest moods after 23 years of stay in power of the old mayor. We go to politics with a new agenda of the day and say that we can believe because we are not covered with all that has happened in Russia for the past 20 years. ”
Alekseev is known among young people, local bloggers, he was the applicant of the thousands of thousands in defense of Urlashov. Every evening after work, and he works as an art director of the Rodina cinema, Alekseev is campaigning near the cube in different quarters of the city. In a few hours, it is possible to distribute leaflets to hundreds of people returning from work. In Cuba-portraits of Nemtsov, Navalny, Alekseev, the symbolism of "RPR-PARNAS". “The young people do not know Nemtsov, but they recognize Navalny, they are interested. People aged treat Nemtsov as a native and do not really remember his opposition, ”says Andrei.
Technological elections
| ** Elections are held according to a mixed scheme: 25 mandates according to lists, 25 people will be elected in single -mandate districts. In the outgoing Duma, the United Russia had 37 seats, the rest were occupied by the Communist Party, the LDPR and the Patriots of Russia. |
“This campaign is technical. The result is clear, says political consultant Alexei Yakovlev. - “United Russia” will receive the majority in the regional Duma **. But the Duma will be more motley. Socialist -Revolutionaries, Communists, LDPR, “Patriots of Russia”, “Homeland”, “Green” can enter there. It is possible that the party "RPR-Parnas" will take the mandate. Nemtsov leads a real election campaign, his parties must somehow be legalized. ”
They say that the election campaign is supervised by local political technologists. They are called "Pashiks". Pavel Zarubin, head of the United Russia faction in the City Duma, and Pavel Isaev, director of the Department of Public Relations and Mass Communications in the Government of the region. This local “Surkov” is credited with the organization of the campaign for the election of Urlashov, the reanimation of the party of United Russia, which, having received the lowest result in Russia in the 2011 parliamentary elections - 28% - in the Yaroslavl region, in the last elections to the City Duma won. “Watching the elections” from Moscow is considered a State Duma deputy Viktor Kidyev. Knowing people explain his involvement in the Yaroslavl campaign with interest in the governor's chair.
The cities of the region are hung with posters of candidates, but there are no banners where voters would be called to go to the polls. And many simply do not know that they choose parliament in the region. Plus, rural residents are busy in gardens, collect mushrooms, make stocks. The city, disappointed with Urlashov’s arrest, are not at all sure that they will go to vote. Result: September 8 predict a low turnout, which is very beneficial to “United Russia”. True, a lot has already been done for her victory: before the start of the election campaign, the former head of the local election commission with a good reputation was fired. A new one was appointed, who stated that there would be no video cameras in polling stations, it is predicted, a low turnout and it is necessary to save money. They will also not use Koibi when voting: the ballot in a meter length in an electronic voting machine will not fit. Another black technology: Parties-spools, created specifically for these elections, go to the elections. Agitators distribute the leaflets “Vote for the CPSU!” On the streets! With the portraits of Stalin and the cunningly smiling Brezhnev with a cigarette. Parties-two: “For justice”-a double of “fair Russia”, “civil position”-a double of the “civilian platform”, two-mandate candidates with the names of single-mandate-favorites in the districts. All of them are designed to pull the voices from the opposition and will play into the hands of United Russia.
The trick of the pjiv
In addition to Stalin and Brezhnev in Yaroslavl, billboards with large portraits of men with gloomy-significant faces hang. The slogans are banal to the impossibility: "Enough politics, time to work." But to which party do these "hard workers" belong to.
Billboards with Stalin are adjacent to billboards of the party in power
“We are not afraid to mention the party’s name on billboards, the party is listed in the weekend,” Ilya Osipov, the head of the regional parliament, the leader of the United Russia party, rejecting all suspicions that candidates are deliberately distant from the part of the party, assure the correspondent of the Party of Party on the “blue eye”. - We have already pushed away from the bottom to which United Russia fell - 28% in the 2011 parliamentary elections. We launched the party renewal campaign when we realized that the slogan “Party of United Russia” of Putin’s Party does not work and we need a request for a particular person. On billboards are specific people. ” I ask: “That is, the voters will first love them for their affairs, and only then will come to terms with the fact that they are in United Russia?”
Osipov does not answer and transfers the conversation to another topic.
What next?
“If we enter the regional Duma, then it will be a signal for the entire non -systemic opposition that you can win,” says Boris Nemtsov. - I decided to go to the polls when they arrested Urlashov. And I came up with five specific laws. These laws destroy the vertical of power. One of them about the abolition of political censorship: it is necessary to prohibit the governor and mayor of being the founders of television channels and the media. The second law is on overcoming corruption. All tenders should be carried out in the presence of the media. Another law is “On improving the quality of regional roads”. Its essence is that the company that built the road receives a bonus of 5-10% of the estimate annually, if the road that it built does not require repair from the second year of its operation. ” In the regional Duma, I will try to draw these laws. I think it will be difficult for local deputies to resist me, because the federal press will write about this. ”
Local politicians and journalists are betting: whether Boris Nemtsov will remain in Yaroslavl or just like Valentina Tereshkova, who heads the list of United Russia, will leave for the capital after the elections.
The price of the issue is a one -room apartment in the Kirov district of Yaroslavl, which Boris Nemtsov has already stated in case of victory.
Photos: Alexander Rybka