The Moscow Mayor’s election campaign started ahead of schedule and not without scandals

The election of the Moscow Mayor should take place in September 2018, but have already become a reason for the next series of conflicts in the opposition. It is too early to talk about a single candidate from the opposition. Two politicians apply to the support of Yabloko-the former deputy of Eser Dmitry Gudkov and the head of the Moscow Yabloko, Sergei Mitrokhin. Some of their electorate can suddenly go to the communist Andrei Klychkov - from the filing of Alexei Navalny.

In 2013, the election of the Moscow Mayor showed that a protest candidate can count on the support of citizens dissatisfied with construction sites, parking, tariffs and other capital's problems. Then Alexey Navalny and Sergey Mitrokhin together scored 30.7% of the vote (27% of Navalny and 3% from Mitrokhin) - more than 700 thousand Muscovites voted for opposition candidates. Self -nominated Navalny took second place after Sergey Sobyanin, who also went to the polls without the official support of United Russia (51% of the vote). The Communist Party Candidate Ivan Melnikov was the third (10.7%).

Parade of candidates

New elections should take place in the fall of 2018. Of the possible competitors, Sergei Sobyanin was the first to say about his plans by communist Andrei Klychkov: on February 17, he said this to the press. Klychkov has already headed the Communist Party of the Communist Party in the Moscow City Duma for two convocations. There are five deputies in the faction, including the 28-year-old grandson of the Communist leader Leonid Zyuganov. “An important and significant point is that I have some kind of recognition and some kind of reputation. Why not use it in a real campaign? I really evaluate my chances: the presidential campaign is not a level for me, unlike the mayor’s elections, ”the communist told the Kommersant newspaper.

Soon after Klychkov, Dmitry Gudkov, a deputy of the State Duma of the VI convocation from the “Just Russia”, trying to go into the new convocation of Yabloko, spoke about Klychkov about his plans. In the September 18 elections, he was in the federal ten party and gained 20% of the vote in the Tushino single -mandate district, losing to the former chief sanitary doctor, a candidate from United Russia Gennady Onishchenko. On February 21, Gudkov held a briefing at which he was hoping for the support of the Yabloko party and plans to hold a campaign for 103 million rubles - Alexei Navalny collected the same amount in 2013.

The leader of the Moscow Yabloko, Sergei Mitrokhin, does not leave his claims to the post of head of Moscow. Like Gudkov, he participated in the Duma elections of this fall, but also lost to United Russia: Colonel General of the Ministry of Emergencies Ivan Teterin from United Russia gained 35.9% of the vote, Sergey Mitrokhin-12.8%. At the same time, Nikolai Lyaskin, running in the same district from Parnas, scored 8%.

Two from the "apple"

The competition of two potential candidates exacerbates the already tense atmosphere in Yabloko: in the fall, the Moscow branch shook the scandal when Maxim Katz, the former municipal deputy and head of the headquarters of Dmitry Gudkov in the Duma elections, tried to take control of it. Katz openly announced that he had joined the Yabloko, was going to become the leader of the Moscow branch and reformat it in order to "do not look for reasons to scold power," but "to gather experts and the best practices around the Moscow Yabloko." Applications from Katz supporters poured into the party, and Mitrokhin and his supporters announced an attempt to “raider seizure” of the department. It all ended with the exception of Katz from the party and partial shifting of his supporters at the beginning of this year. The latter appealed to the federal leadership of the party.

The founder of Yabloko, Grigory Yavlinsky, has not yet spoke out about who he intends to support in the mayor’s elections.

Mitrokhin and Gudkov only say that they discussed with Yavlinsky the possibility of their nomination from the party, but did not receive a certain answer.

In this regard, rumors appeared about a possible conflict between Mitrokhin and Yavlinsky, which, however, they both deny.

“There is an opinion that Katz’s aggressive campaign was not in order to shift Mitrokhin, but in order to nominate Gudkov to mayor,” says Igor Yakovlev, press secretary of Grigory Yavlinsky. - This, of course, increased the tension in the party, because when Katz said: “You are all loafers and parasites, we will drive you out” - this was polarized by the party. The people whom this hurt began to unite around Mitrokhin, and those who were dissatisfied with Mitrokhin began to account with him. ” Despite this, there is no personal conflict between Yavlinsky and Mitrokhin, says Yakovlev, and the party will make a decision on the candidate according to the results of the primaries - their format has not yet been painted.

“Sergey Sergeyevich Mitrokhin may not be so popular in a political party, but among the townspeople it enjoys authority: a large number of initiative groups know him and continues to work with him. Gudkov also enjoys great respect in the party. We reason pragmatically, we will put up a candidate who can count on if not for victory, then to go out to the second round, ”says Yakovlev.

Gudkov and Mitrokhin have already met on open debates on the air of "Echo of Moscow" on March 1. Politicians discussed the main problems of Moscow. Both candidates are emphasized on the situation with the resettlement of Khrushchevs: in early March, the mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that their demolition and resettlement would go in an accelerated mode, and the speaker of the Duma Vyacheslav Volodin already expressed his readiness to maintain the process with the new law.

Dmitry Gudkova can be supported by open Russia Mikhail Khodorkovsky-according to the head of the Open Elections project Timur Valeev, negotiations between Khodorkovsky and Gudkov are already underway. “Dmitry Gudkov’s support is preliminarily discussed, but the final decision on the support of the candidate will be made during the conference of the entire movement in the spring (April 15-16) or autumn,” said “New” The press secretary of the “Open Elections” Maria Galitskaya.

Impromptu Navalny

Meanwhile, the unexpected position was taken by Alexei Navalny. On March 7, he stated that Andrei Klychkov should be supported in the elections, and as for Yabloko - “Let them figure it out with Yavlinsky, who is coming from the“ Apple ”, and then we will think about whom to support.” In favor of Klychkov, according to Navalny, he says that in the elections to the Moscow City Duma in 2014 in his district, he bypassed the prefect of the SEAO Vladimir Zotov (Klychkov gained 37% of the vote, and Zotov 31%).

“To defeat the candidate of United Russia is so important that it is possible and necessary to unite with the Communists,” Navalny said on the air.

Earlier, the politician demonstrated different approaches to the elections. In the Duma elections in 2011, he urged to vote for any party except United Russia. In 2014, Navalny called for boycotting elections to the Moscow City Duma, where his supporters did not go, and called all the lists of candidates, among whom were many independent figures, "lists of hopelessness and longing." In 2016, supporters of Alexei Navalny first entered the “Democratic Coalition”, and then left her after the scandal with Kasyanov’s refusal to participate in the primaries and the release of the scandalous film about his relationship with a member of the party Natalia Polevina. After that, Navalny urged the elections to the Duma. And now I decided to support the communist.

Despite the fact that the elections of the Moscow mayor will be only in 2018, preparation for them has already begun, and not only in words. This fall, Moscow will be held in municipal advice, which will become both technological and moral preparation for the mayor’s elections. Municipal elections attract little attention, because deputies of the district councils practically do not have either administrative or financial powers, but the socio-political resource of municipalities is very important, says Julia Galyamina, the coorganizer of the school of local self-government and candidate for the Duma elections of 2016 from Yabloko.

The main political forces are already gathering lists of active supporters who will try to take places in the councils of district deputies and further support their candidate: in addition to the school of local self -government, founded by Julia Galyamina and Natalya Shavshukova, the training for future municipalities launched parties and the Open Russia movement. The Communist Party of the Communist Party is supervised by Andrei Klychkov. Dmitry Gudkov collects those who want to nominate district councils on a specially created site.

“The technological side of the municipal elections is that candidates for mayor can collect signatures and overcome the municipal filter,” says Julia Galyamin. - In addition, municipal deputies are leaders of public opinion. They help to create a positive image of the candidate from voters, say that he will solve their problems. ”