The opposition is confused in its protest

Mundites, Gudkov and Navalny argued where to go out into the street

Two weeks ago, the head of the Krasnoselsky municipal district, Ilya Yashin, announced the “Day of Free Elections” on December 24. It was assumed that this would be a district holiday on which residents would enlighten about electoral rights, observation in the elections and talk about candidates. When other politicians began to agitize there, not from the Krasnoselsky district, for example, Dmitry Gudkov and Alexei Navalny, the district event in the eyes of the authorities began to resemble a political rally. The police warned of possible detentions, and the city hall - about the illegality of the action.

To help his associates, Gudkov sent a statement to the city hall to hold a rally on Sakharov Avenue to the Lermontovsky Square, where the holiday was planned. When the good was received from the city hall, Gudkov was accused of a protest. Navalny even said that the application of the ex-deputy of the State Duma was submitted "on the hint of the city hall." On the side of Gudkov, a presidential candidate Ksenia Sobchak spoke, she said that "all democratic forces need to take part in the authorized rally." One way or another, Yashin asked Gudkov to withdraw the application - he complied with the request. The Moscow City Court ruled that the holiday in the Lermontov Square will be illegal. But Yashin still says that the event will take place and fundamentally so that it will go where the mundops will decide.

Observers state that another split has been outlined in the democratic opposition - this time for a fairly technical seemingly reason.

It all began on December 11, when the protest Moscow movement applied for a rally for fair elections. They wanted to hold a rally on Academician Sakharov Avenue on December 24. A couple of days later, the city hall was a refusal to offer an alternative option - Sokolniki. In parallel with this, Yashin plans his district holiday.

“This will be a festive event with the installation of the scene, sound ambitious, a performance of residents of the district, public figures, deputies and musical groups,” Ilya Yashin told New. - We think to expand the field kitchen in order to offer people to people. We will also install thematic stands, in which we will inform people about the elections, that is, engage in educational activities, as well as recruit people to participate in the election.

The politician receives a warning from the prosecutor’s office that for his inconsistent rally “under the guise of a district holiday” he will be responsible. Dmitry Gudkov offers Yashin on his own behalf to submit an application for a rally on Sakharov Avenue to the city hall, since the authorities call the “rally” a holiday in the Lermontovsky square:

“Realizing that no one would fit in the square, we [with Yashin] decided that it would be better to press the city hall to hold a rally,” Gudkov explains. -Firstly, in order to gather more people, and secondly, in order to protect these people (so that no one is abandoned for the New Year to bars). And in order not to substitute Navalny - they will put him, and he will go to the CEC to submit, collect signatures.

Yashin says that “obviously, misunderstanding has occurred,” since he wanted the event to be in any case in the format of the holiday initiated by the deputies, and Gudkov submitted an application for the rally. Yashin asks Gudkov to withdraw the application - he calls it.

True, a presidential candidate who planned to take part in the "Festival", Alexei Navalny, also spoke out before this: Alexey Navalny:

- “Protest Moscow” submits an application for a rally on December 24 for Sakharov ten days ago, on time. They are refused. Sent to Sokolniki. Today, Dmitry Gudkov submits the same application, but with a violation of the deadlines. According to Yashin, this was done "by the hint from the city hall." The approval of the application is formally impossible. Yashin asks Gudkov to withdraw the application, because she was invented to disrupt him the “Day of Free Elections” - a local holiday arranged by decision of local deputies. Dmitry does not want to recall the application.

Gudkov, on the contrary, told the “New” that he immediately agreed to withdraw the application: “Navalny always had my phone, he could call me, ask if something is not clear to him. The fact that the mayor's office agreed on a rally in such terms is not a matter of the implementation of the law. Such precedents were, for example, when we agreed on the march of Nemtsov’s memory in one day. There is a law, but there are force majeure circumstances. If the city hall was ready to agree on a rally, I was ready to refuse to organize, transfer everything to the advice. I fulfilled all the agreements, but in the end no one turned out to be necessary. ”

The press secretary of Navalny Kira Yar said that Alexei would not comment on the situation around the action because “he was busy holding his own events” ( on Sunday, Navalny will be held a series of collections of the initiative group for his nomination to the presidency. - Ed. ). However, as the oppositionist previously wrote in social networks, he will still take part in the festival in the Lermontovsky square.

Gudkov says that he has not yet decided whether he would participate: “The action should not be dispersed, I am still here on the side of the deputies and their powers. But to be honest, after what happened, the mood is not at all festive. ”

According to Yashin, the “confusion” with the venue and the review of the application arose due to the fundamental decision to hold a holiday (which does not require coordination from the city hall) where the municipal deputies planned:

- It's not about the Lermontov Square. We insist that we have this right enshrined in the Constitution and the law of the city of Moscow on the organization of local self -government. In fact, what is it required of me now? The council of deputies must cancel his decision, that is, to voluntarily limit himself in his powers. We are offered a “bone” in the form of Gudkov, agreed within five hours. This is such a deal with the devil, which is absolutely unacceptable to me. We will receive a coordinated small rally for Sakharov, but at the cost of this there will be a voluntary rejection of authority, the creation of a very dangerous precedent, and in fact, we will thus give in to pressure.

In the current situation, the opposition is won by the internal misunderstanding of the opposition - as political scientist Abbas Gallyamov believes.

Abbas Galyamov

political scientist

- The authorities very competently learned to use the contradictions among the opposition. They pull the threads and enjoy watching how they swear among themselves. Naturally, as a result of all these scandals, their supporters drop their hands. The protest electorate is disappointed in its leaders and, as a result, does not go to one or another action. Nothing demobilizes the supporters of the opposition as inner infusions in its ranks. Of course, an unauthorized event gives rise to more emotions, since for some protesting arrests and landing - this is more interesting and dramatic than a simple rally. But the vast majority of people scare such things and not so much attract to protest as they scare away from it.

Political scientist Dmitry Oreshkin believes that this verbal conflict between the opposition was worth expecting, but first of all considers this a mistake by presidential candidate Alexei Navalny.

Dmitry Oreshkin

political scientist

- You can dial a significant number of votes in the elections when you have a nuclear electorate (this is conditionally one percent that is behind you in the fire and in the water), but you only win if you attract people who, in principle, sympathize with you, but have not yet been determined. When Navalny says that “no, we will only go here” - this means that he tests his people for “nuclear”. The nuclear correct electorate will go with him, of course. These will be hard, proven navalists. And his train will think about this: “I am close to the program of both Gudkov, and Navalny, and Yashin, and even Ksenia Sobchak. But guys, decide, make any one leader. ” Let us recall the phenomenon of protests in 2011-2012: then tens of thousands came out, and it was a loop electorate, designed not for one leader. Then offended people fought for honest elections - they were right, liberals, and from the “apple” - they all went out into the street with indignation. Gudkov, too, like Navalny, will not be able to withdraw these people. Because someone will perceive him as a protege of the authorities, since he is trying to negotiate, like Sobchak, that is, to work according to these rules. Navalny denies these rules on the move. In the technological sense, he, as a revolutionary, believes that it is better to have a controlled, mobile structure that obeys him than wide social support. This option seems to me counterproductive.