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Human rights activist Marina Litvinovich began an independent Duma campaign

On Thursday, June 10, the Duma election campaign of the former member of the Public Supervisory Commission (PMC) of human rights activist Marina Litvinovich started. In the Duma, the politician is going to fight corruption, increase public control, as well as engage in the humanization of police, ships and FSIN. About 40 people came to support Litvinovich, including the politician Julia Galyamin, the former defendant in Moskovsky, Alexei Minyailo, the coordinator of the Moscow Voice Dmitry Nesterov, as well as several municipal deputies. The correspondent of Novye tells how the first meeting of the candidate with his supporters took place.

Before the room where the meeting takes place, you need to go along the roof of the shopping center on Dmitrovskaya. The venue of the event was not publicly announced, according to Novaya Gazeta, Litvinovich herself told, the fault of covid restrictions-because of them, the candidate had to control the number of people wishing to support it. Prior to the start of the performance, the participants are distributed to the newspapers “Our North” with information about the nomination of the candidate, as well as masks and gloves.

Officially, the woman announced her nomination a week ago. At the same time, it became known about the plans of Marina Litvinovich to go to the State Duma back in April, after the human rights activist was expelled from the public observation commission after she worked in it for a year and a half. The exclusion of the human rights activist from the PMC was initiated by “one of the members of the commission”, who considered that Litvinovich violated the 76-ФЗ on the PMC, divulging the investigation data in an interview with the FBK lawyer ( the authorities consider the organization an extremist, as well as the “foreigner” ) of Lyubov Sobol.

Before the PMC, Litvinovich has already been engaged in politics, and since the end of the 90s. At different times, she worked with politicians such as Harry Kasparov, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and also held at the election headquarters of TV presenter Viktor Shenderovich in the Duma elections of 2005. Later, Litvinovich took an active part in the organization of "Marshs of the Disagent" in 2006-2008. In 2017, Litvinovich was part of the pre -election headquarters of the presidential candidate Ksenia Sobchak.

The politician is going to run for parliament from the 198th Leningrad single-mandate constituency, which includes the airport, Begovoy, Sokol, Dmitrovsky, Timiryazevsky, Khoroshevsky and others. At the moment, the woman is one of the few public figures who lead an independent Duma campaign and is free. Recall that the former coordinator of the headquarters of Navalny* in Moscow Oleg Stepanov and FBK lawyer Lyubov Sobol (both are under house arrest in the “sanitary business”) also stated. In addition, the politician and former State Duma deputy Dmitry Gudkov gathered to run for the State Duma, but at the end of last week he left Russia against the backdrop of criminal prosecution in the case of damage, which was initially brought against him and his aunt Irina Ermilova.

As Litvinovich said at the beginning of her speech, she still does not believe that he goes to the polls, despite the fact that she has long been engaged in politics. However, the human rights activist believes that right now the time has come when it is necessary to discard all fears and doubts.

- Previously, I would never believe that I would go to the situations in a situation where [politician] Alexei Navalny is in prison, Julia Galyamina is deprived of the opportunity to be elected, Dima Gudkov and [politician] Alexander Solovyov are forced to emigrate.

With my nomination, I want to say that so far there are those who stand in place of those who retired from the game, you need not to despair and go forward, - -

Explains the reasons for his nomination, the candidate.

The human rights activist already has a program. As Litvinovich told Novaya Gazeta, part of the bloc of its program is directed against “family” and corruption in power, as well as the irremovability of power. In addition, in the Duma, a woman is going to promote the strengthening of public control. Another block of the Litvinovich program is the humanization of the police, ships and the FSIN. On this topic, the politician has already developed specific bills.

-We understand that one person can change little, but even if you begin to promote any ideas, sooner or later they capture minds. If I go to the State Duma, I will definitely not give the rest of the deputies a calm life, ”the human rights activist notes.

About 40 people came to support Marina Litvinovich, including politician Julia Galyamina (she was modified by performances), a former defendant in Moscow Affairs and State Duma candidate Alexei Minyailo, Novaya Gazeta journalist Elena Milashin, Coordinator of the Moscow Voice Dmitry Nesterov, as well as municipal deputies Sergey Vlasin and Sergey Vdovin. Most of them performed at a meeting in support of the politician.

- Despite the fact that we have civil society, his first persons, such as Marina Litvinovich, is not in sight. These are not the first -level politicians, like Navalny, Gudkov, [Ilya Politician] Yashin, [the former director of Open Russia ( the organization was recognized as undesirable ) Andrei] Pivovarov, Sobol and others. However, now the time has come for unknown. The time of civil society is an invisible front in which we are all consistent. In the elections to the Moscow City Duma in 2019, we were able to elect independent candidates. We can also in the elections to the State Duma in 2021, ”said the municipal deputy of the Pinters' district, Sergei Vlasov.

According to the Moscow Voice Coordinator Dmitry Nesterov, since last year he, along with his colleagues, began to make a list of opposition candidates for the State Duma (including from the system opposition) and record what pressure was on them.

Only seven or eight people were not subjected to direct pressure from the original list, in which there were approximately 50 surnames.

- This year, the elections will be complex, but the more difficult, the more interesting. When information about a number of legislative initiatives appeared in December last year, it became clear that the authorities would not only put pressure on the candidates in the State Duma elections, but also try to massively not allow them to the election. However, after a spring campaign against the opposition, people began to manifest themselves, who were originally not going to go to the State Duma. Autumn "unhealthy" elections are unpredictable. Therefore, independent candidates, who will reach the end, are guaranteed to be able to get great support, ”says Nesterov.

After the first meeting, the politician is going to start campaigning in the districts. From which party, Marina Litvinovich will go to the State Duma, it is impossible to say for sure. While the politician is negotiating with Yabloko, the party will have to nominate candidates for State Duma deputies on the list and single -mandate districts at the congress on July 3–4. Despite the fact that Litvinovich says that she has a plan B in case she does not find herself in the party lists, the woman does not want to voice him and think about him. While she is sure that the party will nominate it.

- I am a very good candidate for Yabloko. Yabloko always had a strong human rights activity, and it seems to me that I fit well with their team, which deals with the problems of prisoners and police violence. In the current conditions, “Yabloko” is an ideal option for my nomination, ”says the politician.

* recognized by the Moscow City Court with an extremist organization, included by the Ministry of Justice in the list of NGOs that perform the function of the "foreign agent"