smla moscow mayoral campaign presentation dec 2013

CHANGE RUSSIA, START WITH MOSCOW

* - “NAVALNY”, name of the mayoral candidate in Cyrillic in the trademark font used in the campaign

  Born in Moscow

  Graduated from The Wharton School of Business in 1996

  Went back to Russia and worked in investment banking, general management and asset management in 1996-2011

  Met Alexey Navalny, a prominent anti-corruption activist and politician, in 2010 and started helping him in spare time

  Had to resign from a senior position at the largest Russian investment holding due to pressure from the authorities

  Became the executive director at Russian non-profit Foundation for Fighting Corruption

VLADIMIR ASHURKOV - INTRODUCTION

Russia over the last decade has consistently followed the course of suppressing political freedom and turning into an authoritarian state, based on political and economic corruption of the ruling clique

• Vote rigging in favor of the ruling political party and its candidates

• Cumbersome system of registration of parties and candidates for elections

• Restrictions on financing for independent parties and candidates while the ruling party and its satellites receive support from the state

• Restrictive registration and reporting requirements for non-profit organizations

• Smear campaigns against major independent non-profit groups and activists, in particular, those focusing on election monitoring, human rights, anti-corruption efforts

• Politically motivated use of law enforcement agencies and the court system

CHALLENGING POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT

In the area of mass media:

•  All national TV channels are controlled by the state and are used to pump up the authorities

•  National and regional press, with a few exceptions, is controlled or influenced by the state

•  Opposition politicians and civil activists are not given access to state-controlled media and are portrayed in negative light

Challenges that civil and political activists have to face:

•  Monopoly in political life

•  Disillusionment of Russian society in effectiveness of civil and political activism due to fear of prosecution

•  Very limited funding due to the fact that people and potential corporate donors are scared

•  Paternalistic attitudes dating back to the Soviet times

STATE CONTROL OF MASS MEDIA

Internet penetration in Russia is over 53.3% (81% in the US).

Social media is proving to be an effective tool when it comes to activism in Russia. • Livejournal — over 2.5 million LiveJournal users in Russia, its monthly audience is 20 million, it is the main platform for publication of long-form citizen journalism.

• Twitter — monthly audience is about 10 million, you can be sure that all the journalists, media figures, activists, opposition politicians and quite a few government officials are all there.

• Facebook — monthly audience is about 27 million people, it is the main discussion platform where everyone is connected with everyone else through much less than six handshakes.

• Vkontakte — monthly audience in Russia is 50 million, and those are the 50 million that represent the country’s next generation.

• Odnoklassniki — Its monthly audience is about 43 million people – more than Facebook and Twitter combined! This social network is populated by older people, who don’t use Twitter, Facebook or Vkontakte.

INTERNET AND ONLINE MEDIA

  A lawyer by training

  Engaged in political and civil activism for the last decade

  Over the last years became the most prominent opposition politician

  Most popular political blogger (monthly audience exceeds 2 mln)

  Received initial publicity through investigations of graft in large state-controlled companies

  His viral campaign “United Russia is a party of crooks and thiefs” cost the ruling party about 10% in parliamentary elections in 2011

  Ranked one of top 100 most influential people in the world in 2012 by the Time magazine

  Was tried on fabricated charges in summer 2013 and received a 5-year suspended sentence

ALEXEY NAVALNY

FOUNDATION FOR FIGHTING CORRUPTION

  Legal and organizational platform for civil and political activism

  Creation of several online services for citizens’ activism (monitoring state procurement, filing complaints on road potholes, utilities problems)

  Over USD 2 bn worth of cancelled or amended state tenders

  Responsible for anti-corruption investigations which led to resignation of a number of parliament members and other officials

  Financed entirely through crowdfunding

  Heavy reliance on social media for publicity and promotion

Moscow mayoral elections proved to be a complete surprise for everyone, except the incumbent mayor.

10 WEEKS TO RUN A FULL-FLEDGED ELECTORAL CAMPAIGN

Office of the �Foundation for Fighting Corruption�

STAFF - 8 PEOPLE

FIRST CAMPAIGN HEADQUARTERS

We had to face a number of challenges:

•  Just 10 weeks till election day

•  Low reported ratings

•  Administrative support for the incumbent mayor

•  Uncertainty in fundraising

•  Pending court case

…and we established the following objectives: •  Obtain the best electoral results

•  Spread the ideas of transparent government and corruption fighting

•  Show the public that it is possible to run an effective crowdfunded electoral campaign

CHALLENGES AND OBJECTIVES

16 700 PEOPLE FROM 82 REGIONS OF RUSSIA

DONATED 103 MLN RUBLES (OVER $3 MLN)

THE ONLY SOURCE OF FINANCING –VOLUNTARY DONATIONS

AVERAGE AGE — 36 YEARS MAXIMUM AGE — 89 YEARS

MIDDLE-AGED WOMEN DONATED THE BIGGEST SUMS AND THE MOST MONEY

HOW USD 3 MLN FROM THE CAMPAIGN FUND WERE USED

Source: Alexey Navalny’s campaign office!

90 MEETINGS — 40,000 PEOPLE

2 756 CUBES — 8,000 VOLUNTEERS

1 200 BANNERS ACROSS MOSCOW

480000 NEWSPAPERS GIVEN OUT ON THE SUBWAY

16,5 MILLION

TOTAL CIRCULATION OF THE CAMPAIGN NEWSPAPER

2,6 MILLION TOTAL CIRCULATION OF 68 DISTRICT NEWSPAPERS

SOCIOLOGY The only exact way to forecast election results

Sob

yani

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aval

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MCEC — Moscow City Electoral Commission US — Our own analytics POF — "Public Opinion" Foundation RPORC — Russian Public Opinion Research Center

36,000 PEOPLE FROM 18,000 APARTMENT BUILDINGS “NAVALNY in each house”

500,000 VKONTAKTE MESSAGES

“AGITATE MOSCOW”

2,7 MLN VIEWS

�ARM YOURSELF� VIDEO

OVER 2 MLN VIEWS �CIRCLES� PROJECT

204 ENTREPRENEURS SIGNED A SOCIAL CONTRACT WITH POLITICIAN ALEXEY NAVALNY

BUSINESSMEN OFFERED THEIR SUPPORT

  scientists   actors   writers   musicians   journalists

CREATIVE CLASS SUPPORTED US

NAVALNY�S RATING GREW ALMOST THREE-FOLD

Sobyanin

Navalny

Candidate Ratings

June 27 - July 3

July 11 - July 16

July 25 - July 31

June 27 - July 3

Aug 8 - Aug 14

Aug 22 – Aug 28

September elections

RESULTS

More than the whole �systemic� opposition together

27,2% ACCORDING TO THE OFFICIAL DATA

27%

21%

Alexey Navalny

Just Russia LDPR Yabloko Communists

“Systemic opposition”

Source: Moscow City Election Commission

15%

MOSCOW RESIDENTS YOUNGER THAN 36 VOTED FOR THE MAVERICK

LESS THAN 5%

NAVALNY SOBYANIN

VOTER TURNOUT STRONGLY DEPENDED ON AGE

Campaigning worked well, we just didn�t reach everybody

51%

17%

18 – 25 YEARS OVER 65 YEARS

~

NEED FOR CHANGE IS THE PRIMARY MOTIVATION OF NAVALNY�S SUPPORTERS

THIS IS JUST A BEGINNING WE WILL DEFINITELY WIN