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Navalny’s ‘smart voting’ offers the only path to change, says Petersburg official
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The first few months of 2021 have been a whirlwind in Russian politics. The return of Alexey Navalny after being poisoned last summer set off a new wave of protests, police violence, detentions – and tactical disagreements within the Russian opposition.

Maxim Reznik, a member of the St Petersburg Legislative Assembly, has seen these fractures up close. As one of the leading opposition deputies in Russia’s northern capital, Reznik is known for his role in several important protest campaigns in the city, for example, against the transfer of a prominent city cathedral to the Russian Orthodox Church.

He also speaks openly in defence of the opposition leader, Navalny. Indeed, Reznik supports the Navalny team’s ‘smart voting’ strategy, where the plan is to run a single opposition candidate in election districts in the parliamentary elections this September to deprive the United Russia party of votes. And he encourages voters to support the campaign.

In the wake of the Russian authorities’ decision to ban Navalny’s political movement due to it being deemed “extremist”, Reznik opened up about the tensions within Russia’s opposition politics – and what the country’s young people really think.

Does the attack on Navalny’s network and the ban on its existence signal the end of mass protest in Russia?

No, I’m sure that protest will find new forms. These bans openly demonstrate what our Russian government, this punitive dictatorship, fears most of all – Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) and his network, whether people in other parts of the Russian opposition like it or not! It is the FBK that poses a threat to the Russian authorities. And this threat, in my opinion, is focused not so much on public rallies as the preparation for the ‘smart voting’ campaign.

Repressions against the FBK are, first of all, an attempt to interfere with ‘smart voting’. I am sure that other people and other groups will be found to organise rallies but organising the ‘smart voting’ campaign requires structures, horizontal connections and smooth organisation – everything that would have been provided by Navalny’s network.

Do the recent mass demonstrations express the real popular mood in the country?

It is hard to say! After all, even Russia’s sociologists cannot assess the mood in society with complete surety because even in anonymous polls, people are afraid to speak frankly.

I am sure that there are tens and hundreds of times more people who sympathise with the protests than actually come out. The only question is: how can all these protesters express their opinion? Elections are the safest way for citizens to express their opinions, especially when compared to a rally, where you can be kicked in the stomach or injured with an electric shock. This is why the authorities are afraid of elections and the ‘smart voting’ campaign.

[1] Url: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/odr/maxim-reznik-petersburg-opposition-navalny-interview/