Alexei Navalny presidential campaign, 2018

Alexei Navalny presidential campaign, 2018
Campaign	Russian presidential election, 2018
Candidate	Alexei Navalny Founder of the ACF (2011–present) Chairman of the Progress Party (2013–present)
Affiliation	Russian opposition
Status	Announced: December 13, 2016
Headquarters	Moscow
Key people	Chief of staff: Leonid Volkov Legal adviser: Ivan Zhdanov
Slogan	"Пора выбирать" "Time to choose"
Website
2018.navalny.com

The Russian opposition figure and anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny announced his intention to run for President of Russia in the 2018 election on December 13, 2016.^[1] The primary themes of his campaign have been focusing on domestic issues, including combating corruption in Russia and improving the economy. Commentators have noted that Navalny's campaign is unprecedented in modern Russia as politicians usually do not start campaigning until a few months before the election.^[2]

Navalny began before the official registration for the elections occurred in spite of court proceedings against him in a fraud case, which could bar him from running since the Russian election legislation deprives certain criminals of eligibility.^[3] In February 2017, a district court in Kirov upheld his suspended sentence despite the European Court of Human Rights siding with Navalny. In May, the deputy chief of the Central Election Commission commented that Navalny will not be allowed to run. Navalny and his staff said that they will appeal to the ECHR and will continue campaigning to give the government no choice but to accept his candidacy.^[4][5]

Analysts described his policies as "populist", as well as nationalistic and isolationist, and thus some have compared him to Donald Trump, although Navalny himself does not think it is an accurate comparison.^[6][7][8]

Background

Alternative campaign logo, red exclamation is combined with white letter Н

Alexei Navalny announced his intention to run for President of Russia on 13 December 2016 and since then has been traveling to cities throughout Russia to meet with supporters and open regional offices.^[9] He had first spoken about doing so in April 2013, and in September of that year, he had taken part in the Moscow mayoral election, in which he got 27% of the vote.^[1][10][11] Before that, he was one of the main leaders of the 2011 protests after the parliamentary election.^[12] As noted by Newsweek and the former Russian presidential administration adviser Gleb Pavlovsky,^[13] the campaign by Navalny is unprecedented in modern Russia as most candidates do not start campaigning until a few months before the election.^[2] His chief of staff Leonid Volkov stated that part of the reason they started a year early was to raise support and to give the Russian government no choice but to let Navalny take part in the election in spite of ruling regarding the Kirovles case.^[14] The primary focus of Navalny's campaign is combating the corruption within the current government under Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.^[2] In mid-April 2017, Navalny was endorsed by the exiled oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky^[15] and the liberal People's Freedom Party leader Mikhail Kasyanov as an alternative to incumbent President Vladimir Putin.^[16]

Legal case

Concerns about Navalny's participation in the elections include the "Kirovles case", when in 2009, according to investigators, Navalny ordered a local businessman to create an intermediary company then persuaded the administration of the local Kirov Oblast corporation Kirovles to sign a deal with the new company on unfavorable terms. Kirovles allegedly lost millions of dollars while the middleman company made a profit. The investigation lasted until 2013 at which point he was given a five-year prison sentence, which was suspended with a 500,000 ruble fine. In November 2016 the Russian Supreme Court annulled the sentence and returned the case to the Leninsky District court in the city of Kirov for a retrial.^[1] In February 2017, the district court ruled to uphold Navalny's sentence despite pressure from the European Court of Human Rights, which sided with Navalny.^[17] The issue may block Navalny from participating in the elections as Russian law does not allow criminal offenders to run for office,^[18] and after the retrial both Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of the State Duma, and Medvedev's spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that he will probably not be allowed to run.^[19]

Navalny argued that the Constitution of the Russian Federation only prevents those who are in prison and those who are legally unfit from taking part in elections^[20] and believes that he is still legally able to run.^[21] In February he stated "It says clearly in the constitution that only those who are in prison are banned. So I am not banned. For now."^[22] He also said that "What we have just seen is a telegram of sorts from the Kremlin, saying that they consider me, my team and people whose views I represent too dangerous to be allowed into the election campaign."^[12] Navalny and his supporters also accuse it of being a political case, though the Russian government denies it. Leonid Volkov, his chief of staff, said that the presidential campaign will continue and that they will appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.^[4]

The cases are widely believed to be fabricated in retaliation for his political activity. The Memorial Human Rights Center recognized Navalny as a political prisoner.^[23]

Campaigning

Since opening his first campaign office in Saint Petersburg in February 2017,^[22] Navalny plans to open at least forty offices across the country by the end of May, later increasing the number to over seventy.^[21] He has been traveling to different cities rather than focus on a few larger ones, unlike many other Russian politicians. In early April, his chief of staff Leonid Volkov stated that Navalny will continue his campaign despite the Leninsky District court upholding his five-year sentence for the Kirovles fraud case,^[24] and that Navalny intends to appeal the ban from running.^[12] He personally visited many of the locations for the opening ceremonies of the local campaign offices where he met with and spoke to his supporters.^[19] In April 2017, it was reported that Navalny's campaign staff collected more than 300,000 signatures from people across 40 regions of Russia electronically.^[25] More than 75,000 people signed up to volunteer for his campaign and nearly $700,000 has been donated.^[26]

March 26 protest

Protestors in Moscow at the March 26 rally

Navalny arrested during the 2017 Russian protests on 26 March 2017

In March 2017, the Anti-Corruption Foundation led by Navalny published a documentary video on YouTube titled He Is Not Dimon to You, in which he stated that Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev possessed large properties which he obtained with bribes from oligarchs and bank loans through non-governmental organizations.^[16] The video gained tens of millions of views, but the Medvedev government ignored it and did not make any response. As a result, Navalny called for mass rallies on March 26 to protest against this. Tens of thousands of people reportedly took part in the protests on that day, with rallies being held in dozens of cities across Russia (including Moscow and Saint Petersburg), using social media to organize and reportedly including large numbers of young people.^[19][27] After the protests, Medvedev's approval rating fell and the number of people stating in polls that they would vote for Navalny rose.^[28] Navalny was jailed for several days afterwards for disobeying orders from the police,^[27] along with somewhere between five hundred^[29] to one thousand other demonstrators.^[19] He has called for more demonstrations to take place on June 12, which is the national holiday Russia Day.^[30]

Attacks on Navalny and others

Navalny after being doused in green dye

There have been several instances of sabotage by unknown assailants that Alexei Navalny describes as being pro-Putin activists.^[21] In April 2017 he was splashed with the alcoholic solution of brilliant green twice, one occasion having no major effect while on the second occasion one of his eyes was damaged by chemicals, causing some loss of vision. The police have not captured the attacker although an investigation was opened.^[31] Acts of sabotage have taken place against other members of the campaign as well. In March, in the city of Tomsk, the doors to the apartments of several local campaign coordinators were glued shut with inflatable foam, while their cars were also vandalized. In the middle of the opening speech being given by Navalny police arrived and told everyone to evacuate the building due to a bomb threat.^[19]

After the court ruling

Navalny and his team stated on 3 May 2017 that they will be continuing their campaign despite the regional court in Kirov upholding his sentence and potentially barring him from taking part in the election, with the intention of building up support and making the Russian government allow him to participate.^[4][5][14] On 23 June 2017, The Central Election Commission stated that Navalny can not run for presidency because of his past conviction.^[32]

Campaign strategy

According to a January 2017 publication on the website of Leonid Volkov, Navalny's chief of staff, their strategy revolves around setting up regional offices that will serve the following functions:^[33]

• Preparation for collecting signatures
• Preparation for election observers
• Raising support

They intend to visit and open offices in over seventy cities by the summer of 2017.^[33]

Opinion polls

Political positions

Economy

One of Navalny's primary focuses during the campaign is improving the economy.^[39] His more specific economic proposals include instituting a minimum wage,^[40] lowering prices of apartments and reducing bureaucracy of home construction, making healthcare and education free, lowering taxes for many citizens, taxing the gains from privatization, decentralization of financial management and increase in local governance, increasing transparency in state-owned firms, implementing work visas for Central Asian migrants coming into the country for work, and increasing economic cooperation with western European states.^[41][42] He also wants to collect higher taxes from oligarchs while lowering taxes on small-time entrepreneurs in order to lessen income inequality.^[43]

Immigration

Navalny's policies have been described as anti-immigration and he has stated multiple times that he wants to introduce a visa regime with the Central Asian republics to register and reduce the number of workers coming to Russia.^[6][42][43]

Foreign policy

The primary focus of Navalny's campaign is on domestic issues, although he has commented on foreign policy. He has state regarding the annexation of Crimea that a second "honest referendum" needs to be done to confirm the region's status,^[9] and believes the War in Donbass can be resolved by implementing the Minsk agreement.^[42] He also has spoken against the Russian intervention in the Syrian Civil War, believing that there are internal problems that need to be dealt with rather than get involved in foreign wars.^[6] In an interview with a reporter from The Guardian, Navalny summarized his position by saying "I tell them: 'OK great, so Putin is promising to rebuild Palmyra, but why don't you look at the roads in your city? What do you think the priority should be? Fixing the roads in Voronezh or Stavropol or rebuilding Palmyra? The Americans are loaded. Let them fix Palmyra, and we should concentrate on our own problems.'"^[8]

Navalny has also stated that he considers Russia to be part of the Western world and does not support the Eurasianist ideology of some Russian government officials.^[19] He said that Russia should become a leading country in Europe and Asia through cultural and economic might.^[43]

Corruption

One of the main campaign themes is combating corruption in the Russian government. Navalny proposes to initiate criminal cases against government officials who cannot explain how they were able to acquire very luxurious items that seem too much for their paycheck, which should be identified by the press. He also intends to reform the police and judiciary of Russia to make them more independent.^[43]

LGBT

In an interview with a reporter from RBC, Navalny said that he will repeal the gay propaganda law. He also spoke in support of legalization of same-sex partnership by region via referendums.^[44]

References