Kirov volunteers of the headquarters of Alexey Navalny held a campaign on July 8 — they walked along the main streets of the city, handing out leaflets and calling people to sign for the nomination of the politician for the presidency in 2018.
Coordinator of the headquarters of Navalny in Kirov Arthur Abashev said that the leaflets for agitation did not arrive in Kirov by the appointed time: they were supposed to be delivered the day before, but still on the way for some unknown reason. Another part of the leaflets for Kirov and Yoshkar-Ola were sent from Cheboksary and were seized at Navalny's headquarters in the capital of Mari El. So the activists had to print leaflets on the printer.
Other volunteers came up and brought leaflets. Almost simultaneously with them the police car drove up to the mayor's office. A man in uniform approached.
'May I ask what is going on here?' the policeman asked.
'May I ask why you do not have a badge? Don't you know the order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs about wearing uniforms?' Arthur Abashev retorted.
'I know.' the policeman was taken aback.
‘So you are informed and violate. Why? Are you in the service now?' the coordinator of Navalny's headquarters continued.
The policeman was silent, Abashev promised him to write a complaint to the leadership and continued the interrogation.
'What should a police officer do when he comes to a citizen?'
'Good afternoon, I'm the captain of the police department number two,' the policeman began cautiously.
Arthur Abashev asked him to show the certificate.
'We are standing. Is it forbidden? Do you have any questions?' Abashev asked the policeman. He admitted that there were no questions, and left.
The coordinator divided the volunteers into three groups of two people who went to different streets: distributing leaflets, explaining the nomination of Navalny for elections and collecting signatures.
Correspondents of «7x7» went along Karl Marx Street with Denis and Vladislav. Denis is an entrepreneur, Vladislav is a student of the Vyatka State University. They told why they became volunteers, support Alexey Navalny and hand out leaflets.
'Today is a good day, we can walk, talk to people, I really love it. And I support Alexei Navalny, he was released yesterday from arrest, I think it's worth celebrating. In general, it seems to me that it is difficult, having looked around, not to support Alexey Navalny. We have terrible roads, they are in such a condition as if the war was here, not in Syria. I know people who have a salary of three thousand rubles, and the minimum is 7,5. The situation is very simple. There are people who are close to power, they have everything, but there are those who have a normal life, but beggars. Although our country is so rich — oil, gas, forest, diamonds. And no change of power. Even in China, someone has already changed, but not here,' Denis explained.
Vladislav said that he became a volunteer because he was not indifferent to the future of the country.
'I'm going to live and work here, acquire a family. I want to work for a normal salary.’
A middle-aged man listened to Denis favorably, agreed with the phrase 'we have elections without choice' and took a leaflet. And then he asked for one more – for his father-in-law.
Vladislav spoke with two girls, told them about the film 'He's not Dimon' [about the "secret empire of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev'].
'Read it. You will learn how you are deprived of the future,' he said.
'Yes, we already know,' one of the girls answered, but took the leaflet.
One of the women asked: 'And who is Navalny?'. She was explained. 'Ah, it's the one with Kirovles'. Denis immediately began to explain that the verdict was illegal and this was confirmed by the European Court of Human Rights. The woman hesitated a little, but promised to read the leaflet and go to the politician's website.
Then Denis and Vladislav were much less lucky. A miniature grandmother said that she was 80 years old, nothing would change in her life and 'let Putin stay'. Two women did not want to listen to volunteers.
The young girl stated bluntly:
'We are against the liberals! I'm for Putin. I am Orthodox, and he is Orthodox, he is against everything dark and for everything light.'
'Wait, but Putin is a KGB man, how can he be Orthodox? The KGB blew up the churches,' Denis objected.
'What does Putin have to do with it? He does not let all bad things into our country,' the girl continued.
Other people said that 'categorically' and 'for nothing in the world' would not vote for a politician. One woman said that didn't like Navalny's appearance, another passer-by called him a traitor and a moron.
But several people, mostly young people, listened to volunteers, took leaflets and even asked for the headquarters address – to get the stickers.
Denis was not upset about the negative reviews about Navalny.
'I think that we need to explain everything to people, the reaction is completely different. But it's difficult to do on the street, they are on their way, they are rushing. But it means something. I think there are little of those who are really against,' he concluded.
Alexey Navalny announced his nomination for the presidency at the end of 2016. After he was convicted for the second time, he lost the right to participate in the elections as a candidate. Team of Navalny does not agree with this and believes that the politician has the right to be nominated for the post.
Navalny opened pre-election headquarters in 77 cities of the country, conducts agitation campaign, collects signatures for his nomination.
After the rally on June 12, he was arrested for 25 days, the arrest ended on July 7. In this regard, the supporters of Navalny decided to conduct agitation in the regions. Three days before the start of the subbotniks, leaflets were confiscated at many headquarters, police beat one of the volunteers in the Moscow headquarters, he was severely injured. About 50 volunteers of subbotniks were detained in Moscow.
Katerina Klepikovskaya, photo by Artyom Mikryukov, «7x7»
