Presentation on Moscow mayoral campaign of Alexey Navalny delivered by Vladimir Ashurkov at Social Media Leadership Awards conference in December 2013

1. CHANGE RUSSIA, START WITH
MOSCOW
* - “NAVALNY”, name of the mayoral candidate in Cyrillic in the trademark font used in the campaign

2. VLADIMIR ASHURKOV - INTRODUCTION
 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

3. CHALLENGING POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT
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
• ote rigging in favor of the ruling political party and its candidates
V
• umbersome system of registration of parties and candidates for elections
C
• estrictions on financing for independent parties and candidates while the ruling
R
party and its satellites receive support from the state
• estrictive registration and reporting requirements for non-profit organizations
R
• mear campaigns against major independent non-profit groups and activists,
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in particular, those focusing on election monitoring, human rights, anti-corruption
efforts
• olitically motivated use of law enforcement agencies and the court system
P

4. STATE CONTROL OF MASS MEDIA
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

5. INTERNET AND ONLINE 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.
• ivejournal — over 2.5 million LiveJournal users in Russia, its monthly audience
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is 20 million, it is the main platform for publication of long-form citizen journalism.
• witter — monthly audience is about 10 million, you can be sure that all the
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journalists, media figures, activists, opposition politicians and quite a few
government officials are all there.
• acebook — monthly audience is about 27 million people, it is the main
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discussion platform where everyone is connected with everyone else through
much less than six handshakes.
• kontakte — monthly audience in Russia is 50 million, and those are the 50
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million that represent the country’s next generation.
• dnoklassniki — Its monthly audience is about 43 million people – more than
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Facebook and Twitter combined! This social network is populated by older people,
who don’t use Twitter, Facebook or Vkontakte.

6. ALEXEY NAVALNY
 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 statecontrolled 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

7. 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

8. Moscow mayoral elections proved to be a complete
surprise for everyone, except the incumbent mayor.
10
WEEKS
TO RUN A FULL-FLEDGED
ELECTORAL CAMPAIGN

9. FIRST CAMPAIGN HEADQUARTERS
Office of the Foundation for Fighting Corruption
STAFF -
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PEOPLE

10. CHALLENGES AND OBJECTIVES
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

11. THE ONLY SOURCE OF FINANCING –
VOLUNTARY DONATIONS
16 700 PEOPLE FROM 82 REGIONS OF RUSSIA
DONATED 103 MLN RUBLES (OVER $3 MLN)

12. — 36 YEARS
MAXIMUM AGE — 89 YEARS
AVERAGE AGE
MIDDLE-AGED WOMEN DONATED THE
BIGGEST SUMS AND THE MOST MONEY

13. HOW USD 3 MLN FROM THE
CAMPAIGN FUND WERE USED
Source: Alexey Navalny’s campaign office!

14. 90 MEETINGS — 40,000
PEOPLE
2 756
CUBES —
8,000 VOLUNTEERS
1 200
BANNERS ACROSS MOSCOW

15. 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

16. SOCIOLOGY
Navalny
Sobyanin
The only exact way to forecast election results
MCEC — Moscow City Electoral Commission
US — Our own analytics
POF — "Public Opinion" Foundation
RPORC — Russian Public Opinion Research Center

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

18. “AGITATE MOSCOW”
500,000 VKONTAKTE MESSAGES

19. ARM YOURSELF VIDEO
2,7 MLN VIEWS

20. CIRCLES PROJECT
OVER 2 MLN VIEWS

21. BUSINESSMEN OFFERED THEIR SUPPORT
204 ENTREPRENEURS
SIGNED A SOCIAL CONTRACT
WITH POLITICIAN ALEXEY NAVALNY

22. CREATIVE CLASS SUPPORTED US





scientists
actors
writers
musicians
journalists

23. NAVALNY S RATING GREW ALMOST
THREE-FOLD
Candidate Ratings
Sobyanin
Navalny
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

24. RESULTS
27%
21%
Just Russia
LDPR
Yabloko
Communists
Alexey Navalny
27,2%
“Systemic opposition”
ACCORDING TO THE OFFICIAL DATA
More than the whole systemic opposition together
Source: Moscow City Election Commission

25. MOSCOW RESIDENTS YOUNGER THAN
36 VOTED FOR THE MAVERICK
15%
LESS THAN
NAVALNY
5%
SOBYANIN

26. VOTER TURNOUT STRONGLY
DEPENDED ON AGE
~
51%
17%
18 – 25 YEARS
OVER 65 YEARS
Campaigning worked well, we just didn t reach everybody

27. NEED FOR CHANGE
IS THE PRIMARY MOTIVATION OF NAVALNY S SUPPORTERS

28. THIS IS JUST A BEGINNING
WE WILL DEFINITELY WIN