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Monday, September 14, 2020
The opposition’s “smart vote” strategy is working once again at the local Russian level. In Tomsk, the site of Navalny’s poisoning, Putin’s party is losing the majority. The allied navalnys make the leap to parliament. The big winner is another party.
After the poisoning of Russian opposition politician Alexej Navalny in the Siberian city of Tomsk, his followers were successful in local elections. According to preliminary information, two of Nawalny’s employees arrived at the city hall, according to the Interfax agency. The city is about 2,900 kilometers east of Moscow in a straight line.
The Kremlin Party, United Russia, lost its majority in the city parliament with its 37 seats in Tomsk. After counting all the ballots, the dominant party in Russia achieved 24.47 percent. That corresponded to 11 seats.
Before being poisoned, Navalny had promoted his “smart voting” strategy in the city. He called for any candidate to be chosen, but not that of the Kremlin party. The objective of the opposition is to break the monopoly of power of United Russia. The plan worked in the Tomsk case, according to preliminary results. Navalny was also successful in Moscow in municipal elections last year.
Parliament with the widest range of opinions
His employees Xenia Fadejewa and Andrej Fatejew will move to Tomsk city hall. United Russia was still the strongest faction, but without a majority. The Communists came in second with 17.55 percent of the vote. It was followed by the Pueblo Nuevo (Nowyje Ljudi) party, which was only admitted this year, reaching 15.06 percent from the start. The new political force, which is also committed to the self-employed and ecology, also achieved success in other cities.
Tomsk City Council is now considered a small parliament in Russia with the widest range of political opinions. Also represented are the Liberal Democrats of ultra-nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the Fair Russia party and the liberal opposition force Yabloko, as well as the Growth Party. The Kremlin Party had previously held 21 seats.
The Kremlin’s opponent, Navalny, collapsed on a flight from Tomsk to Moscow on August 20. The plane had to make a stop in Omsk. Navalny was hospitalized there and airlifted to Berlin on August 22, where he has been treated ever since. It is said that he was killed with a neurotoxin by the Novitschok group, which is prohibited as a chemical weapon. Russia denies having anything to do with the case.
