smla moscow mayoral campaign presentation dec 2013
DESCRIPTION
Presentation on Moscow mayoral campaign of Alexey Navalny delivered by Vladimir Ashurkov at Social Media Leadership Awards conference in December 2013TRANSCRIPT
CHANGE RUSSIA, START WITH MOSCOW
* - “NAVALNY”, name of the mayoral candidate in Cyrillic in the trademark font used in the campaign
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
VLADIMIR ASHURKOV - INTRODUCTION
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
• Vote rigging in favor of the ruling political party and its candidates
• Cumbersome system of registration of parties and candidates for elections
• Restrictions on financing for independent parties and candidates while the ruling party and its satellites receive support from the state
• Restrictive registration and reporting requirements for non-profit organizations
• Smear campaigns against major independent non-profit groups and activists, in particular, those focusing on election monitoring, human rights, anti-corruption efforts
• Politically motivated use of law enforcement agencies and the court system
CHALLENGING POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT
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
STATE CONTROL OF MASS 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. • Livejournal — over 2.5 million LiveJournal users in Russia, its monthly audience is 20 million, it is the main platform for publication of long-form citizen journalism.
• Twitter — monthly audience is about 10 million, you can be sure that all the journalists, media figures, activists, opposition politicians and quite a few government officials are all there.
• Facebook — monthly audience is about 27 million people, it is the main discussion platform where everyone is connected with everyone else through much less than six handshakes.
• Vkontakte — monthly audience in Russia is 50 million, and those are the 50 million that represent the country’s next generation.
• Odnoklassniki — Its monthly audience is about 43 million people – more than Facebook and Twitter combined! This social network is populated by older people, who don’t use Twitter, Facebook or Vkontakte.
INTERNET AND ONLINE MEDIA
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 state-controlled 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
ALEXEY NAVALNY
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
Moscow mayoral elections proved to be a complete surprise for everyone, except the incumbent mayor.
10 WEEKS TO RUN A FULL-FLEDGED ELECTORAL CAMPAIGN
Office of the �Foundation for Fighting Corruption�
STAFF - 8 PEOPLE
FIRST CAMPAIGN HEADQUARTERS
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
CHALLENGES AND OBJECTIVES
16 700 PEOPLE FROM 82 REGIONS OF RUSSIA
DONATED 103 MLN RUBLES (OVER $3 MLN)
THE ONLY SOURCE OF FINANCING –VOLUNTARY DONATIONS
AVERAGE AGE — 36 YEARS MAXIMUM AGE — 89 YEARS
MIDDLE-AGED WOMEN DONATED THE BIGGEST SUMS AND THE MOST MONEY
HOW USD 3 MLN FROM THE CAMPAIGN FUND WERE USED
Source: Alexey Navalny’s campaign office!
90 MEETINGS — 40,000 PEOPLE
2 756 CUBES — 8,000 VOLUNTEERS
1 200 BANNERS ACROSS MOSCOW
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
SOCIOLOGY The only exact way to forecast election results
Sob
yani
n N
aval
ny
MCEC — Moscow City Electoral Commission US — Our own analytics POF — "Public Opinion" Foundation RPORC — Russian Public Opinion Research Center
36,000 PEOPLE FROM 18,000 APARTMENT BUILDINGS “NAVALNY in each house”
500,000 VKONTAKTE MESSAGES
“AGITATE MOSCOW”
2,7 MLN VIEWS
�ARM YOURSELF� VIDEO
OVER 2 MLN VIEWS �CIRCLES� PROJECT
204 ENTREPRENEURS SIGNED A SOCIAL CONTRACT WITH POLITICIAN ALEXEY NAVALNY
BUSINESSMEN OFFERED THEIR SUPPORT
scientists actors writers musicians journalists
CREATIVE CLASS SUPPORTED US
NAVALNY�S RATING GREW ALMOST THREE-FOLD
Sobyanin
Navalny
Candidate Ratings
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
RESULTS
More than the whole �systemic� opposition together
27,2% ACCORDING TO THE OFFICIAL DATA
27%
21%
Alexey Navalny
Just Russia LDPR Yabloko Communists
“Systemic opposition”
Source: Moscow City Election Commission
15%
MOSCOW RESIDENTS YOUNGER THAN 36 VOTED FOR THE MAVERICK
LESS THAN 5%
NAVALNY SOBYANIN
VOTER TURNOUT STRONGLY DEPENDED ON AGE
Campaigning worked well, we just didn�t reach everybody
51%
17%
18 – 25 YEARS OVER 65 YEARS
~
NEED FOR CHANGE IS THE PRIMARY MOTIVATION OF NAVALNY�S SUPPORTERS
THIS IS JUST A BEGINNING WE WILL DEFINITELY WIN