‘Smart voting’
The Russian opposition is still seeking to make its voice heard in an increasingly repressive environment.
Navalnaya called the upcoming elections a “propagandistic exercise” for Putin, and believes it is essential to prevent him from getting results that will legitimize his war effort in Russia and in the West.
“Our task is to convey to the majority of Russians — the anti-war majority — that, despite total censorship, fear, and repression, these ‘elections’ represent literally the last opportunity to safely express protest against the policies of Putin and his United Russia party,” she told POLITICO.
Navalnaya and Katz advocate for what they call “smart voting” — an endorsement strategy to defeat United Russia by backing candidates who are against, or at least less supportive of the war. The strategy was pioneered by Alexey Navalny himself in 2018 after he and his allies were mainly barred from running in presidential and municipal elections.
“Smart voting” relies heavily on Yabloko candidates running in single-member districts, but as they are not present in many parts of Russia, some of Navalnaya and Katz’s endorsements include candidates from the Communists and other pro-governmental parties.
This approach has been criticized by some members of the Russian opposition, including the head of Yabloko, Nikolay Rybakov. Voting for parties who are already in the Duma amounts to “supporting those who send members of Yabloko to prison,” he said at a meeting with party supporters in St. Petersburg on September 15.
Endorsing candidates is “the wrong bet,” Reznik, the former Yabloko official, told POLITICO. “The voting results are in the Kremlin’s hands. They’ll rewrite everything anyway. Just you wait and see.”