The Real Russia. Today. Navalny delivers a fiery speech to election officials, moments before his presidential candidacy is rejected; Putin congratulates his cabinet; and the Russian Senate's little revolt

Tuesday, December 26, 2017

• Read Navalny's speech to the federal election officials who moments later rejected his presidential candidacy bid
• Putin skips his own nomination event
• Putin to his cabinet: heckuva job, fellas
• The Federation Council rejects legislation passed by the Duma for just the second time in over a year
• Moscow's Victory Day Parade was Russia's most-watched TV broadcast all year
• A human rights leader catches a break in his child pornography case

Story of the weekend: Navalny's presidential bid hits a wall ✋

Russia’s Central Election Commission refused to register Alexey Navalny’s presidential candidacy on December 25, a day after the opposition politician’s campaign staged nomination gatherings in 20 cities across the country and Navalny personally submitted his candidacy application to the commission. Before the formal vote, Navalny addressed the commission in a fiery speech where he called on election officials to let him compete in the March 2018 presidential race.

• Meduza presents an English translation of Navalny’s remarks.
• In response to the commission's decision, Navalny has called for a boycott of the 2018 presidential election, and plans nationwide protests early next year.

Putin didn't even attend his own nomination event 🤷‍♂️

A voters’ committee gathered at Moscow’s VDNKh amusement park on December 26 to nominate Vladimir Putin as a presidential candidate. Putin did not attend the event.

• Russian election law states that independent presidential candidates need the nomination of “initiative groups” composed of at least 500 people. After submitting a formal application to the Central Election Commission, independent candidates must collect 300,000 signatures endorsing their candidacy, in order to appear on the ballot. (Alexey Navalny’s candidacy bid failed when election officials rejected his application.)

Putin was busy patting his cabinet on the backs 👍

Vladimir Putin says “external constraints” are partly to blame for Russia’s growing number of people living in poverty. Meeting with members of his cabinet, the president congratulated his team on doing “everything possible and more” to weather the storm of economic crisis, declining oil prices, and “certain external constraints.” Putin credited his government with “solving all issues facing the country’s economy.” Specifically, the president said the government has managed to cut the federal budget’s dependence on oil revenue and reduce the economy’s vulnerability to external shocks through “import substitution” and state support for Russian exports.

• Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev told Putin that the cabinet has done everything it could to facilitate a smooth presidential race, and wished Putin luck in his reelection campaign.

Russian senators remember: oh yeah, we can reject laws, too 👎

State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin couldn’t get the Federation Council to pass his draft legislation prohibiting cruelty against animals in the training of hunting dogs, but he’s got a backup plan, and the bill is now headed for a mediation committee. On December 26, the upper house of Russia’s parliament broke with the State Duma and rejected Volodin's law. The Duma's speaker insists that his bill has the support of President Putin.

• The Federation Council’s rejection of Volodin’s bill marks just the second time since October 2016 (when Volodin became the Duma's speaker) that the parliament’s upper house has voted against a draft law approved by the lower house. (The other law that failed to pass the Federation Council during this time would have banned housing and utilities advertisements on receipts.)
• Senator Sergey Kalashnikov raised eyebrows by comparing Volodin’s legislation to a law protecting gay rights, arguing that a prohibition on tough dog training is liberal foolishness. After his remark, Kalashnikov was reminded by a colleague at the Federation Council that comparisons between wild animals and members of the LGBT community are “impermissible.”

In Russia, TV’s most-watched event is a military parade, not the Super Bowl 📺

A study by Mediascope says the broadcast of Moscow’s Victory Day March through Red Square scored the highest television ratings of the year in Russia. Another military parade — the Navy Day celebration in St. Petersburg and Kronstadt on July 30 — took seventh place. The third most-watched TV broadcast all year was the first episode of Oliver Stone’s “The Putin Interviews,” which aired on network television on July 19. Second place went to the May 9 Victory Day news broadcast by Pervyi Kanal, the network that claimed nine of the top 10 spots.

• In 2016, Russia’s top-rated television broadcast was an anniversary show of the “KVN” comedy improv competition, which Vladimir Putin attended. Second place went to Moscow’s Victory Day parade, followed by Pervyi Kanal’s Victory Day news broadcast.

A human rights leader facing felony charges gets some good news 👨‍👧

A second expert examination of photographs Yuri Dmitriyev took of his adopted daughter has found that the images do not constitute pornography. Dmitriyev, the head of the Karelia branch of the human rights group “Memorial,” has been charged with the illegal possession of firearms and committing “depraved acts,” including the creation of child pornography. Dmitriyev’s lawyers say the new expert review is a “major victory,” but prosecutors are demanding another study of the case materials.

• Police arrested Dmitriyev in December 2016. Prosecutors say he took nude photos of his adopted daughter between 2008 and 2015 with the intention of creating child pornography. Dmitriyev says the photos were to monitor the child’s health. An initial review of the images found that some of the photos were pornographic.
• Several prominent cultural figures have spoken out in Dmitriyev’s defense, including internationally acclaimed novelist Lyudmila Ulitskaya, who personally attended one of Dmitriyev’s hearings.