A journalist from Rzhev plans to become president of Russia

АП: Do you have any questions for me?

ЕД: In my opinion, we agreed that I would answer in any case in such a way as to continue staying in Russia.

АП: Yes, that's understandable. If I have any questions that you're not ready to answer, you can say so. And I remember our agreements, so I hope there won't be any problems. Let's begin. First of all, I'd like to know what kind of person you are – this is probably the most frequent question that journalists ask you, but I'd still like to hear from you. Please tell me where you're from, where you studied, what you're interested in, please tell me about your family. I know that you have several children, and surely that's not very simple. Let's talk about everything in order.

ЕД: I was born in Krasnoyarsk, then we moved with my family to Rzhev, this is my mother's hometown. I finished school here, and then I studied at the law faculty, graduated from the law faculty. And already while working on television, I finished, got an education as a television program director at the film and television institute in Petersburg.

АП: We have the same alma mater.

ЕД: All this time I practically worked as a television journalist, and in the process of work, since we were engaged in independent journalism after all and told about acute social problems that exist in our city, such an attitude formed toward the fact that people want to be heard, want their interests to be represented. We had – [this is] a certain tendency, it's basically now in Russia – the consolidation of municipalities and the cancellation of direct elections of city heads. And it was precisely the cancellation of direct elections of the head in the city of Rzhev that led to the beginning of such unification, a unification process. People were outraged about why their right to vote was taken away from them. And probably this was a turning point for me in terms of determining whether to support activism further or remain only a journalist. It was difficult to remain only a journalist, because all the same, when you work in journalism that doesn't just reprint press releases or conditionally broadcast only the authorities' opinion, without considering residents' opinion, you one way or another immerse yourself in this. When people expressed their attitude toward the fact that their right to vote was taken away, there were big meetings, rallies. During the voting of deputies, when I was in the hall with a video camera, deputies made a decision about cancelling direct elections. I was in the hall, there was also heated passion there. At the same time our people walked on the pedestrian crossing, the entire period of the session, they just walked on the pedestrian crossing back and forth. They didn't violate anything, but this was such an act of civil resistance. It was clear that this was really very important for them. And then we decided to unite with those people who believe that they can actively continue to deal with this issue, and created an initiative group for returning direct elections. We collected almost four thousand signatures first under an appeal to deputies. In order to implement the initiative and introduce changes to the regional law, someone needs to declare this initiative. There are three options here: either the head, or the representative body, or a group of residents. We thought that probably deputies as representatives of people are ready to return back what they took away. Well, that is, this was already a different composition. And they considered for a very long time. These were just signatures, a collective appeal, almost four thousand signatures. And [the authorities told us] that we forged them. Well, simply: "Well, you probably collected them somewhere, wrote them at night." And we decided to act then already within the framework of the law, to implement this initiative with collecting passport data, went door to door. We had points for collecting signatures that worked at specific times. We also reported about this on air on our television company and on social media pages. A person could come at any convenient time [to put their signature]. I think at least three times a day we stood at some points for an hour or two. This happened for two or three weeks. In two and a bit weeks we collected 3.5 thousand signatures.

АП: Do I understand correctly that when you say "you," you mean yourself and other journalists, your colleagues from this publication?

ЕД: These aren't journalists, no. Among journalists there was probably only me. One more publication was ready to support us. But basically we needed people who were ready to stand in the evening or during the day, so to speak, with a little table, and wait for people to approach them, walk through entrances. Building superintendents helped a lot, just active, caring people. No, these are people of absolutely different professions who united around this initiative. This was an amazing time. I'm always for positivity even in a really serious matter, because it's very important when people have such a state, to support it maximally. And we collected signatures, submitted to the election commission those we were confident in. [About] the absolute majority [of signatures], I knew exactly when, under what circumstances, and who collected them.

The verification began. Verification proceeded in different directions: does the person have the right to vote, has he reached 18 years old, is the data contained in GAS "Vybory" [editor's note: State Automated System "Elections" – a state automated system for organizing the electoral process], is he not deprived of the right to vote, that is, is he legally competent, conditionally. And among other things, handwriting experts, specialists from the Ministry of Internal Affairs checked. The main part of signatures that were recognized as unreliable and invalid, it was recognized precisely by them, by these handwriting specialists, who said: "Here one signed for another, [here] the collector signed for everyone." Although sheets were recognized as unreliable in which I was absolutely confident. It was of course offensive. We lacked five signatures. And then we went to court, we won back one signature, because it really was unlawfully recognized as unreliable. But essentially speaking, four signatures weren't enough for deputies of the regional parliament to consider this initiative. We reached the Supreme Court, but as such no result came except moral satisfaction from the fact that we did everything we could.

And in 2019 I was already running in elections, I was known as a person who heads the initiative group for direct elections, what my position is regarding local self-government. They supported me, and I was elected as a deputy of the Rzhev City Council. Last year, I already mentioned the consolidation of municipalities, we had a merger of the city and district, and we were dissolved. Accordingly, all districts were changed, district boundaries, since this is already common. I also spoke out against this, because all rural settlements were liquidated, accordingly, deputies of rural settlements, heads of rural settlement administrations [were removed]. This is very significant, because there were more than 100 deputies, and now there are 23. Representation was reduced almost five times.

I understand that maybe it's not important for every rural resident to live near their deputy, but probably the feeling that near you lives a person to whom you can approach at any moment and say: "I have such and such a problem" – this is important. And now they understand that power is only in the city. Of course, decisions from the point of view of organization were made correctly by the current leadership, at least they left the heads of administrations, they're just now called heads of territorial departments. Plus we're introducing an institute of so-called village elders who have no powers whatsoever. That is, they replaced deputies with village elders. Deputies didn't have any relative powers, and now even village elders who basically don't even have any status, but they will somehow monitor the situation and as if interact with residents.

Regarding family, I have three children. The eldest is already 19, she voted for the first time last year and is ready to support me and participate in collecting signatures. And all the other children are still, they're 16 and 10, accordingly, it's early to talk about their participation. But nevertheless, of course, they relate with understanding, because mama is always in some kind of movement.

АП: Do I understand correctly that after you became a member of the Council, you stopped engaging in journalistic activity, or did you still keep it?

ЕД: Here, of course, there was a difficult moment, because on one hand, journalists should objectively assess the entire situation and study information. But at the moment when I became a deputy, I saw everything from the other side. This is useful. I couldn't abandon journalism, because essentially we don't have any independent mass media left, and it was impossible to abandon it completely. Especially I was immersed in the environment and could explain more clearly to people what's actually happening. For me it was important for our camera to be present at Council sessions, so that people understand what deputies are doing. Today it's already a year after the election of the new Council and people don't know at all what anyone is doing, because we, our television company closed, and now people don't know at all what deputies are doing.

АП: Was the company's closure connected with pressure on media in general, or were there some other reasons?

ЕД: Well, among other things, I think, with my activity, because all agreements, cooperation was reduced and gradually came to nothing. And it's clear that from a financial point of view it's impossible to maintain a television company at your own expense, only work there and nowhere else.

АП: That is, you were, among other things, a sponsor of this company?

ЕД: This was a private television company of my husband, yes.

АП: What was it called?

ЕД: "Independent Studio RiT."

АП: I understand you. I interrupted you, you were talking about how it was difficult to combine journalism and political activity. Please finish this thought.

ЕД: Yes, at some point even some kind of split personality [occurred]. On one hand, you understand that you need to do something, you need to solve a problem, and when I became a deputy, I understood that there are practically no resources to do this, no powers to do this, at the local level. And if a person who is a deputy or head of administration, he's active, he has competencies and connections to organize attracting from extra-budgetary sources, then the city will be good – naturally, relatively to the general situation, compared to if this were a person who just came to be nominally a deputy or head. I want to also say that I became a deputy in [20]19, in [20]20 covid came. For a whole year we couldn't meet, that is, organize some meetings and receptions with citizens. We had to communicate remotely. And nevertheless during these 2.5 years that I was a deputy, two projects of supporting local initiatives were implemented – this is a children's playground and a sports one. This project implies participation, financial participation as well, of citizens. That is, they needed to be gathered, work conducted, surveyed, for them to get involved in this themselves. And this is very important, because when people understand that we participated here, they already relate differently to the fact that they have, let's say, a children's playground standing there, it needs to be watched over, looked after, there, conditionally speaking, swept or some positive changes made.

It was necessary to find a balance of objectivity and understanding that there are very few resources. This precisely led me to reflections about the fact that local self-government is in crisis. That system of public power that they now want to impose on us, the vertical of power, manual control – this is an absolute system to nowhere. My colleagues from the Zemsky Congress – also municipal deputies who believe that they're not in the party of power – they're not in the party of power. This is a community of legally elected deputies who are people's representatives. We united to tell about local self-government, discuss ideas for the future. Right now we have a large report posted on our site that was written based on the results of several round tables. We conducted round tables and discussed with various experts in the sphere of municipal self-government international law as well: how it's organized with them, for example. There were also separate specialists there. [We discussed] to compare and understand what's wrong and what prospects local self-government has in general. [This is] work that deputies conduct despite the fact that over the past year a very large number of my colleagues were deprived of municipal deputy status for some violations. [For example,] he provided a declaration, but didn't provide the income declaration correctly, did something else, [for example,] we gathered an ethics committee – they deprived him of powers. These people were mainly forced to leave the country. This is very bitter actually.

АП: And you didn't have thoughts about leaving?

ЕД: No. I'm very afraid of the moment when, if I have to make such a decision, because I want to live here and want our country to be the best.

АП: If I understand correctly, being a successful journalist, you made a decision not even to go to Moscow, to Petersburg, to Tver, but to stay in Rzhev. Why was this important for you?

ЕД: Probably I immersed myself so much in the local agenda that it was really important for me to stay here. Thoughts about moving somewhere periodically visited, but as soon as I was elected deputy, an enormous amount of communication with people, understanding that I can really do something, kept me here. I didn't think about moving specifically so as to leave everything. Especially there was a television company here, work for ourselves, not for someone, for a conditional uncle. It was important [to stay in Rzhev], possibly for implementation without censorship – only common sense and laws of the Russian Federation.

АП: Is it correct that I understand that your involvement in politics began precisely with this initiative when you collected signatures? This is your first such political activity.

ЕД: Well, not quite. Earlier when some all-Russian actions were conducted, we also attended as possible. But again I say, we managed to leave before some events began that were regarded as violations. We attended some rallies that were conducted, 2012 and further – it's good that there were no detentions and everything worked out, because there was understanding that [such detentions are] a violation of law and that peaceful protest is really very important. I want to say actually that in Russia protests were always mainly, starting from the moment when there was Bolotnaya, before Bolotnaya, Sakharov Square, always peaceful. And there's no such thing, let's say, as in some countries they burn tires, glass, cars and so on. This was always positive, these were always some nice slogans – "Love will save the world," hearts and so on. I saw this side, and see precisely peaceful potential in those people who now share democratic values.

АП: Did you participate in Bolotnaya, or were these protests in Rzhev somehow, or in other cities?

ЕД: In Rzhev? Well, in Rzhev there were different rallies, I also tried to attend. Regarding Bolotnaya, there was an interesting story. I was studying in Petersburg at that moment. People who wanted to go [to Moscow to Bolotnaya], we gathered, hired a bus at our own expense. Representatives of the traffic police came, blocked everything for the bus and said: "You're not going anywhere," and we had to...

АП: Was this some organization or what, who did you gather with?

ЕД: No, we then thought somewhat more freely and generally communicated. I don't even remember where, in some group [we wrote]: "Let's go from Petersburg, let's gather, let's hire buses, conditionally speaking, and go" – "Okay, let's go." And we had to look for different options.

[Other] people got as far as Tver, they were taken off trains there, that is, they were already received in Tver. We went by bus, we still managed to find people who were also gathering in parallel, but their bus stood not where we were, but nearby. And we came: "Are there seats?" – "There are seats," – we went together with them. And this was a wonderful and very funny trip, because we always thought: "Now at this turn they'll stop us, no, at this turn they'll stop us." As a result when we arrived at Bolotnaya, everyone had already passed, everyone had already spoken, and there just stood security forces, they were cordoning off the passage. All sorts of different people were sitting – someone on the ground, someone talking about something, an old man with the Constitution stood in front of these young boys who were about 18-20 years old, said: "Well, what, how aren't you ashamed, you're now clarifying something with your own people." Well, we walked around like that and left. What began to happen there after, I didn't witness. We went back.

АП: But there were still some rallies in which you participated, opposition ones?

ЕД: Well, of course, including Pushkin Square. Again, this is only the official part, then I left. I won't even remember now. To some yes, naturally, I came – as possible both timewise and financially. You can't travel everywhere. They tell us that we work for some cookies or someone pays there. We had to somehow solve questions ourselves, how to get there and all that.

АП: This initiative when you began collecting signatures, it was already later?

ЕД: Yes.

АП: What year was this approximately?

ЕД: This was probably year [20]14, somewhere like that.

АП: When you had already returned after studying...

ЕД: Yes, I can send you the video later privately. This is my diploma project, there purely for understanding, you can fast-forward. There are fragments there – both rallies that we conducted here in Rzhev, naturally, and about collecting signatures, how it proceeded. You can take [information] there if needed.

АП: I understand, good, thank you. Do I understand correctly that now you work as a freelancer?

ЕД: Yes, that's correct.

АП: What do you do?

ЕД: I write texts for various publications, on social networks as well.

АП: Is this SMM or is this cooperation with some online media?

ЕД: Well, more SMM, probably.

АП: Can you name the sphere in which you work?

ЕД: These are articles, I just write under a pseudonym.

АП: I understand, yes. I mean, is this some political sphere or is this marketing, what is it?

ЕД: No, of general such purpose... Last year was actually difficult: both the closure of the studio, and that the Council was dissolved, and elections. Therefore I wanted to abstract myself a little from this whole situation. But for long, as you see, it didn't work out. Many people among my acquaintances notice that they stopped watching, and listening, and reading, because they're very tired of all this. And not only people who consider themselves opposition, conditionally, but ordinary simple people who are tired of all this. They want to just rest – well, home-work – and not even turn on the television and not know what's happening there. There was such a period for me too.

АП: How did it happen that you decided to run?

ЕД: We somehow discussed among colleagues, deputies, activists, politicians of some level – those who are here now, those who left – who can be [a candidate in elections], because now very many people are either under criminal prosecution, or are in places of imprisonment, or chose the option to leave. Accordingly, who will go then? There should be an alternative, because otherwise [such an idea becomes popular], which is absolutely not close to me – this is boycotting elections. When people understand that this is choice without choice, what's the point of going then? And this possibility to provide an alternative for people, to give hope – as many write to me, "You gave us hope" – we discussed. Including the option, and maybe this should be a woman? Because this is precisely softness, this is peace, this is some completely different agenda for a candidate. And many told me that I have such qualities, and why not. And then the "Our Headquarters" project announced its initiative to support a person who's ready to do this. Today we work with them, and for now, I think, in terms of promotion, in terms of interest the process is going. What we need to do in the near future is form an initiative group of 500 people who will be ready to come in person to meet and register as an initiative group for the election commission, then nominate me as a candidate, because I'm self-nominated and was always self-nominated, I never went from any party. We also always collected signatures – let there be few of them, but it was important for me that specific people support me. After registration of the initiative group, if everything works out, then we'll begin interaction with political forces, and organizations, and creating headquarters in big cities of our country, and forming a pool of signature collectors, training, and directly collecting signatures. 300 thousand signatures need to be collected, no more than 7.5 in each region. Accordingly, more than 40 regions should definitely be involved.

АП: Need to collect in order to pass?

ЕД: So that they register me as a candidate.

АП: I understand. When you say "We discussed for a long time, we thought," who do you mean?

ЕД: Me and my colleagues: activists, politicians, municipal deputies.

АП: Activists – some local Rzhev ones or others? Do you communicate with activists from other regions?

ЕД: Regional, of course, each in their own region. At the federal level they'll decide without us who will go.

АП: As far as I understand, the "Our Headquarters" project is supported by "Kovcheg" [editor's note: "The Ark"]. Do I understand correctly that you also have some connections with "Kovcheg" and the founder of "Kovcheg"?

ЕД: No.

АП: Please explain.

ЕД: I interact with the guys, since I know part of them personally as well, and they are citizens of the Russian Federation, this is enough. With other organizations that have founders abroad and so on, I don't have relationships and don't plan to.

АП: And what's the connection with "Kovcheg" then?

ЕД: If they have a relationship, let's say, themselves... I don't.

АП: You mean that you communicate with activists who work in "Kovcheg," are somehow connected with "Kovcheg," but live in Russia?

ЕД: Are there such ones who live in Russia?

АП: I don't know. You just said that "I communicate with activists"...

ЕД: Well, yes-yes. And mainly I'm talking precisely about citizens of the Russian Federation, of course, those who reside on the territory of the Russian Federation.

АП: But the "Our Headquarters" project is meanwhile supported by "Kovcheg." Or is this false information?

ЕД: Let you clarify this question with the guys from "Our Headquarters," and they probably will answer more correctly.

АП: Yes, it's just that this information is available on the internet, I wanted to hear from you...

ЕД: I interact with them, since, I say again, I know part of them well.

АП: With guys from "Our Headquarters"?

ЕД: Yes.

АП: I understood you. If I understood correctly, you were involved in volunteering and are connected with search teams. Can you tell a bit more about this?

ЕД: I coordinate searches in a local volunteer search team. I won't name it, because search teams are outside politics. And for the guys it's very important, for me it's also important, that my volunteer activity just be regarded as part of my life. It's really a very important part of my life. This summer was almost completely immersed in searches for people who disappeared in the forest and in the city. But using this as some kind of bonus when running I consider wrong, because each person does this by call of the heart. I can only say that yes, I do this, but I don't see the point in delving into this topic.

АП: Good, I understand you. As far as I know, a few days after you announced your decision, you were summoned to the prosecutor's office. Can we talk about this in a bit more detail: what did they tell you, what was this summons connected with, what happened next?

ЕД: They summoned me, as they said, based on results of monitoring on social networks. That is, a monthly event when the prosecutor's office reads comments, posts and observes legality, implementation of laws, makes some conclusions – this statement violates something or not. They invited me so that I would give an explanation regarding the post about my nomination. This was more probably a philosophical conversation about formulations: "What do you mean when you write this, what do you mean when you write this?" I said that each person evaluates exactly as he considers necessary in accordance with his views and ideology that he shares. And to comment there specifically... There was a question "Here you wrote 'the country is moving in the wrong direction,' and in what direction is it moving, do you think?" And how do you think, is it correct that we now have a special military operation being conducted? How do you yourself relate to the special military operation?" But since I perfectly understand that all recorded words, and especially in written form, can be used against me, I took Article 51 of the constitution and didn't answer this question. One more question was of interest – will I delete this post? I said: "No, because it doesn't violate anything."

АП: I understand, and it all ended with that?

ЕД: Yes.

АП: They asked you about the special military operation. It's clear that probably you can't provide more concrete formulations, but I'd still like to hear some comment from you, your attitude toward what's happening, and what you plan to do if it suddenly happens that you become president?

ЕД: I adhere to values of peace and goodness and want peace to come as quickly as possible. And I'm sure that the majority of Russians want this. It's dangerous and to some extent prohibited to freely discuss this topic in our country, therefore we can talk about what's written on my website. Those moments that I would like to implement, being president of the Russian Federation – this is freeing political prisoners, these are democratic reforms, this is returning trust to institutions of power and further work on returning powers for local self-government. Well, naturally, cancelling a number of laws that violate rights. About peace I already said.

АП: In an interview with "Verstka" [editor's note: an independent Russian media outlet] they asked you about renaming a street to Artur Tulyakov Street. For those who don't know, this is a war participant who died, and you, as far as I understand, were acquainted with him, worked or volunteered together. Can you also tell a bit more about this?

ЕД: They asked a question precisely about what I said, being a participant in discussion at a Council session. For me it was important that this person, whom I've known for a certain number of years, and before the beginning of the special military operation, this is a person really with a big heart, and he helped very many people, non-publicly as well. And therefore I said that he was worthy of having a street named after him even before he participated [in "SMO"]. That is, this [participation] shouldn't become the main thing. This really was a person who helped others. I believe that when we talk about some values, universal, humane ones, and then at some moment we begin to cross out friendly relationships, yes, and generally basically perceive that Putin is Russia, and everything that's done, collective guilt should lie on all participants, on all residents of the country... For me the concept of friendship, human relationships in this case is really more important. When we talk about values, then we ourselves should adhere to them. Now is not the time to conflict. Everyone has their own reasons, everyone has their own convictions, and if we determine people by their political convictions or something else, then we won't differ from those whom we now criticize to a certain degree.

АП: In connection with this, do you have understanding of how, in case of your victory, to deal with people who are now in power, who make some decisions with which you and very many people in Russia may disagree, people whom very many consider criminals and war criminals?

ЕД: I shouldn't make decisions as president regarding them. This is the competence of the court, and when there are grounds and trust of citizens and freedom return to these institutions... We understand perfectly, now those decisions that are made sometimes just don't fit in the head, [it doesn't fit in the head] why this happens. An honest independent court should return and make decisions that will correspond to both Russian and international norms.

АП: I understand you. Now our conference will end, we'll break for literally 5 minutes and continue.

ЕД: And how much more time? Just business.

АП: If possible, another half hour.

ЕД: Half an hour? This is somehow very much.

АП: We'll try to fit into 20 minutes.

ЕД: Good.

АП: Good, thank you.