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"Putin Must Go" () is a Russian website and public campaign organised for the collection of signatures to an open letter demanding the resignation of
President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...
(formerly
Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...
)
Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...
. The campaign was started on the Internet on 10 March 2010 by Russian opposition activists, including several Russian artists.


Contents of the petition

The text of the petition, addressed to the "citizens of Russia", contains a sharply negative assessment of Vladimir Putin's activity. It says in part: The petition lists Putin's failed reforms ("everything that could be ruined has been ruined") and alleged crimes, such as the
Second Chechen War The Second Chechen War (russian: Втора́я чече́нская война́, ) took place in Chechnya and the border regions of the North Caucasus between the Russian Federation and the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, from August 1999 ...
and the Russian apartment bombings. The petition also criticises the late president
Boris Yeltsin Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin ( rus, Борис Николаевич Ельцин, p=bɐˈrʲis nʲɪkɐˈla(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈjelʲtsɨn, a=Ru-Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin.ogg; 1 February 1931 – 23 April 2007) was a Soviet and Russian politician wh ...
and the circle of his advisers and relatives ("the Family"), who promoted Putin to the presidency in order to guarantee their own security. The petition calls the previous president
Dmitry Medvedev Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev ( rus, links=no, Дмитрий Анатольевич Медведев, p=ˈdmʲitrʲɪj ɐnɐˈtolʲjɪvʲɪtɕ mʲɪdˈvʲedʲɪf; born 14 September 1965) is a Russian politician who has been serving as the dep ...
"an obedient placeholder", "a modern
Simeon Bekbulatovich Simeon Bekbulatovich (russian: Симеон Бекбулатович; born Sain-Bulat, russian: Саин-Булат; died 5 January 1616) was a Russian statesman of Tatar origin, descendant of Genghis Khan, who briefly served as a figurehead rul ...
". The authors appeal to law enforcement and security agency officers not to stand against their nation and not to carry out criminal orders. The actual author of the text was not named, but according to early sourcesОсобое мнение. Гость: Владимир Рыжков
cho Moskvy 12 March 2010
it was a group headed by Garry Kasparov. Later Kasparov said about the work on the text of the petition: The main part of the text was written by Andrei Piontkovsky. He mentioned his authorship during an interview with Radio Liberty on 7 June 2010:


Signatories

At the time of the publication, the petition was signed by 34 prominent public figures of various ideological orientations: activists
Yelena Bonner Yelena Georgiyevna Bonner (russian: link=no, Елена Георгиевна Боннэр; 15 February 1923 – 18 June 2011) ...
, Vladimir Bukovsky and Lev Ponomarev, politicians
Garry Kasparov Garry Kimovich Kasparov (born 13 April 1963) is a Russian chess grandmaster, former World Chess Champion, writer, political activist and commentator. His peak rating of 2851, achieved in 1999, was the highest recorded until being surpassed by ...
and
Boris Nemtsov Boris Yefimovich Nemtsov ( rus, Бори́с Ефи́мович Немцо́в, p=bɐˈrʲis jɪˈfʲiməvʲɪtɕ nʲɪmˈtsof; 9 October 195927 February 2015) was a Russian physicist and liberal politician. He was involved in the introduction ...
, popular conspiracy theorist Yury Mukhin, economist Andrey Illarionov, writers Zakhar Prilepin and
Victor Shenderovich Viktor Anatolyevich Shenderovich (russian: Ви́ктор Анато́льевич Шендеро́вич; born August 15, 1958) is a Russian satirist, writer, scriptwriter and radio host. Biography Shenderovich was born in Moscow into a family of ...
, musician Mikhail Borzykin ( Televizor), political thinker
Geydar Dzhemal Geydar Dzhahidovich Dzhemal (russian: Гейда́р Джахи́дович Джема́ль, az, Heydər Cahid oğlu Camal, sometimes transliterated as Heydar Jamal; 6 November 1947 – 5 December 2016) was a Russian Islamic public figure, ac ...
and others. Many of them are members of the opposition organisation, the National Assembly of the Russian Federation. Opposition politicians Mikhail Kasyanov, Vladimir Ryzhkov and Eduard LimonovЛимонов отказался подписывать обращение за отставку Путина
// Правда.ру, 11 марта 2010
have supported the campaign, even though they have not signed the
petition A petition is a request to do something, most commonly addressed to a government official or public entity. Petitions to a deity are a form of prayer called supplication. In the colloquial sense, a petition is a document addressed to some offi ...
.


Publication of the petition

On 10 March 2010 the petition appeared in the online magazine '' Ezhednevnyi Zhurnal'' and the collecting of signatures started. On the same day the magazine's website was attacked by hackers."Первый Кавказский" об акции "Путин должен уйти"
11 March 2010
Later on 10 March the collecting of signatures was transferred to the specially created website PutinaVotstavku.ru (in January 2011 it was moved to PutinaVotstavku.org). Also on 10 March the petition was re-published by the online publications Grani.ru and
Kasparov.ru Kasparov.ru (titled, but not actually addressed, in Russian as Каспаров.Ru) is a Russian-language website (сreated on 27 May 2005), critical of Vladimir Putin, operated by Garry Kasparov. As of March 2013 it was the 816th most popular we ...
.Борис Немцов: Путин должен уйти
// Echo Moskvy, 11 March 2010
Then it was mentioned by several other liberal mass media, including the radio station Echo Moskvy and the news website
Newsru.com NEWSru.com was a Russian online news site, based in Moscow, which had a government-critical orientation. History NEWSru.com was originally launched in 2000 at the address ntv.ru. When the government took over the NTV network in 2000, with the n ...
. During the first day of the campaign no e-mail confirmation was required by ''Ezhednevnyi Zhurnal''. The site PutinaVotstavku did require a confirmation, but signatures were added automatically. This was used by ill-wishers, who left a large number of fake signatures, calling themselves Obama, Timoshenko, Medvedev, Putin etc. On 11 March these "signatures" were deleted and the process of adding new signatures began to be moderated.


Course of the campaign

During the first month of the campaign the number of signatures grew at the average rate of about 1000 per day. In late summer the speed of signature collection dropped to about 2000 per month. In December 2010 it increased to about 4000. *16 March 2010: 10,000 *27 March: 20,000 *9 April: 30,000 *28 April: 40,000 *14 June: 50,000 *1 October: 60,000 *6 January 2011: 70,000 * 12 March: 70,000 * 6 June: 90,000 On 17 March the United Civil Front started to hold pickets in Moscow in support of the campaign. Since May 2010 several organisers of the campaign have held meetings with supporters in a number of Russian cities. On 23 October, 12 December 2010 and 19 February 2011 rallies were held in central Moscow for Putin's dismissal.


March 2010

On 15 March the site PutinaVotstavku started giving updates on the progress of the campaign. The first message said that the number of signatures could have been larger, if confirmations from the site had not been blocked by some popular e-mail services. However, the organisers expressed a belief that no counteraction would stop people and the appeal would be signed by millions of citizens. Valeria Novodvorskaya's signature was added only a week later, after her two video-addresses to the organisers. In them she expressed her displeasure with the delay and supposed that organisers did want to include her and Konstantin Borovoy's signatures.
Konstantin Borovoy Konstantin Natanovich Borovoi (russian: Константи́н Ната́нович Борово́й; born 30 June 1948) is a liberal Russian politician and entrepreneur, Russian Parliament Member (1995–2000), former Chair of Party of Econ ...
's signature was added only on 5 April. In his blog entry of 16 March the politician attributed this delay to the fact that he and Novodvorskaya were not allowed to join the
Solidarity ''Solidarity'' is an awareness of shared interests, objectives, standards, and sympathies creating a psychological sense of unity of groups or classes. It is based on class collaboration.''Merriam Webster'', http://www.merriam-webster.com/dicti ...
movement. He expressed a hope that it was a misunderstanding and asked
Garry Kasparov Garry Kimovich Kasparov (born 13 April 1963) is a Russian chess grandmaster, former World Chess Champion, writer, political activist and commentator. His peak rating of 2851, achieved in 1999, was the highest recorded until being surpassed by ...
and
Boris Nemtsov Boris Yefimovich Nemtsov ( rus, Бори́с Ефи́мович Немцо́в, p=bɐˈrʲis jɪˈfʲiməvʲɪtɕ nʲɪmˈtsof; 9 October 195927 February 2015) was a Russian physicist and liberal politician. He was involved in the introduction ...
to settle the issue with the Solidarity membership. Starting on 17 March, members of the United Civil Front held pickets in Moscow, some of them in dormitory districts, to collect signatures for the petition. Paper signatures were also collected during the protest actions on 20 March 2010 (the "Day of Wrath"). In particular, members of
Solidarity ''Solidarity'' is an awareness of shared interests, objectives, standards, and sympathies creating a psychological sense of unity of groups or classes. It is based on class collaboration.''Merriam Webster'', http://www.merriam-webster.com/dicti ...
collected signatures at rallies in Moscow and St. Petersburg. On 22 March organisers announced the creation of two online communities for those who signed the petition—on LiveJournal (putinvotstavku.livejournal.com) and Twitter (twitter.com/putinavotstavku/). They also proposed to discuss the creation of a separate social network in which every signatory would automatically get an account. On 26 March, during a press-conference organized by the site's editorial board, Garry Kasparov announced that the petition had been signed by about 30 thousand people—with 19 thousand having been approved by the moderators. During that March the website developed rapidly with the creation of a campaign banner (with a counter), banners of media partners (Grani.ru,
Novaya Gazeta ''Novaya Gazeta'' ( rus, Новая газета, t=New Gazette, p=ˈnovəjə ɡɐˈzʲetə) is an independent Russian newspaper known for its critical and investigative coverage of Russian political and social affairs. It is published in Mo ...
, Kasparov.ru, etc.), links to campaign communities in social networks, as well as a form for filling in signatures offline. The sections News, Publications, Selected (signatures), Video and FAQ were added as well.


April 2010

In April the already-created sections of the site were being filled in. Also a Facebook group was added. On 13 April the signatories received an e-mail message in which the organisers informed them about the creation of a social network. The message contained a web link to receive a newsletter and join the internet community, "Putin must go." On 28 April the organisers announced that a third of the signatories had confirmed interest in joining the social network. They also discussed the plan to create groups of participants on the site and to also then visit cities in which a certain number of participants were located.


May 2010

At the May Day rally in Moscow Garry Kasparov declared that the campaign would go on until Putin leaves and Russia becomes free. On 12 May the first meeting of signatories took place in Moscow, attended by about 70 people. Several leaders of Solidarnost, including Garry Kasparov, were also present. Advertising of the site Putinavotstavku using
Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...
was started and account numbers for donations were published on the main page of the site.


June 2010

On 14 June Boris Nemtsov and Vladimir Milov presented their report,
Putin. Results. 10 years
, which was published with a total print run of 1 million copies. On its last page it provided information about the "Putin must go" campaign. They were distributed the same day near Moscow's metro stations. On 15 June the website of the report, as well as the personal websites of Boris Nemtsov and Vladimir Milov, were subjected to
DDoS In computing, a denial-of-service attack (DoS attack) is a cyber-attack in which the perpetrator seeks to make a machine or network resource unavailable to its intended users by temporarily or indefinitely disrupting services of a host conn ...
attacks. On 16 June the St. Petersburg police detained a truck with 100,000 copies of the report. On the next day secret service officers seized 100,000 more copies at the printing plant and blocked further printing. On 18 June in St. Petersburg five activists of the United Civil Front were detained, when they attempted to distribute the report to participants of the
St. Petersburg International Economic Forum The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF; russian: Петербургский международный экономический форум, ПМЭФ) is an annual Russian business event for the economic sector, which has been hel ...
. On 25 June the authorities reported that extremism in the report had not been found, but activists could not get the report back, because the power of attorney had expired. The UCF held "Putin must go" pickets in Moscow on 8 and 22 June. During the picket on 22 June activists handed out texts of both the "Putin must go" petition and the "Putin. Results. 10 years" report. According to the head of the UCF Moscow branch, Lolita Tsaria, policemen tried to impede the distribution of materials. The website
No to the mandarin
, created with the support of the "Putin must go" campaign, appeared on the Internet. It contains signatures of citizens against the appointment of the
Kaliningrad Kaliningrad ( ; rus, Калининград, p=kəlʲɪnʲɪnˈɡrat, links=y), until 1946 known as Königsberg (; rus, Кёнигсберг, Kyonigsberg, ˈkʲɵnʲɪɡzbɛrk; rus, Короле́вец, Korolevets), is the largest city and ...
regional governor
Georgy Boos Georgy Valentinovich Boos (russian: link=no, Георгий Валентинович Боос, born 22 January 1963) is a Russian businessman and politician who served as governor of Kaliningrad Oblast from 2005 to 2010. Early life and educatio ...
for a second term and for general elections of governors and heads of municipalities.


July 2010

On 5 July it became known that Pavel Pakhayev, assistant head of the
Altai Republic The Altai Republic (; russian: Респу́блика Алта́й, Respublika Altay, ; Altai: , ''Altay Respublika''), also known as Gorno-Altai Republic, and colloquially, and primarily referred to in Russian to distinguish from the neighbour ...
, threatened to murder the founder of an Altai newspape
Listok
Sergei Mikhailov, because of the content of the newspaper and the fact that the counter of the campaign "Putin must go" had been placed on the newspaper website. On 6 July 100,000 brochures of the report "Putin. Results. 10 years" (out of the 300,000 that were seized) were returned to the opposition. On 8 July Boris Nemtsov presented the report in the town of Vladimir. On 11 July in
Novosibirsk Novosibirsk (, also ; rus, Новосиби́рск, p=nəvəsʲɪˈbʲirsk, a=ru-Новосибирск.ogg) is the largest city and administrative centre of Novosibirsk Oblast and Siberian Federal District in Russia. As of the 2021 Censu ...
, on 12 July in
Tomsk Tomsk ( rus, Томск, p=tomsk, sty, Түң-тора) is a city and the administrative center of Tomsk Oblast in Russia, located on the Tom River. Population: Founded in 1604, Tomsk is one of the oldest cities in Siberia. The city is a n ...
and on 28 July in
Nizhny Novgorod Nizhny Novgorod ( ; rus, links=no, Нижний Новгород, a=Ru-Nizhny Novgorod.ogg, p=ˈnʲiʐnʲɪj ˈnovɡərət ), colloquially shortened to Nizhny, from the 13th to the 17th century Novgorod of the Lower Land, formerly known as Gork ...
meetings took place of supporters of the campaign "Putin must go" with the executive director of the Solidarity movement Denis Bilunov. A new subsection "Blogs" (in the section "Publications") appeared on the site of the campaign.


August 2010

In August the distribution of the report "Putin. Results. 10 Years" continued. About 1/3 of the published 400,000 copies were distributed by the end of the month.


September 2010

On 7 and 21 September United Civil Front held pickets in Moscow for Putin's dismissal.


October 2010

15 October activists of the youth movement Oborona held a banner "Putin, go away!" on the fence of the
White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...
in Moscow and on the roof of an auxiliary building next to it.


Committee of Five Demands and the rally of 23 October

In the beginning of October activists of UCF, Solidarity and other opposition organisations created th
Committee of Five Demands
The committee put forward the following demands: # Resignation of the government headed by Vladimir Putin. # Dissolution of the two chambers of the Federal Assembly. # Holding pre-term elections, free and competitive. # A radical overhaul of the police and secret service personnel. # A transparent budget for the benefit of the people and development of the country.
Members of the committee took part in several protest actions in Moscow. They also submitted an application to Moscow mayor's office for holding a rally for Putin's dismissal. Their application was approved. The rally, held on 23 October on
Pushkin square Pushkinskaya Square or Pushkin Square () is a pedestrian open space in the Tverskoy District in central Moscow. Historically, it was known as ''Strastnaya Square'' before being renamed for Alexander Pushkin in 1937. It is located at the juncti ...
, was attended by about thousand people. Among the speakers were the UCF leader
Garry Kasparov Garry Kimovich Kasparov (born 13 April 1963) is a Russian chess grandmaster, former World Chess Champion, writer, political activist and commentator. His peak rating of 2851, achieved in 1999, was the highest recorded until being surpassed by ...
, the Left Front coordinator
Sergei Udaltsov Sergei Stanislavovich Udaltsov (russian: Серге́й Станиславович Удальцов; born 16 February 1977) is a Russian left-wing political activist. He is the unofficial leader of the Vanguard of Red Youth (AKM). In 2011 and 2 ...
, leader of the movement "For Human Rights" Lev Ponomarev and others.


November 2010

18–19 November in front of the
White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...
in Moscow a series of single pickets was held by activists of Solidarity and the Committee of Five Demands. The first picket was held by
Ilya Yashin Ilya Valeryevich Yashin (russian: Илья́ Вале́рьевич Я́шин; born 29 June 1983) is a Russian opposition politician who led the PARNAS party from 2012 to 2016, and then its Moscow branch. He was also head of the Moscow munici ...
, but he was beaten and detained by agents of the Federal Protective Service. Journalists were obliged to delete their photo and video recordings. Yashin was sentenced to a fine of 1000 roubles for "coarse language in a public place". Other pickets went without incidents.


December 2010


The rally of 12 December

The second Moscow rally for Putin's resignation was held under the motto "I am for Russia without Putin!" on 12 December on the same place – Pushkin square. The mayor's office sanctioned this rally but refused to sanction the action "Day of Wrath" against the Moscow government, which was to be held on a neighbouring square immediately after the anti-Putin rally. The organiser was again th
Committee of Five Demands
According to various sources, the rally was attended by 1500 – 2500 people. Among the speakers were
Boris Nemtsov Boris Yefimovich Nemtsov ( rus, Бори́с Ефи́мович Немцо́в, p=bɐˈrʲis jɪˈfʲiməvʲɪtɕ nʲɪmˈtsof; 9 October 195927 February 2015) was a Russian physicist and liberal politician. He was involved in the introduction ...
,
Garry Kasparov Garry Kimovich Kasparov (born 13 April 1963) is a Russian chess grandmaster, former World Chess Champion, writer, political activist and commentator. His peak rating of 2851, achieved in 1999, was the highest recorded until being surpassed by ...
,
Ilya Yashin Ilya Valeryevich Yashin (russian: Илья́ Вале́рьевич Я́шин; born 29 June 1983) is a Russian opposition politician who led the PARNAS party from 2012 to 2016, and then its Moscow branch. He was also head of the Moscow munici ...
, Andrei Piontkovsky, Vladimir Ryzhkov,
Sergei Udaltsov Sergei Stanislavovich Udaltsov (russian: Серге́й Станиславович Удальцов; born 16 February 1977) is a Russian left-wing political activist. He is the unofficial leader of the Vanguard of Red Youth (AKM). In 2011 and 2 ...
, leader of the Khimki forest defence movement Yevgenia Chirikova and other prominent public figures. At 6 pm the action "Day of Wrath" was to be held near the Moscow mayor's office. However, after an appeal of the Left Front coordinator Sergei Udaltsov to the participants to go without slogans and banners to the mayor's office in order to hang on its wall the list of demands, the police started to push away the crowd and seized Udaltsov. Among the aggrieved was a photographer of Izvestia, whose clavicle was broken. The indignant participants went to the mayor's house on their own, where they held an unsanctioned protest action. Udaltsov was sentenced to 15 days of arrest "for hooliganism and disobedience to police officers". The next rally for Putin's dismissal was planned for 19 February 2011.


Other events

On 18 December in
Voronezh Voronezh ( rus, links=no, Воро́неж, p=vɐˈronʲɪʂ}) is a city and the administrative centre of Voronezh Oblast in southwestern Russia straddling the Voronezh River, located from where it flows into the Don River. The city sits on ...
a rally was held for the dismissal of Putin's government. Among the speakers was a leader of Solidarity
Ilya Yashin Ilya Valeryevich Yashin (russian: Илья́ Вале́рьевич Я́шин; born 29 June 1983) is a Russian opposition politician who led the PARNAS party from 2012 to 2016, and then its Moscow branch. He was also head of the Moscow munici ...
. On 26 December, a few days before passing a new sentence to the imprisoned
Mikhail Khodorkovsky Mikhail Borisovich Khodorkovsky (russian: link=no, Михаил Борисович Ходорковский, ; born 26 June 1963), sometimes known by his initials MBK, is an exiled Russian businessman and opposition activist, now residing in L ...
and Platon Lebedev, activists of Oborona unrolled near the
White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...
a banner "Freedom to Khodorkovsky! Put Putin on bread and water!". One of the participants bore Putin's mask and was held in a mock cage. After a few minutes agents of Federal Protective Service detained several journalists and photo correspondents.


January 2011

On 11 January 2011 the website was completely moved to the
domain Domain may refer to: Mathematics *Domain of a function, the set of input values for which the (total) function is defined ** Domain of definition of a partial function ** Natural domain of a partial function **Domain of holomorphy of a function * ...
.org The domain name .org is a generic top-level domain (gTLD) of the Domain Name System (DNS) used on the Internet. The name is truncated from ''organization''. It was one of the original domains established in 1985, and has been operated by th ...
. On the start page of the old address the organisers published a message, containing a link to th
new address
In the message they state that at the new address they are going to open a web community for the supporters.


February 2011


The rallies of 19 February

The Moscow authorities approved the application of the Committee of Five Demands to hold a rally "I'm for Russia without Putin!" on 19 February on Pushkin Square in Moscow. On 18 February three activists handing out leaflets with an invitation to the rally were detained; the reasons for their detention were not explained. The Moscow rally was attended by 400–600 people. Among them were representatives of "Solidarity", the United Civil Front, the Left Front, the "Other Russia" and other opposition movements. The decline in attendance compared with previous rallies was partly due to a severe frost. Among the speakers were the leader of the United Civil Front Garry Kasparov, activists of the Solidarity movement, as well as a representative of the movement of defrauded real estate investors. Over 13,000 roubles were collected in favour of political prisoners. The date of next rally was not announced. At the same time a similar rally was held in Kaliningrad. It was organised by self-nominated candidates who had not been admitted to the March elections. A picket for Putin's dismissal was also held in Voronezh.


Other events

In February a beta version of th
Political network of direct electronic democracy
was launched on the website. The information about the network was sent to the signatories in Moscow and the Krasnodar Territory. On 20 February activists of the movement "We" stretched a banner with the slogan "It's time to change" on a bridge near the Kremlin. On the one side the banner depicted Mikhail Khodorkovsky, on the other – Vladimir Putin behind bars. After a half an hour the banner was removed by guards of the Baltschug hotel.


March 2011

On 11 March, the first anniversary of the start of the campaign, the organizers sent a new message to all signatories informing about the opening of the direct electronic democracy network and urging them to join. On 26 March 2011 the Solidarity movement held an event to coincide with the 11th anniversary of the election of Vladimir Putin as president of the country. The activists handed out ballots with the question to people whether they would vote for or against Vladimir Putin. Polls were held in Moscow and 10 other cities. In total 1,563 people participated and 76.6 percent of them voted against the prime minister. In addition, the activists handed out the report
Putin. Results. 10 years
, while in Moscow they also held a contest of anti-Putin posters.


Political network of direct electronic democracy

The creation of an online community (social network) of signatories was suggested by the organisers early in the campaign – in their messages in March and April 2010. However, the project has been launched with a significant delay due to a number of technological challenges and its volunteer nature. The network has been created at https://web.archive.org/web/20110827152258/http://sos.putinavotstavku.org/. Its testing began in late December 2010. In February information about a beta version was distributed to the signatories living in Moscow and the Krasnodar Territory. On 11 March 2011 information about the creation of the network was sent to all signatories. Within one day, about 1700 people registered for the network. Then registration of new members slowed down. In April, only 48 people joined the network, and by May 2011 the network had 2,098 participants. Well-known opposition politicians, such as Garry Kasparov, Boris Nemtsov and Ilya Yashin, began to publish records from their blogs. Participants also post messages in thematic communities, their own blogs, and take part in polls. However, the activity in the network remains low. According to sociologist Igor Eidman, who has proposed the idea of the network, the project remains unfinished. Eidman wonders what prevents the organisers (and specifically, the group led by Kasparov) to develop the project in accordance with the specifications which he has provided. In case of lack of funds, Eidman proposes to organize fundraising from the signatories.


Media coverage

The campaign was covered in a number of Russian and foreign media, including * Russian media: Echo Moskvy,
Novaya gazeta ''Novaya Gazeta'' ( rus, Новая газета, t=New Gazette, p=ˈnovəjə ɡɐˈzʲetə) is an independent Russian newspaper known for its critical and investigative coverage of Russian political and social affairs. It is published in Mo ...
, Polit.ru,
Izvestia ''Izvestia'' ( rus, Известия, p=ɪzˈvʲesʲtʲɪjə, "The News") is a daily broadsheet newspaper in Russia. Founded in 1917, it was a newspaper of record in the Soviet Union until the Soviet Union's dissolution in 1991, and describes i ...
,
Nezavisimaya Gazeta ''Nezavisimaya Gazeta'' ( rus, Независимая газета, p=nʲɪzɐˈvʲisʲɪməjə ɡɐˈzʲetə, t=Independent Newspaper) is a Russian daily newspaper. History and profile ''Nezavisimaya Gazeta'' was first published on 21 December ...
,Интернет-инструкция. Против Путина началась кампания в Сети
Nezavisimaya Gazeta 12 March 2010.
Pravda ''Pravda'' ( rus, Правда, p=ˈpravdə, a=Ru-правда.ogg, "Truth") is a Russian broadsheet newspaper, and was the official newspaper of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, when it was one of the most influential papers in the ...
, Delovoy Petersburg, Sobesednik,
Expert An expert is somebody who has a broad and deep understanding and competence in terms of knowledge, skill and experience through practice and education in a particular field. Informally, an expert is someone widely recognized as a reliable so ...
,
The Moscow Times ''The Moscow Times'' is an independent English-language and Russian-language online newspaper. It was in print in Russia from 1992 until 2017 and was distributed free of charge at places frequented by English-speaking tourists and expatriates s ...
* foreign media: BBC (UK); Radio Liberty,
The Weekly Standard ''The Weekly Standard'' was an American neoconservative political magazine of news, analysis and commentary, published 48 times per year. Originally edited by founders Bill Kristol and Fred Barnes, the ''Standard'' had been described as a "re ...
(U.S.);
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,
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(Germany); AFP,
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(France); First Caucasian (Georgia);
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(Sweden);
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(in Danish) ''E ...
,
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(Denmark); Adevarul (Romania); Libertópolis (Guatemala); L'Occidentale (Italy). On 11 March Radio Liberty published an English translation of the entire text of the petition.


Statistical analyses of signatories

On 15 March 2010 the magazine NewTimes.ru published a statistical analysis of signatories according to their places of residence and professions, concluding that the petition was signed mostly by the middle class. On 22 March the magazine published its second analysis, on a larger base of signatures (7500). The article said that signatures had come from all over the country. The exceptions were ethnic republics, especially in the
North Caucasus The North Caucasus, ( ady, Темыр Къафкъас, Temır Qafqas; kbd, Ишхъэрэ Къаукъаз, İṩxhərə Qauqaz; ce, Къилбаседа Кавказ, Q̇ilbaseda Kavkaz; , os, Цӕгат Кавказ, Cægat Kavkaz, inh, ...
. The most active were Moscow 28.8% and St. Petersburg 11.3%. A relatively large number of signatures had been provided by residents of
Siberian Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...
and
Urals The Ural Mountains ( ; rus, Ура́льские го́ры, r=Uralskiye gory, p=ʊˈralʲskʲɪjə ˈɡorɨ; ba, Урал тауҙары) or simply the Urals, are a mountain range that runs approximately from north to south through western ...
federal districts, where the recession-hit industries concentrated. The
Russian diaspora The Russian diaspora is the global community of ethnic Russians. The Russian-speaking ('' Russophone'') diaspora are the people for whom Russian language is the native language, regardless of whether they are ethnic Russians or not. History ...
had given 11%. As to signatories' professions, the leading segment are white collars (jurists, economists, IT-specialist, managers) — 21%. Most of the signatories were men — 83%. Two months later the magazine published the third analysis, which used 35,018 signatures received on the site since the second analysis. Significant changes in statistics were found. In April compared with March, the number of those who revealed their places of residence had doubled. The proportion of women increased from 17% to 21% and the proportion of blue-collar workers increased from 15% to 23%. Among the regions, Moscow (and its region) and St. Petersburg (with the Leningrad region) continued to occupy leading positions: their share was nearly half (45%) of the total number of signatures. However, the fastest growing was the Volga Federal District, showing an increase of 6.9 times.


Counter-campaign "Putin must not go"

Russian writer and opinion journalist
Nikolai Starikov Nikolai Viktorovich Starikov ( rus, Никола́й Ви́кторович Ста́риков, p=nʲɪkɐˈlaj ˈvʲiktərəvʲɪtɕ ˈstarʲɪkəf; born 23 August 1970, Leningrad) is a Russian writer, opinion journalist and social activist. F ...
organized a vote on the Internet with a plea that Putin must stay. He motivated his move with the suggestion that everybody must have a choice, while the website "Putin must go" did not provide an option to vote for Putin's staying. Starikov's website "Putin must not go" gathered 6,616 signatures in five days (1,648 more could not be confirmed because of technical troubles). After that, that website was hacked and defaced by unknown hackers.http://www.putinaostavit.ru/ "Putin must not go"
vote, organized by N. Starikov (in Russian)
Russian Internet votes pro and against resignment of Putin
by V. Tsiplukhin, "Business Peterburg" (in Russian)


References


External links


The website of the campaign "Putin Must Go"The LiveJournal community of the campaign
{{DEFAULTSORT:Putin Must Go Russian democracy movements Opposition to Vladimir Putin Internet in Russia Russian political websites Internet properties established in 2010 2010 establishments in Russia 2010 protests 2011 protests Protests in Russia 2010 in Russia 2011 in Russia Russian political phrases 2010 neologisms