“Reasonable Voting” appeared in the Kuban – a twin of Navalny’s project “Smart Voting”

The project “Reasonable Voting” was created in the Krasnodar Territory. He is Telegram channel and a bot supposedly helping the voter choose whom to vote for. The project uses the same logo as the project “Smart Vote” of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, only with changed colors. Focus on the project drew local edition “Voice of Kuban”.

“The main principle of“ Reasonable Voting ”is to propose not just a protest candidate, but to choose the most worthy opponent and provide him with consolidated support,” the project’s Telegram channel says.

The description of the bot also indicated that the project “replaced Navalny’s Smart Voting”, which allegedly did not take root in the Krasnodar Territory. Then this message disappeared from the bot description.

Users of the bot are offered to choose an electoral district and answer “six fundamental questions for the country” about attitudes towards pension reform, privatization of the largest state-owned companies, free elections of mayors, judges and prosecutors, and benefits for employing graduates. “Voice of Kuban” notes that in most cases the bot offers to vote for candidates from “New People”.

The New People party appeared in early 2020. “Vedomosti” called her one of the “Kremlin party projects.” The founder of the party is the founder of the Faberlic company Alexei Nechaev, a member of the central headquarters of the All-Russian Popular Front, created in 2011 on the initiative of Vladimir Putin.

Smart Voting is a project created in 2018 by Alexei Navalny’s team to support opposition candidates in elections who have a chance to bypass their rivals from United Russia. As the elections to the State Duma and regional parliaments approach, which will be held on September 17-19, attempts are being made to prevent voters from using Smart Vote.

On June 29, the Stavropol company Vulintertrade, which sells sheep wool, filed an application for registration of the Smart Voting trademark with an image identical to the logo of Navalny’s project. In record time, less than a month, Rospatent approved the application.

After registering the trademark, the company filed a claim with the court, and on September 3 the Arbitration Court as an interim measure banned Google and Yandex show the phrase “Smart Voting” in search results.