Second-Ever Libertarian Elected in Russia

The people of Russia have spoken, and they
have elected a libertarian.

Or, at least, 662 individuals
cast ballots for Russian Libertarian Party Chairman and
independent candidate Andey
Shalnev in the Moscow City Council race. That might not sound
like much, but at 28.36 percent of the vote in the Pushkino
District, he received the second-most votes, which earns him the
seat as the deputy councilman of a district with over 100,000
constituents.

Shalnev, who has been
party chairman since 2010, is the second-ever Libertarian Party
member to be elected to office in Russia. The first, Vera Kichanova
(read her Reason interview
here), describes Shalnev as “a principled politician” and
his victory as “huge for our team.”

Getting here wasn’t easy. Russia is already ranked by Freedom
House as
“not free” (and getting worse) and Vladimir Putin is engaging
in a major crackdown on Russia’s political opposition,
independent journalists, and social media activists. This almost
certainly puts Shalnev in the crosshairs. The candidate claims
there was “in comparison with previous elections, an increased the
percentage of early voting” that he believes is the result
of “systematic vote-buying of alcoholics, local [hooligans]
and needy pensioners.” People were paying these individuals 200
rubles (about $5.25) to vote for the candidate of Putin’s United
Russia Party.

Kichanova reported on Facebook
during the election that the polling station aired commercials for
the United Russia candidate, and that there were dubious,
unexplained “mobile reserve polling stations” set up in buses
exclusively in that district.

Read more Reason coverage of the Libertarian opposition
to Putin
here, a major non-libertarian opposition figure whom I
speculated could be the “Ron
Paul of Russia,” and Russia’s war in Ukraine (which the Russian
Libertarian Party
opposes) here .