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Signature collection in the republic is proceeding very slowly, as people fear persecution from the authorities and do not believe that anything can be changed.,” says the head of the regional branch of the Civil Initiative party and the head of the support headquarters Boris Nadezhdin in Ingushetia Vakha KartoevAccording to him, the people remember well the persecution the authorities inflicted on the leaders of the Ingush protests in 2019 following mass protests for the return of lands they considered ancestral, which were transferred to Chechnya in 2018, and fear a repeat. Seven Ingush activists and community leaders, including women and elderly people, were arrested at the time. They were accused of extremism and organizing violence against security forces. In 2021, the defendants were sentenced to terms ranging from seven and a half to nine years in a general regime penal colony. The "Ingush case" became one of the most high-profile criminal cases in the region. North Caucasus.

Despite the difficulties, the headquarters continues to actively involve people in the signature collection process, but after just one day, the collectors leave due to mass refusals. 

- In one day I went out to the central market area to collect signatures myself. I discovered that people liked Nadezhdin's campaign platform, but when it came to signing, they started smiling, blushing, and refusing, saying they'd get in trouble., says Kertoev. 

He recalled a recent incident where he hired a 23-year-old man after he came to sign for Nadezhdin. The young man was enthusiastic and promised to start collecting signatures with his family. However, the very next day, he stopped answering his calls, and on the third day, his mother came and told him he was her only son and she was worried about him, so he wouldn't be collecting signatures. She also said she worked in government and was afraid of being fired. 

I tried to explain to her that Nadezhdin is a perfectly acceptable candidate for the Kremlin and won't be waving a sword. Still, I understand a thing or two about politics." ," the campaign manager continues. In his opinion, the Kremlin needs Nadezhdin to elevate the status of elections, which no one has believed in for a long time because they are held without any civilian oversight. Kertoyev explained why he decided to support Boris Nadezhdin. 

He's a highly educated man, a good politician. We have hope that even without becoming president, he'll bring benefit to society; he's ready to fight, and we've seized on that. We'd be happy with him simply registering as a candidate, after which people will become familiar with his election platform, and he'll be able to participate in debates., - Kertoev believes. 

Nadezhdin's campaign headquarters in Ingushetia has also launched a signature drive in three neighboring republics: North Ossetia, Dagestan, and Kabardino-Balkaria. The headquarters hopes, despite all odds, to collect the required number of signatures by January 25. 

Vakha Kertoyev is convinced that, no matter the situation, "evil, represented by Putin, must be resisted." He's been calling for this for years, joking that in his case, "it's easier to kill than to scare." 

In 2018, during the presidential elections, I was Ksenia Sobchak's trusted representative., — the oppositionist continues. — Back then, during the debates, I called on people to come to the polls and vote for any candidate, but most importantly, against Putin. I firmly believe that Putin is absolute evil. I repeated this twice live on air. We must fight and show that society still exists and can rise up at any moment if the government overreaches. I've said for years, and I'll say it again: replace Putin with a donkey—it won't make things worse. But thanks to the propaganda of pro-government media, which can turn even a genius into an idiot, a good portion of the population naively asks, "Who, if not Putin?" 

Unfortunately, I didn't trust Boris Nemtsov for a long time, but after a personal conversation my opinion of him changed., - says Kertoev. - One evening, we had a long conversation, and I asked him who he envisioned as the united opposition's presidential candidate. He replied that the candidate wasn't important; the main thing was to achieve a civilized change of power if the person in charge wasn't fulfilling his responsibilities.

Vakha Kertoyev was recently summoned to the Center for Combating Extremism and asked to sign a written statement vowing not to call for protests. Kertoyev notes that he doesn't call for protests if he's "not confident of ultimate victory." In his opinion, a leader should prioritize his supporters, not "how to rush to the barricades with no chance of success." It was for this reason that he opposed Navalny's calls for mass protests. 

When there's no chance of serious protest, it's best not to go out. Look at the repression going on, how many people have been jailed, and there's no result.,” says NeMoskva’s interlocutor.

This isn't the first time Vakha Kertoyev has attracted police attention. At the start of the war against Ukraine, he was fined 40 rubles for a "No to War" banner on the party website. Kartoyev wasn't the one who posted the banner, but he agrees with the author's position. 

At the police station, I tried to joke about whether it was possible to say “yes” to war, but they advised me not to say the word war at all., — recalls Kartoev. — As a non-Russian, I often look in the dictionary, and it clearly states that any military confrontation between a group of people is a war, but here we have God knows what’s going on, what kind of equipment they use, but it’s still “SVO.”