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Grassroots Political Campaign in Russia: Alexey Navalny and Transmedia Strategies for Democratic Development
This chapter analyzes the transmedia strategies of opposition candidate Alexey Navalny’s campaignduring the 2013 Moscow mayoral election. The goal is to highlight how the use of information and com-munication technology contributed to the development of democratic practices in Russia. His westernized,grassroots political campaign was a novelty in the country, involving online fundraising, door-to-doorcanvassing, engagement of volunteers, digital projects, and meetings with voters, for instance. The argu-ment is that, although Navalny lost the election, his candidacy represented advancement in terms of boththe use of new media and the promotion of democratic development in the midst of autocratic Russia. If the progress will be maintained, it remains to be seen. The theoretical framework includes the realityof the Russian political scenario and the conceptualization of transmedia storytelling strategies in thecontext of participatory politics. The methodological approach is based on the transmedia analyticalmodel by Gambarato (2013).