Issue and Opposition: Residents of Barnaul in Siberia were tired of the incompetence and corrupt practices of the local politicians. They realized that the pattern of corruption would continue unless they protest against the system during the mayoral election at Barnaul. At the time of this dilemma action, Barnaul was the home of 650,000 Russians. The city is 1,800 miles away from Moscow. Barnaul was going to have a new mayor by the next seven days. The selection of the mayor was to be done jointly by the city council and the regional governor from a pool of six candidates. Since the residents of Barnaul were not happy with any of these six candidates, they wanted to protest against the nomination process and the officials and politicians involved in the selection process. There is no evidence that this dilemma action was part of a larger campaign.
Dilemma Action: Barnaul residents made Barsik the cat their candidate for the mayoral position in an unofficial poll posted online by a citizens’ group named Altai Online. Altai administered the poll using VKontakte, a well-known Russian social media platform. All other competitors of Barsik were humans. To add more humor to the action, the group of protesters also started crowdfunding money to purchase and portray a billboard in the city center with the words: “”Only mice don’t vote for Barsik!”” inscribed on it. A staggering 91. 2 percent of voters chose Barsik as the preferred mayor compared to six human contenders.
Outcome: The dilemma action attracted the attention of the media and made Russians more aware of the corruption in the city administration in Barnaul. Because of Barnaul’s distance from Moscow, the city had not been in the media limelight previously. This dilemma action changed that. The corrupt practices continued and no policy changes happened as an effect of this dilemma action.