Mikhail Svetov (politician)


Mikhail Vladimirovich Svetov - Russian politician and public figure, chairman of the civil society movement "Civil Society", political scientist, blogger, one of the main ideologists and popularizers of libertarianism in Russia, organizer major federal rallies on various political and public topics. The author of his own YouTube channel "SVTV".

Biography

Born in Moscow in 1985 in a family of medical students. As Michael himself says, he grew up in a family of classical liberals. In 2004, when he was 18 years old, he almost joined the National Bolshevik Party.
From 2004 to 2006 he studied at the Faculty of History, Political Science and Law of the RSUH in the political science specialty. From there he transferred to the University of Nottingham with a degree in Political Science and graduated from the latter in 2009. According to his own statement, fluent in English, French and Japanese.
In the UK, Svetov began blogging in LiveJournal. The first mention of libertarianism appeared in his LJ in 2005 - then Svetov was 20 years old. Although, as the politician claims, he has always been an "ardent libertarian." Shortly before leaving for Japan, while in Moscow, Svetov joined the Libertarian Party.
In 2010, Mikhail left for Japan. In Japan, Svetov taught the language and also sold Japanese souvenirs on the Internet. In 2011, as an eyewitness, he told the Russia-1 television channel about the Tokyo earthquake and the Fukushima accident. There he first invested in Bitcoin, which became the key to his material well-being.
In 2016 he graduated from the New Zealand Film Academy. According to Svetov’s script, a short film “Jackpot” was released in New Zealand, which won first place in the state script competition and received sponsorship for a film adaptation. For some time, Mikhail worked in the film industry.

Political Views

Libertarianism

Svetov calls himself an ideological anarcho-capitalist. He believes that only through lustration and ensuring the functioning of the free market can corruption and the economic decline of Russia be overcome. In addition, Mikhail is a supporter of such ideas as: federalism, freedom of association, laissez-faire, legalization of weapons, drugs and abortion, reducing the role of the state in the life of a child, etc.

Right conservatism

Michael identifies himself with the cultural right of the conservative. He stands for traditional relations, for the separation of gender roles in the family. According to Svetov, the family was unjustly scolded by the left, and the third-wave feminists did a disservice to women, making them more miserable. According to Mikhail, he would like to live in a homogeneous society somewhere in Kamchatka, having acquired a ranch and a large family.

Civic nationalism

Svetov would like Russia to cease to be the multinational state that Yeltsin made it, and become a national state according to the principle of Switzerland - “they speak four languages, live four different nations, practice different religions, but at the same time everyone lives in peace and harmony; they are Swiss, and we are Russia”. As a civic nationalist, Mikhail is a supporter of building a Russian civil nation and reviving the tradition of Russian identity .

Attitude to other political organizations

Michael criticizes the activities of parties and movements, which he calls pseudo-opposition, such as “Yablako”, PARNAS, Left Front, Democratic Choice, Party of Growth.
One of the main enemies of civil society, according to Svetov, is near-opposition and at the same time near-government, close to the ruling elites, politicians and journalists, such as Ksenia Sobchak, Dmitry Gudkov, Grigory Yavlinsky, Alexei Venediktov, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Sergey Udaltsov, Vladimir Ryzhkov, Boris Nemtsov, Sergey Parkhomenko and others.
As of 2020, Mikhail sees only Alexey Navalny and the Anti-Corruption Fund as the only ally in the struggle against power in Russia, but he would be glad to see other sincere opposition forces, regardless of their political orientation.

Political activity

In 2016, after returning to Russia from Japan, Svetov began his socio-political activities. He helped in the election campaign of Vera Kichanova and Andrei Shalnev. Helped with the organization of the eighth readings of Adam Smith. He organized the visit of Director of the Cato Institute Peter Goetler to read. He organized meetings and helped with the translation of the speeches of foreign guests.
Mikhail Svetov was the organizer of opposition rallies: “For Free Internet” on August 26, 2017, a rally against the blocking of Telegram in Russia on April 30, 2018, a rally against pension reform on July 29, 2018. He initiated a public campaign against the "law of Klishas" on the “sovereign Internet” and launched a petition against the adoption of this law, which collected 122 thousand signatures. Mikhail also became one of the organizers of the rally in defense of the Internet in Moscow on March 10, 2019, and also spoke at it . Similar rallies also took place in Khabarovsk and Voronezh. After that, the Kremlin’s telegram channels began to spread an “investigation” about the fact that the real customer of the rally was the video blogger PewDiePie.
In May 2018, Mikhail presented the flag of Russian libertarianism - the Gadsden snake against the background of the Russian national tricolor of 1914. According to Svetov’s idea, this flag was to become a universal symbol for all libertarians of Russia, combining the political and philosophical convictions of the supporters of freedom with patriotism and Russian national culture.
From time to time, Mikhail acts as the organizer of “Conservative Anime Parties”, where in an informal atmosphere visitors can watch anime, fry burgers, listen to music and chat, and discuss politics, libertarianism and listen to a lecture by an invited lecturer.
On January 18, 2018, Svetov debated with Vladimir Milov on the topic of the presidential campaign of Aleksey Navalny and came out the winner according to the results of the ballot. In August, Michael met and talked with American Libertarian Senator Rand Paul.
After the adviser to the Ukrainian president Vladimir Zelensky, Ruslan Stefanchuk, stated that the ideology of the "Servant of the People" party was libertarianism, Mikhail Svetov issued a text questioning the party’s commitment to libertarian values and, at the request of RTVI, made a small test for understanding libertarianism for Vladimir Zelensky himself.
Mikhail Svetov acted as the inviting organizer of the lecture of one of the most prominent theoreticians of libertarianism in the world of Hans Hermann Hoppe. The lecture was held on October 6 in Moscow, where Hoppe described the destructive power of democracy, its incompatibility with individual freedom and the natural union between Western conservatism and libertarianism. Mikhail also spoke at the event .

Incidents

On April 30, 2018, he spoke at a rally in Moscow in support of the "Telegram" messenger, and called for lustrations. He believes that because of this appeal, some media outlets did not cite his speech and also mention him as the organizer of the rally, as they were preparing for the next “change in the position of the nomenclature”.
In July 2019, the Ukrainian Mirotvorets website introduced Mikhail Svetov to the list of people posing a threat to the national security of Ukraine in connection with his trip to the Crimea to his girlfriend
On September 20, 2018 in St. Petersburg, Mikhail Svetov was subjected to a failed attempt at an armed attack. During the meeting, one of the members of the LPR regional branch who was present at her, after a short skirmish with Svetov, took out a knife and attempted an attack with him on Mikhail. Following the results of the proceedings on this incident, the LPR member who attempted the attack was expelled from the party for violating the Charter. Also, following the results of the proceedings on September 27, 2018, at an extraordinary meeting of the LPR Federal Committee, some representatives of the governing and audit bodies of the St. Petersburg regional branch were excluded, acquitting the aggressor, accusing Mikhail of provoking aggression and convicted of external control of the branch, systematic lying to party members and provoking a split inside branches.