The election

Summary “The election” tells the story of the 2000 regional election in Chukotka, Russia's northeasternmost part. That year, Lyosha, a Chukchi activist, invited me to assist Indigenous movements with grant writing for Western‐based civil society organizations. When I arrived in Chukotka, the election was in full swing and turned out to be more bizarre as—as Lyosha put it—could be believed. The gifting of the oligarch, the lies told by the …