Alexei Navalny on the program “Direct Line” on TV Rain in 2013. Part 2

Ah, hello, Nikita, yes, I can hear you, and here

gathered here are those who aren’t freezing as much

as you are on the roof, but are instead in the warm

studio of TV Rain (Dozhd), and next to

me is Elena, who also wants

to ask Alexei Navalny a question.

Hello, Alexei. I’m interested in

the following question: the less mobile residents

of the city of Moscow want to know what decisions

will be made by the mayor of Moscow, um, so

that we can calmly get onto

public transport—trams, trolleybuses, and the metro.

If the city of Moscow is a fairly

wealthy city in terms of budget, we very often

hear from you: when will Moscow’s European-sized budget

be able to pay for elevators in the metro?

In any European city, I can

go down to the metro in an elevator calmly, without

stress, without having to lift a stroller with a child.

In Moscow, I can’t do that. I can

only get down at, excuse me, Dostoevskaya, Maryina

Roshcha to the escalator, and then that’s it—

that is, there are places where

you can go down спокойно, and then I’m faced with

the escalator ahead, the stroller, and all the other

joys of our transport system. So this

concerns not only mothers with strollers, but also

people with disabilities, who basically

cannot get around Moscow. Thank you.

Alexei, excellent question. Thank you. The pain, in fact,

is this:

because a mother with a stroller, at least

we know that in three years the child

will grow up and can be led by the hand.

But the terrible thing is that,

for example, in Moscow it is practically impossible

to see a person with a disability on the street. Although in

European cities and in the U.S., they

are constantly seen. It’s just that our

disabled people—people with disabilities here—

are no fewer than in other

countries. They simply live in their homes like

prisoners; they cannot get downstairs. They

cannot go outside at all.

You are absolutely right in saying that Moscow’s

budget makes it possible to solve this problem

within three years. In much, much

poorer European cities, this problem

has been solved. We simply need to start solving it.

When the city improvement department

stops dealing with placing

granite planters for landscaping on

Tverskaya Street at 12 million rubles apiece

and starts building ramps, elevators in the metro, and

so on, then it will work. It’s simply

a matter of political will. We must

start investing money there. It’s part

of our program, and we will definitely

do it. There’s no need to invent anything—there is

European experience that shows

how to do this. Everything here has been worked out

over decades. We just need to invest

relatively modest funds into it, and that’s

all. I will definitely do it. We have one more

question from below, if I understand correctly. Yes?

Lika, yes, it’s warm here, and we have

lots of questions, so please bear with us.

Introduce us. It’s cold here, but at least we’re

warming up. My name is Viktor. I have the

following question for you: when you were a child, you

were a Young Pioneer (member of the Soviet communist youth organization), and you had a happy

Pioneer childhood. So tell me, Alexei,

if you become mayor of Moscow, do you think

the city, through the mayor’s office,

should, for example, take direct

part in organizing some kind of, well, I don’t

know, children’s movement of some sort, so that

children would have something to do? Because in

Moscow, for example, we have the Palace

of Pioneers (Soviet-era youth center), yes, inside which there are

a large number of various

interesting initiatives for children—

different clubs, groups, and so on—but they

somehow, I don’t know, are either not very

popular or are experiencing a real

lack of funding, let’s say. So do

you think the mayor’s office and the mayor

should take direct part

in organizing this kind of children’s

movement and, well, somehow promoting

it among the city’s children, among

parents as well? So, well,

that’s my question. Thank you.

What choice do you leave me—excuse me—where am I supposed to put the children?

And will I personally be tying neckerchiefs on

Red Square? There was already a question here about

spiritual upbringing. I don’t think

Muscovites will be thrilled if their

mayor, who is supposed to solve a large

number of problems, spends time

organizing Pioneer troops

going to campfires or

tying neckerchiefs for someone. That is a question

for parents. It is a question of self-organization

and self-government. I believe such

issues should be passed down

to the grassroots level, to the schools themselves. If

parents unite and want their

school to have, I don’t know, a Pioneer

movement, a Scout movement, an Orthodox movement,

whatever they like—more self-government. Let them

do whatever they think is necessary. It is a question

for parents to decide, please. The concept

of our program is that we

will transfer more money and more

authority to the grassroots level, including

to schools. If a school council made up

of teachers and parents decides that they

need a Pioneer organization, decides that

they need a uniform, and as part of that uniform

a red, green, or any other neckerchief—

please, let them tie them. But that is not

the mayor’s job. The mayor’s job is

to make sure everyone has the opportunity to make

whatever decisions they want and the money to implement

those decisions. The money exists in the Moscow

budget. Let’s go back to the studio.

It seems to me, Nikita, that we have here

a wonderful young

man. For example—Alexei, please go ahead.

Thank you. And the question is this: large-scale

events in the city—not rallies, but specifically

some kind of entertainment events. What is your

view on this? And do you know, there is this

situation now where

you come to get approval for some public event

and they tell you, “Listen,”

“you’re not a legal entity, so we’re not even

going to talk to you,” or you come in

and they tell you, “You know, this territory

is no longer under the district administration’s jurisdiction, or

under some department’s authority,” right? “It

now falls under Mospark’s jurisdiction,”

“it was transferred there, but there are no documents

about it anywhere, nobody writes about it, and now you

have to deal, say, with

the park administration.” And maybe a couple of comments

about this whole story with... As I understand it,

you’re asking a question not about

political events, but rather events

like mass sporting events, maybe—

sports and entertainment events.

We need to separate all this out. There are citywide

events across the whole city that

require road closures—for example, I don’t

know, a bike ride along the MKAD (Moscow Ring Road), or major

cross-country races and runs. Naturally, that is a matter

for city-level regulation, because it

will affect hundreds of thousands of people. But more often

than not, in 99% of cases, these are local

events held, as you

said, in a park, a square, and so on,

which really affect no one

except local residents. That is why we included

the issue of decentralization in our program,

because I am absolutely convinced that this

is not the mayor’s issue, and the mayor cannot permit

or forbid you from holding a local

sports festival in Serebryany Bor (a park and forest area in Moscow).

This is a matter for the local community. Local

district authorities—this is all within your powers.

If you want to hold it, then hold it, after all. But

who does the city exist for? The city

exists for us, ordinary citizens, and

if I, together with my neighbors,

have organized ourselves and want to hold a celebration in

my local park in Maryino, then I shouldn’t

have to ask anyone for permission. I sent

a notice to the district administration and came to my

own park to hold my

own celebration. This is a firm principle

we stand by: the city exists for

its residents, not for some officials from whom

residents have to obtain

permission for every little thing. That’s it.

If it’s not a celebration but a political

event, then with a political event

everything is even simpler: the Constitution guarantees

everyone the right to assemble peacefully and without weapons.

So if people are gathering peacefully and unarmed,

my task as mayor is simply to ensure

everyone’s safety: if people are coming from

the right on this side and from the left on that side,

then the police should stand between them so that they

don’t beat each other up. That is the only

task facing the mayor

of Moscow. I am not going to read what

is written on their banners. To me, they are all

Muscovites. Their political

views do not matter to me—they are Muscovites to me. Let

them go out and express

their political opinions, as long as no one

gets into a fight.

We’re also getting a lot of similar questions from Twitter. Alexei Kaipen,

a Twitter user, asks us:

both in Moscow and in Dagestan, people are concerned about

Caucasian teenagers in Moscow and their

behavior. How would you address this issue?

What do you mean by the behavior of Caucasian

teenagers? Teenagers are teenagers. They

are very different. There are teenagers

who sit in the library reading books,

and there are teenagers who come to

Manezhnaya Square specifically to engage in

some kind of provocative or obnoxious

behavior in order to annoy everyone.

But that is called petty hooliganism.

Petty hooligans, regardless of their

nationality, should be taken to the police,

given a serious talking-to,

fined 1,000 rubles,

and if they do it regularly, locked up for three

days. And my position here is very

simple, very clear: I do not care what

nationality these hooligans are. Everyone will

be taken to the police if they are genuinely

acting like hooligans. That’s all. We’ve also had

some questions about transport.

They’re being asked on Twitter too. A user named Yun says

that in advanced European cities

there are four types of transport: the metro,

bus, taxi, and bicycle. How will

taxi service be regulated in

Moscow? Taxis in Moscow should

be regulated in such a way that this

business—which is socially important

for the city—can develop. Taxis

must comply with safety rules. People should be able

to get into a taxi without fear.

They should be able to identify that

taxi if they left a wallet there or

if they still have some issue with that

driver. They should have the ability

to file a complaint about the driver. Therefore, this

type of service should be licensed in the

same way it is in major

cities like New York: a fairly

simple license. A taxi car

must be visually distinctive, and all

other regulations should apply to it. In principle, what

is happening with taxis now is

one of the few things that

...

-

is one of the few things that

it does a fairly decent job, and we need to

develop it so that we don’t have these

things that we all call—maybe

not very politically correctly—“shahid taxis”

instead of having proper taxis, yellow or

some other clearly identifiable color scheme,

so that when you get in, you can see

a card with this person’s last name, first name, patronymic,

their photograph, their

license number, their vehicle

number, so that you can file a complaint,

receive good service, and be satisfied.

Well, while we’re on the subject,

a question from Alexei Zelenin about transport.

A question for Navalny: When will

full-fledged bicycle lanes be organized

throughout the entire

city? Well, bicycle lanes across the entire

city obviously can’t be created

with a wave of a magic wand.

This is very closely connected; among other things, I

already spoke here about the problem that when

all our sidewalks and all our roadways

are simply clogged with cars. This is a matter of the overall

transport concept: when we relieve

the city and clear parked cars out of the city center,

then probably in the city center

more bicycle lanes will begin to appear.

There is now a strategy; bicycle

lanes are appearing. It’s just that sometimes, for example,

I, as a resident of Maryino,

view some decisions on

bicycle lanes very ironically. The first

bicycle lane in the city was

opened not far from my home. It

starts very close to my home and

ends near the

oil refinery in Kapotnya

which is about 5 kilometers (3 miles) from my

home. Who is going to ride along that

bike lane with the backdrop of

a burning flare? I don’t know. So what’s needed here

is not

some campaign-style approach. What should actually be done

is by the local authorities—that is, when

some smart aleck at 13 Tverskaya (Moscow City Hall) decides

to build a bike lane, what you get is

a bike lane to Kapotnya, to the

oil refinery. But when

the district administration and the local community,

local cyclists, say: We want

a lane along this route, and the local

planning department

approves it, then you get something

decent. And it seems to me that this is exactly

the strategy we should follow. One more

question from—another question from Twitter.

Excuse me, it is asked by the user

Suyumbike Davlikeevskaya.

I try to make the decisions that

I think through. I don’t have some kind of

special decision to fire Kapkov. I

simply have political views about

those United Russia members who work in

the Moscow government, those members

of Sobyanin’s team or former members

of Luzhkov’s team. To me, they are all people

who are responsible for this mafioso and

corrupt style of governing the city.

They sit in neighboring offices; maybe

Kapkov, or some hypothetical Kapkov, some

person, is not a bad official in himself,

but he absolutely certainly knows

that in the office next door someone is right now

bringing in a suitcase with $2 million. He

knows all this and still sits in that

government, so I am not going

to work with people who are tolerant of

corruption, who are ready to be part

of a mafia system—whether as mafiosi themselves

or as advisers to mafiosi, it makes no difference.

To me, it is all one

mafia, and I am not going to work together

with employees or representatives of the mafia.

Actually—excuse me, let me jump in on this

question nevertheless—your

transport initiatives, in a way,

basically repeat everything that

Maxim Liksutov is doing now in his post

as head of the transport department.

Doesn’t that bother you? Well, first of all,

first of all I want to apologize. I can see

the hatred with which you’re looking because

they brought me hot tea. I can see that you

are very cold. I’m ready to share,

but I only have two cups here already.

As for Liksutov, that

is absolutely not the case; that is a mistaken

impression. The current strategy of

Moscow in this regard is that

they allocate colossal sums of money—hundreds

of billions of rubles—toward implementing

grandiose construction projects,

interchanges, all these overpasses and tunnels.

All of that eats up most of

the budget. That is wrong, and its purpose is only

to feed this very

transport mafia. Who are our main road-construction

contractors now? Who?

The Rotenbergs, Putin’s friends, and all

sorts of other highly dubious

businessmen who previously had

nothing to do with road construction,

but now that the billions started flowing, they

have all somehow signed up as road

builders. The money that Moscow has

should be allocated instead to creating

a capillary network, connecting districts. For us,

to get from one district to

another, you have to drive via the MKAD (Moscow Ring Road) or via

the Third Ring. It is toward eliminating bottlenecks that

we should direct funds first and foremost,

rather than pouring them into the construction of

the Northwestern Chord, southern interchanges,

the Alabyano-Baltiysky Tunnel, and other

projects that are being built at two or three times

over budget, above their real cost, and do not

have any underlying

without any further justification. Let’s go straight

to it now, dear friends—just a few questions

from the audience. We can see there are a great many of you.

Unfortunately, yes, that young man over there

in the pink shirt has been waiting a full 40 minutes

alone.

Please, briefly—just briefly, gentlemen. Mr. Alexei

Anatolyevich, we’ve finally gotten to you. I thought

all your questions had been planted. Briefly,

briefly. Maxim Gromov. I want to know what you

will do for small business in Moscow.

Small business is one of the main

taxpayers in the

city. And to support my friend’s point right away:

the Moscow branch of the LDPR party (Liberal Democratic Party of Russia).

Alexei, how do you see your future

after the mayoral election? If you

win, that’s one thing. Then I’ll ask you

a different question. But if

you lose—business? Sorry, that’s a

question from Muscovites, given that

Dmitry

Medvedev and Vladimir Putin passed a law

raising electricity charges in

the city of Moscow and across Russia. Are we now

supposed to boil the kettle only six times a month?

Thank you very much for your question. Let’s

start with small business. So, small

business—first of all, unfortunately, you

are mistaken when you say that small

business brings in a large share of revenue

to the Moscow budget. That

is, unfortunately, simply not the case. That’s how

things work in normal

cities, but here our budget

is filled a little differently. For

small business, which really is

being squeezed in Moscow—after all, Moscow

in the ranking of business-friendly cities

according to the World Bank ranks

30th in Russia—a disgraceful 30th

place. So in Moscow

we need to reduce administrative barriers,

and we wrote this into our program. The most important

thing small business needs in

Moscow is rental space.

It is impossible to find rental space for

small business—simply impossible. I mean,

you see how easily

I can win over an LDPR representative—one only needs

to say the right

things. So look, right now we have

a huge number of properties

owned by the city, and there is no

registry where you can see

the rental rates. And we all know

they are leased to insiders, and then

subleased at prices 10 times higher. We

even drafted a bill under which

a registry would be published, and each of us

would be able to see who leased what and

at what price it was subleased. If there is,

as usual, some kind of scheme,

then city representatives will come in,

terminate that contract, and we will put

hundreds of thousands of square meters

of affordable rental space for small

business onto the market. That is the main thing that needs to be done for it. The second question was about—about

electricity. What you probably meant

was this so-called social norm

for electricity that Medvedev and Putin

have now introduced.

Medvedev and Putin.

Well, they simply think we’re all

stupid and don’t understand what

it is. They call it a social

norm, although it’s an increase in utility charges

for electricity, because this

social norm is impossible

to stay within. If you turn on a light

in the kitchen, a light in the bathroom, and switch on

the computer, that’s it—you’ve already exceeded

the norm, and you’ll have to pay

more. It’s simply a hidden increase in utility charges

so they can formally avoid raising tariffs,

which by law can only be increased

a limited number of times. They’re

cheating. That’s why I support

an audit of utility tariffs. When I

carry out, as mayor, an audit of utility tariffs, we

will see how many unjustified costs

we can throw out of

this tariff, and in Moscow the tariff should not just

stop rising in the near future—

it can be lowered as well.

No, no, stop, stop—that’s enough.

Enough. Gentlemen, there are a great many questions.

Sorry, but we let you ask not even

one but three questions, so our

audience is growing.

All right, let’s take another question. Let’s—

this young woman here has wanted to ask one for ages.

A question, yes. Finally. Alexei, imagine

everything is fine: you are the elected mayor, everything

is wonderful, you’re doing great, but for some reason

people don’t like you and they come out onto

Bolotnaya Square (a well-known protest site in Moscow), either against some

decision of yours or a decision

by the Moscow city government. That’s the first scenario. And

the second is specifically against you, Mayor

Navalny—“Navalny, resign.” What would your

strategy be? First, I have no doubt about my

victory. Second, I have no doubt that

naturally, in a huge city there will,

simply statistically, be a large number

of people who disagree with me.

There are other political parties that

will at the very least disagree with me and

criticize me. That is a normal

situation. I need opposition myself

so that, among other things, members of

my own team do not become

corrupt. If people come out and chant

“Navalny, resign,” I will pay close

attention to why they are calling for my resignation. If

something can be fixed, I will fix it. In

any case, I will maintain a dialogue with these

people, because to me they are Muscovites.

and I would like to move on to the next

term. I would like to serve Muscovites for two

terms and leave as a mayor who is loved and

respected, and as a mayor about whom people will

say: yes, there was opposition against him,

but all that opposition

held rallies and

staged demonstrations quite peacefully; no one

dispersed them. No one beat anyone over the head with rubber

batons. I always listened

to all criticism

that was expressed toward

me. So let's just not stray too far from the

question. Go ahead. Quite a lot of

people want to speak, really a great many

hands. Good afternoon, Alexei. Dear

hosts, everyone present, my name is

My name is Olga. I have the following question.

At present, the Moscow authorities

are dealing with the housing waiting list in

Moscow for city residents. I mean they are

committing genocide against these people on the waiting list, for example

people with disabilities are legally entitled, as a priority,

to housing under the social protection law on the rights of

people with disabilities, yet they are removed from the list; large families

are removed from the list; single

divorced mothers who are raising

minor children on their own are removed as well,

namely if some extra property is found

belonging to their long-former

husbands. What is your attitude to this problem?

Do you consider people on the waiting list, in general,

to be freeloaders? And how do you intend

to improve housing conditions

?

Well,

recently I wrote about how certain

people received certain

apartments. The first problem in Moscow is:

how many people do we have on the waiting list? Do you know?

90,000 families. Almost 400,000 people. That is

an enormous number. The question of whether they are freeloaders or

not is not even worth asking, because

these people are supposed by law

to receive apartments. These are legal

obligations of the Moscow city government,

which we must fulfill in any case.

The main thing is that these people on the waiting list need help.

As you rightly said, right now

they are effectively being subjected to genocide;

they are simply being quietly thrown off the waiting list

or they just realize that they are not

moving forward. Now a question for you: if you yourself are

on the waiting list, can you look at this

list now and see who is first, who is

second, and who is thirty-second? At the present

moment, as far as I know, the website of the Department

of Housing Policy has changed. Frankly speaking,

for example, I could not find it on the first try.

I wanted to find it, and on the second try

you won't find it either, nor on the thirty-second. There is no

such registry where you can see

everyone on the waiting list. It does not exist,

precisely so they can slip in

their own children, officials' children. Under

Sobyanin, a whole bunch of people came from Tyumen

and all of them, as waiting-list applicants, have already received apartments

for themselves in the city center, 200 square meters each. When I become

mayor, my first measure will simply be

to publish this list so everyone can see

who is on the waiting list, who is outside the regular order, who

has benefits, who has special benefits. Without this

basic measure, which these 400,000

people have needed for many years already, we will get nowhere,

and it will be a guarantee that

neither I nor my officials

will start slipping into this line some

of our own children or loyal people.

That is the most important thing that needs to be done. Now, the young man there. Hello, Alexei.

Hello, Alexei.

My name is Oleg. I am one of

the tens of thousands of people

who are taking part in

Navalny's team. I am a Muscovite. I want

to say thank you for bringing back

politics to my beloved city, that politics

which had been absent for more

than a decade. My question concerns young people.

Various topics have repeatedly

been raised here, and in the minds of young people there has settled

the idea that building a career in Russia,

and specifically in Moscow, is impossible. In

connection with the fact that breaking into politics,

breaking into some kind of state

institutions, companies, and so on

is impossible, because everything—if your

last name is not Sobyanin, and if your

last name is not Putin, and so on. Because

there—and especially if your last name is

Navalny, then of course, yes—

this family-clan system makes it

impossible to break through. What do you want to do

or what are you trying to do about this?

Thank you. Thank you very much for the question. First

of all, perhaps through you I would like

to thank all those thousands of people

who are working as volunteers in our

election campaign. This is very important.

Because, you see, when I write my

program, there are a lot of solutions there to

specific problems. If we

look at sociological surveys of what

Muscovites recognize as problems, we

will see the most important things: transport, migration,

healthcare, education. But, after all,

in the bigger picture, even if we

look at all this philosophically,

the main problem of our city is

that 40% of young people do not want to live in

Moscow. Polls simply show that 40%

of young Muscovites want to leave, and among

students it is more than 50%. This is truly

a catastrophe on a national scale.

The main reason I am running in this election,

the main reason I want to change

the country's politics, is to make it so

that people have a choice, so that people do not

see as their only option

to leave for a brighter future, and if you haven’t

left, then your bright future isn’t

We have a disgusting, ugly system

under which we ourselves have made it so that

when young people are asked what

it takes for their life to turn out well, they

answer: get a job at Gazprom and steal

at Gazprom. It’s disgusting. It’s vile.

It humiliates us and our country. The main

ambition I have is to change something in this country

so that people say: I want to stay

here, build a normal family, and find

a normal job. That is exactly my

main task.

For now, the news has managed to break through a little

through the DOS attack and make it into the big city. We have

Yulia Taratuta with us, who is in

Hermitage Garden right now, and we with questions right now

we

should be connecting with Yulia, and

the director will tell me whether that worked

or not. We’re keeping our

fingers crossed. Yulia Taratuta in Hermitage Garden

is talking to people, and people can ask

their questions to the candidates for Moscow mayor.

He said, guys, if you have the same

problem too, let’s go for a walk on Red

Square. Who, what? Let them look at us.

Let them. It’s just that our conversation with Hermitage

Garden is delayed because, well,

that’s how technology works, but now I

understand that we will

see Yulia. Please wait.

Please wait. To the park with children on the first?

Well, they’ve already said everything will be

cordoned off by the police because they’re afraid of

Navalny and his disobedient children. Well, we’ll sort it all out.

Like Lazareva, will she be organizing it

or

not? So, we should be connected to

Hermitage Garden.

I can’t hear from

the directors. Let’s give it a chance.

Well, good

afternoon. So, this process is not

just...

Red October (a former Moscow factory complex, now a cultural/business venue). I think this is simply

a provocation. Well, it may be not

only others, naturally

connected.

Elections. Well, I’m trying, I’m trying to get through

to Red October. I hope, Misha, Ksyusha,

can you hear me? Alexei, good

afternoon.

Ah, ah, I have a support group. We are located

in Hermitage Garden. I want to remind all

our viewers that I am located

exactly in the place where, where

quite recently there was a rather

specific, rather specific

incident. We’re talking about the fact that Tatyana

Lazareva was trying to organize

an event:

Hello,

school, Hello school, New Year there

where, as we remember, they did not immediately let in

the people who were supposed to

come there, and in fact the only

the only argument against

letting people in there

was the argument that

Alexei Navalny’s disobedient children might come there.

Alexei, let me greet you once again. I

hope that you and your children will always be able to come

here. And around me are people

who, well, who are also interested

in

the

Moscow elections. It’s actually fairly

quiet today in Hermitage Garden, a few

weddings, and here, here are the

nice Muscovites around me. Let’s

try asking questions to the current

speaker, Alexei Navalny of the RPR-PARNAS party.

So, good afternoon. My

name is... I have a simple

question.

At every election, every candidate

talks about how he will fight

corruption. Of course, you have

a program, you

do, but the question is the following:

what gives you confidence that you will

succeed?

And do you already have a team that you are ready

to take with you in the event of

victory? Well, let me still comment on

this unpleasant incident that

happened with Lazareva. For me personally it is,

of course, unpleasant because, well, my

children are not so disobedient that

Hermitage should be closed because of them. But this, in

principle, speaks to how

power is structured in Russia. It seems to me

offensive to all Muscovites in general

that because of some individual person—

Navalny, Petrov, Ivanov—they ban

a school children’s event. Well, that’s nonsense.

It shows how either stupid or

senseless the authorities are. As for this—

if we sharpen the question completely, yes, it’s

really a question of whether you yourself

will turn into a crook in two

years. I want to say two things. First, I

am appealing to Muscovites with my anti-corruption

program, and I believe that they

can trust me because through all my

previous work over many years I

have shown that I myself can live by the

standards that I demand of others. Our

Anti-Corruption Foundation is financed

by thousands of people. It is absolutely transparent

funding; you can see how

the money is spent down to the last kopeck, who has

what salaries, who has what

work efficiency. That’s the first thing. But

second, I am not asking you simply to take my

word for it. That is exactly why, in the program, we

We have laid out measures to ensure that from day one

we will start building a kind of barrier

that is impenetrable between me, my team, and

corruption. We will fundamentally change the way power works

so that being corrupt will

be difficult, it will be frightening, and most

likely you will be caught. For example, right now

the mayor of Moscow can toss around

contracts worth billions of rubles

but our program states that not a single

construction project costing more than

1 billion rubles will be approved unless

it has undergone an international review. We

will transfer decision-making to collegial bodies.

We have a draft law stating that all

documents and all meeting minutes

will be published. Right now, if you

want, for example, to find the minutes of a meeting

of the Moscow city government that decided

to build something for many billions,

you will not find them. You will not know who voted how,

you will not know what was discussed. In our system,

all of this will be completely open. All

documentation will be published. We

will transfer a huge number of powers

downward, to the district administration level. We

will give people the ability to overturn my

decisions, including through

local referendums. In other words, we

will simply start building the system so that you do not

have to just believe Navalny. Rather,

you will understand that the system of government

is structured in such a way that if he becomes

corrupt, you will catch him immediately.

If he becomes corrupt, then

a properly elected Moscow City Duma (Moscow parliament) will pass a vote of no confidence in him.

If he becomes

corrupt, then in early

elections, in fair elections, you will come and

simply vote me out. Well,

now let's switch to blitz mode. Yes, let's do that.

Alexei, a very quick question from Twitter.

There are a huge number of similar questions.

For example, Gen Genych asks: Do you have

a plan in case of fraud in the

Moscow mayoral election? Our plan is

that we have already sent 2,500 commission members

with voting rights. We

want to recruit at least 11 observers,

and while I have the chance, I once again

urge all of you to come and serve as observers.

There can be no other plan except

for Muscovites themselves to come to the polling

stations and defend their own

voting results. This

is our common task. And what will you do,

actually—another question from

Twitter—what will you and your team do if

Sergei Semyonovich Sobyanin is elected

in the first round without obvious

fraud? I am sure that without obvious

fraud, no election of Sergei Semyonovich in the first round

is possible. We can see from polling

data and from all other signs that

a second round is practically inevitable. We

are thinking only about how to mobilize

Muscovites, how to make sure that every

supporter brings 10 more people

to the polling station. And I know that if we do

this—I believe that we will do it—a second round

is inevitable, and in the second round we will definitely

win. Let's give the floor

to the city. Let's give the floor to the city: Moscow's districts

are asking their questions especially for

Alexei

Navalny.

[music]

So, a question from

Pechatniki. A question for Alexei Navalny:

Where do you get information

about the current

mayor? What information do you mean? Most likely

you mean the famous daughters and how they

acquired their apartments. You know, this is

good for our Anti-Corruption Foundation

and very bad for the country: in our case,

corruption is simply so obvious

that it is not even hidden. We do not need

to go searching in order to expose crooks, to

find information that Sobyanin

bought his daughter an apartment with income

of unclear origin—one for 116 million rubles, another

for 170 million rubles. We do not need intelligence agents,

spies, or anything like that out of

spy movies. These are open registries

where we simply look all this up.

Corruption, to our shared horror, it

is simply not hidden at all

in Russia. I have already repeatedly given examples here

of road construction networks and projects overpriced

by a factor of two. These are things

that are discussed on television,

written about in newspapers, things that everyone

knows about, yet no one even tries to hide them.

That is why I am running for office: we must

at least implement urgent anti-corruption

measures, and they will work

because there is so much corruption that

you can just catch these crooks and put them in jail. Another

question—we already had one from Butovo,

but here is another one from Butovo, especially for

Alexei

Navalny. Good afternoon. My name is Irina.

I would like to ask candidate Alexei

Navalny about his economic

team that would help him in the event of his

election, specifically on the economic side.

We are aware of his legal successes,

but I would like to clarify

his economic platform in more detail,

if that is possible.

Thank you. Thank you very much. We already

had a question today about the team, and I answered

that under our strategy, the specific names

we

will publish in the second round. But as for

the economic component of my

program, it is well known. I think

Here, I am very proud that one of the

best-known—the most famous—Russian

economists, one of the world’s leading

economists, Sergei Guriev, made a very

major contribution specifically to the economic part of our

program. I believe it is the strongest

among all the candidates, and here we

will definitely leave anyone far behind. Before the

end of the meeting with Alexei Navalny, we have

less than 10 minutes left—about 10

minutes—so a quick question, a quick

answer: 30 seconds, blitz format. Please.

Hello, Alexei, my name is Igor Grishin.

I’m from the city of Korolyov, which

I hope you won’t be joining to

Moscow. My question

is different. I followed your

campaign and your volunteers, and I

got the impression that they have

an unconditional faith in your infallibility.

My question is: aren’t you afraid that on September 8

it will not be a battle between good and

neutrality, but a battle between

neutrality and a cult of personality?

Thank you. As for the team—the volunteer team—

thousands of people signed up: 14,000

people. They are very different people. In my

view, they are not so much supporting

me—although they are supporting me—as they are supporting

themselves and their families. They are simply moving toward

a normal future. These are different people; there is

no talk of any cult of personality here.

I am very grateful to the people who

support me and go around everywhere, I don’t

know, with my posters and so on. That is

part of it; it’s a genre of election campaigning. But

the main idea they put into it—and

they will explain it to you if you talk to

them—is that they simply

want change. Presumably they associate

that change with my name, for which I am

grateful to them, but in that sense I am simply

part of this team of people, because I

am also an ordinary citizen of Russia, an ordinary

Muscovite, who together with them longs for

change. Quick question, quick answer—

let’s do this very quickly. Good afternoon. My

name is Vladimir. What will happen to the territory

of the ZIL factory, and will foreign

companies be allowed into city

tenders? As for the territory of the

ZIL plant, this is not a decision that can

be made just like that from here. It is a decision

for professional discussion. I have said many times

here that there should not be

arbitrary decisions: we discuss, we review,

we calculate. As for allowing foreign

companies—absolutely, there will be access.

It is very important to allow foreign

clients, designers, and

builders into the Moscow construction

market, because it is very

monopolized.

Jobs will go to Russian citizens; workers

like metro builders from Switzerland will not

be brought in, and road crews will not be brought in either. They

will create more work for Russian citizens, but

at the same time we will seriously reduce corruption and

significantly lower contract costs. The floor goes

to the third tier. Great Kremer, please.

Yes, I’m here. I have a question from a young woman.

Please introduce yourself.

My name is ... I came from Zelenograd. So, you

were in Zelenograd and said that

your mother lived there, that she studied at a

school in Zelenograd. Tell us, what

do you know about Zelenograd, and how will

life improve for Zelenograd residents if you become

mayor? Thank you. I know

a great deal about Zelenograd. Indeed, my mother is from

Zelenograd, and she studied in Zelenograd.

Everything you said is absolutely correct.

Zelenograd needs development.

Zelenograd was originally built as a

satellite city of Moscow, one that had jobs

within Zelenograd itself. Now, unfortunately, most Zelenograd residents

are forced to commute to Moscow for work, and

that creates a colossal problem and

worsens the traffic jams. Getting

to and from Zelenograd is nearly impossible. Zelenograd

needs to be developed as a high-tech

city. We do not need—we do not need—to

be dealing with some kind of Skolkovo (Russia’s state-backed innovation hub) and

pouring money into some

mythical projects. Let’s create, in

Zelenograd first and foremost, jobs so that

people in Zelenograd can work in Zelenograd.

That is the main problem. As I move to the first

row, a question from Twitter—there are many

similar questions: will you bring back kiosks by

the metro? There is no such single concept as

kiosks by the metro; there are different kiosks at different

stations. This is a local issue

that should not be decided at the level

of the mayor’s office. District administrations and local

communities should decide for themselves whether

they need it or not. If we are talking about

food markets, I assure you that

most Muscovites want

food markets to remain,

because I myself buy meat, fruit, and vegetables

at food markets. Therefore, this is a matter for the local community:

if they want it to remain, then

it will remain. One more question. We already have

more people here. Why are there people on your roof?

Therefore I have won back

easily

to persuade otherwise. That’s not true. So, the question—

a short one, a very short question, as short as can be:

what is the point of voting for this pauper, this—

honestly, I live in Moscow,

you understand? This man says that

Sobyanin’s daughters—listen carefully—have

apartments... that is... if he comes to power,

he could take not just apartments but entire buildings

away from you. Do you have a question? Is there a question?

Do you have a question?

Is there a question?

Why would I need it? I have Moscow residency registration, I...

am not a Muscovite, but I live just fine, I pay

6,000 for my room. Why should we Muscovites

vote for

poverty? From what you're saying, it sounds like you

rent a room. Unfortunately, you will not

have the opportunity to vote with

temporary registration; in Moscow, people don't

vote that way. The point for any Muscovite

is to vote for decent government, not

vote for me—vote for reducing

corruption. Don't vote for me—vote

for normal rental conditions for

small business. Don't vote, perhaps,

for Navalny—vote so that

roads are built at market prices. Then there

won't be poverty in Moscow, as you say. I

don't know why you put me in that

category of poverty. I'm not a very rich person, I

am an ordinary, normal, middle-class Muscovite. I am running

in this election so that ordinary, normal

middle-class Muscovites live better, including

you, despite your

aggressiveness. Excellent—your question was very

brief.

Thank you. Mikhail Shenker, a question with a certain

hint. A little closer to the microphone. A question with a hint: so,

suppose you win the election, which I sincerely wish for you. You find yourself

in direct confrontation, face to face, with the central

so-called authorities, which have

a mechanism for serving private interests.

What then? In that situation, how will you

conduct yourself? I repeat, the question comes with

a hint.

Thank you. To be honest, I have answered this question many

times. I don't even see any

hint at all. I'm answering completely

directly. Once again, that's why we wrote:

"Change Russia—start with Moscow." If in

Moscow a mayor is elected not by

election commissions, not by

controlled television, but by Muscovites,

the situation will change. If in Moscow there is

finally a mayor elected who is not...

If I am elected mayor of Moscow,

the federal government in the form

in which we know it will cease to exist—not as

a result of revolution or upheaval, but

as a result of the federal authorities

understanding that Muscovites—15% of the country's population—

came to the polling stations and said: no, we

do not want to live like this anymore. We do not want

corruption. We do not want political

censorship. We do not want rule-by-phone in

the courts. And when I become mayor, we will

definitely achieve this. Actually, let's...

let me go back half a question

to poverty. Here we have a question from Mr. Golubev:

right now Navalny is riding in a car

worth more than half a million rubles. Right now I

am riding in a car that is rented for me

by the campaign headquarters, officially, from the campaign fund. I

am leaving you now for Novokosino,

I have a meeting there, then I have a meeting in

Novogireyevo, and in another district of Moscow

so I'm not even riding in Alexei's car right now,

I'm riding in a minibus because

a lot of people travel with me. I

practically live in this vehicle. It is

rented by the headquarters. Adolf Sh... Direct Line.

Alexei, what do you know about Moscow's

Spartak? I'll say that I'm not a big

football fan. If you start asking me now

who plays for whom there and

other details, I'll tell you

yes, I support Spartak, more

on a territorial principle. For me,

Spartak is associated with Moscow. I know

that many people on my team, even

the guys who, for example, organize

meetings, it just so happens, mostly support

Dynamo. And when at meetings they

ask me, "Navalny, who do you support?" I

say, "Spartak," and I can literally see

them turning green with anger. For me it's simply

one of the principles of being a Muscovite: I support

Spartak, although maybe I'm not

that deeply interested in football. 27 Sh... Direct Line.

You do not cover cultural issues at all. Do you

know about the problems of theaters and museums?

Do you visit

theaters? I do, though not as often as I would

like, but I try, of course. I am not

such a highly sophisticated

Muscovite in that sense, but I try at least

to maintain some kind of average standard.

Andrei Vishnevsky, with the hashtag Direct

Line, asks: what is your attitude toward the work of

the capital's police? How will you

interact with the security services when

you become mayor? The capital's police work

terribly, of course. This is not a matter

regulated by the Moscow mayor, but we

will use many of the means that are

at our disposal, starting with video cameras

that are under city control,

which, as the examples of London and Singapore show,

seriously reduce street crime. We

will make possible use of

additional private security

companies to patrol the streets in order

to help the police. And most importantly, we

will restore the election of justices of the peace, and then

those judges will answer not to

rule-by-phone, but will work

properly, including resolving fairly

conflicts between

law enforcement and city residents.

Alexei, Direct Line. Colleagues, please,

one last question. Andreas, if you

are elected mayor, in the course of your work you will have

to meet with Putin. Will you shake

his hand? I will meet with Putin, and as

a person who holds

a certain office, whom Muscovites have

required to interact with Putin,

of course I will observe all the bounds of

formal protocol. I will speak

Hello, I will say goodbye.

I will shake hands, I will even

smile for the camera, because Muscovites

have obliged me, by virtue of this office, to do

all this. Despite the fact that inwardly, of course,

I understand that Putin is my ideological

opponent. Alexei, this question has been asked many

times, on Twitter as well, and it also

interests me: which world politicians

or mayors do you respect, and whom would you

like to look to as a model, perhaps in

some way?

similar to?

I’m often asked about politicians. It’s more of a

composite image. If I’m talking

about public transportation, then for me

that’s Berlin. If I’m talking about openness

of government, budget transparency, accessibility

of government, turnover in power, the ability

to put pressure on the authorities, that’s New York. If we

talk about the issue of local

self-government, there are many

examples to take from London. I would like

Moscow to become the kind of city that

other mayoral candidates in other

cities cite as an example. Alexei K—

Unfortunately, our time has come to an end. So

here

for some closing remarks, and

then we’ll have to give the floor to the next

speaker. Thank you very much. I would like

to thank everyone who watched this

live broadcast, first and foremost

to thank all of you, because I can see

that you’re terribly cold, and yet

you sat here for an hour and a half. On the eighth,

everyone, come vote. We still have

time to bring to these

elections our friends, acquaintances, and

relatives. There is still time to

run an active election campaign.

This is the home stretch, and it is very important.

A little more effort, and we will definitely win.

Hooray, victory will be ours!

Thank you.

Thank you. TV Rain (Dozhd) and the city

newspaper City Boom

present: Live Line — The Mayor and

[music]

Muscovites. It seems not so bad, right? Well, not bad.

uh