What a joke. First they filled the doors of our campaign headquarters with expanding foam.
Then some guys showed up at the venue we had rented—officially, and paid for properly—for a meeting with volunteers, and shut the whole place down and sealed it off.
As if: we, United Russia party members, are so clever. Expanding foam, keys, and rain outside will solve our problems.
Dear crook-officials of Nizhny Novgorod Region. Expanding foam will not be enough.
There are things important enough to stand up for, even in the rain.
And those are exactly the things our campaign is about.
If there is no warm room and no comfortable podium, I will stand on a bench if I have to.
And many people will stand beside me.
Because we are sick and tired of putting up with your apartments in Miami and your vineyards in Tuscany. Especially when, against that backdrop, you have turned even such a beautiful city as Nizhny Novgorod into something resembling Palmyra after the bombings.
It is madness. The year is 2017. The country is one of the world's largest oil exporters, and there is not a single decent road in the city. Not even near the local Kremlin (historic fortress).
That is exactly why today in Nizhny Novgorod, where for years any street protest activity was strangled, your own efforts produced the largest rally in recent years. Right on the city's central pedestrian street.
And here, in Nizhny Novgorod Region, with its monstrous corruption and equally monstrous impoverishment, the slogans of our campaign will resonate especially strongly.
Thank you so much to everyone who came. It was amazing. Meeting with you in the rain gave me a real surge of energy.
I am sorry that your authorities made you stand there getting soaked and freezing. Together, we will replace them.