Absolutely brilliant. One of those classic “moments when the truth slips out.”
The presidential envoy to the Siberian Federal District is giving an interview. He is asked: what the main priority is right now?
His answer: Our main priority is to ensure stability before the elections, and meanwhile things are being stirred up — Navalny is opening campaign offices.
Let me remind you that a presidential envoy is one of the senior officials in the presidential administration. He coordinates the work of the federal authorities, above all the *siloviki* (security and law enforcement agencies), and directs the governors.
So there you have it: his main task is fighting Navalny’s campaign offices.
It’s not that we didn’t understand this before; it’s just interesting to get confirmation of the level at which those charming pickets are being organized along my travel routes during regional trips.
And here I want to say to Mr. Sergei Ivanovich Menyailo, who seems to think that the purpose of public service is to protect corruption and freeze poverty in place under the label of “stability.”
Protest sentiment in Siberia is growing because your power vertical steals far too much.
For example, the next protest rally in Siberia’s capital, Novosibirsk, will take place on Sunday, March 19. And it will happen not because of “Navalny’s offices” at all, but because you pushed through a decision to raise housing and utilities tariffs by as much as 15% in the city. The cold water tariff will rise by 20%.
And no one can explain why. Where are the calculations, where is the economic justification, where is the confirmation of the investment program?
That is the heart of the problem; that is what leads to instability, not campaign offices.
And Navalny’s offices are opening so successfully in Siberia because a constant part of my platform is an open, independent audit of housing and utilities tariffs, and of monopolies in general.
We are offering a solution to the problem. You want to steal in comfort, with no one complaining.
That is why we have real support, while all you have are drunks with placards, paid 300 rubles for a picket outside our office.
I urge the residents of Novosibirsk to come to the rally. 12:00 p.m. in Lenin Square on March 19. Take to the streets and explain a thing or two to the presidential envoy who has come to your city.
And the schedule for opening campaign offices in Siberia in the near future looks like this:
March 17 — Tomsk March 18 — Kemerovo March 20 — Barnaul March 20 — Biysk.