United Russia gets no less than 77% here. Putin gets about the same. Governor Tuleyev got 94% in the last election.
The political traditions here are closer to those of the North Caucasus.
Even people friendly to us were saying: it would be pretty hard to hold a rally in Kemerovo. Everyone here is for the authorities. And those who aren’t have been pressured so hard that they’re afraid to even raise their heads. It’s basically a real “citadel of Putin,” reliably delivering him a hefty number of votes and making up for the rest of fickle Siberia, which votes poorly for the authorities.
On top of that, they organized all sorts of things in the city today.
On top of that, the venue is very far from the city center, and the authorities canceled the marshrutkas (shared minibuses) to that area.
On top of that, taxi drivers were forbidden from taking people there.
On top of that, students and state employees were told outright: you’ll be expelled or fired.
When we were driving from the hotel to the venue, I thought—and I’m ashamed of it now—well, no one is definitely going to come here. It took 35 minutes to get there. Through some forest and vegetable plots. It was completely unclear how people were supposed to make their way there.
In other words, it wasn’t enough to be brave to come to a rally in Kemerovo—you also had to be resourceful to get there.
And brave, resourceful people did show up.
One of our best rallies. Amazing people, and the right emotional connection was there right away.
The authorities here have simply pushed everyone to the limit.
Poverty. Terrible roads. A city in dreadful condition. That is all people got from Putin’s era of high oil prices. They do not want to put up with it any longer.
Try to find a larger rally anywhere in Kemerovo’s recent history. Then it will immediately become clear what a sham those 77–94% figures are. Nothing but outright falsification.
Siberia is definitely with us. Kemerovo, thank you very much to everyone who came. I am proud to have your support.