Alexei Navalny’s briefing at the opening of the campaign headquarters in Novosibirsk
At the opening of the campaign headquarters in Novosibirsk, Alexei Navalny speaks about his intention to restore political influence to Russia’s regions and make them full participants in the election campaign, contrasting this with the many years of decision-making concentrated in Moscow.
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One of the goals of the election campaign
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is that we want to bring
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politics back to the regions. We want
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the regions to have influence. We want the regions
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and regional cities to take a more active role
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in the election campaign
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because, for 20 years now, no city
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other than Moscow has had any say at all, and in
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Moscow everything gets decided. That is wrong.
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We are going to fight this; we do not
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agree with it. We will change it. Right now, only Moscow and
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the Moscow elite matter. They have decided that
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elections should look more or less like they did in
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de
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that year. We do not see it that way, and we are opening
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a campaign headquarters in Novosibirsk so that
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the city of Novosibirsk can show that it does not
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see it that way either. In that sense, Novosibirsk is actually
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a leading city right now. When I see rallies in the
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freezing cold, larger than those in Moscow, over
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housing and utility issues, I understand that this is
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exactly the kind of problem that cannot
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really be solved in any
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way except through a presidential election and
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through a change of power in the country as a whole. It is
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a paradoxical situation when you have
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here even a formally opposition
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mayor, and that formally opposition mayor
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still, for some reason, votes in favor of raising
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housing and utility tariffs by an unimaginable, outrageous 15 to 20%.
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That should not happen; it cannot be this way. It
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shows a complete disconnect between the authorities
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and the people. We are absolutely convinced that in
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the regions, and in Novosibirsk Region in
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particular, we will find strong support. We
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are absolutely convinced that here too, in the heart of
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Russia, we will be able to build and
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organize the level of political
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pressure that is necessary
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to force these authorities
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to register independent candidates for
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president, myself included, though of course
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it is not just about me. We currently have
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a very large number of volunteers already
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signed up with us, ready
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to work for free on this election
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campaign already now.
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So far, we have collected 2,500 signatures. We need
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to collect 7,500 signatures, which means that here
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there will be a major headquarters, there will be a truly
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real election campaign. I have already
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said everywhere, and I will keep
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saying everywhere, that we will show everyone—ourselves,
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you, the volunteers, the authorities, everyone—that we will
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run a genuinely real
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election campaign, something that in Russia, unfortunately,
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no one ever really does, because
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the result is already known, even the percentages are known,
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the distribution of places is known, so why
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do anything at all? Well, we do not
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see it that way, and we intend to change
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this situation. Guys, there are a lot of you here—
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a huge, educated
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city—and Russia’s major cities, especially
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Novosibirsk itself, simply have no
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political representation at all.
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There are no people in power who
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represent them—none at all. If we are not
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allowed to take part in the election, that is how it will
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remain. And I hope that we will be able
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to persuade enough people and
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build up such a level of political
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pressure that the Kremlin will be forced
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to agree to
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elections that may not be free, but at least with
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actual candidates taking part.
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Yes, Tomsk—coming back to your
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presidential campaign: tell us, will you be running it
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in Crimea?
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In Tomsk, your wonderful TV company
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was shut down, yet you are still interested in Crimea.
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Well, that means we will campaign
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everywhere. In fact, quite a lot of
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people write to us from Crimea. As for
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opening a headquarters in Crimea, on that issue
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no decision has been made yet, and the level of
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police confrontation there,
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the police pressure in Crimea, is such that
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they simply arrest people indiscriminately
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for anything at all. So in Crimea and in
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Grozny, we are not planning headquarters for now.
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That is also simply because you can
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invest any amount of effort there,
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you can gain support there, but there will not
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be any votes there, because no real
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elections take place there at all. There is
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total falsification. And are you doing
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anything at all to still
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make him take part in a debate,
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or have you completely given up hope?
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Well, I have never
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stopped trying to make him take part in a debate, and
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through you, I am also addressing him: if
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you like—yes, I demand that he
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take part in a debate not only with
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me, but with you as well, for example on the subject of
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those same housing and utility tariffs, or for example on
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the subject of your wonderful fourth
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bridge across the river, which at one point cost
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what was it, 93 billion rubles, and then its
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cost dropped to 50 billion rubles,
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and that raises the question: guys, how do you
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even calculate this? Tens of billions of rubles one way and then the other?
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That is exactly the kind of discussion in which the
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president of the country should take part. But he
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avoids it. What debate are we even talking about? You
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know that among
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journalists who work in the Kremlin press pool,
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it is practically a running joke that he
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has never said my surname. That is,
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they call me things like “that gentleman,” well,
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and a whole bunch of other euphemisms, but he
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is afraid to say it. There are very simple
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questions to which he has no answers. You
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understand yourselves that the major media outlets,
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the federal media, are closed to us. Unfortunately,
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many regional media outlets are also closed to us,
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but we, uniquely, at least have
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There are a huge number of volunteers, and their
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number is now 25,000 across the country, and it will
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be much higher. Because right now, in
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fact, we really haven’t even done
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anything.