At the opening of the campaign headquarters in Novosibirsk, Alexei Navalny speaks about his intention to restore political influence to the regions and make them full-fledged 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.