The speaker said that the democratic coalition should be funded primarily through public fundraising based on citizens’ donations, recalling the 103 million rubles raised during the Moscow mayoral campaign, and also noted that coalition members would make their own contributions to the best of their ability. He stressed that Boris Nemtsov was one of the coalition’s main initiators, and that his death was a tragedy that pushed the opposition toward more active steps and reduced the importance of internal disagreements. He also expressed confidence that voters care more about real socioeconomic problems—corruption, censorship, inflation, low living standards, the state of housing and utility services and roads—than about politically imposed issues, although the coalition is also prepared to answer questions about Ukraine and the war.
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For example, during my election
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campaign for mayor of Moscow, we raised 103 million
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rubles, with every person providing
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their passport details and so on. So
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the emphasis, of course, uh, will be on raising money
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through, yes, precisely this kind of
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grassroots fundraising from ordinary people. As for money
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from the coalition members, each coalition member
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will make some contribution
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to the best of their ability in that respect. As for
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money from Open Russia and so
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on, it should be understood that Khodorkovsky,
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even if he wanted to finance something,
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it would be extremely difficult for him
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to do so given his legal
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situation and in light of current
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legislation. The Democratic
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Coalition would exist, and Boris Nemtsov was one
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of the people who was the main
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driving force behind this democratic coalition.
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If this tragedy had simply not happened,
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Boris would be standing here with us now.
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I think this act of terror
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pushed everyone toward more active
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action. It once again demonstrated
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that despite the fact that we are a coalition, not
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a single party, and we have
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disagreements on various issues, still
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against the backdrop of what is happening, those
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disagreements cannot be considered
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significant. As for the use,
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as you put it, by some Nashi activists (members of a pro-Kremlin youth movement) or
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someone else, of provocative questions or
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topics—well, please, not just Nashi activists, but any
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people can ask any questions. Each
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of us has substantive
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answers that we are not embarrassed to give on
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any issue. But, you see, just as
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this 86% is a kind of fiction,
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existing only in VTsIOM (the Russian Public Opinion Research Center), and not in
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real life, so too here, the question
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of why the roads in Kostroma resemble
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a bombed-out
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Luhansk cannot be answered
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with: "But Crimea is ours." We are absolutely
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convinced that there is a real agenda,
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one connected with corruption, one
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connected with censorship at the regional
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level, one connected simply with
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soaring inflation, low living
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standards, unaffordable housing, and a broken
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housing and utilities system, for which every year
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federal targeted programs are adopted; this is
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announced over and over, and it is said that
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tariffs must be frozen, that the increases must stop
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and people must be protected. Nevertheless, the same thing keeps happening
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again and again. Therefore, we are sure that
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the real agenda will completely
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push aside these sort of
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Moscow-made chimeras—this endless call to
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keep discussing Ukraine. But we are also ready to discuss both Ukraine and the war
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and the loss of human life.