Debate ahead of the elections to the Kostroma Regional Duma

[music]

Hello, this is Political Debates on the air.

In accordance with election law, our

television company provides parties

that have registered their lists of

candidates in the election of deputies

to the Kostroma Regional Duma (regional legislature), sixth

convocation, with time for joint campaign

events. Today in our studio are

representatives of three parties. Dear

debate participants, we are live on air.

I remind you of the need

to comply with the law in your remarks. I

hope that each of you will conduct

yourselves with dignity and thereby earn the respect

of the voters. And now, briefly, about

the rules of the debate: each participant

is given equal time for

statements, answers, and questions.

You can see the stopwatch on the screen. As soon as

your time runs out, the timer

stops and the microphone will be

turned off. The speaking order

was determined by lot. So, the first participant has

100 seconds to briefly present

your party and the platform with which you

are going into this election. Fyodor Vladimirovich,

please. Dear voters, good

morning. My name is Fyodor Biryukov. I am a member

of the Presidium of the Political Council of the party

Rodina (Motherland), and a candidate in the

election of deputies to the Kostroma Regional

Duma. The Rodina party was founded in 2003

by the current Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry

Rogozin. Today the party is headed by

State Duma deputy Alexei Zhuravlyov. The party

Rodina stands for the priority of

national interests, for the development of a

social state, for the freedom of the individual

and the nation, for those people who want to live

in Russia, who want to live in Russia comfortably

and well, who consider Russia their

only homeland, who love Russia and

are Russian people regardless

of their ethnic origin.

The Rodina party is a party of an alternative for

Russia, for Russians, for a good life, for

all citizens of Russia. You still have time

left. Anything to add? I think we will add more

later. Then please stop

the timer. And now 100 seconds for the second

debate participant. Please introduce

your party. Alexei Anatolyevich, 100

seconds for

you. Good morning, dear friends. My

name is Alexei Navalny. I am the founder

of the Anti-Corruption Foundation. Unlike

my colleagues here in the studio, I am not

personally running,

number 15 on the ballot,

because I believe and know that RPR-PARNAS is

the only party that can and

is ready to challenge the mafia-like

power structure that now exists both in the

country and in Kostroma Region. When I

say mafia-like power, this is not some

mere exaggeration meant to

attract attention. It is actually

true. Over the last three days I have traveled through

the towns of Kostroma Region, from Sharya to

Nerekhta, from Buy to Volgorechensk, and I see

that people are simply groaning under the yoke of these

people who sell, for money,

medicines that are supposed to be free, who jack up

housing and utility rates, who steal everything. And

they insist that Kostroma Region must

remain this poor because the people

are somehow not good enough. This mafia-like

group is an organized criminal

group, and it operates under the political

cover of the United Russia party. The most

important thing to do now, what

a responsible voter who believes in Russia should do,

is come to the

election and vote against United Russia, and

a vote against United Russia

means a vote for RPR-PARNAS,

because RPR-PARNAS are the people who are not

afraid to investigate the dirty dealings of this government,

not afraid to call for action on

major building repairs and oversight of

housing and utility rates. Vote for the RPR

PARNAS party, number 15 on the ballot, and you will not

regret it. Stop the timer, thank you. And now

the floor goes to the third participant. You also have

100 seconds. Vladimirovna, please.

I represent the Communist Party

of the Russian Federation. I would like to say

a big thank-you to the staff of the television company

GTRK (State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company), who today before the broadcast provided

me with first aid. Because when I

was leaving home today, I was pushed by

an unknown young man, and I fell down

several stairs on the landing, and as a

result I came here a little

battered, with scraped knees. Many

thanks to the staff. Later we will file a

report with the police regarding this

attack. What I would like to say about

my beloved party: the Communist

Party of the Russian Federation is well

known to the people of Kostroma; it is engaged in

defending the interests, defending

the interests of socially vulnerable

categories of citizens: people with disabilities, large families,

orphans. This year alone, through our

efforts, we secured from our

administration 10 apartments for orphans. At

present, the regional

administration owes orphans more

than 400 apartments, because court

decisions that have entered into legal force are not

being carried out by our administration.

Large families: our current administration

is handing out plots of land

to large families where there is neither water nor

electricity nor gas. Later they try

to connect electricity there, and they are offered

pay 5.5 million rubles each so that they

could build housing there for a

large family. That is the kind of gift from

the state that we have in Kostroma Oblast (a region of Russia).

As for people with disabilities, they

are practically unable to find employment.

The program at the employment center that exists

does nothing to help them get jobs.

Stop the timer. Thank you. There will be an opportunity

to continue a little later. The party’s main positions

have now been outlined. We now propose

the first round of questions and answers to each

other. To ensure equal speaking time,

we will ask questions in turn: the first

participant asks the second, the second asks the third, and the third

asks the first. So,

please, Fyodor Vladimirovich, your question

for Alexei. You have 50 seconds. Alexei Anatolyevich,

Why did you recently meet with

staff from the U.S. Embassy, and

what parting words did they give you at the

end of your meeting? One moment—you

still have time for a question. I will

ask it then. Stop the timer, and please prepare

the timer for the answer. That is 120

seconds. Please, you have 120 seconds to

answer. Thank you very much, dear Fyodor

Vladimirovich. To be honest, I even feel

a little embarrassed that you, as a representative

of the Rodina party, are repeating this lie

after the federal TV channels, because quite

recently, with the leader of your Rodina party,

Dmitry Rogozin, I spoke at the same

rallies, where he, standing next to me, denounced

this corrupt, thieving government.

Now our paths have diverged somewhat: he

has become part of this government, while I still

consider it thieving, unacceptable, and

harmful to Russia. But at the very least, I

had hoped that the Rodina party would not

repeat United Russia’s lies, and this is

an outright falsehood. Representatives of the campaign headquarters

even filed an official statement about

defamation. Moreover, yesterday in the square

in central Kostroma, near the monument

to Ivan Susanin (a Russian folk hero), there was a rally at which

the person who

made that false report came, and before

the hundreds of people gathered there,

he essentially admitted that he had lied. This is

a lie, dear residents of Kostroma, dear friends.

This is just another example of how this

government, because it cannot answer our

questions—where have you

stolen the nation’s wealth to?

Because it cannot answer the

question of why, in Kostroma Oblast,

people with diabetes are forced to buy medications that are supposed to be free,

it cannot answer the

question of why, supposedly, in healthcare

everything looks fine on paper, but in reality you cannot get either an ultrasound

or an MRI. It cannot answer our

question of where officials get the money for

their palaces, and so on. They have no answers to

these questions, so they make up some

nonsense about American ambassadors, and so on.

I drive on the road from Kostroma to Sharya and

I see that the road is in terrible

condition. That is what concerns the residents

of Kostroma Oblast. In the town of Galich, where I

was speaking yesterday,

people are concerned that there is no proper drinking water.

Despite the fact that Galich is located on

one of the largest freshwater lakes in

the Russian Federation, and they pay

for the purification of drinking

water, their money is being stolen. These are the

problems that concern the people of Kostroma, and the

PARNAS party is number one on the ballot.

These are the problems it will address.

Thank you. Time is up. Alexei Anatolyevich,

you now have the opportunity to ask

your opponent a question. Please, you have 60 seconds.

Zhanna Vladimirovna,

your party, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation overall,

supports our idea of fighting

illicit enrichment, which

means that officials who

cannot explain where they got

the money for their luxurious lifestyle should

be held criminally liable. In that respect, I value the CPRF’s position, and we

have developed this bill.

I know that

you are generally ready to support it. So

please tell me, if

a representative of your party, Mr.

Izhitsky, becomes governor—he seems like a decent person to me,

and I would be quite prepared to support

him for the post of governor—just

tell me, please, would your party

specifically,

with Izhitsky in the Duma, be ready to

honestly, openly, and publicly demand that

the authorities bring criminal charges against

all those people whose

corrupt activities were investigated by

the Anti-Corruption Foundation, starting with

the president’s press secretary, Peskov,

and ending with federal ministers,

heads of the security agencies, and so

on? Are you ready to bring these people

to criminal responsibility? Thank you.

The question has been asked. Zhanna Vladimirovna, you have

120 seconds to answer. Please. I will answer

briefly: yes, because we have one

of the bills that we are ready to introduce

both in the regional Duma and more than fifteen

that we are ready to introduce in the

State Duma, and one of these

bills specifically concerns

the confiscation of property from those people

who come

under the scrutiny of law enforcement

agencies, and when the question arises of

their illicit enrichment. So my

answer is yes, we are ready to support this. I’ll

tell you more: I entered this election

precisely because I am outraged by this.

A glaring injustice. When in our country

United Russia has divided people into the very rich

and the very poor. For example, my

main opponent somehow managed to sell

the town-forming enterprise, the Motor Detal plant,

for 100 rubles, and we showed the entire

audience and the workers of this plant

the documents that he personally signed.

With his own signature. Now he comes

to meet his voters; he is in his early 30s

and arrives in a car worth

5.7 million rubles, and tells workers

that they will live well if they

work. In reality, it seems to me that this is

simply mockery, not a slogan, directed at

the working class. So once again

I will repeat: I take a very firm stand on this

issue. More than once, again,

I have been threatened with physical harm and

other things, but I never thought that my

opponents

would go this far. But as today has shown,

in practice—yes, we support you on this issue—

they are trying to make it so that the ground

slips out from under our feet.

There are still 20 seconds left. I would like

to address our voters once again.

Once again, I will say that half—more than

half—of our population in Russia lives

below the poverty line; their income is below

the subsistence minimum. Choose the party

of the CPRF, which is ready to fight for your rights.

Time. Thank you, Zhanna Vladimirovna. And now

please, your question for Fyodor

Vladimirovich. Fyodor Vladimirovich, please tell us:

as someone fairly experienced in politics, I had

never heard of your party

until just before the election. What can you

say: when did you come to work

in Kostroma, and what concrete achievements

is your party known for in Kostroma? The question

has been asked. Then please prepare

the timer: 120 seconds for the

answer. The timer is ready, and Fyodor Vladimirovich,

please answer. Zhanna Vladimirovna,

I regret that you learned about our party

only before the election, because our

party has already existed for more than 10 years.

Our party is written about in the books of

both foreign experts and Russian

experts, and I am sure that voters

remember the old Rodina and know the new one as well.

If you are not aware of our activities, I am ready

to enlighten you

and tell you what the Rodina party

does not only in Kostroma Region

but in general. The Rodina party

stands out because we know how to see

the future. When we first appeared on the

political scene, we said that

illegal migration and the growth of migration

waves posed a threat to the Russian Federation. People

argued with us; they tried to destroy us

politically; we were banned and removed from

elections. A few years later, the authorities adopted

our slogans and began fighting

illegal migration. From the very beginning, we said

that Crimea would definitely return,

would return to Russia; Crimea is Russian land.

We said that the problems of eastern

Ukraine had to be addressed. Again, no one listened to us; we

were banned, we were mocked. Today Crimea

is ours, and the first party to appear

on the peninsula even before reunification with

Russia was the Rodina party. I personally went

to help prepare the referendum and was an observer at

that referendum, and today we are addressing

issues involving eastern Ukraine, with Donbas. What

we talked about for 10 years straight, and

from the very beginning, on Rodina party posters

we showed a map of the Soviet

Union: this is our motherland, the entire Russian world

at the very least within the borders of the Soviet

Union. As for Kostroma, we came to Kostroma and

we have a new regional branch. We

believe that in order to solve

social problems, piecemeal work

is useless. We need to introduce a social

standard of decent living in every

area, and from that standard begin the revival

of the social

state. Stop, timer. Thank you. And now

we move on to the second round of questions and answers.

We will now go in reverse order: the third

participant asks the second. Zhanna

Vladimirovna, please ask your question

to Alexei Anatolyevich. You have 60 seconds.

Alexei Anatolyevich, please tell us:

are you ready to provide

professional observers at

polling stations during the election? Because

we... and you...

Will you be doing this in Kostroma Region?

If so, how, and how professional are they?

Please tell us about

this. The question has been asked. Yes, please, timer

120 seconds. Prepare it for the answer.

Alexei Anatolyevich, plea— Thank you very much,

Zhanna Vladimirovna, for your question. It

is indeed very important. Because we know

that one of the most important problems with our

elections is not how to ensure that a

party gets votes, but how to make sure

that United Russia does not steal those

votes. Because we know that in the last

State Duma elections in 2011

there was outright mass fraud, and

hundreds of thousands of votes were stolen

from the CPRF as well. And we know that the protest

movement in its current form arose

precisely because United Russia

simply steals votes across the country. This

happens in Moscow, it happens in

Tatarstan, and it also happens in

Kostroma Region, unfortunately. Although

to a lesser extent, because United Russia in

Kostroma Region has one of the lowest

lowest... As for what we will do to ensure that

to protect the votes of our voters and

your voters, all those who honestly

worked for these votes. We plan to bring to

the Kostroma Region no fewer than a thousand

observers. At the moment, a meeting has been held at our

headquarters, in which

representatives took part, including those from

your headquarters, the Communist Party headquarters, and we are very

pleased and glad that the Communist Party is taking part in

our joint coalition to organize

observers. This is our common work. We

must ensure that at every

polling station there are at least

four observers. And we know from

experience what vile tricks United Russia

resorts to.

Often they simply use the police,

for example, to throw out

observers before the vote count.

That is why we have made such agreements with

all parties, naturally except United

Russia. We will send the maximum

number of observers. I am glad that the Communist Party is involved in

this, and once again, my friends, I

would like to appeal to you and say that

we will organize monitoring, but it is important that

you come to the polling stations and

vote for RPR-PARNAS, number fifteen

on the ballot, because

because RPR-PARNAS is the force

that stands against this

mafia-like system, which among other things

steals votes and arranges things so that

it controls all the seats in

the State Duma and the regional legislature

and uses this for its own enrichment.

Stop the timer. And now, please, you have

60 seconds to ask Fyodor

Vladimirovich a question. Fyodor Vladimirovich, tell me,

please, the party that I

represent here, the PRR party, is probably

the only party that

openly

is outraged by the results of the investigation into

the so-called Oboronservis case (a major Russian Defense Ministry corruption case).

When people linked to Serdyukov and Vasilyeva were

being denounced on television as terrible

corrupt officials and that they would be brought to

justice, Putin, whom you

support, said no one would

get off lightly, that everyone would face criminal

prosecution. What do we see? Everyone was

let go. Serdyukov was not even in the dock,

and Vasilyeva was released. RPR-PARNAS

is the only one loudly demanding this. We

want these

people sent to the dock, and

together with us, 100% of the population is demanding it.

But a strange thing is happening:

the entire population demands it, yet

the only party that supports

it is RPR-PARNAS. My question is: will the Rodina party

make an official demand

that both Serdyukov and Vasilyeva be sent

back to the

dock? Stop the timer, the question has been asked.

Vladimirovich, please, your 60 seconds.

Thank you for the question. I must say that the

Rodina party, from the very beginning of this

Oboronservis case, supported the most

severe punishment for all

those guilty. When Serdyukov escaped

responsibility, we expressed not merely

protest, but strong criticism of

the judicial system. When they gave

Vasilyeva a lenient sentence, we expressed

the same categorical view on this

matter. When she was released on parole, and

at the same time they jailed a young man

who protested at an Andrei Makarevich concert

for 3 years in a maximum-security penal colony, we

also spoke out against that. We believe

that our judicial system is too lenient

toward representatives of the bourgeois class.

Incidentally, it is also

quite lenient toward you as well. So we are not simply

calling for them to return to the

dock. We are calling for

every corrupt official, especially one involved in

particularly large-scale corruption, to be treated as

a traitor to the Motherland, and for the law to be

applied to them in the

strictest possible way. We in no way

justify this soft justice toward

representatives of their own, so to speak,

bourgeois figures, nor do I justify

harshness toward opposition figures

of a certain kind. Yes, but when you say that

Putin is to blame for everything, you are shifting

the meaning. Putin is not a dictator; he is not a man

who, with a single decision, dictates what

the court must do. Russia’s problem is that

it is sufficiently, and perhaps excessively,

democratic, and therefore this bourgeois

alliance represented by RPR-PARNAS,

a party which, incidentally, was in power

through its leader Mikhail Mikhailovich

Kasyanov, yes, the former prime minister.

So, you were in power, and the communists

have also already been in power. Today you are

trying to portray yourselves as a new force that wants

to change the situation in the country. That is exactly

what the

Rodina party is. One sec—

You also have 60 seconds to ask

a question to Zhanna Vladimirovna, please.

Zhanna Vladimirovna, I would like

to ask: I have long been following

the activities of the Communist Party. From the very beginning, I

became interested in politics in

October 1993, when

I came to the House of Soviets (the Russian parliament building during the 1993 constitutional crisis) and defended

the Soviet power that was then

shelled by tanks on Yeltsin’s orders.

After that, the Communist Party at that moment behaved

loyally toward the regime, and thereby

received seats in the State Duma, and

once again I hoped that the Communist Party would change

the history of Russia, and Zyuganov will win the election

Zyuganov won the election and also worked in

the campaign headquarters, but for some reason he gave up his

victory and prolonged Yeltsin's agony

for several more years. Today, once again,

you say that you are the most consistent

opposition to the regime. What exactly is your

opposition, and when, if this

happens, will you move on to active

opposition actions? Here you go

on

the... The question has been asked. Stop the timer. Zhanna

Vladimirovna, please, you have 120 secon

Vladimirovich, thank you for the question. As a

professional historian, let me correct you

on the dates. First of all, in 1991 you

would have gone out to the square if you could, yes

secondly, in 1993 our

party was only a year and a half old; it was

too young. Zena, you are mixing it up a little

with that CPSU party

I did not interrupt you; please behave

properly. The CPSU, in fact, was the legal successor

that party was not; it simply took and

united all those communists who

were ready to work in the new country under

new conditions, with new people and a new government

Zyuganov did a very great and

enormous amount of work, and

he deserves a deep bow because

at the time he brought together very different

people who were ready to stand against the authorities

for a very long time we had no

opposition parties. Now, your party

Rodina, no matter what it claims, nevertheless

still—for example, in Kostroma, I say again,

people only heard about it right before the election

a party is judged by its deeds

whatever they may be. But you have no deeds, no record

in Kostroma. And yet you say, 'We'

'went out, we acted'—you went out, you acted,

but all the same you are confusing the years that

historically took place—1991

and 1993. I am speaking specifically about

1993. And will you allow me

to answer your question? Refused to take part in

the defense of the House of Soviets (the Russian parliament building during the 1993 constitutional crisis). Fyodor

Vladimirovich, we have a rule here in the studio

a certain rule: you ask the question, I

answer it, but you are somehow trying to

ask the question yourself and answer it yourself, distorting

my question. Excuse me, I am simply trying to

correct you, because you are confusing the dates—1990

1 and 1993

you are talking about 1993. So

that is, you have already formed an opinion

... 1993. So let me

repeat once again that

that year our party was only about a year

old—not even two years yet. We were young and green

in nine... in ninety... Stop the timer. Unfortunately,

the time for questions and answers has expired now

each participant, Zhanna Vladimirovna,

still has 120 seconds to answer

the question of why voters should

vote specifically for your party

the order remains the same. Fyodor

Vladimirovich, please, 120 seconds for your

address to the voters. Dear

voters, you are constantly being addressed by those

who have already spent 20 years in

the State Duma and in the legislative

assemblies of Russia's federal regions. Many of

them left parliament and came back

but nothing changes. We see our respected

colleagues from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation who live in the past

use the symbols of the past and say

that they will return everything to the way it was, but that is not

true, because nothing can be brought back

you cannot step into the same river twice, and

a party that has repeatedly

shown extreme flexibility in political struggle

certainly will not defend working people

the way it claims in its slogans. We see

the respected Alexei Navalny, who

today represents the RPR-PARNAS party

headed by former Prime Minister

Mikhail Kasyanov. These people were also in

power; they represent Russia's bourgeois class

They have their own interests, and they treat

the West with great reverence and want to

win its approval. We remember what Russia was like in the 1990s

when it was developing in a way that

pleased the West: it was a dying

country with a dead economy, with an outflow of

capital and people—a country that everyone

expected was on the verge of collapse. With

the arrival of Vladimir Putin, this process

stopped. Russia became a great

power once again, and no matter how harsh

the times we are going through today, during

Putin's rule we have built up this

steel reserve of resilience, and today

Russia, the Russian flag, the word 'Motherland'

have become, for people all over the world,

for people who believe in the principles of

justice, solidarity, and common

sense, symbols of resistance. And I

urge you not to vote for just some

party—vote for yourselves, for your

life, for the life and well-being of your

children, for your future. Vote for

an alternative for our country

the only alternative to bureaucrats,

liberals, and people of the past is the

Rodina party. Vote for Rodina. Stop the timer

Thank you. And there are seconds left for an address to

the voters for the second participant as well

Alexei Anatolyevich, please. Dear

friends, I have a good attitude toward the colleagues

who have gathered in this studio. Although I

am a little ironic about

the representative of the Rodina party, whose leader

sits in the United Russia faction in the

State Duma. They pretend that

they are fighters against the authorities, but never mind that—the point

is not that. This is not about parties as such,

but about the fact that on the 13th, when you

when you come to the polling stations, essentially

the choice is between the United Russia party and

the RPR-PARNAS party; it is a choice between

the current system, which is

a system that, I repeat, is mafia-like and

corrupt, and a choice in favor of those who

are openly ready to challenge this government

at the head of our list are Ilya Yashin and

Vladimir Andreichenko; they are honest and

decent people who, simply through their

work, have shown that they are not afraid, that

they are ready to conduct investigations, they

are ready to defend people's interests. I can

say that even now, despite not being

deputies of any kind, they are simply working for

the people of Kostroma and bringing benefits by

drawing federal

attention. For example, Ilya Yashin went to all

the meetings and kept saying that in the town of Buy

the maternity ward had been closed, and the authorities

got scared and reopened it a week later

the maternity ward in the town of Buy. Yashin

is not yet a deputy, but he is already bringing enormous

benefit.

Friends, on the thirteenth, before you

vote, think about what is better: United

Russia or RPR-PARNAS. If you like

all this, vote for United Russia. If

you are against corruption, vote for RPR

PARNAS. If you truly believe

that you should pay into

the major repairs fund and that in 25 years you will

get your building renovated, then go ahead

and vote for United Russia. If you

think this is fraud, vote

for RPR-PARNAS, because RPR-PARNAS

says that it is fraud. If you

think it is right that in Kostroma Region

free medicines are being sold

to pensioners for money, then you can vote for United

Russia. But if you believe

that

[unclear] then vote for

RPR [number] on the ballot

paper, and now 120 seconds for

an answer to the question of why a voter should

vote specifically for your party. Zhanna

Vladimirovna, please, your 120 seconds.

Dear friends, it is golden autumn outside, and

we are voting for number

for the CPRF (Communist Party of the Russian Federation)

will definitely come to the polling stations and

vote for the gubernatorial candidate,

the deeply respected Valery Petrovich, and

Zhitkov, and for the beloved CPRF, which

is the only party in Kostroma Region that, over the

past 20 years, has existed, worked,

acted, held protest

actions, and gone to court to defend the rights

of orphans, securing apartments for them, and resolving

issues all the way up to the Supreme

and Constitutional Courts regarding

land issues and the allocation of plots

for large families, and the repeal of

a terrible order under which

dead people had to remain at home all weekend and

it was impossible to send them to the morgue

or call doctors to the home or the police. Everyone

had to wait until Monday for a general practitioner

to come and examine them. We got this order repealed;

it was replaced with the old

Soviet-era one. The CPRF is a party of real deeds. We

have worked all these 20 years; we have been with you. I

hope that you trust us. I hope

that you will come to the polling stations and cast

your vote for whomever

you think is right, and I hope that this

vote will be for the CPRF. I ask you to pay close

attention to whom you are voting for

because these elections have become the dirtiest

ones, designed to siphon off votes

from the CPRF. We have many parties

that are so similar to the CPRF that

older people can easily

get confused and put their checkmark in the wrong place. I

ask you once again to remember that it is

golden autumn outside. We are voting for number

eight, for the CPRF. We come, we look

at the yellow leaves, and choose number eight.

We choose Valery Petrovich and in the Izhitsky

district we choose Zhanna Rudenko

Vladimirovna. Thank you very much for

your trust. Stop, the timer has run out. And the time

allocated for campaigning has ended. Let me remind you that, live

on air in today's TV debate, taking part were

representatives of the parties that nominated

their candidates for deputies of the Regional Duma

of the sixth convocation. The next edition of

the TV debates will air literally

in half an hour on the Russia 24 TV channel.

All the best. See you soon.