Text version
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please
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Well, dear friends, our
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remarkable court hearing, resembling
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a TV series, at times even the kind of
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TV series that takes the place of a court hearing,
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is coming to an end. And here, I am not even
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trying in any way to insult anyone
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by calling this a television series,
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because it really does look like one,
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like a television series, and hardly any of us
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has ever attended anything
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like this, or ever will attend
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such an event again.
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Especially since all of us, myself included,
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understand perfectly well that one of the main
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purposes of this trial was, once again,
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a purely made-for-TV purpose: simply to make sure
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that on the news on the federal
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channels, someone could always talk about
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mention my name in the context that
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this is the very man who stole
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all the timber in Kirov Region,
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that same crook—as if that could somehow
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change everything I write about those
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people who really are crooks, about those
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people who
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steal billions from all of us, who
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have seized power in our country. And
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when I talk about a series, I myself am trying
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to define the genre: it is more of a comedy
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and a drama. I would probably treat all this
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more ironically myself if there were not
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other people here who are being dragged
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into this, giving everything happening here the character
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of a drama. And
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of course, first of all I would like
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right now, standing here,
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to apologize to Pyotr Ofitserov
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and his family for what
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they have to go through because of me. They, they
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have become people who were
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completely randomly seized and taken
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as hostages in this, and are now going through
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all of this because, well, they had to
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pin it on someone. You cannot simply
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take a person and imprison him for
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some kind of
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economic crime; they needed
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a businessman, and that
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businessman turned out to be Pyotr Ofitserov.
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And I would like to appeal to the court and to
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the prosecution with a simple, ordinary request: please,
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stop tormenting this unfortunate man, and
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stop tormenting his family, because everyone
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understands perfectly well that Ofitserov is here
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completely by chance, and that
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the very demand to imprison
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this man for five years is simply absurd. Five years? What five years?
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What one million rubles? They have already seized
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his apartment in Ochakovo (a district of Moscow). Not only do you want
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to ensure that
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the father, the sole breadwinner for five children,
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ends up in prison, but you also want
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to drive him into destitution. Therefore I
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urge you, even within the framework of this obviously
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—forgive me—obviously politically ordered case,
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this political trial and so on, nevertheless
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not to take those steps
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that are excessive even within the framework of this
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political order. Within this order, Ofitserov
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does not need to be imprisoned. So I
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urge everyone to remember that. The goal
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is achieved even without that. As for
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myself, I can say that standing in this
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place,
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I understand why from here I can
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look honestly into the eyes of
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any person—my lawyers, the prosecutor,
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you, the court clerk, this camera here,
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and absolutely anyone
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in this courtroom, any person
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watching the live broadcast from this courtroom—
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because I know that every person
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who watches the broadcast and follows
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the case materials will come up to me and say:
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“Alexei, you are innocent in this case and
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in all the other cases
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constantly being brought against me.” And
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our esteemed prosecutor today said
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an absolutely brilliant phrase,
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which I think may become
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the subtitle of this trial: “Let us
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leave the world of fantasy and fairy tales.” So I
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would like to address, from this place, those
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who ordered this trial: let us leave
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the world of fantasy and fairy tales. If anyone
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thinks that I or my colleagues will
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stop the work that we
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are doing because of this trial, or because of
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the trial in the Bolotnaya case (the prosecution of protesters after the 2012 Bolotnaya Square rally),
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or other trials being staged all across
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the country, they are deeply mistaken.
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Perhaps someone thinks this is not
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the best place for me, from here,
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to lay down terms, make threats, or speak
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about my plans. But I believe
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no—I believe this is the best possible place
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I could find in order
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to speak about my plans, in order
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to warn everyone, and in order to state
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my terms. So I declare that both I and
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my colleagues will do everything
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to destroy this feudal system
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that is being built in Russia,
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to destroy the system of power under which
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83 percent of the national wealth
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belongs to half a percent of the population. In that sense, I
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am very glad that this trial
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is taking place here in Kirov Region,
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where it is very easy to leave the world of fantasy
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and fairy tales. Because when you are in
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Kirov, in Nolinsk, or in Malmyzh, you
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see that there is no world of fantasy and fairy tales,
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that fifteen years
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of huge inflows
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of oil and gas money have resulted
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for local residents in what? Has any of us received
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better access to healthcare?
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to educational infrastructure, to
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new housing—to what? What have we all received?
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And those who are on this side of the defendants' bench,
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the defendants, and those who are standing on the other
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side—what have we received from
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all these people? Nothing. You received
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only one thing. You probably know
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the only product that has become more
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affordable for the population since Soviet times
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is vodka. In terms of purchasing-power parity,
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only vodka
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has become more affordable. So for all of us, the residents
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of this country, only degradation is guaranteed,
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and alcoholism. And these people who are building
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this feudal system of theirs on the basis
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that they have seized power—all these FSB
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men and generals have stuffed their children into
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banks, all these United Russia deputies
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have sent someone off to Switzerland, all of them
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have opened foreign accounts there.
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Entire settlements in Marbella belong
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to United Russia members. We will destroy this
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feudal system that is robbing you
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here, all of you, despite the fact that you have
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put me on the defendants' bench. I and
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my colleagues—we will defend you.
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Do you understand? From all of this, those living in
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Omutninsk, in Kumyony, in Kirov,
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in Vladivostok, and everywhere else. If anyone
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thinks that after hearing these 6
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years, and the threat of 6 years, I will run off
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abroad somewhere or hide somewhere, they are very much
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mistaken. I cannot run away from myself
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anywhere. I have no other choice. I do not
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want to do anything else. I want
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to do what means helping the residents
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of my country, to work for all those
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people who are my
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fellow citizens.
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I believe that not one of us has
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the right to neutrality now. Not one of
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us has the right
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to evade making the world
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better. We simply do not have that right.
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Because every time one of
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us thinks, let me just stand
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off to the side somewhere and it will all pass—no,
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I'll just wait—he is simply once again helping
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that disgusting feudal system
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that sits there like a spider in the Kremlin.
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Specifically, 100 families that are sucking from
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all of Russia—helping them once again
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to send the Russian people
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down the path of degradation and alcoholism, and to tear out
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and carry away from here the nation's
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wealth. I would like to conclude my
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speech
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by calling on all people like me,
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those who
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worked with me, those who want to work
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with me, not to be afraid to do it. There are still
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hundreds of thousands and millions more of us.
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A funny thing is happening, where
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indeed these 100
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people, by the power of television, inertia,
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and thanks to public apathy, they
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have seized power here. But it cannot be
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like this forever, that 140 million, out of fear,
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a giant country, one of the largest in
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the world, one of the richest countries in the world,
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has simply submitted to a handful of freaks
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who are really nobody, who are not even
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real oligarchs of any kind, who simply, I don't know,
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through cunning, cleverness, or whatever, created
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capital. They are just pathetic
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former Komsomol members, then they became
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democrats, now they have become some kind of
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patriots. They grabbed all of this.
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This misunderstanding, this aberration, will be
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corrected by our work. Thank you very much.