This excerpt from the documentary project The Term takes us back to the protest-filled July of 2012, when the Kremlin was vigorously setting the machinery of repression in motion in connection with the Bolotnaya case (the criminal case following the 2012 Bolotnaya Square protest in Moscow). Right at the rally, Alexei speaks with supporters and journalists, explaining why it is important to keep taking to the streets until citizens’ demands are met. Even then, against the backdrop of the first fabricated criminal cases brought against him, Alexei firmly stated that he had no intention of emigrating from Russia, because fleeing would have meant admitting to trumped-up guilt.
Text version
0:12
Excuse me, please, may I ask you one
0:14
question?
0:26
During the search, they seized computers and some kind of
0:30
mythical jacket he was supposedly wearing
0:31
when he was detained at Bolotnaya Square (site of major anti-government protests in Moscow).
0:33
Are you collecting this for Sobolev? Yes.
0:36
Here, I’ll put it in now. Great.
0:45
I don’t know where to hide.
0:48
What about you? I’ve just come from the
0:50
Aeroflot board meeting a second
0:52
ago.
0:54
Nemtsov met me and said I looked
0:55
like a corrupt official.
0:57
Let me take off my tie.
0:59
Alexei, take off your jacket. It’s
1:00
suicide in weather like this.
1:02
I’m taking off the tie at least,
1:05
so I don’t look like a corrupt official.
1:07
As Nemtsov said,
1:09
rallies happen not because of events,
1:10
but because of demands. You’re unhappy. Why did you
1:12
come here to this rally? Because you
1:14
want your demands to be met.
1:15
If they’re not being met, then you need
1:17
to keep coming out. You need to do many things, including
1:19
going to rallies. And that’s why you shouldn’t
1:21
wait for some event to happen. You
1:23
go out because you’re demanding something.
1:25
No,
1:25
well, I demanded it — I came out once,
1:27
I made my demand.
1:27
And was it fulfilled?
1:29
Did Putin leave?
1:30
Did they jail Churov?
1:31
No.
1:32
Did they expose some corruption somewhere,
1:33
I don’t know? No. Then you should keep
1:35
coming out.
1:36
But how? How? But how? I mean, how?
1:39
Like that — come out and stand there. On the sixth,
1:40
people came out there and didn’t disperse, right?
1:42
It didn’t work that time. Then come out and stand again.
1:44
Humanity hasn’t invented anything else
1:46
as a form of peaceful protest. If you specifically
1:48
want something more radical, pitch a
1:50
tent.
1:51
As far as I understand, as far as I can judge,
1:52
and I have no inside information,
1:53
there is no fundamental decision.
1:55
No fundamental decision on what to do with them, what to do with
1:57
Pussy Riot, what to do with any and all
1:59
political detainees. And if that’s the case,
2:01
then these are people being held hostage,
2:04
with whom at any moment there is
2:05
the option either to release them or imprison them.
2:09
That’s it. So they keep them there. They
2:11
test the system every day. That is,
2:13
they jailed 12 people — fine,
2:16
and right before the rally they locked up
2:17
two more people. Seems fine. The Red Hot
2:20
Chili Peppers performed
2:23
fine, yes. And so they wait until
2:26
something happens that makes them
2:27
think, “No, we’re not going any
2:28
further.” They test
2:30
the system every day.
2:32
Everything’s going great with my criminal case.
2:34
It’s moving along — investigators for especially important
2:36
cases, a whole group of them. Everything’s great. Hi.
2:39
I’d like to hear something, in general,
2:41
what people are saying.
2:42
No, better not to listen.
2:43
If the moment comes when you understand
2:45
that they’re about to arrest you
2:48
in that criminal case, and that you need
2:50
to leave the country — would you leave?
2:52
Well, no, of course not. Then I’d be admitting that there is
2:53
something I could rightly be arrested for.
2:55
In other words, there’s no reason to arrest me.
2:57
You can look at all these cases and understand
2:59
that they’re fabricated. Absolutely.
3:01
Khodorkovsky had the same thing too
3:01
Well, well, he didn’t leave either.
3:03
He didn’t.
3:05
Why should I leave? Let them leave.
3:07
Shall we take a picture?
3:09
Thank you. The service costs 100 rubles.
3:10
Let’s do one more. One more time, please. Again.
3:14
All right, let’s do it.
3:15
And for two people, 150. And 100 rubles goes in the box.
3:17
In bio-organic chemistry. I
3:21
The police confiscated the clothes.
3:23
The only thing I remember from chemistry is
3:25
C2H5OH.
3:29
The formula for alcohol.
3:33
Bravo, bravo.
3:35
this rally
3:36
you’re talking. And
Places