One thought kept bothering me—really weighing on me—while we were working on the investigation "Yacht. Plane. Girl." ⠀ Asker-zade works for the TV channel "Russia 1" (a major state-owned Russian television channel). And they raise money there for children’s medical treatment. Those famous 100-ruble text donations—about $1 at the time. I think it’s right that they collect them: these children need surgery right now. And it makes no difference to them who is collecting the money or where—lying propagandists on a state-subsidized channel or decent people. If the money isn’t raised, they die. ⠀ What infuriates me is the sheer mismatch between the amounts a state banker and a state TV host spend on their luxurious lives and the amounts that have to be raised for treatment. ⠀ Look: the money collected through those text messages goes to "Rusfond." It’s a huge and wonderful organization—the largest charitable foundation in the country. ⠀ I went to the website and found out that over its entire existence—23 years—"Rusfond" has raised 13.9 billion rubles. ⠀ And that figure, enormous as it seems at first glance, just floored me. It turns out that ONE lousy state banker-thief stole from us and spent on ONE of his mistresses the same amount that the country’s main charitable foundation has raised over its entire history. ⠀ In our investigation, we list Asker-zade’s assets at roughly 12 billion rubles. And then there’s what we didn’t find, plus the money in the bank accounts, after all. There’s clearly a lot of it. ⠀ Can you imagine what the total would be if you added up how much is stolen in ALL state banks and state corporations for ALL the mistresses and ALL the wives? ⠀ Charity is a great and noble cause. And yes, one does not prevent the other: we need to fight corruption and engage in charity. But guys, until Russia gets a government that will crack down on at least the biggest and most brazen thieves, people like Kostin, we won’t be able to solve any of these problems. ⠀ No text-message drives and no kind rich people will solve this. Our country has enough money to treat everyone. We just need to stop stealing. ⠀ That’s it. Please write and tell me what you think about this, and if you agree, please help spread the investigation (link in profile). Maybe it will make someone else stop and think.