Interview with Alexey Navalny for Bloomberg
Text version
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What's the English definition?
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>> Well, if you don't want to say it out on
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the camera, that's fine.
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I mean these people from the investment
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funds and pension funds,
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their interests are damaged here in
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Russia and
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people from Transneft, manager of
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Transneft, they are just stealing their
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money. But irony is that for me to suing
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Transneft efficiently, I need to collect
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1% of shares, which is impossible for me
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because I'm too small. But people from Transparency,
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from the Prosperity Capital, for
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example, they have more than 5%. So they
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can sue Transneft easily, but they just refuse to do it.
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I just wonder why.
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>> Well, they might think it's too
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dangerous for their health.
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>> Uh yes, so
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the question is why they want to
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cooperate with me with a sort of hidden style.
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>> They said they don't want to share this
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information that you want to have.
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>> Uh yes, so Okay, so
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it's no problem. Okay, I will take the
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information. I will try to use the
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information in the proper way. But why
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they trying to use me to protect their
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interests? And I am perfectly sure that
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they have enough opportunities to press
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Russian government and to protect their
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interest, but they just refuse it.
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>> Can we ask you again what are your worst
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stocks for minority investors in Russia
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and why generally speaking?
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>> I think that question about worst
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stocks, it's kind of irrelevant. We can
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talk about most most corrupt
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companies. Of course, it's
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these are Transneft, Gazprom, VTB Bank,
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which is the most corrupt bank
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in this financial area, Rosneft...
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I think this is a kind of top of bad guys.
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>> Why are they the most corrupt?
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>> Because corruption in this company
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is just evident.
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Every single day you can just open your new
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fresh newspaper and read the
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interesting story about how they steal
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another $1 billion.
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>> Is nepotism a factor in these companies?
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>> Nepotism?
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>> Nepotism, jobs for relatives.
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>> Yes, especially for the companies
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like Gazprom or VTB Bank
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is for the corrupt officials. It's a
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very nice opportunity to gather some
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money in the legal way to just
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give them for their relatives
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opportunities to get a jobs with a
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quite a impressive salaries. These
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people they just do nothing and have a
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half a billion per year or something like this.
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>> Do you think the departure of Igor
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Sechin from Rosneft is is good for your
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fight against corruption?
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>> I didn't get you, sorry.
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>> Do you think the resignation of Igor
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Sechin from Rosneft is good in your
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fight against corruption?
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>> I think in general it's a good signal
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but it doesn't matter. Since he can
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control company in other ways,
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there will be no big
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changes in the policy of company.
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I would prefer
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to see some real changes, for example,
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in giving information for the
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shareholders or with the disclosure of
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information in general, but not with the
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just replacing one single person.
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>> If he is replaced by the head of Morgan
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Stanley in Russia, will that be an improvement?
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>> It would be just ridiculous because
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for example their financial director now
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this guy from Morgan Stanley, Peter O'Brien,
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he's a very nice guy with all this
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style of foreign businessman but he's absolutely
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involved in all their very suspicious
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schemes. And despite he's under the
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bribery act jurisdiction and foreign
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corruption practices act jurisdiction
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he does nothing against
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corruption and he will be just,
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it will be just another fake and not not an
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improvement in the corporate governance.
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>> Are Moscow investment bankers good
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candidates to be independent directors?
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>> I don't think so because all of them
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have a big conflicts of interest
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and in some way they are kind of
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officials in the investments. So
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they cannot be a real independent
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directors and we will not achieve some
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real improvements in this area just with the replacing of them.
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>> Are you supporting the candidacy of
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President Medvedev to run for a second
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term to be president?
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>> I don't believe that this
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procedure that will take place in the
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March of 2012 will be an election.
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It's just, maybe it's an appointment, maybe it's..
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it's something, but it's not an election so
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there are no candidates.
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So there there is no one to to support.
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>> Are you supporting the coronation, the appointment...
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>> I think coronation is a nice
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word. It's a actually a very nice term for this,
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but I don't think I'm ready to support
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coronation of anybody.
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>> Are you not supporting his fight
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against corruption or his fight against
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cleaning up the...
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To my understanding when you said fight
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against corruption, you're kidding
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because there is no fight against corruption
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and it's pretty obvious for everyone in this country.
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>> So, what Medvedev is doing is just stage management?
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>> Yes, it's absolutely his...
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Mr. Putin is using this rhetoric
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of the Soviet Union to get some more support.
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And when Medvedev trying to use
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this Soviet rhetoric it looks a bit
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ridiculous and a bit pathetic. So, he's
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trying to address liberals or businessmen,
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but he's just trying to find some
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supporters, but not he's not
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really wanting some positive changes.
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>> Do you have a a timeline for running for
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office and what kind of office do you
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think you could run for?
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>> To run for office, you need elections.
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There is no election now. When
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as a result of political changes, we
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will have elections in Russia, I think I can
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run for office.
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>> For president?
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>> I will take a part in the election when
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elections will be in Russia.
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I would say it so.
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>> Do you think you have support outside of the cities?
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>> Sorry?
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>> Do you have support outside of Moscow and St. Petersburg?
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>> It's very difficult for me to understand
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how much support I have and
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I'm trying not to overestimate it,
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but it's obvious that the main
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amount of my supporters are
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people who are living in the cities who
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have access to the internet.
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It's difficult to understand how
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many I have of them.
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>> Excuse me, how many millions?
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>> Oh, no, no, of course not.
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I have no idea, actually.
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>> Yeah. How many traffic do you get on your websites?
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>> I have 150,000
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visitors per day on my blog.
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>> And on RusVesna?
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>> I I know, it's on my blog and
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RosPil, it's I think it's about
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70,000 per per day.
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>> And growing?
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>> Yes.
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Because corruption is growing, so and
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traffic is growing as well.
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>> Growing industry.
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>> Yeah.
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>> Growing industry.
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>> Yeah, I know. I'm
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>> Super, spasibo.
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Was what said understandable at least?
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>> Yes, yes!