The text is a transcript of a livestream interview with Alexei Navalny, in which he discusses appearing on a Twitch broadcast, his interest in video games, and the importance for politicians of understanding contemporary digital culture and the interests of younger audiences. During the conversation, he shares his views on censorship, the gaming industry, films, and TV series, noting that the state should create conditions that allow developers to work in Russia, while also criticizing the dominance of superhero movies and the ineffective funding of some Russian films. In addition, the speakers touch on *Game of Thrones*, GTA, rap battles, streamers, and mass culture, and toward the end the conversation shifts into a more playful format, with questions about moral reactions and the perception of controversial situations.
Text version
0:00
Everyone watches *Game of Thrones* here, so all you can really do is...
0:02
...be happy about it—everywhere you look, it’s all Marvel.
0:04
People like *Batman v Superman*, and...
0:06
...it’s totally wild. You choose for yourselves—I’ll see.
0:10
That this is some borrowed man, looking into...
0:12
...the center of the figure, he flipped through it with losses.
0:14
To Zinaida, and that’s basically when I saw it.
0:17
Don’t you all think that sounds a little...
0:18
...sexist? Sounds great.
0:21
[music]
0:24
Hi everyone, Alexei Navalny is with you...
0:27
...with three—well, as a politician, I don’t even know how to...
0:29
...put it, not even just for today...
0:32
...during the last hour before...
0:34
...the stream. It was really cool, a once-in-a-lifetime...
0:37
...and awesome. More importantly, it was...
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...bloodthirsty. Sorry, please, Alexei.
0:44
Why are opposition politicians coming to us...
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...through video games? They’re already here, already part of this...
0:51
...world, so I’m not forcing my way anywhere. It’s...
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...an absolutely wonderful thing, well...
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...there’s no television, no newspapers, nothing...
1:01
...so we’re looking for all kinds of new options, but...
1:03
...even if all that did exist, we still would have tried it, and...
1:07
...today I became convinced that the stone doesn’t...
1:08
We’d been talking for quite a while about organizing...
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...some kind of stream. I kept thinking I’d...
1:14
...look strange in general, that it would be this...
1:17
...weird thing. But today we tried it...
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...and quite successfully, I think.
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At the peak there were 20,000, and once it was on, we lost...
1:23
Very cool.
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Lyosha, you killed a person—well, it was just...
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...great, wasn’t it? I can’t even tell anymore.
1:34
Now it’s a big part of modern...
1:38
...life. A politician has to understand...
1:40
...what’s going on at all, because...
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...the Twitch audience in Russia may actually be larger...
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...than Channel One’s (Russia’s main state TV channel). I think everyone...
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...should be doing this—they just aren’t.
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Maybe that’s where my...
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...advantage as a politician lies: nobody else...
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...is doing it, and I am. Why PUBG?
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Because I was told, “We’ll do...”},{
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...let’s do this game, because right now you’re...
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...the most popular game, and you might even be able to win...
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...even if you don’t know how to play. And it has a huge community...
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...so it’ll be interesting to watch.
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The guys who organized this...
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...broadcast suggested it, and I’m very...
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...pleased, because it really is...
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...a great game. Everyone kept saying...
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...I’d like it, and yes, actually...
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...the game is really cool. And if anyone...
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...rewatches my stream, they’ll probably...
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...see that I was also getting a lot of...
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...enjoyment out of it.
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Where’s Shift? I’m thinking I’m not getting away from you...
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...from the heart.
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As if you were talking... or they were...
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...freaking awesome and real, and they kind of know...
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...all the stones of labor, United Russia (the ruling political party in Russia)...
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...damn Putinists, for Vasily Tyorkin (hero of a famous Soviet poem)...
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Well yes, in vector terms, exactly the prices and...
3:02
The challenge: in two hours, to get 10,000 rubles.
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You have to understand, this is the most successful case in...
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...history—well, no, no, no, let me correct that...
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Let me correct you: when we announce...
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...fundraising, after all, we’re using...
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...the whole bloc, and everything else is more about the speed...
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...of collecting funds. Sometimes it’s higher than 200,000...
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...rubles. We release an investigation, like...
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...*He Is Not Dimon to You* (Navalny’s anti-corruption documentary) set records in its time...
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...for fundraising, because we...
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...said, “Well, we released a film...”},{
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...if you liked the film, throw us some...
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...money,” and they did.
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The rate of donations was higher, but...
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...today, of course, it was two hours...
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...of pure enjoyment, and that enjoyment...
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...brought in 200,000 rubles. For now, that’s very...
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...respectable in terms of speed, very...
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...good. Not a record, of course, but I’m very...
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...pleased.
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200,000 rubles—just from bothering you all.
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Excellent. Even with wounds like that, it’s good.
4:06
Guys, all of us together can organize...
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...a picket (a one-person protest in Russia), no question about it, at any moment...
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...if we need to. Man, on the stream you were...
4:15
...taken for a ride in a police van. Tell us, what’s the difference...
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...between your real-life experience of riding in...
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...those vans and riding around in PUBG?
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When you’re riding in a police van, you...
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...definitely won’t be the one driving, that’s for sure...
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...you’re not going there as the commander, yes, yes, yes. Well, naked...
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...men can be there, because in a...
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...paddy wagon (a police transport van), sometimes people get thrown in...
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...in such a state that they...
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...have half their jacket torn off. But when you’re...
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...being transported and you’re sitting in an iron...
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...cage, and there are these wooden...
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...benches there, so...
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...PUBG is much more humane.
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Interesting—we got into a stranger’s car...
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...never... you won’t give up until the quiet...
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...that’s the road, the driver is good, not for nothing.
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Do you know any of the streamers...
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...well? For example, I know...
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...that there’s streamer Karina. I went on...
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...YouTube and watched streamer Karina.
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A pretty girl, cozy and cute...
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...I was interested in understanding this whole thing...
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...about streams, because I didn’t understand why...
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...people watch gameplay. For example, my kids...
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...watch it. But now, you see, I...
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...understand now. It’s become clearer, because...
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...I kept trying to figure out: why do you...
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...watch this? My son Zakhar can play *Minecraft*...
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...go play *Minecraft* with me—why are you...
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...watching someone else do it? Now I understand...
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...why people watch it. It’s probably funny...
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...to watch people’s reactions. I’m like...
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...the biggest guy in the world on YouTube...
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...the top guy, I forgot what his name is...
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...an archetypal, warm, friendly YouTuber.
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Anyway, people watch him for his jokes...
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...and now it’s become clearer how all this...
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...works, and that matters to me too.
6:00
because
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someone who seeks power
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in a country must understand what drives
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people in general, including young people,
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including at the skating rink, who can
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gameplay, since millions of people watch it
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of people. And speaking of power, if you
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became president, what would you do?
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And when—well, when you become
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president—sorry, let me rephrase that.
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Sorry, but what would change for video games?
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Because right now we don’t have proper
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programs for game developers, we
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don’t really have any—what’s the word—support for these
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developers, but we do have censorship
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and it works in a completely unclear way,
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like it can strike at any moment. The task
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of the state is—well, as for any censorship, I
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honestly think—do you understand—that
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censorship really harms the gaming industry.
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It makes things worse, wrecks the internet,
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and it forces people to leave
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the country, including developers, including
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those who want to make money from this,
7:00
from it somehow. If I become president, there will be no
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censorship in this area. That’s one. Two: we
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will finally give freedom and the opportunity
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to work to all those people who now
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in order to earn money there, in order
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to build a decent life for themselves,
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simply flee from here, well, abroad
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because a huge number of our
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developers are just leaving.
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Because here, you simply can’t
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make money from it. We will make it possible
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for these people to build businesses in Russia, and I
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am sure this will have a very positive
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effect on the gaming industry in
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particular. More broadly, Russia’s advantage is that
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Russia has very strong mathematics education
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and, accordingly, a lot of programmers.
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These programmers can work for
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Russia, earn money themselves, prosper, and
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pay substantial taxes into the national budget.
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The task of a normal government—which I hope
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will one day emerge in this country—is to make sure
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that they feel comfortable here
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and live well.
7:53
Alexei, let’s shift gears a little.
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So, do you watch some kind of—
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Of course I do. Everyone watches *Game of
8:00
Thrones*. Do you pirate it or not? I don’t—
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I don’t really do that.
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I mean, when possible—
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no, that’s not really my thing.
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I usually try to watch—I watched
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*Game of Thrones*, but I won’t tell anyone
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how. Why not just pay
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if there’s an option to buy it?
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If I can pay and watch it quickly, I’m always ready
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to do that. It’s just that I like watching
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in English. I don’t like, I really don’t like
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watching dubbed versions.
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And most often, where you can pay, it’s
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only available in Russian dubbing, and to me
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it feels like you lose a lot when you watch
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it that way.
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Still, I saw what I saw—White
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Walkers and all. Whenever there’s a chance
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to pay, I’m ready to pay for a film or series.
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All right, let’s move on from this
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deeply personal question for many Russians about *Game
8:58
of Thrones*. In your opinion, who should sit on
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the Iron Throne?
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Jon Snow. He’s the proper kind of choice.
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He’s the kindest, the most decent guy out of
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all of them.
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[music]
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Though, judging by how the writers are handling all this,
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that’s unlikely. Out of all
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the characters, Jon Snow is of course
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the most decent, and a person
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with the right moral
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qualities. My belief is that the highest offices
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should not be held by the most cunning, not
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the most organizationally efficient, not
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the best coalition-builders. The main
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quality
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for a person who holds the highest
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office is, above all, the ability to distinguish
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right from wrong. Jon Snow is the best
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positive character—not Daenerys.
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[applause]
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Daenerys is fair, but she
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has all sorts of complications, first of all, and secondly,
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she is too heavily influenced by various men.
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And of course, the moment she takes
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the Iron Throne, there will be terrible corruption,
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because her many associates will sink their teeth in
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and quite possibly even plunder the Iron
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Bank of Braavos.
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[music]
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[music]
10:26
Don’t you think that sounds a bit sexist?
10:28
No, it doesn’t sound sexist.
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Because it has absolutely nothing to do
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with her being a woman; it has to do with her story
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within the series. It’s quite clear to me that
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the writer
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or author ultimately wrote her that way
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quite deliberately, so that he
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shows her through the fact that young men—
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boyfriends—strongly influence her.
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Okay, then a question: do you like
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Again, we’re moving into another area—
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Does that mean that because I like something, I somehow
11:00
like creating hype around myself?
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You came in and did a stream,
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you really put yourself in front of an audience
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of people. I did a stream, and I’m glad
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that the stream attracted attention, but does that really
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mean I love chasing hype? I just, simply,
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did it. You also occasionally write about
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rap battles, and I know you posted
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about Oxxxymiron in your blog as well.
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Well, okay, we were saying that this is
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a powerful platform—30 million views,
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these are gigantic numbers, not even counting the fact that
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Am I ready to take part on any platform? No.
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Despite everything, because I'm not
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capable of coming up with rap, that's all. It's a very
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simple answer.
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There are lots of really great platforms; you need
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to perform on the platforms where you can
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actually do something well.
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I look at Oxxxymiron — just one of the outstanding
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poets of our time.
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Or I look at Gnoyny (a Russian battle rapper), who is
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also, simply, a rather outstanding
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person working in this
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environment, and that's wonderful. So
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I understand that even if I
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somehow found the strength one day
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to stand there and
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pretend to do something, I would never go for it
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because I simply wouldn't know how to compete with
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these great people. Alexei, recently
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you wrote that you had played — people asked me —
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and that you were over level 100 in GTA Online. Is that
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true, or is TNT (a Russian TV channel) making things up again?
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Did they slander you over the claim that you
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supposedly never play at all?
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Besides, about four years ago, in an
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interview with Viktor Zuev
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for Kanobu, you said you hadn't played
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GTA. It's probably going to be embarrassing
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especially for your audience to hear
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something like that: I had never played GTA. Four years
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ago, I knew it was
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a great game. Then GTA 5 came out.
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If I remember correctly, it came out when I was
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under house arrest, or a little earlier, but anyway
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one way or another, I asked for it later on.
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I had plenty of opportunities
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to play. I got acquainted with GTA,
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including GTA 5. My younger brother told me it was
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the greatest game and that I had to play it. I
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played it and became convinced that it really is
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a great game.
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And then I got into GTA Online, and I'm
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a fan. Unfortunately, I can't
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play as much as I'd like. I don't have
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such amazing skills, but
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the whole aesthetic of GTA 5, the way it's all made,
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is fantastic. Have you heard anything about
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the virtual headquarters created in Navalny's campaign?
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I've heard of it, yes, I've heard it exists, but I
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just, from the moment
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Navalny's headquarters was actually created, I
13:44
have been busy with the election campaign, and
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and
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well, honestly, I'm trying to run an election
13:47
campaign. People donate money to me, which
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as I see it implies that I shouldn't
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sit around playing games while volunteers
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are out canvassing apartments door to door.
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So yes, I've heard about it, and I
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am grateful to all the people taking part
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in this virtual headquarters, but so far I
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haven't robbed any banks with them yet.
14:05
All right, a question about cinema.
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You often conduct investigations
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into Putin, Medvedev, and all sorts of
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officials, and regarding the Cinema Fund (a Russian state film fund),
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we keep getting films of atrocious
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quality,
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after which the question arises: where
14:22
does the money go? Then we get hacked
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bloggers, then we get ridiculous
14:25
excuses saying it was an
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experiment — an experiment that was obviously
14:28
a failure. We get BadComedian (a Russian film reviewer), and
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he tears his hair out over every
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such film. Good Lord. And year after
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year the situation doesn't change. I watch
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BadComedian, I know all these stories, and I
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completely share the outrage of many
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people who don't understand where
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hundreds of millions and billions of rubles go
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and why exactly these people — many of them
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obviously bad directors with bad
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projects — are given huge sums. We haven't
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worked on this as an investigation
15:00
because, well, I don't rule out that there is
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corruption here, but it's still a slightly
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different kind of corruption,
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which, first, is fairly hard to prove, and
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second, is more like
15:09
a mafia-like system within the film industry and personal favoritism — that
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is, different groups simply divide up
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this money because, well, because I'm
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a famous director, I vote for them today,
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tomorrow they'll vote for me. In other words,
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it's more of a crony network than direct
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corruption built on kickbacks, although
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that probably exists too. So if someone gives
15:31
us some really good leads, then
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we could look into it.
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Would you investigate the Cinema Fund? I think I
15:36
could put you in touch personally with Zhenya
15:38
and I think together you could make
15:41
something interesting. That would be interesting.
15:42
Especially since I always watch his
15:45
reviews — I mean, his work is great.
15:46
Hello. This year I decided
15:49
to run for president.
15:52
What's the worst Russian film you've
15:54
seen lately? There actually haven't been that
15:57
many bad Russian films overall.
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I watch quite little cinema lately,
16:01
alas. I can say, so as not to
16:05
make a mistake, that the last Russian film
16:09
I watched was *Leviathan*. I also watched
16:11
*The Land of Oz*, and both
16:13
are excellent films.
16:14
Unfortunately, I probably don't have much more to add, but here
16:16
all that's left is to be glad that films
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like that exist, and to be upset that so few
16:21
Russian films like that get made and released.
16:23
There are great Russian films, but I just — I
16:24
watch
16:25
especially over the last year — but I simply
16:27
objectively haven't had time to watch much at all.
16:30
The last time I went to the movies, I went to see
16:32
*Terminator 2*, which they re-released in 3D.
16:34
Guys, I watched it — it was in the summer, yes, afterward.
16:37
that, about him, at the movies
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why exactly that one is the main hit
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the main one, in my personal ranking
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of films, *Terminator 2* takes first place
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second, third—well, all the top spots are
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it's a super important film to me, I've watched it
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a million times
16:58
[applause]
17:03
[music]
17:08
people kind of chuckle and ask me
17:11
what my favorite movie is, and everyone wants
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me to say it's at least some kind of
17:15
arthouse film, some old American
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movie like *The Good, the Bad and the Ugly* or something like that
17:19
Termina-
17:20
*Terminator: Genisys*—you've all seen it, of course
17:27
I've seen 1 and 2—1 and especially 2 are really
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great movies. All the others are already
17:35
somewhere else in the ranking, really, but
17:37
the first one, and especially the second, are the greatest. I—
17:40
Alexei, I'm a naked man in underpants—let's go on
17:43
djali
17:45
Do I understand correctly that superhero
17:47
movies—you don't watch them at all? I do, I do watch them
17:51
well, when I have time, I watch them
17:53
I used to like them, but now I've already
17:55
gotten tired of Marvel, these endless
17:57
endless Marvel movies everywhere, and all these
18:00
superheroes—it gets a bit tiring, I want
18:03
something at least somewhat
18:05
more adult
18:06
Do you like *Batman v.
18:09
Superman*?
18:17
In general, I watch Superman movies the way
18:19
I go with my kids to see them, but right now
18:22
this particular Superman movie
18:23
I haven't seen. Though the main ones,
18:25
I haven't seen that film. But do you know the difference
18:27
between Marvel and DC?
18:29
Of course. What do you think?
18:31
Well, *Suicide Squad* was monstrous, I
18:34
beg your pardon—what was it called again?
18:36
*Suicide Squad*
18:38
yes, *Suicide Squad*, and that was DC too, right? Or rather—
18:41
if I'm not mixing it up. Compared to Marvel, I really
18:43
didn't like it at all, it was really bad, except
18:45
for Margot Robbie, who was
18:47
great there. But overall I didn't like the movie
18:49
so if I had to choose, I'd pick Marvel
18:52
though honestly that has gotten old too, I mean
18:53
there are just too many movies about
18:56
superheroes
18:58
yes, it's already exhausting. What would you like to see in
19:01
cinema instead?
19:02
I'd like to see some adult
19:03
films, some well-made
19:06
films for adults—not
19:08
I don't know, in any genre, that kind of movie
19:11
there just aren't enough of them
19:14
because this whole Marvel
19:16
universe, it seems to me, has pushed out
19:18
has basically swallowed the entire box office, and
19:21
no one can break through past it
19:23
What superhero ability would you
19:26
like to have one fine day? To
19:29
win elections
19:31
or at least be allowed onto the ballot? But in Russia
19:34
that's a different problem—not even that, at least
19:37
I'd prefer just to be included on the ballot
19:49
Then here's a question: if Russia
19:51
had its own superhero, what would he
19:54
be like? He definitely would... I saw
20:00
the trailer for a Russian superhero movie
20:02
and there was this guy in it
20:04
who transformed—his head became
20:06
some kind of bear's head. If you're talking about
20:07
*Guardians*, then yes. Why didn't you immediately
20:09
remember the title? Because if I can't, then yes
20:12
and thank God for BadComedian (a popular Russian YouTube film reviewer), that's where I
20:14
basically saw all of that, and it was
20:22
some kind of strange version of a superhero. I
20:26
would like a Russian superhero not
20:28
to be quite so cliché and so
20:35
hairy and weird. I've got one last
20:38
question—not exactly a question, more a series
20:41
of questions. You often talk about
20:44
Kremlin bots, about not-real people
20:47
who support the Kremlin and all that
20:48
sort of thing. I want to run a test now for
20:51
whether you're a Kremlin bot. I'm going to ask you—yes, I
20:54
I'm going to ask you questions from the film
20:56
*Blade Runner*
20:58
they used them there to identify replicants. It's not exactly the same thing
20:59
but still—so, shall we begin?
21:02
Let's try
21:04
[music]
21:13
First question: you look down and
21:16
see a tortoise
21:17
The tortoise has rolled onto its back and can't
21:19
right itself, but you don't help it. Why? I
21:24
do help it. Why wouldn't I help it? To begin with
21:26
how could it fail to turn over? It's your
21:31
birthday. Someone gives you a wallet
21:33
made from the skin of an endangered animal. Would you
21:36
accept it? If they tell me, 'Here
21:39
this is a wallet made from the skin of an endangered animal,'
21:40
then no. But if they don't say so and just give it to me
21:45
and I just see that it's a leather wallet, then
21:47
I'd accept it. A little boy shows you
21:50
his butterfly collection and the jar in which
21:53
he kills them. What do you do?
21:56
I'd say, 'Boy, don't kill butterflies.'
22:00
You're watching television, and a second later you
22:05
notice that crawling along
22:07
your arm is a wasp. What will you
22:10
do? If you mean a wasp and not a fly—
22:17
You're reading a magazine, and unexpectedly
22:20
a photograph falls out from between the pages
22:22
of a naked man. What's your reaction? I'll see
22:26
that it's a naked man by looking at the
22:29
center of the figure, and I'll turn the page—not explode in
22:32
anger, or on the contrary stare at it for 20
22:35
minutes. I'd just turn the page. Next question: you
22:38
are watching a play, and on stage there is
22:41
a banquet. As an appetizer they serve live
22:43
oysters. The main course is
22:45
boiled dog. How do you react? I didn't
22:50
understand—they're serving live oysters, and the main
22:52
dish military dog but I will also
22:54
lead you
22:55
I will not, but you will not feel
22:58
contradict what is happening in this
23:01
marketing dog Moreno and this kind of fur
23:04
enchanted tired big well done his
23:09
I see a dead dog in the middle shows
23:14
this yours am I really a robot in the end or
23:18
crew boat don't let you are a human
23:37
Kurantil as president, we'll find out in 2018
23:40
we just decided once again glad such another
23:48
figures noise for a moment was
23:50
opposition politician of streamers, I don't know
23:53
what else to call you already, miller, like fine
23:56
Alexander Nevsky, who is the same
23:57
a long list of titles, absolutely Alexei
23:59
Navalny
23:59
thank you, thank you, visit the channel
24:02
subscribe to our channel, leave
24:04
likes, don't forget to click the bell
24:06
and read our articles
24:07
bye
24:08
[music]