Today at 9:00 p.m. Moscow time, United Russia will publicly discuss whether it is a p**arty of crooks and thieves. ** This value judgment of mine was voiced on Finam FM a few days ago and offended United Russia, which is now suing me. In addition to legal satisfaction, the party also wants moral vindication, so its members asked for a debate on the issue, to be organized by the same Finam FM And I saw no reason to refuse. My opponent will be United Russia member Yevgeny Fyodorov, a State Duma deputy and chairman of the Committee on Economic Policy.
I very much appreciate that Deputy Fyodorov is willing to take part in this kind of debate, rather than behaving like 99.9% of his party colleagues, who usually only shout bravely in the cozy studio of Channel One (Russia’s main state TV channel), knowing that if anything goes wrong, the editing room will save them. That deserves respect. It is also wonderful that Yevgeny chose to argue precisely this point, because he has spent his entire life in public service, yet is the enviable owner of the following property:
Official data from the State Duma website I do not quite understand how someone in public service could honestly manage to earn enough for five apartments, a house, and an S-Class Mercedes. Though I have heard that United Russia members are very lucky people and quite often stumble upon buried treasure. Let me remind you of the results of the poll I conducted on my LiveJournal:
In fairness, it should be said that not everyone shares my "value judgments" about United Russia. The day before yesterday I ran into Yulia Latynina, and she said: "I read your post about United Russia, and you’re wrong. I couldn’t resist — I even logged into my father’s LiveJournal and, for the first time in about five years, left a comment". I was curious, so I was not too lazy and found Latynina’s comment:
But overall, the informal movement United Russia = the Party of Crooks and Thieves is gaining momentum. For example, A Just Russia held a meeting with voters on Saturday:
(in the photo: dgudkov) FINAM FM broadcasts in Moscow and the surrounding region on 99.6 MHz. There is also an online stream — just go to the radio station’s website and click the "Listen" button. The LiveJournal of the program’s host, Yury Pronko, is here, where he is collecting questions.