Video of yesterday's debate on Finam FM: "Is United Russia a party of crooks and thieves?"
Let me add a few words: Many thanks to Finam FM and Yury Pronko for organizing this broadcast. Thanks to Yevgeny Fyodorov for agreeing to take part in the debate. And thanks to everyone who voted in support of my position. In outline, United Russia's position is built like this: there is no evidence of corruption; if you don't like something, file a complaint with the prosecutor's office. If the prosecutor's office does not respond, then there are no grounds for any response; everyone who speaks out against United Russia is an American spy or agent of influence. They want to destroy Russia, and huge sums of money have been allocated for their work; United Russia saved the country from hunger, wars, collapse, tick-borne encephalitis, and were-rats from Venus; United Russia has modernized the infrastructure, and soon we will be living like they do in Germany. To support these claims, they dump out a hellish jumble of absurdities: "the hostile Euronews channel funded by German money" (even though Euronews is funded by VGTRK, the Russian state broadcasting company, which is also one of its shareholders), "every German, including infants, spent 300,000 euros to gain control over television" (which would amount to seven times the country's GDP), "Wolfowitz spent money on corruption in the courts", "they won't let us buy tinfoil hats", and so on. If anyone thinks all of the above is merely Fyodorov's personal opinion, I recommend reading Sechin's interview with Vedomosti today. It's exactly the same thing: ***we need to take a closer look at what happened in Egypt. We need to see what, say, senior Google executives were doing in Egypt, what kind of manipulation of the people's energy was going on there. But when asked about a deal that even conservative investment bankers describe as "Timchenko and Kovalchuk stole one billion U.S. dollars from Gazprom," he replies: — Well, yes. Novatek was just sold. There were some questions about the price: it's strange that Gazprom sold the shares below market. — I'm speaking sincerely: I don't know. It wasn't me. I don't know what was stolen there. Everything is fine here: Let's return to Russia. We have political stability. We have practically replaced the entire old Soviet infrastructure. We have built new gas pipelines and oil pipelines. We have created a modern banking system. So Yevgeny Fyodorov was, in fact, voicing the general line of his party. The party of crooks and thieves. 4. United Russia's own assessment of the debate is quite revealing: What was Navalny "crowing" about? Of course, all these attempts by Navalny to sow confusion and division in Russian society are ridiculous. And they will lead nowhere. But we must remain vigilant. Navalny failed to smear United Russia. People expected more from Navalny, who is known on the internet for his anti-corruption exposés involving government bodies and state companies—facts, documents, evidence. However, the blogger limited himself to baseless statements and grounded his judgments only in his own observations and unverified information. As for that last headline, someone on Twitter put it perfectly: Navalny failed to blacken United Russia's name because the crooks and thieves in that party stole all the black paint. UPD Oh, and I forgot to mention that Deputy Fyodorov also accused me of investigating the "Transneft case" in order to "get a contract from them." It's in the video at 46:20. Apparently I want to build a modest oil-loading terminal. Yevgeny is a serious man; he doesn't throw words to the wind. He promised to provide documents. We're waiting.