1. The debate will be interesting. Come. 2. Some necessary clarifications: a) Why Udaltsov canceled: We had wanted to invite him to a debate for a long time. There were many requests for him, he is charismatic, a good speaker, and so on. Since we had already agreed with both Belov and Udaltsov that they would, in principle, appear at our debates, we decided to simply pair them up mechanically. And we put up the announcements. We warned Udaltsov that Belov would be there, and he agreed. Belov learned from me on November 5 that Udaltsov would be his opponent. He asked for time to think, then called back and declined, saying that he had already debated Udaltsov on Shuster’s program, and that he would prefer someone from the “pro-Kremlin” camp. After that, I called Udaltsov, apologized, and explained the situation. And Kazakov began frantically looking for someone “pro-Kremlin.” He found Markov. A member of the Public Chamber (a state-affiliated civic advisory body), a political analyst who presents himself as one of the ideologues of the current government. Markov speaks well, loudly, and convincingly. He is a well-known, competent person and, in a certain sense, an “authorized” one. So the debate will be excellent, and we will definitely invite Sergei Udaltsov again very soon. b) Why “the fascists for the fourth time” and “how much were we paid”: My dear friends! There is only one criterion for choosing a debate topic, just as there is only one criterion for choosing participants: the relevance of the topic. And we determine relevance very simply. People are discussing it on LiveJournal. For us, that is quite representative. If people are spending time, emotion, and traffic on a topic, then it means everyone is interested in it. I don’t give a damn what they are showing on television. We are not going to hold a debate on “The Sensational Return of *And Quiet Flows the Don*.” Maybe that interests Ernst, but not all of you. But the Russian March does interest people. And Belov interests people. You yourselves write about it five times a day. Debates are infrastructure. When your thoughts are occupied by something other than “fascism,” we will respond accordingly. And if the time comes when TV is showing pogroms in the cities, while LiveJournal is discussing an agricultural exhibition and congratulations to new mothers from “Young Guard” (the pro-Kremlin youth movement), then rest assured: the debates will feature farmers and new mothers. We look forward to seeing all of you at the debate this evening.