Patriotic Zheleznyak, after yesterday’s post saying that he may not be all that patriotic after all, paused for a few hours and then wrote a heart-rending response on his Facebook. Usually he replies to us from the United Russia website or on Channel One, but this time he was so modest. On Facebook, with a couple hundred followers. Well, all right, maybe he decided to keep it low-key. The general idea: I’m rich, actually, and I can afford all this: I came to the State Duma from the position of managing director of the large company News Outdoor. When I left the company, where my work was paid very well, to go work in the Duma, I also received the severance package due to me, amounting to several tens of millions of rubles, and all taxes were paid on it. Learn to distinguish real patriotism from the fake, chest-thumping kind (“kvass patriotism”). I’m stylish, open, and modern and all that (listen to him now—just recently he was busy exposing “foreign agents”): One must know how to distinguish true patriotism from “kvass patriotism.” Patriotism is not about wearing bast shoes, weaving wicker, listening only to balalaika music, and tearfully buying low-quality goods made next door. True patriotism lies in fulfilling yourself in your country and for the good of your country. If there is a quality Russian product—and there are many—there is no reason to buy a foreign equivalent with budget funds! If there is a constant need for certain goods, it is better to set up their production in Russia than to buy them abroad and finance someone else’s economy. My daughters themselves decided after 9th grade where to apply. They just went and got in. After finishing 9th grade, my older daughters decided to enroll in the educational institutions that interested them, seeking to get an education both there and here, taking into account their language skills and talents. I see nothing bad or unpatriotic in this; they will get their education, come home, and be useful to the country in whatever capacity they choose. (most importantly) You dumped a bucket of filth on my family. You struck at the most painful point—my children. How unworthy and low. I want to wish that no thug ever does the same to you. In general, I consider intrusion into someone else’s private life wrong, but especially when it concerns children. My daughters have done nothing wrong, I am proud of them, and the only reason they were mentioned and their photos shown was to hurt me. This shows that for Navalny, the end justifies the means, and he is capable of any nastiness if he thinks it benefits him. I believe that today’s “news hook” from Navalny compromises him far more than it does me. If I were one of his supporters, I would seriously think about whether to continue associating with such a character. I would like to wish Alexei that no thug ever uses his children, trying to hurt him. https://www.facebook.com/zheleznyak.duma/posts/387171084706469 Before we move on to discussing this response, full of tedious figures mixed with pompous exclamations, let’s have a little fun. At the same time, those who are less familiar with the subject of our inquiry can get to know it better. The latest high-profile legislative initiative of this true patriot (who, admittedly, does not want to wear bast shoes or play the balalaika), deputy Zheleznyak, is to impose quotas on the film distribution market. In every movie theater, Russian films must get at least 20% of screen time. Otherwise, a fine. Film industry professionals say this is nonsense, and that good films will take care of themselves—after all, Russian TV series managed to push out foreign ones. But perhaps deputy Zheleznyak understands the subject much better? He is introducing laws, after all. A REN TV reporter asks Zheleznyak which Russian film has made a strong impression on him lately. Just 52 seconds. A must-watch:
http://youtu.be/G1wkBsWmGM4 And here, by the way, is the full report. It’s seven minutes long, but worth it. Zheleznyak’s very convincing readiness to change into domestically made knitwear (from 1:40) is especially delightful. All right, we’ve had our laugh. Now let’s discuss serious things. First: I’m very rich, says Zheleznyak, and I have millions. Like any member of United Russia, our little mattress is let down by his tendency to assume everyone around him is an idiot incapable of using open-source data and a calculator. When Zheleznyak decided to start bossing us all around and turn from a businessman into POWER, he had to file something called an “asset declaration.” Let’s not assume he lied in it. Surely he wrote everything down honestly. I don’t know what “tens of millions of rubles” Zheleznyak is talking about, but he came into his parliamentary career with three tens of millions.
Go here and look at number 552. We see no shares, no securities, no equity stakes, no trusts. From the moment he filed that declaration, Zheleznyak could no longer engage in business activity. So what we see is his Duma salary and the spending of his savings. We’re not going to assume that after the highly suspicious sale of News Outdoor, Zheleznyak stashed the cash in a Liechtenstein offshore account and pays his foreign expenses from there. That would be truly awful. We don’t believe that, so let’s proceed from the official information. Irek Murtazin, recalling his course in “forensic accounting,” dug through Zheleznyak’s declarations and saved us a lot of time: F*rom *1993 to 2007, Zheleznyak appears to have earned good money. And this is reflected in the income declaration he filed when he was elected deputy. The declaration was filed on 7.10.2007 and reflects income for 2006. Income nbsp;3,330,896.00 rubles (News Outdoor LLC) Real estate Apartment, Moscow, 73.5 sq. m. Transport vehicles Passenger car, Audi Q7 (2006) Passenger car, Lexus RX (2007) Passenger car, Chrysler Prowler (2001) Motor vehicle, (2002) Motor vehicle, (2003) Accounts 31,796,800.37 rubles (Raiffeisenbank, Austria) 7,794.46 rubles (Citibank CB CJSC) Zheleznyak had no stocks or securities. But his salary at News Outdoor LLC was decent. That is what allowed him to accumulate 31.8 million rubles. Since 2007, Zheleznyak’s income has dropped sharply. See the declaration for 2010. Income 10,022,682.85 rubles. The Office of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, sa**le of property) ** The car collection remained the same. No stocks or securities still. The deputy swapped his apartment for a more spacious one. He had been cramped in 73.5 sq. m. (791 sq. ft.), sold it (apparently for 6.5 million rubles, since his annual deputy income, judging by the 2011 declaration, was about 3.4 million rubles), and moved into a larger one—256.2 sq. m. (2,758 sq. ft.). Apparently, the money kept in his accounts was also spent on buying this apartment. Because of the 31.8 million rubles (in 2007), only 7.2 million rubles remained: In VTB 24 CJSC — 347,800 In Raiffeisenbank OJSC — 6,417,101 rubles In Citibank CB CJSC — 460,194 And now for the most interesting part. Possibly the most corruption-prone part. See Zheleznyak’s declaration for 2011. Official income for the year — 3.4 million rubles But in 2011 Zheleznyak bought an apartment for his children (he himself did not register there) with an area of 181.6 sq. m. (1,955 sq. ft.). If you add up what he earned that year and what the deputy speaker had in his accounts, the apartment could not have cost him more than 10 million rubles. Stop—and who paid for the daughters’ education? That, by the way, is 4.3 million rubles. Thanks, Irek. From here on, let’s do the math ourselves and, just to be safe, use the very lowest figures that anyone can verify: A year at TASIS costs approximately 2,370* thousand rubles. Multiply that by 4 years of study for Anastasia and 5 years for Ekaterina Zheleznyak. Then add Anastasia’s tuition at Queen Mary University of London: 610 thousand. I VERY MUCH DOUBT she lived in a dormitory, but let’s assume she did. Add dorm costs — 250 thousand rubles. You** also need money for living expenses. Let’s assume the absolute bare minimum. Say, £8,000 a year — 400 thousand rubles per year. Thus, patriotic and honest deputy Zheleznyak spent 22 million 590 thousand rubles on the foreign education of just two daughters. This does not take into account the fact that Zheleznyak’s third daughter also lives in London. She studies somewhere and lives somewhere. It also assumes that the daughters lead the most modest lifestyle possible, free of any luxuries, and that Zheleznyak and his family never visit them. Yesterday we were sent a basic VKontakte tracking record, which for 2010 alone shows: Valencia–Lugano–Turin–Basel–Maldives–Zurich. Which suggests that the dormitory and £5,000 a year in living expenses built into the estimate are not especially realistic. For clarity: http://zheleznyak.mashina.org So, we have an established fact: the expenses of honest patriot and fighter against foreign agents, United Russia member Zheleznyak, on his children’s education abroad far exceed his means and legal income. Clearly our striped little mattress has another piggy bank. Two things are worth remembering here: The FBI is investigating News Outdoor (the company where Zheleznyak worked) over allegations of bribery and corruption. And we all understand perfectly well how the outdoor advertising market works in Moscow. A quote from the classic author (that is, from Zheleznyak): I am sure that any organization with nothing to hide has nothing to fear. If an organization wants to engage in political matters, it m**ust be prepared to become transparent both to law enforcement agencies and to our citizens.****
from here Second: And why shouldn’t my children study abroad? Let them study there. By all means. Just say it plainly: higher education in Russia has collapsed. There is practically no humanities education at all. Moscow State University has fallen to 666th place in the global university rankings, but its rector joined United Russia and is busy with some kind of real-estate dealings with Luzhkov’s wife (Yelena Baturina, a powerful businesswoman and spouse of former Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov). We stuffed all the rector and vice-rector positions with our rotten United Russia people, who are busy making students organize “carousel voting” and other election fraud. In these circumstances, I, Zheleznyak, as a good father, am sending my children abroad to study. Or say it like this: everything is fine here, and it will get even better. But until that better future arrives, I’ll send my children abroad. It’s safe there. But no, you bastard, you look at us from the screen and say (verbatim, from 1:20): "I propose that legislation, the federal contract system, public procurement, and state defense orders should provide priority for Russian goods and services." Well, that’s exactly why I’m writing a post about hypocritical scumbags. Why don’t you set that same priority for yourselves? Why are your children going abroad to study? And when someone brings it up, your eyes pop out of your head: DON’T TOUCH THE CHILDREN. Why is it that your university rectors from United Russia, as their main response to the fall of our universities in international rankings, propose CREATING OUR OWN RANKING. Third, and most important: You are attacking my children. How unworthy and low. This is the main talking point of the entire United Russia camarilla. The whole Kremlin media dump—Solovyov, Gabrelyanov, the lot of them—is screeching: we won’t discuss anything, we don’t want to hear anything. Children were mentioned here—how low. Listen to them now. Nothing terrible is going to happen to your children, Monsieur Zheleznyak, fortunately. They are safe, abroad, studying at elite institutions. Their father is, of course, a corrupt scumbag, but there’s nothing to be done about that. The moment Zheleznyak was touched, he started writing soulful posts about children. And yet just a couple of days ago he was mocking on Twitter the “panting champions of Russian orphans.”
He laughed and posted links to idiotic articles about how “Russian children are being raised on a ranch.” Take your “don’t touch the children!” line and say it to Chirikova or Baronova, whom your rotten United Russia sent child welfare authorities after with petitions to strip them of parental rights. Say it to 11-year-old Dasha Navalnaya, whose belongings were searched during a raid and whose computer, phone, and photographs still have not been returned. Say it to Bakhov’s 4-year-old daughter or Belousov’s child, whose fathers were imprisoned, or still are imprisoned, completely without guilt in the “May 6 case” (the Bolotnaya protest case). Say it to Luzyanin’s son, who could barely hold back tears in the courtroom when his father was sentenced to 4.5 years for going to a rally against the fact that the election was falsified precisely so that Zheleznyak could become a deputy. He won’t be going to Switzerland. His mother now spends money on lawyers and prison parcels. And finally, say it to those sick, limbless orphans whom you rotten United Russia people, together with your Zheleznyak, are leaving to rot in orphanages by forbidding them to be adopted by foreigners. You came up with the idea that you had to somehow respond to the “Magnitsky Act,” so you chose the easiest possible target (because if you did something more serious, your relatives would get kicked out of their Switzerlands)—you decided to punish American adoptive parents. And the fact that disabled little children would get caught in the crossfire—you don’t give a damn. Rejoice: thanks to you, no one will ever “use for their own purposes” Polina S. (born 2007) and Vitaly T. (born 2008), and no one will post their photos from social media. Because they won’t have social media. They won’t have computers. They won’t have parents. They won’t have a university either, not in London, not in Novosibirsk. You banned them from having parents. All of this “United Russia” and this entire “Putin team” is simply some kind of abomination. And Zheleznyak is an excellent embodiment of that abomination, of these inhuman creatures. He doesn’t just want to be a businessman and fly business class to visit his children abroad. He needs to be POWER. He wants access to the official delegations hall. He wants the deputy’s badge. For that, he throws people in prison. For that, he torments their children. For that, he destroys other people’s families. For that, there are “Center E” units (Russia’s anti-extremism police) and raids across the country. So that this bastard can go on television here and talk about patriotism, and then fly abroad on weekends to see his family. They are literally ready to devour children if that’s what it takes to keep their privileges and status, to remain above the law. And they do devour them. The task of every honest person is to fight these bastards, scumbags, and occupiers. In whatever way they can. It is our duty.