Autumn Tour. Rally in Kaliningrad. Part 2

How much do jobs cost, based on

the money that was spent on the special

economic zone? It turns out that one

job they create

guess how much it costs? Twenty thousand? Ten

million rubles. 10 million rubles

for a single job. Is that

normal? It's nonsense, rubbish, idiocy.

If they just left you your money, tomorrow your

life would be much, much better.

Agreed? And small business here

is hard to do—it's almost

impossible. Everywhere they tell me: if you want

to start a small business, you'll have to deal immediately with

the fire inspectors, the sanitary-epidemiological service, the police,

the mayor's office—they'll all say: give me this, give me that, give

me this, that. Why do I need that?

If I'm president, it's simple and obvious:

small business

is made up of people who don't earn very much,

who are trying to feed their families and

create jobs. So I, as

a normal person who is interested

in you being a little better off,

will abolish taxes for small business, abolish all

the paperwork, permits, licenses—all of it.

No reporting requirements, none of that pile of nonsense.

A person is just trying to sell something,

and you force them four times a year to file

reports and hire an accountant. Why?

In the Beautiful Russia of the Future, if you want to become

an entrepreneur, you write an email to city hall:

"Hello, city hall,

Giovanni Petrov, I want to be

an entrepreneur starting tomorrow. I am

an entrepreneur." And you get a return

email:

"Congratulations, we'll soon send you

a certificate of honor." That's it—nothing else,

nothing more is needed. And then business will

develop, create jobs,

and make us richer. Agreed? But what if

there's a fire?

Well, that's the thing—it's an important question, ladies

and gentlemen. I say I'll abolish all these

inspections. But what if there's a fire? Fires happen now too.

They do happen.

Surely you're not going to claim that

the constant activity of the Emergency Situations Ministry (EMERCOM), which

shakes down entrepreneurs, is really connected

to fire safety? No, it

has nothing to do with it. Remember the Lame Horse (a notorious Russian nightclub fire)? It burned down.

It burned down.

Things burn left and right, and that has nothing

at all to do with this whole

inspection apparatus. It's set up

for what? For bribes, obviously.

Every entrepreneur is always on the hook,

because anyone can be

shut down. Guys, everything I'm saying

isn't some revelation.

Right? These are obvious things, obvious

things that are right there on the surface. We can't

fail to implement them. The whole country,

the whole country wants certain things, and this

government refuses to carry them out.

That's what this is really about. Absolutely. And yesterday I

opened a newspaper and read: Vladimir

Putin forgave Kyrgyzstan another $288 million

in debt. Okay.

Did anyone ask you? Yet Kyrgyzstan was forgiven. So

one man forgave Kyrgyzstan. Fine. But you

forgave it—let's vote: who is in favor

of not forgiving Kyrgyzstan?

Who is in favor of not forgiving Mozambique?

Who is in favor of not forgiving Cuba and everyone

else? We love everyone,

but forgive people's mortgages instead, if you want to forgive someone.

There's Kolya walking over there—he

bought a washing machine on credit and can't

pay for it. Forgive his debt, right?

But they don't want to forgive anyone—rather,

they don't want to forgive us. But why

is that? For reasons of prestige, some kind of

interstate considerations, some kind of

unclear things. They tell us it's important

for our greatness. Guys, will you become

greater the moment you support

Kyrgyzstan? Do you feel your greatness growing?

Growing, increasing? So maybe

I'll sacrifice some greatness, but still I

am once again making one of my favorite

campaign promises: I will stop forgiving

other countries' debts. No money means no money.

We can't forgive anything. It's impossible.

First we solve our own problems, and then

we help Palmyra and everyone else, waving

our hands while tears of sympathy run down our cheeks

for them—but we say: no, no,

we don't have the money. What's more, I even

recently came up with a great formula

for refusing. That president of Sudan came recently,

you saw him with Putin. Putin apparently

gave him money. I can't say for sure.

If the president of Sudan says to me, "Alexei,

give us money," I can't just say, "No money,"

because that would contradict diplomatic

etiquette, right? So what should I

say?

And I came up with something great. I won't say

"hang in there"—I'll say: "Dear

President of Sudan, in order to answer

that question, come with me to the

airport."

I'll meet him at the airport, and we'll fly

where?

To Kaliningrad. I'll drive him down the street past

those five-story apartment blocks and those

ruined structures,

take him there,

and he'll come up to me and say, "Alexei,

keep your money—we don't have anything like this

in Sudan. Our roads are better than yours.

So I will stop doing this. It's obvious.

This is supported by 90 percent

of the population. Everything I've said is simply

right there on the surface. This is what

absolutely everyone in the country wants, but for some reason it isn't.

Looking at our unity there, despite the fact that

well, the rally taking place here right now

is obviously bigger than any rally

that United Russia can hold, right, United Russia (the ruling party), that is,

can possibly organize. So we are bigger

than they are, especially considering that they were banning things.

We keep running into the fact that

I was saying these things specifically to you.

Have you heard that? Many people have heard it, and yet

nevertheless, as you quite rightly told me,

we drive out one camera operator after another, but

it does no good, because we have, and I in particular have,

especially in this election,

one sinister and very real, powerful enemy.

Who is it? Putin is not really the enemy at all—well, I mean,

he is an enemy, of course, but not a sinister one, not a strong one. We

understand what to do: without Putin, corruption

we could easily reduce the level of

corruption dramatically. So who is the real, true enemy?

Propaganda? Fine, we will get rid of propaganda, we will ban it.

But tell me yourselves: who is our main enemy right now?

Who is it? Come on.

Raise your hand if you have ever shown

the film He Is Not Dimon to You

or told your relatives and acquaintances about

corruption, tried to persuade someone otherwise.

A lot of you. Now raise your hands if, in response,

you heard my favorite phrase: “Well, well,”

“all right, fine, but these ones have already

stolen enough, and the new ones will come and steal too.”

Have you heard that one? That is our main enemy.

That phrase right there—I hate it with every fiber

of my soul.

Every time it is said, somewhere in the world there appears

one little Vladimir Putin, and he

clinks champagne glasses with a little Dmitry

Medvedev, and they say, “Dima, let’s go

skim off another billion,” because they

agree—they agree that nothing

can be changed.

They agree that they are doomed

to live under corruption. That is the main

problem lodged in the heads of our

people.

The idea that we are a lost people, that we are

somehow defective, that there is something wrong with us

deep down inside, so much so that

even if we want to break through somehow, we

never will. Very often, you know,

someone has this ultimate objection to all

my fiery campaign speeches: you talk

and talk and talk to a person, and then

they say, “Well, what can you do? It’s Russia.”

That’s just how it is. All right, but

why? Tell me, why is that how it is? And this is

Russia—so what?

Serfdom and so on? Our

mentality, people say? Or that we are used to it? Or

that we are a nation of slaves? Or that we are used to it, that we are

doomed? But why us? Was the reason in Poland

that there was no serfdom there? There was

serfdom in many places.

There was serfdom, and there are countries without

corruption. Look at countries where the situation was worse.

Look at Singapore and Hong Kong—now there you have Chinese societies,

supposedly such problematic guys when it comes to

corruption. In Georgia,

they reduced the level of corruption. So what is it with

us? No? And where is

the giant sign in the sky above this

territory saying there will always be, I don’t know, a black

tornado

and that nothing here will ever work out? No.

There is no skull and crossbones. There is no skull and crossbones. We are

a normal

nation, developed and educated, and we have

enormous advantages over everyone

else because there is a huge amount of

resource money here. And it is this disbelief

that I am fighting in this election—not

with Putin, not with corruption, not with Medvedev, not

with Solovyov, not with Kiselyov. Those are all just

secondary things. They are merely

parasitizing the fact that we ourselves have

convinced ourselves that nothing can be achieved,

that nothing can be changed.

We can hold great rallies, yes, bigger than anyone else,

and everyone will say, “I don’t see that 86

percent.”

But still, nothing can be changed.

When we defeat that, when we begin

to work for victory, and every one of those who

has gathered here is ready to spend five minutes a

day on campaigning, on work, on trying

to change life for the better,

we ourselves, guys, will be amazed at how easily

we achieve our goal, how quickly they

will run, how quickly they

will agree both to pay taxes and to live by

different rules, how quickly life

will change for the better. But first we need

to believe in ourselves, and that is exactly where

the building of our beautiful Russia

of the future will begin. Thank you, thank you very much.

Thank you for listening to me. Hope you didn’t freeze.

So, as I promised, I am ready to answer

any questions. Raise your hand, and I—I will now

hand over the microphone. Or should I repeat

the question about the army?

What about the army? So, regarding the army,

let me explain the following things, and then

first I want to say that Governor

Likhanov—did he serve in the army or not?

We are not going to punish Governor

Alikhanov for that, because I

will abolish conscription. I will abolish conscription. Probably

for many people in this square, that means something.

Why do I want to do this? Because

Russia needs a normal

professional army, and even if

we use the current Defense Ministry budget

for a contract-based army, we

can pay every professional servicemember

150,000 rubles a month

and have half a million

highly qualified military personnel. So why

do we need conscription now?

What is conscription? It is a tax on the poor.

A tax on the poor. First of all, no one is really attacking us.

No one is attacking us, especially not now, and fortunately this

army is not one we need today. They are not attacking us today;

they may attack tomorrow, but I am simply saying that

a modern army must be

professional, because the equipment

is of a kind that requires a professional

person with a high salary. Right now,

conscription means drafting people from villages.

Roughly speaking, they are the ones who go to serve.

People from Moscow do not go to serve, first of all.

Why? Because in Moscow they buy their way out.

They have higher incomes and can afford to do that. But if you are

poor, they will definitely scoop you up, and

your family will become even poorer because

instead of working, you spend

a year doing pointless army chores.

Therefore,

we will raise salaries for professional soldiers,

and abolish conscription. Good luck with that

side of the issue.

Here is the microphone, just briefly. Alexei,

I have been following your campaign and I completely

agree with you, I support you, but in a recent

interview of yours, where you said, "I will allow

gay pride parades"—Alexei,

people my age do not support that.

They are categorically against it, because the second

step would be same-sex marriage. Alexei,

please comment.

Otherwise you will lose the electorate in my

age group, so help me understand, please tell me.

Please—right now, are there

parades taking place where you are,

or are people trying to hold a gay pride parade? So,

first: for me, unquestionably, all citizens

are equal. But listen to me—how am I supposed to

distinguish who is straight and who is gay? So I

have decided one main thing for myself: I do not care

what anyone does in their private life. If

tomorrow people start running naked through the streets,

then they will probably just be taken to the police—but

it does not matter whether they are gay or heterosexual.

If they run around naked, they will be taken to the police.

So for me, first of all, everyone is equal.

Second, this is a very contrived problem, but

we are trying to ban it as if

this were somehow the main issue of all.

If tomorrow some kind of march is held on your

avenue,

well, so what? Everyone is equal in their

rights.

If someone is walking down the street properly dressed,

let them walk. Why pry into

what their business is and define them by their sexual

orientation? That is simply not really

the president's job.

People who are against gay pride parades exist

in every country, and they have every right

to be against them. Everyone has the full

right to their own view, but it is not for the president

to be dealing with this. So I am telling you:

the issue of same-sex marriage should be decided by referendum.

Vote on it.

However people decide, that is how it will be. That is all. I

believe people should decide this question themselves.

Question.

Yes, briefly if possible. All right, just from the category of:

if you become president, then—

three small questions.

All right. What reforms or changes will there be

at Russian Post, and regarding the rules adopted recently on December 7

—those customs rules?

Well, first of all, not "if you become"

president of Russia—"when you become"

president of Russia. Second, I do not really

understand which customs rules you are

talking about, but in general, as I understand it,

the issue of customs duties here is very

important, especially on automobiles.

Yes, on cars I can say quite

clearly that, well, we have had

high tariffs on automobiles for 30 years—thirty years.

Has that helped

Russian industry? Has it worked or

not? No. That means I will lower them.

They are unnecessary, they do not work. And the first

question was about Russian Post. Well,

right now it is a gigantic

structure that, essentially,

is accountable to no one, and no one

understands what is going on there. There is a model

to follow: Germany's postal service, Deutsche Post.

I believe Russian Post should be

reformed in accordance with the

model used in Germany.

I see signs saying:

"Navalny, don't be afraid to answer the question."

Well then, come up here with your questions. I am

not afraid.

Just, guys, please remember this:

when Putin comes here and

climbs onto this stage, I hope you will

say exactly the same thing: "Putin, don't be afraid

to answer the questions."

Yes, and into the microphone only, briefly.

All right.

Besides that,

regarding the gubernatorial elections that you pushed through

at Manezhnaya Square (a central square in Moscow), do you not think that this

system is a cause of corruption

because it forces candidates to spend

enormous amounts of money on

elections? Is this the terrible question that

I am supposedly afraid to answer? Okay.

So, I pushed through a system of gubernatorial

elections. So you think they

should be appointed, right? In other words, you

think the current crooked and flawed

system is still so bad that

they should simply be appointed directly, right? And

elections are the cause of corruption. Fine. What is

your name? Dmitry.

Please explain this to me. Let us first

ask: are there fair elections in this country?

No. Right now the Central Election

Commission, in full accordance with your

idea, for example, is declaring that I...

should not be allowed to run in the election because

by saying that, she is effectively saying there will be no election

So please tell me, if I am not

allowed to run, will there be more corruption

or less? Less? Then what does that have to do with me? Come on,

look, look at our fellow citizens

our compatriots, our fellow countrymen — do they have the right

to nominate a president or not?

Tell me, look at them and say

whether they have the right to nominate a candidate for

president.

According to the law? Well, according to the law, they do.

They do have the right to nominate someone for president.

Apparently they do. And if they nominate

a presidential candidate, will corruption

increase or decrease? Decrease. Which means I

can tell you one thing, Dmitry:

this is the proven experience of developed countries.

When there is choice, and when there are

independent media, when there is a judicial

system, corruption is lower. But in our

country, this corruption happens

constantly because money loves silence.

Because there are no elections, and so they steal

left and right.

Tell me one thing — I'll come over to you, excuse me.

A quick correction, though.

You support Putin, right? As I

understand it, you are a big supporter

of Vladimir Putin. Then explain this:

answer all these people standing here.

Recently, in the Panama Papers

the cellist Roldugin was implicated in offshore schemes.

He has two billion dollars in offshore accounts.

He is Putin's personal friend. Do you consider

this situation normal, or are

Putin, whom you admire, and Roldugin

obliged to answer to these people here?

Definitely not obliged.

Well, that's a comprehensive answer, and very clear.

A person has the right to think that way. He

really believes that Putin owes us

nothing. Well, let's see

which group is larger in our country: people like us

or people like him. People like us — any

person believes that a candidate for

president, or the president, is accountable

to the people. The source of power is the people. Either we

govern ourselves here, or he is a tsar. So,

Dmitry, you vote for Putin — but let

these people have the chance to vote for

Navalny.

If I can persuade them. Next question.

Shared-equity homebuyers? All right, let me — I can't

answer everyone, of course.

Come on, let's do it this way: question, question.

Miss, your question — just briefly.

Hello, I have a question for you.

I am the mother of a minor child.

How do you feel about the fact that

underage children go to rallies?

What's your name? Tatyana. A mother

of a minor child. I want to say clearly

that I feel very positively about the fact that

minors go to rallies. I

am proud that I am supported by

schoolchildren and students. I don't see any

problem with that.

Some support more, some

less than others. First of all, they are not

just supporting someone — and most importantly, the authorities

don't care about them, don't care about anyone, and in general

they couldn't care less about those schoolchildren and students. They

treat them like some kind of serfs. So, when it comes to

the army, he has to go through a medical board

automatically, so apparently he is allowed

to enlist.

But he can't go to a rally? So

someone has to pay for his school

breakfast — his parents have to pay — but

he isn't allowed to go to a rally. That's why our

rally is peaceful.

Yes, it's a great rally, a kind rally,

a wonderful one, and even the police here

are standing with kind faces, so

when adults and

minors come to rallies like this,

I believe they are educating

themselves, they are growing as citizens, and when

it's safe — safe, look, we

do worry about safety.

That is exactly why our rally is completely

safe. The most dangerous person at this

rally is me, and I am behind bars, as you

can see.

So everything is fine with minors.

Let's take a question from here. Ilya, 8-bit.

Vadim High Roller, the next question is as follows:

for Kaliningrad residents, basically, the main issue is this:

we have very serious problems with visas.

At one time,

thousands of Kaliningrad residents collected signatures for

travel to Europe. It seemed like we had resolved the issue, but because of

our supposed inferiority

Moscow decided for us, and as a result

the result was zero — visas, which we didn't have before,

we still don't have, on the same basis as

the rest of Russia. Do we have the right to obtain visas

perhaps under a simpler procedure

than all of central Russia?

This is an important question. But you said

an important but incorrect phrase. You said

"because of our inferiority," and because of

your circumstances.

But it is because of the Kremlin's inferiority and idiocy.

So, Russia's strategy — and especially that of

the Kaliningrad region — should be

a visa-free regime with European countries,

and a visa regime with the countries of Central Asia and

the South Caucasus. That is my campaign promise.

The Russian government must do everything

so that we can travel to

Europe without visas, and so they can come

here as well. We need to do ten times more. What's more,

Europe, on the whole, is not against it. They

want to come here — let them come. They

leave their money here, right? You don't

object to them coming here, do you?

foreigners would spend their weekends here and leave

their money; the same should happen

again, and the European Union is generally

ready for this, but our idiotic

government in Moscow, exactly,

they treat the Leningrad Region

as some kind of military facility,

a military outpost, so no one here should

be allowed to develop. The main thing it

exists for is some kind of bases; the bases must

come first. We should be thinking about

people. When there is visa-free entry here,

people will live more prosperously. That should be the priority

for the president. A question from this

side, please.

[music]

Hello. Basically, I was one of the first

to ask about the army. Well, not really about

the army—I don’t want to ask a question so much as

tell you how things actually happen

in the army, how it works for us in the army.

They gather everyone in a crowd, in the club, roughly

speaking, and say: look at how

we lived back in such-and-such year, basically,

vote for United Russia

and for Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. And who

else, you might ask, are we supposed to vote for?

After all, my fellow servicemen get 15,000

rubles, and I get 21,600. So the question is,

no, no, no—whether they’re pensioners, junior staff, whatever,

that part doesn’t matter. The fact is that

you see, on television they show

one thing: that our armed forces and everything else

are just wonderful. But in reality, if you

dig a little deeper, everything is actually very

bad. The equipment won’t start; it’s falling apart.

You—

Go on, speak properly. There’s nothing against you,

no one is going to fire you. Listen,

we’ll all protect you. What’s your name? Dmitry.

So, like it or not,

I mean, I’m not some person who—give me a second—

some guy who came from the Boulevard Ring

(central Moscow) from a professor’s family. My father

was in the military. I spent my whole life in a military

town. All my classmates are military men,

police officers, security-service types, and FSB people,

so I understand this environment perfectly well. I know very well

that there is enormous support in your circles

for this. You may not believe it yourselves, but

the support is there. Just ask anyone—

that police officer standing between you, go

ask him whether they give out apartments here or not.

[applause]

They don’t. Look over there, where they’re standing—

there are several of them. Ask them whether they’re given

apartments or not. There, Major, do they give them out?

The major doesn’t want to answer about the apartments,

but I think it’s fair to say they’re not handed out

left and right. It’s exactly the same for the military.

Absolutely the same. And of course, whatever you may think,

once again, if we look at the size of the military

and police budget, we see such enormous

amounts of money there that salaries could be

tripled for everyone as early as tomorrow.

And overall, that budget could even be reduced

because ten times more is stolen in that sector

than in the civilian one. So if we

defeat corruption there, then we’ll be able

to raise salaries—both the salaries

of personnel and housing. Those should be the

top priorities. There was a question about

pensions—a question about pensions. Go ahead, go ahead,

briefly.

Tell me, Alexei,

what are your plans for the future if you suddenly

become president—God willing, of course,

that you do—

and win. What will your policy be toward

pensions, the Pension Fund, and in general, how

do you see it, if right now, this year,

working pensioners have been affected by all this?

We pay taxes every month—13

percent. Why does the government treat us

this way on that issue—precisely, not

in a positive way? The thing is, it’s not even just

13 percent that we pay—13 percent

is the income tax, but if you count

the unified social tax and all contributions,

it comes out to not 13, but another 35 on top of that.

And the government, which for several years

in a row

has been taking what they called a voluntary contribution to

the Pension Fund, saying that it was

the last year—they said for three years in a row

that it was the last year, while robbing us,

stealing our pension savings—and now

they have announced that until 2020

they are taking all pension

savings. And someone rightly shouted to me here:

can anyone live on 8,000

rubles? Exactly. And by the way, the average

salary on paper—the average pension

is supposedly 13,000, though that is an absolute lie,

a complete lie. And as for

the question of where in Kaliningrad one can

find out how to live on 8,000

rubles—who can manage that? That is why we are conducting

this survey, because we do not understand how anyone can

live on 8,000 rubles. And regarding

pension money, I have a very simple

and carefully thought-out approach: I look at 9