Autumn Tour. Rally in Murmansk

I hope I'm not filming anything insanely awkward.

to film.

What are you filming right now? Good question. I'm just

doing a livestream.

My hand's frozen off. No, it's not cold.

Cool.

There's already... I can see that you're with me

more than anyone else.

I thought that

I was bailing.

Hi.

It's really awkward for me to talk right now,

so just watch. Okay.

Well, she gave me, I think,

Let me try.

In a second they'll say all that stuff: disperse.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Nothing's going to happen.

Shh.

there's just nothing...

yeah, waiting for someone.

Hi.

Can you see anything at all?

Yeah.

All right then. Blue.

All right.

Yeah,

so far we don't see anyone,

even though everyone was clapping for someone,

except the people.

Yeah,

yeah, we'll see.

I'm just

showing people other people.

I'm just asking a lot of people.

Cool.

I hope there'll at least be something

to hear.

Well, I heard some sound.

Well, it's probably around plus five degrees Celsius.

And a little rain.

And a little rain, yeah.

Oh, you're not the only one like that

doing livestreams.

I'm not filming myself.

I'll just need to take some photos later.

Nothing

there's nothing there.

My arm is already tired. This is brutal,

for sure. A balloon

he's got one.

Well, it started out fifty-fifty. Mostly, mostly here

there are probably people

kind of in the middle range; there are adults too,

and, well, of course there are more young people.

If you lump all the schoolkids together, yeah,

like counting two for one, then it'd be

about even, probably.

And only one person is watching me.

While waiting for someone, I can't see absolutely anyone

at all.

No, you can't do that here. All right,

that's

about what I expected. There was

a guy with purple bangs.

Yeah, there was a guy there, by the way, with purple

bangs. He's somewhere over there.

There he is.

A person.

There are actually a lot of people.

You know, like, getting somewhere into

the middle is easy, but getting farther forward

is hard.

late...

rude

...

a lot of people who just

push their way through the crowd.

But we're smart, probably.

Well, I get what you mean. Can I just

stand here for a second

he's been filming there forever. Good for him.

All right, okay. I'll go here myself.

Well, you know, basically, the cops are mostly standing

around the entrance. There's that

metal detector. So basically, there

they check everyone on the way in, and they're standing

around the area.

this livestream.

There's still no one yet.

This is what it's like being short.

And we can't...

I'm reading your message.

I see everything.

And

now I'm going to call myself that too,

basically. Tau,

yeah. Okay.

I like this dude. This one, this one

right here, this one,

he's blocking my view.

Move.

If only

please crouch down, if it's not too much trouble

for you.

I waved at you too, but I don't really have anything to

wave with my hand. Unless...

I suggest, basically, I'll send something really

...

to him, great.

Yeah, I know, there are lots of people streaming here.

A lot of them are better.

And then there's us? And then there's us? Yeah. Just

more of the same.

Seriously?

Everything's visible.

It's way more convenient for me to watch than from my own

spot.

Well, it happens

when there's no one there.

10 minutes. Well, thank God it's not

cold here. How many people are there?

It's been raining for the second day in a row. Well, right now

it's just drizzling.

Yeah, like, it pours and then just

drizzles.

Gladkov.

Actually, it's not even that it's better than my own screen,

it's just better.

It’s convenient with people.

Hello, everyone.

Who?

Hello, Murmansk. We’re starting our

rally. Wow, there are so many of you here.

Ah, can people at the back hear me? Raise your hands. Oh,

excellent. Our rally will be opened by an active

citizen, a local sole proprietor,

entrepreneur Eduard Dombay.

Excellent.

Hello, dear participants in this

meeting with Alexei Navalny.

My name is Dombay. I represent

small business.

Can you hear me? Yes.

Just like this.

Well, on the local internet I’m also known

by the nickname MMK. And I’d like to spend a little time

focusing on the problems

of the Murmansk Region. I’ve been living in this world

for a long time,

I was born in the days of Leonid Brezhnev.

So

I’m very nervous, so I’ll be speaking

from my notes, as was customary in the days

of dear Leonid Ilyich.

Well, what can I say, our local problems are not

they are not unique, and

and

the poor quality of housing and utility services,

the quality of medical care,

the lack of civil liberties,

corruption. I think these same

problems exist not only

in the Murmansk Region, but

There are too many tall people blocking

the view.

And if we talk about healthcare, we have all

heard the high-profile story

of Dasha Starikova from the town of Apatity,

but there may be similar stories,

if not hundreds of them,

in our region,

with other diagnoses.

As far as we know, there is an ongoing

merger

of so-called

various medical institutions.

This is happening in the Pechenga District,

in Kovdor, Kandalaksha, Murmansk, Apatity

and Kirovsk.

And the same thing is happening with

the environmental problem. We also heard

the high-profile story about how salmon

in the pens of a company that

raises salmon

in the Barents Sea died.

And this epidemic became known only

when we started finding piles

of dead salmon all over the region.

Why was it a secret? It was

a secret because the regulatory

authorities were forbidden

from conducting inspections. And they were forbidden

from conducting inspections because the owners

of this company

are Mr. Timchenko and people connected to Mr.

Timchenko.

So the problem

is the same across all regions. And

the problem is really

the vertical power structure. Or take coal

dust, for example.

We are here with Alexei Navalny, and 2 km (about 1.2 miles) above us

there is a coal terminal.

Recently, coal transshipment

has increased, and Murmansk residents living in

the central part of the city are forced to suffer because of it.

The number of illnesses has risen

related to the respiratory system. And nevertheless,

even though we have a governor here,

and also deputies of the regional duma,

still no one can influence the situation

because the owner of the port,

Mr. Timchenko, is

this is interesting

a friend of our political beau monde.

As for the fishing industry now,

in the early 1990s the population

of Murmansk was almost half a million,

but now

the city’s population does not even reach 300,000.

People are leaving, that is, the population

has shrunk practically by

In the past, the city of Murmansk supplied fish to

almost half of the USSR, and now

fish is often brought not from Murmansk but to

Murmansk.

Well, globalization is part of the reason here, but

the main reason is bureaucracy.

There are customs procedures, border checks, inspections. I

think our guests from Moscow will be

interested to learn that, for example,

a fishing vessel entering the city of

Murmansk is forced to remain in port

for several days

to complete these formalities. And

for our Murmansk fishermen, coming into our

city of Murmansk has become unprofitable. Therefore,

therefore now

all our fishing vessels have gone to

northern Norway.

In Norway, all these same

procedures that take us

several days take only a few

hours. Accordingly,

fishermen are not prepared to pay for the downtime of

their vessels. And we are watching how

literally over the

past decades

small port towns in northern Norway

have literally flourished, while Murmansk’s fishing

port stands empty. Fish processing

companies have shut down their

businesses.

About 10 years ago, in Murmansk,

a State Council meeting on this issue was held with the

participation of the president, but things are still right where they were.

So it turns out that our Murmansk fishermen

catch fish in the Barents Sea, and then

it is sent to Norway, where it is

processed. After that

it ends up in St. Petersburg.

And now the great

fishing power Belarus has been added to the mix as well.

And as a result, our own fish

makes its way to Murmansk by this roundabout route.

Well, it would seem, what is stopping them? It doesn't

require any money at all

to change the laws.

The president has a pocket Duma, he

can pass any law

he wants.

But nevertheless, as we know, the State Duma

is busy passing entirely different laws.

For example, laws that basically, damn, I

mean restrictions on broadcasts.

And if the same problems exist

in different regions, then

the question arises: are the

federal authorities doing their job?

We have the exact same question, so

no, they are not. The reason is

not only the lack of political competition here.

Yes, yes, everywhere.

In a recent interview, Ksenia Sobchak asked

Vlad... asked Navalny the question: who is he?

Left-wing, right-wing, or centrist?

In my view, Alexei was unable to answer

that question. But the most interesting thing

is that I, as a Navalny supporter, also

don't know who I am — right-wing, left-wing, or

centrist.

In fact, I represent small

business; at the same time I am both an

entrepreneur,

and an employee. It really doesn't matter to me

whether the president is right-wing or left-wing.

What matters most, what matters most is that this be

a normal politician. The main thing is that

his priority should be the interests

of Russia and its citizens, not holding on

to personal power.

And

we have many normal ones —

Yashin, Yulinsky, and many others. The main thing is

that

our president should be a normal,

sane person. Someone who

thinks about the people, not his friends. And I see

that, as practice shows, the most

effective of the normal politicians

is Alexei Navalny. This

was shown, for example, by the Moscow mayoral election.

I believe that Alexei, Alexei Navalny,

sooner or later will become president

of the Russian Federation.

And we will all help him do it. The main thing

for us is that good people

stick together and fear nothing.

Well, of course, we will have to make some

sacrifices. Everyone saw yesterday's

video where, in a Murmansk school,

some teacher or

some official lady was saying that

uh,

yes, that if I make this sacrifice now,

I've been spotted at a rally and probably won't

get into vocational school. We'll all end up going

to secondary vocational education institutions.

Thank you.

Where is he?

Friends, are you cold?

Cold?

No.

And just now he spoke about the previous

speaker, who reminded us about the sweater and her

wonderful advice not to let young people come here. And

raise your hand if you came from that

lyceum — hey, gymnasium — where they

forbade students to come here. Anyone?

Gymnasium No. 7. That's right.

Let's applaud the kids who didn't

They threatened someone else too. If you

come, something will happen. So

feeling warmer now, right? I want

to give the floor to presidential candidate

Alexei Navalny of the Russian Federation.

Thank you so much, guys. I am very

happy. So, well, now I know

everything about wonderful Murmansk.

You came here

despite the teachers' recordings

made on public money.

Come

here. Don't

be afraid of the truth — how long can you keep being afraid?

I'm not afraid. And you

can see perfectly well that I am taking part in the election campaign

I was threatened, I was jailed

I served my time. Well, better

that you came here. And I heard that over there they

were saying:

It created a divide

us and them

right, if they don't want

applicants, then

next year they won't fill their places.

No one will go there, but I want to say

that after

only those who were in the square today.

Just kidding, just kidding, of course not. Universities will admit

those who do well on the exams.

The principal, or whoever she is, said that

I am an extremist. They actually say quite often

that I am an extremist.

I don't understand why.

What is it that I say that is supposedly so terrible?

Well, apparently, apparently the word

truth is extremism to them.

Wow, what a

I always thought of myself as a quiet, home-loving

person.

I terrified the whole island, frightened everyone

with my extremism. And then I realized

that, well, they are afraid, they are trembling.

This campaign is about simple

things that are right out in the open, things

that any person, old or young, living in Moscow,

Murmansk,

or Novosibirsk can understand.

Because all of this—tell me,

please, who has seen the film "He Is Not Dimon

to You"?

It's clear that YouTube is popular here. And who

believed the facts presented there?

Who thinks that anyone who doubts those facts

that

I see a hand, but tell me, even those who

have doubts,

don't deserve to have them

But this is a simple matter. Just look.

There is the documentary evidence.

A man in this country is simply a thief

who built palaces and yachts with 80 billion rubles.

There they are—they've been photographed. Let's

conduct an investigation. But this government pretends

that absolutely nothing is happening. That is,

it's not even that there should be criminal charges. I am running in these

elections.

I want to become president. I want

to earn your support. Because I

want there to be a fight against

corruption in Russia. And I tell you that I will fight

corruption. I promise you that I will put

all of them behind bars.

I will bring them to the defendant's bench.

I will hand them over to a fair trial.

The countless billions and millions they

stole from us will be recovered.

It's impossible. There are no prospects for the country

or for the region. The population has more or less

been shrinking in recent years.

Over the years, from Murmansk Region,

380,000 people have left.

There is simply a massive population exodus

underway. And tell me honestly, hand on heart,

do you yourselves

see any prospects for development?

Do you feel that people here are becoming

richer?

Then

things are getting worse and worse. And where, then, is the promised

port?

Half of what they say is about your

Shtokman and nickel.

It's all supposedly about you. But do you actually feel it?

When you read in the news that Norilsk

Nickel has increased its

profits, do you think: great, tomorrow I'll become

a little richer?

This does not happen in Russia. Even in the Gulf countries,

where people sit on

oil wealth, the population understands it.

Oil prices fell, maybe the price of

coal rose—we are richer. It went up, and we became

richer. But in Russia, that doesn't work,

because we are completely cut off,

separated from it.

from what rightfully belongs to us.

If you look at it, is it really like that

or not? No.

Does it resemble your neighbors, Norway and

Finland?

So what is wrong with us?

Everything is wrong. The government is wrong. They are not just thieves.

This is what stands here. And at the same time, in

Moscow, when that building was last renovated,

when that

was in the 2010s,

while here

the cities are full of peeling buildings,

this is not a country, this is simply

an extraction machine. You probably love Muscovites, right?

And all across the country, people don't like Muscovites.

But Muscovites, in fact, are just as much

victims of this lying, hypocritical system that refuses to respond

to anything. But listen,

when it comes to the fact that

she thinks she arranged things for her

son.

What is that called?

That is

exactly

700,000 people live in the region. Everyone

understands. It is

the very same person against whom

there are complaints,

yet against whom there is supposedly not a single complaint, when

a minister in your government, to other

members of the government and to himself, allocates

how much was it,

yes,

and what is that? It counts for nothing. And

I understand very well that I am going into this election because

if the authorities do not in any way

but only brazenly keep arranging all of this

behind the scenes,

then nothing will work:

not education,

not healthcare,

They have now turned Russia

into a country of daddies whose

children are put in charge of the security services and

who head

state corporations, and so on, and so on. All

of them, without asking anyone,

without ever asking the people. Let me ask you,

please,

suppose you graduate from a

university in Murmansk Region. What kind of

salary can you get if

you work honestly?

16,000 rubles

30,000

40,000. I heard

In my field, 20,000. No, no, no, wait,

hold on. Seriously,

how is that possible? There should at least be a salary

not like in Norway, but at least like in European countries

that one could get.

The minimum wage there is 1,100 euros.

You should be able to get 70,000 easily.

No.

Then I really don’t understand,

my friends. In every region

it’s unclear, and you’re unclear too. And the salary

25

25 at most

Kavtun.

So,

let’s say they brought it up

about the U.S. And then you look at Murmansk Region,

on the website

of the Murmansk Region government

it says that the salary here is 57,000

57,000 on average

in your region. Do you believe that or

not?

Impossible.

go to a job search website, and there

the salary here is 27,000.

So how is it that according to the data

from the state,

because they lie about everything, even in

official statistics. And my

campaign first and foremost, no matter how much they

might not

say I’m talking nonsense or something else,

my campaign is about people having

higher salaries. I simply believe that

it is impossible in a countr

that ranks first in the world in sales, first place

in gas sales worldwide, that sells

natural resources worth trillions of

dollars, to have such salaries. I think, and

I believe that Russia can have

a normal— the rain started

future. No, there won’t be golden

palaces tomorrow. We won’t turn this building into a crystal one

tomorrow, no, but at least we

probably will be able to.

Probably, at least in Russia we will be able

to build roads, because even in Africa

they built roads. In Latin America

the road problem has been solved, and only in Russia

do officials simply throw up their hands, and already

for many

the problem of roads is considered unsolvable.

Yes, there was news today, where was it, in what

city? In Omsk. I’m going there, I’ll be in

Omsk on Sunday. There they filled a pothole

with potatoes.

Do you understand?

We created Skolkovo (Russia’s state-backed innovation hub)

and some kind of nanotechnology. But Medvedev’s pothole

got filled,

with potatoes, and they tell us: "Well,

it’s impossible to fix." But why is it

impossible if they fix them everywhere else? Russia’s budget

is enormous even now.

It is enough for us to cover our basic

needs

if people would stop stealing constantly. What do we have?

Just look at

the south coast of France. Official

data from London real estate agencies.

They all say the same thing: "These houses

are being bought up by Russian officials." That’s how it

works. Taken from one place, it appears in another

place. It is from here, from this

dilapidated building, that the wealth

of our officials and our

oligarchs comes. In 2000, when Putin

came to power, how many dollar billionaires

were there in Russia?

Eight. Well, according to different estimates, from

four to eight, and now there are

around 160.

That’s something we’re supposed to be proud of. Great. We’re proud.

Thank you. We’re proud of you, Roman

Abramovich. We’re proud of you. My favorite

friend Alisher Usmanov and all the rest. Well

yes, wonderful, yes, I’m ready to be proud of

billionaires. I really am proud of

billionaires who created Yandex

or billionaires who created something

real. But why should I even

sit here and analyze this? And all of us sit here

trying to understand. How can this be? If in

the country more and more people are below the

poverty line, already 20%. If salaries are

lower than in Kazakhstan now, in

Russia, lower than in China now, in

Russia—tell me, maybe I’m

mistaken and you’ll correct me. Has there been created

any new enterprise in Murmansk

Region over the last 18 years? No.

Some factory, I don’t know, maybe something

was built in the port.

They’re building something, there is something?

Well, people are prompting that they are building something, but maybe

something has been built too. But I know one thing:

those petrodollars that

flowed into the Soviet Union in Brezhnev’s

times—basically everything was built

with them that we see around us. Everything we see is

the petrodollars of the 1970s, and there were fewer of them

than there are now. And Putin has been in power

longer than Brezhnev already.

Quite recently he surpassed

Brezhnev’s time in power by a few days. And

where did all of it go?

What did it turn into?

Exactly into this very ranking

of billionaires.

Forgive me.

In our country

a sixty-year-old man is considered

a very old man.

We basically have no healthcare at all. When someone

dies, everyone says: "Well, so what,

he lived a while, didn’t he?"

Well, what, wasn’t that enough? How so?

Be glad you made it five more years

while Vladimir Putin tells us

that, well, you know, things have somehow

in the Russian Feder

improved.

I see quite a lot of older people

here. Please, when you go to a hospital,

or a clinic, and say: "I want

to get an ultrasound for free." Quickly, for you

how long do you have to wait to

2 months. All right. If you say

this phrase, which is practically criminal in Russia: "I want

to get an MRI for free".

Are you kidding? These are the most basic

things. It’s the 21st century, and we still can’t cure

people of basic illnesses. Here,

cancer is being detected at stage four. Here,

people are dying from diseases that

no one has died from in a long time. In terms of

the number of new HIV/AIDS cases, we

have surpassed almost all of Africa.

I’m running in this election because this is my

country. I live here. My

two children were born here. I would like

them to stay here. And I know for certain that

we can provide ourselves with a decent

life. I know for certain that there are

countries where judges are honest. I

will make sure that Russia has honest

judges. Once I become president, I will simply

forbid myself from appointing them.

That’s it.

Justices of the peace will be elected by the people. I’m

not afraid of that. They’re the ones who are afraid that

the people will choose somehow always terrible

people.

But the truth is that

most of the time, people choose decent

people.

You’re laughing, because in Russia that

doesn’t work. In Russia today, decent

people don’t get elected, and in fact there are no real elections

at all.

I know for certain that some basic

simple measures would lead to

people being much wealthier and

much freer. Just tell me,

it’s obvious, it’s right there on

the surface. Who here has ever taken out a

consumer loan?

Like buying a washing

machine in a store.

In general, schoo-

You’ve taken loans. What interest rate?

20, 30, 50 percent. We even see some

of those offers online, often

advertising an effective rate of 1,000%

per year. A mortgage. You can buy

an apartment here. Fine. 11% per year. Then please explain

why the hell Putin

gives his own son-in-law

a budget loan at 0% interest? Why the hell

does the state bail out banks and

bankers and give them money at 0%

interest, at minimal rates? And so

it turns out that we can’t buy anything

with a mortgage because they

get money at 0%. I know for certain

that in Russia rates can be lowered

to 3% or 4%, for example. If they

say inflation is 4%, why are we

being given loans at 12%? This is elementary

stuff. It could be done tomorrow. The judicial

system could largely be fixed tomorrow.

A real fight against corruption can be started

literally tomorrow. I become president.

I introduce a law against illicit

enrichment. And when your governor,

Kovtun, and her family cannot explain

where the income came from for such

expenses,

a criminal case is automatically opened

against her. Automatically.

And that way, a huge number of

officials, thieving officials,

we won’t touch the decent ones, we’ll

send the others into the dock. And don’t

tell us these

fairy tales, this garbage about how it’s supposedly so

hard to fight corruption. Corruption

is hard to prove, Putin keeps telling us.

What is there to prove?

Well, if

you own a dacha worth 50 million rubles,

that’s it. Either explain where you got 50

million rubles, or it’s a criminal case and off you go. It

works in many countries. And

there used to be such a law here.

Yes.

And I want, and I know absolutely for certain, that

a huge number of people in Russia want

these changes.

People who can’t be fooled

with this garbage about some endless

Ukraine. They’re told only that

whoever says anything in response must want

what happened in Ukraine. I

say that Medvedev has

and they say, damn it, he wants to stage a Maidan (mass protest uprising like in Ukraine).

He’s going to cause unrest. He came to

the center of Murmansk and caused unrest. But

this is the most peaceful rally in the

world.

We want simple things, and we don’t want all this

waffling. Every time you turn on

the TV, the first, second, and third

stories are about Trump, the fourth, fifth,

and sixth are about Ukraine. We’re sick

of it already. It makes us nauseous. Well,

you have to admit,

when are there going to be news stories about our own country?

When I become president, I know exactly

where I will immediately get quite a lot of

money to solve

a significant number of problems here.

Not by legalizing marijuana. That’s not where we’ll

start,

I’ll tell you that. I will stop forgiving debts

to other countries.

Let’s deal with things here first.

Right here. The residents of the city

of Murmansk, which is quite

far from Syria. Right.

We are quite far from

Venezuela. Let’s vote. Who is in favor of

stopping the practice of forgiving deb-debts

Venezuela?

Who is in favor of stopping the issuance of new

loans to Venezuela? How can we? How can we

keep loading them up with billions when we ourselves

here, frankly speaking, have problems

everywhere you look. These are

truly enormous sums of money. Amounts

comparable to annual funding for

education and healthcare. What, do we

have teachers who are all so wealthy that they do not

need money? Do we all have perfect

textbooks, perfect schools, perfect

classrooms, generous scholarships? Well, if not,

then that means I become president and

say to these wonderful countries: "Dear

people of Mozambique, Cuba, Venezuela,

I don't know, Palmyra,

and the rest of you, I love you dearly, I adore you. In

Murmansk they love you very much too, but

please excuse us, give it back to us."

We have nothing to forgive you for; we ourselves

have nothing.

When I become president, I will do

simple things. I will ask Switzerland

to return everything that was stolen in Russia

and taken there. They do this. Many

countries have achieved this. Only Russia

does not want to do anything. When we exposed

Prosecutor General Chaika (Yury Chaika, former Russian prosecutor general) in corruption and wrote to

Switzerland: "Yes, guys, we are ready

to open a criminal case against him."

It's just that your Prosecutor General's Office, which

by sheer coincidence is headed by Chaika,

does not want to do anything. It tells us that

there were no crimes. And that is why

I believe that no matter what they say about

how I am not allowed to run in the election, that I am

a criminal and the law forbids me

from doing anything — I am not talking about paperwork,

I am talking about the substance.

I know I am not the only one like this.

I know that in reality I have 86%

on my side, because everyone here is against corruption

here.

Nobody likes oligarchs, nobody likes

the fact that 80% of the nation's

wealth is in the hands of 0.1% of the population.

Nobody likes the fact that even

Western economists are already publishing and telling

us: "Guys in Russia, you have

70% of your GDP sitting in offshore accounts,

taken out of the country. You could build a new

country with that." And they say:

"Hey, you should maybe pay some

attention to this." And our authorities say: "No,

come on, that's nonsense. We are busy here

with more pressing matters. We have Ukraine, we have

Donbas, we are saving Aleppo." I will become

a president who will care about

the citizens of Russia,

who will enter office with

a specific list of assets, which

you will see in the declaration, and who

will leave the Kremlin possessing

nothing except that same list

of assets, because, come on, there has to

be, for heaven's sake, at least for the first time in

Russia's history, some honest person

in power.

I want to be that person. I ask

you to believe in me. I ask you to become

part of our team. I ask you

to campaign for me, for yourselves, for them, for

everyone. Because that is the only way we prevail.

And our victory is inevitable. Because we are

for the truth, we stand for obvious things, while on their

side there is only lies and theft. Therefore

our victory is inevitable, and so is their defeat.

Just as inevitable. Friends, thank you

so much for coming. Thank you.

As I promised, I am ready to answer questions. If

I keep talking any longer, I am afraid you will all

get sick.

I am ready to answer questions without any

preparation and without notes.

What kind of cult of personality? For whom?

I have to.

This will be difficult. Raise your hand. And

the question

No, well, give your comments first, then questions

if there are any. Let me just — Ruslan,

give them the microphone and ask your question. Just

keep it short.

Can you hear me? Friends, may I make an announcement?

They have just counted the people at the metal detectors, and

this is the biggest rally in the history

of Murmansk. Right now there are

2,600 people here. Hooray,

there you go, guys.

And we counted too — you can see this is a fairly

large rally. To be honest, yes, I

was preparing for there to be

100 to 150 people here, given the weather. But I

want to ask you one thing. No, not just one thing. Among

other things, I ask that when you get

home today, go online and

see the Murmansk city police department's report saying

that there were 83 people

at today's rally,

please tell everyone else

how brazenly they lie. We are ready for questions.

Here, this person over there

microphone right away. We are such a great and

awesome country.

Oil — will it ever end?

I will repeat it: excellent question. Thank you

very much. We are such a great, wonderful

country, and yet we still make our money from oil.

Will that ever end or not? I

am running in this election with that question.

I am sick of it. Listen, today is actually an

anniversary. Do you know what happened? Twenty years ago our

company called

Google,

which is now worth more than

Gazprom, Rosneft, and all the rest. That is

our tremendous advantage.

We are not going to give it up, but the task

to make money from something else. The task is to give

people freedom. If our own people are leaving,

constantly, day after day—every year from

Russia, 200,000 people leave who

go to India to work in

programming, go to Romania

to work in programming, go to

California to work in

programming, scatter all over the

world, earn huge amounts of money, and

pay taxes into other countries’ budgets. I

will become president. I will abolish taxes on

small business. Completely.

Completely abolish them. Because all taxes on

small business amount to 0.5% of GDP, and they cause

more hassle than they’re worth. I believe that if a person is running

a small business right now, let him

do it, support himself and his family. God

grant him health and happiness. We will stop

this regulation. I promise, standing here

at this podium in Murmansk, that I will shut the

hell down Roskomnadzor (Russia’s federal media and internet censor).

A vile, disgusting,

nasty institution that brings nothing

but losses. I will shut them down,

to hell with them. In Russia, every year

2 million inspections are carried out. 2 million

inspections. What exactly are they inspecting?

What are they inspecting? Business here is hanging by a

thread. Barely alive. They’re constantly

sticking their noses in, checking something. I will reduce

the number of inspections by 500 times. The very

next day I will do it, and then

business will start to grow. And then we

will make money from something other than

oil. Question. Shari.

What should we do about pores?

About pores.

Tell us about foreign policy,

relations with the States, with Europe, and with

Asia. As I already said, the most important

thing we must do in

foreign policy is to love everyone, but feed no one,

feed no one,

not give anyone money while we ourselves

don’t have any. And the main thing we must

do is be friends with everyone. We

will stop all wars with everyone, any wars at all.

We’re tired of fighting; it’s expensive, it’s

pointless, and it brings us losses.

Something is happening out there, in the middle of nowhere. But

we are the ones paying for it from here, out of our own

pockets, including here in Murmansk. I

believe that all the developed countries you

listed are, globally speaking, our

partners. We should trade with them and

make money from that. We must become

just as pragmatic as the Americans.

For them it’s simple. They want to make

money from everyone. And we will make

money from everyone too, be friends with everyone, and

build normal relations,

stay away from all kinds of costly

projects, stay away from wars, and

focus on making our people

richer. This is where we will direct

all our energy and strength—into Russia itself.

Right now, Polutin and all the others there

keep constantly pushing us,

saying that we have to go and

seize something somewhere. Right, some kind of

expansion is supposedly needed. What expansion?

Hardly anyone lives in this country. Good grief, there are huge

empty territories. What we need is

the colonization of Russia itself. So our—my

foreign policy will be tied to

domestic policy and will be about how we

must develop our country. Question. Yes,

Too far away. Pass the microphone. If you come closer

over here,

if I throw the microphone to you, I might

hit you.

I might hit you.

That wasn’t a threat. Just saying.

Give him the microphone. Yes. Ruslan, pass

the microphone.

Alexei, good evening.

Good evening.

I sincerely support you in all your

initiatives. Closer to the microphone so everyone

can hear.

I sincerely support you in all your

initiatives, I go to the rallies, to everything.

Thank you. Do you realistically believe that

you will come to power? Here we are gathered

here, and we are literally about half a percent

of Murmansk’s population. Seventy percent in Murmansk

Region don’t know you at all, and half

of those who do know you think you are

an American spy. Right.

And stole all the timber.

Ah,

and stole all the timber.

Well, that’s the other half. So I’m your

supporter—where are your

supporters gathered? What is our real plan?

First, most likely you won’t be

registered. What are we going to do?

Even if you are registered, we won’t

elect you. What are we going to do then? I

Thank you. Excellent question. Excellent

question. Thank you very much. And

this is the most important thing for us to understand,

because very often we, well, tell

ourselves: “Damn, there are so

few of us.” Look, the whole country is

supposedly full of people who don’t understand

anything and don’t use the internet.

But let me ask you this. Here we have

2,600 people. You’re right, absolutely right

to say that this is not much—half a percent of the city’s

population, right? The city has 300,000

residents. Well, someone got confused there. In

mathematical terms, yes, it’s small. But

just tell me this: when was the last time there was

a rally here with more people?

Never.

Is United Russia capable of holding

Is the rally bigger in terms of turnout?

No.

How many people will come out to rally for

Maria? Marina Maria. Marina Kovtun

for free.

For free.

Not for a day off, not for 1,000 rubles. No, but because

they were forced to—how many people would come?

I'm afraid the answer is zero. I'm including her myself,

because she'd probably be embarrassed to be

alone on a one-person picket. She's afraid

to stand there by herself. So,

guys, we need to understand very clearly that

among politically active people, we are

the majority.

We shouldn't belittle ourselves. Yes, they

have seized power. Yes, it seems like they have

everything on their side, but everyone in our country,

all those police officers, that center, uh,

the one standing there with cameras filming everyone and

so on—they're filming everyone too,

and thinking: "Well yes, of course, those crooks and

oligarchs—none of this should be happening."

They think the same thing, because yes,

they're police officers with their cameras, but

do they get apartments quickly? Do they have

high salaries? No, nothing like that.

Well, maybe higher,

compared with 27,000 rubles, maybe,

a little more, but still

there are a lot of us.

Second,

there is the enormous problem of propaganda.

Yes, you say 70% of the region—some people don't know me,

some think that I am

an American agent who stole all the forest.

That's why I came here.

to ask you to carry out and

take up this work. There is nothing

more powerful—there is no greater

force than people who campaign. 2,600.

If each of you spends 15 minutes

telling your friends,

acquaintances, colleagues, and people on social media about the rally,

about how many people were here, about

what I said, about our ideas, then the whole city of

Murmansk will be won over in one

day. In one day. Don't think that

all change in the world has always been made by small

groups of people united by a common idea. We

have a common idea,

right?

That's it, we don't need anything else. Me—

register me now—of course, they

say they won't register me,

won't register me.

But that's how it works. They always

act based on public opinion polls,

based on what the public thinks. When I ran

for mayor of Moscow, they also told me that I

wouldn't be registered. When they

were putting me in prison for five years, they also

told me I wouldn't be released. Nevertheless,

it all happened because people

came out and people forced it, and when through their

public opinion polls they find out

that there is a critical

number of residents of Murmansk Region

who demand that Navalny be registered

for the election, who maybe don't support him

in everything, but who believe

that it's right to take part in elections—then they

will register me, no question about it,

because even United Russia supporters, even Putin supporters,

even those who don't like me—we poll them ourselves,

and they say: "We're for

competitive elections. We're against

a monopoly. Because if Putin is so

great and has 80%, then what is he

afraid of? Then I'll go out there and

get my 1%. Right? Or however much?"

They won't let me in because they

know it won't be 1%.

They know that even under conditions of total

censorship

we'll get much more. They know

that we can win, and we will win this

election. And I really do—sorry

for taking so long to answer this question. I

just want you to understand. I don't have

some clever plan. I don't have any other

concept. I don't have a Plan B.

My only plan is

to keep traveling from city to city like this,

gathering people and asking you to demand,

to speak out, campaign for me, and

say that I should be

registered for the election—and then they

will register me. We will do it.

Yes,

I believe in it—that's why I'm here. That's why

I'm standing here in the rain, and I'm grateful that you are

standing in the rain too. I truly

believe that's how it will be. Next question.

There's one version that says I'm an American

agent. Okay. What else?

There's an even stranger version: that you are

a Putin project.

How so?

There were a lot of TV programs, roughly from 2008

to 2011, showing a great deal on the air

about how Russia was supposedly fighting

corruption. But in reality, all the cases that

were shown were later replaced.

They were altered and buried. And all of it

was like an illusion of fighting corruption.

So what can you point to as proof

that you are not a Putin project?

Okay. Fine. The question is: what can I

point to as proof that I'm not a Putin project?

Hmm. Well, how about the fact that people were

forbidden to come here, threatened with expulsion

from their universities? How about the fact that I was

jailed? How about the fact that my brother

was imprisoned? Come on, guys, there are a huge

number of conspiracy theories.

What? Who here thinks I'm an American

project? Oh, thank God it's only a few people.

Who thinks I’m one of Putin’s projects?

Who thinks that 1 2 3 who thinks that I am

a project of the residents of Murmansk Region?

No.

I am what I am. My work is completely straightforward,

right out in the open. Everything I’ve done over the last

many, many years can be found on

the internet, read about. They follow me around,

spy on me, film my family. All

of it is online. My life—I

don’t particularly want this—is absolutely

transparent. So I assure you: I am your

project, and I wouldn’t be doing any of this

if I didn’t believe there are people

who need a project like this. A question. I

can see you’re even jumping up and down

like on the Maidan (the 2013–2014 protests in Kyiv). Then they’ll say: "They were jumping

like on the Maidan." Go ahead with the question. Here,

according to the statistics, the number of

state-funded university places is decreasing. Spuk kolledzhava

will be increa

No.

The question is that in Russia the number of

state-funded places at universities is decreasing. Ah, well,

the number of state-funded places is decreasing

everywhere. Under me, will it keep decreasing or

will it increase? Is that the right way to phrase the question?

Correct.

It’s just that at a conference with Putin, they asked

him this question.

And he

Yes, I even made a video about this. And Putin

said that the number of

state-funded places is increasing. He’s lying. So,

my position on this is simple.

Educated people bring in money.

Educated people pay more

taxes. And this isn’t just some

nice, catchy phrase I came up with

to tell you. This is the experience of developed countries. In

Germany, for example, tuition fees have almost been abolished

at universities. At many American universities,

students can come and study—not

for free, but on grants, so they

do not pay themselves, because we need to

understand one simple thing: the more

education we provide, the better

that person will live, and the more

money they will pay into the budget. Therefore,

of course, increasing spending on

education is not, for me, some cheap

slogan to get teachers to vote

for me; it is simply rational

policy, so that there is simply more money

in the budget. Let’s take a question

from over here. I saw someone reaching up.

Yes, let’s do that.

Ruslan, can you pass the microphone? Thanks.

Thanks. Can you hear me okay?

It’s fine

we can hear you. Yes.

Hi, guys. I’m actually the

guy who wrote about the land plot

belonging to Minister Makarova and about the governor’s

children and all that.

Well done. Let’s give him a round of applause.

I have two comments and exactly three

points. The comments will be simple,

yes, sorry,

guys. We live in a big country, but this

country is very different from place to place. Ten minutes ago I

personally witnessed police officers here

restrain a provocateur and lead

him away. Did you see that?

No. No,

we live in different countries, really. In Murmansk,

traffic police officers do not take bribes, unlike

in somewhere like Krasnodar Krai

(a region in southern Russia).

Seriously?

Let’s applaud the traffic police officers.

Let’s applaud the police officers who

restrained the provocateur. I didn’t see it myself.

Well done.

This morning I was in court for an

acquittal. They are very

rare in our country, but in Murmansk they

happen, well, more often.

Almost a lot 51. We’ll see.

The main problem of our country and

of Murmansk Region lies in three

things, in my view. First, the authorities

who govern Murmansk Region

are temporary caretakers. They have no

shared interests with the people who

live here.

Second point. The young people who came here

have no clear future, no

social mobility, as all of you understand. You

can graduate from a university or a vocational school. It doesn’t matter what,

but it guarantees you absolutely

nothing.

Say hello to

I hope that the government our country has

someday,

will give young people clear mechanisms

for social mobility, so that each of you

can find your place in our society.

And lastly, about Minister Makarova and her

dacha (country house). A criminal case has been opened

against her, and the prosecutor’s office is demanding

very strict terms for the minister’s dismissal

from office. This is a unique case, but it is

happening right now.

Excellent.

Thank you.

Excellent. Thank you very much.

That’s great news. And inside it there is

a terrible phrase: "This is a unique case.

When we come to power, this will stop

being a unique case." And that is exactly how it will

be. A question. Yes.

One more

prospect for Murmansk Region, if

you become president.

Once again.

The prospects for Murmansk Region if

you become president.

The outlook for Murmansk Region,

when I become president. My answer is:

first, like other regions, like

other federal subjects, Murmansk

Region will stop sending all its money to

Moscow. A significant share of taxes

will stay here. Again, not because

I think this is something I ought to tell you

because you supported me, but

because otherwise the country will not

develop. Putin has run an experiment

for 18 years. Their idea was this:

that, well, out in the regions there are all these

incompetent people, so all the money should be

taken to Moscow, and then from there

distributed back out. That experiment

has failed.

We have seen that in Moscow the money is simply

stolen, while the regions are just withering away,

and cities are not developing. When I become

president, you will keep more of your own

tax revenue here. You will choose

your own mayors, choose your own governors, choose

your own judges who are not

federal judges but justices of the peace. You will

have an independent press here, and the

money you retain from

your natural resources will work

for you. And I am sure that life will

little by little, little by little, little by little become

better, and your wages will keep getting

higher and higher. That is why I am running.

A question?

Yes. Who wants to ask one here? Ah, yes, please,

the microphone over there. Give him the microphone. And then, then

let her speak after that.

Kandalaksha, Murmansk Region. So,

here is my question.

Would it be possible to arrange things so that

the president elected in

our country could remain in power for

no more than two consecutive terms, whoever he

may be. And one more point, so to speak,

paraphrasing our prime minister

uh, Dmitry Grizzly, I want to say,

he is not a grizzly. Come on, he is not a grizzly. I

do not know what species the

smallest bear is, but he is definitely not a grizzly.

So, we know you are under pressure. Uh,

but hang in there.

I am hanging in there even without money.

By the way, who here has ever donated

at least some money to our

election campaign?

Thank you very much, guys. I applaud

you. It is thanks to you that our

campaign is happening. And I am holding on. This is

how we have built everything, and this is how we will

keep doing it. The Anti-Corruption Foundation (ACF)

has existed for many years, and they have not been able to shut

it down thanks to your support. And

I know for certain that they cannot really do

anything to us. Well, of course, they can jail

me, they can jail the people around me, for

15 days or 15 years, but in essence

nothing will change. But you have

someone here, he just

spoke, and he is doing exactly the same

work. If he is gone, someone else will

take it up, because the problem is real

and you cannot silence everyone. Right?

Yes

We are not going to fall silent.

No. The question

is this: every president somehow ends up

carrying out someone else's prearranged will, but

when you become

president,

will other

The question was this: every president

is backed by some kind of lobby. When you

become president, will you be

supported by the army? Will you be

supported by other security

structures? It is no secret that all those

various generals and senior officials, they are all

Putin's people. Did I state the question correctly?

So,

let me tell you an exclusive story

for you. I am tremendously grateful to your region.

Do you know what for? For my video blog.

You watch it,

right?

Do you know how it started becoming regular? I, I

was vacationing with my family in Karelia, and I had arranged

a visit with my brother, who is in prison,

as you probably know, in Oryol Region.

And I needed to get there. I

got on the Petrozavodsk–

St. Petersburg train, which was coming from here, from

Murmansk.

And on the train a guy came up to me and

said: "I serve on a submarine. I am

from Murmansk Region. Stop writing

your blog and make a video blog instead, because

we are heading out, we want to download videos

and the whole crew will watch them."

So maybe, maybe he is

here today. If you are here, please come up to me,

please. I am tremendously grateful for that

advice. It was after that that I started making

these video blogs regularly. And I can

say this: I myself come from a military town. My

father was in the military. Many people think I am

some kind of, I do not know, representative

of the Moscow elite or something. But I am

actually a completely ordinary person from

an ordinary family. All my classmates are

either police officers, or military personnel, or

FSB officers. I come from that world myself. I know

for sure that we have enormous support there.

Yes, of course, propaganda brainwashes

these people,

but do you think they do not see the theft?

In the military, they steal even more. Do you think

they are not furious about Serdyukov

ten times over? But that was the biggest

corruption case of all. Where is it now?

Serdyukov?

Did he spend even a single day in the defendant's dock

?

Did he spend even a single day in prison?

No. He drives around in a Mercedes with a flashing beacon.

I assure you, we have enormous support

within the security services.

There will be one approach for this entire elite. So,

there is the first scenario

we will go through generals, civilians,

and everyone else. We take their assets

and compare them with their income. If there is

a discrepancy between assets and income, we

say: "Buddy, either you explain it, or

tomorrow they'll cut open your door, like they did to

the blogger from NEMAGIA (a Russian YouTube channel)". That's it. That's how it

will work.

Let them ask a question. Ruslan, go ahead.

We can't pass the microphone to the back, but

they're passing questions from there. Let me

read one out.

Go ahead.

There was a question.

He said that I was answering

prepared questions.

No, some guy came up and said the question was,

what should be done about the Unified State Exam? That's what they're asking. Right.

The Basic State Exam and the Unified State Exam.

Right. So,

let's briefly discuss the Unified State Exam.

Yes, let's.

Tell me, please, in which region

are the highest Unified State Exam scores?

Dagestan.

Dagestan,

Dagestan, Chechnya, and other North Caucasus

regions. And that means

that the entire Unified State Exam system is rendered meaningless by

this. Either exams are conducted honestly everywhere and

everyone has an equal right to enter university,

or else it has no point at all. I

don't think the Unified State Exam is an inherently very bad

system that definitely must be abolished,

but in its current form it, of course, well,

simply makes no sense at all. The Unified State Exam

was created so that a talented

hardworking person from any region

could compete on equal terms with everyone else for university admission. But

if we have entire regions that

have effectively beaten all of you on the exam from the outset, then

all of this loses its meaning. Yes.

A question.

What will happen with Chechnya?

So, as for Kadyrov. Yes, let's

talk about Kadyrov.

What's dangerous about that? I've said this many times.

I can say it again, and I am not afraid of anyone.

If I become president, Kadyrov

will be investigated for involvement in

the murder of Nemtsov. I truly, personally

in my opinion, consider him the one who ordered

Nemtsov's murder.

And he will be investigated. And without any

special treatment or anything like that. I am not afraid. And

I will repeat it as many times as necessary. First. With Chechnya,

we need to do the same as with

the other federal subjects. Yes, we

constantly see these, uh, various

Porsches, motorcades driving around. But

the majority of the population there is impoverished.

Poverty in Chechnya, in Dagestan, and in

the rest of the North Caucasus is even worse

than almost anywhere else. Salaries are really

8,000 rubles a month. Therefore, those enormous sums of money,

which we pour in there and which

are stolen,

we will stop handing over to Ramzan

Kadyrov's clan and instead distribute properly among

citizens and direct toward the development of

the region. Let me take a question from this side

— I haven't yet.

Is there a question here? Yes.

Ruslan, help me out. I want to ask

you, Alexei, about lustration. Suppose

Russia takes an unexpected turn in March

2018. Putin will not be able

to reinstall himself for another term, and you

become president. Will you carry out

lustration of all these officials, so that we won't see

them back in government after some time?

And also, if Putin does reinstall

himself as president, won't life await us like

in North Korea, along the lines of a Russian

Juche?

Thank you very much. Well,

I certainly don't want to end up in a country with

Russian Juche.

I don't want to end up in North Korea.

Guys, this is of course a joke, but

listen, really, just

a few years ago, in 2010, could we

have imagined that there would be

criminal cases opened over likes,

over reposts. Now every week

criminal cases are opened over reposts

of reposts. People post on VKontakte

a still from a film about Stierlitz (a famous Soviet spy character) with

a swastika on some character's shoulder, and

a criminal case is opened. This

Russian Juche is advancing. That's exactly why

we are running this campaign, because we do not

want that. As for lustration,

there is public consensus here. Who is in favor of

lustration?

We don't know what lustration is.

Lustration means restricting the rights of those

people who are currently in

power — roughly speaking, banning all

United Russia members from heading state

institutions. Who is for that?

I can say that I support

lustration, but this is, of course, a matter of

a new consensus. It cannot be that

President Navalny simply comes in and bans everyone

he doesn't like. The new

Duma, an elected Duma, should

do that. And in response to your question, I recall

that I, unfortunately,

didn't answer your question about

the four terms, regarding Putin's time in office.

Done.

Tell me, please, Putin has been in power

for 18 years — are you ready to give him another 12 years

in power?

No.

And I'm not ready either. But even four more years is already very

much. Just look — the video is out there and

you can easily find it. In it, Putin says in 2007

that, well, a person after 10 years

around power goes insane.

He says that after 10 years in power

a person goes insane. So who do we have in power

now?

A madman, a genuinely insane, sick

person obsessed with money,

obsessed with, I don't know, some kind of

wars, Aleppo, Syria, and his own

confrontation with the United States. They're insane.

So, standing at this podium, I can

tell you absolutely clearly that I

will make sure that in Russia no one will be able to

be president for more than 8 years.

Four years if you govern well. Another

four. Then goodbye. Go, I don't

know, live in Gelendzhik, give lectures,

write books, go to academic competitions, come

to Murmansk, come here and speak. Remember,

guys, how we stood here together in the rain.

Remember the old days, but no

10, 15, or 22 years. It's harmful to the country. It's

ruinous for the country. I promised you

a question.

What are we going to do about the Russian Orthodox Church?

I'm a believer,

but I don't understand why the church suddenly

started putting people in prison.

I don't understand why the church suddenly

started ordering the Investigative

Committee around.

I don't understand why suddenly

in a country, an atheistic country, suddenly we

ended up with so many

people claiming to be offended. Look at the biography

of your governor. The first line there says she

began her working career

at the district Komsomol committee (the local Communist youth organization).

Everyone in power are former Komsomol members

or party officials, and suddenly they've become so

Orthodox. So I believe that

nothing needs to be done about the Russian Orthodox Church.

Let them

collect donations — they have that right. Just as I

collect donations, yes, from you

and decide how to use them.

And you allow me to decide how to spend them, right?

Let the Russian Orthodox Church exist, but we will not

put people in prison. Article 282 will be repealed.

In Russia, people will not be imprisoned for their

beliefs, posts, likes, and reposts.

Ruslan, yes, your question.

Good evening, Alexei. Thank you for

coming. You have my vote.

I have a question. Today I read

comments saying that Navalny's Party of Progress

is a one-man party.

That is, there's only Alexei

Navalny, and everyone else just plays a role at

rallies.

So my question is,

is there some list of people who

will be

appointed to key positions? Thank you.

Thank you very much. As for that,

that's one of the favorite themes

of Kremlin media, yes — this idea that

Navalny is some kind of leader, a one-man

party, and so on. If all that

were true, then every time

they lock me up for 15 days — and now already for

25 — you know, this happens regularly,

the work of the ACF would stop. But you can

see that

whether I'm sitting, standing, traveling around the regions, or sitting

in a detention center eating instant noodles.

The work

of the ACF continues. The work of our party

continues. Perhaps that's all because

we really do have

a strong team of like-minded people.

They are dispersed, they are jailed. Many of them

are in forced political

exile, like Vladimir Shurkov and Nikita

Kulachenkov. But it is still a strong,

very strong team. As for

specific appointments that need to be

announced in presenting the team, that's a

special genre, and still, closer to

the voting date, you need to say something

new. In particular, personnel questions

concern

the things I will talk about

directly before the election, otherwise you

just won't be interested in following the

campaign.

You've already asked, sorry,

there are a lot of questions. Yes, Demon, Ruslan,

keep things moving, because

that hit hard. I just imagined it was

chicken, although I prefer beef.

What applause. Oh, the beef

instant noodle party.

Mostly young people have gathered here.

I have a question for you. You're promising them

a bright future.

My question is about pensioners. What will happen

to pensioners? What kind of future are you

promising pensioners?

You're wrong,

yes? Well, I am glad and happy that there are

many young people here. First, it's not

only young people. Second, I'm not promising

them a bright future. I'm promising a bright

future to you. I'm promising a normal future

for you and for myself — normal, dignified. I'm not

promising anything especially bright and

wonderful. Well, listen, if I were to promise you

would come and say: "Guys, elect

me. Tomorrow everyone will be earning

150,000. But that’s not true, that’s

impossible. But making it so that we

have wages, I don’t know, higher than in

Kazakhstan, or higher, or at the level of

the Baltic republics, is absolutely

possible—for pensioners and everyone else. I

promise that I will not accept what they

call the subsistence minimum—it’s

a lie. You know, just today

news came out that they want

to freeze the consumer basket.

The subsistence minimum. Why are they

doing this? So they won’t have

to raise pensions. So that

with each passing year there won’t be more and more

people living below the subsistence

minimum. I mean, prices are rising,

so let’s outsmart everyone and, like,

just fix it all on paper. So

first, I will set the subsistence minimum

at a proper level. Second, I can see

that Russia’s budget can pay pensions

no lower than a decent subsistence level,

because when Gazprom pays proper

dividends, when Rosneft pays

proper dividends, and all the

others do too—we’ve calculated this many times,

Milov has the figures. I can simply see that

we can do it. So

to pensioners, I promise to work toward

proper healthcare,

so they don’t have to sit in a clinic for 4

hours, so they don’t have to wait 2 months for an MRI

or an ultrasound, and so they receive a pension that

is worthy of a normal life, which

Russia can provide them right now.

Ruslan, next question. Let’s take a

question.

Over there, we sort of haven’t been there yet, we haven’t

been on that side, so let’s go there.

We’ll come here afterward. Your group there in

striped swimsuits. Well, the group in,

anyway, the group, yes.

My sister is a person with disabilities,

but I want her

to be able to live a normal life. Unfortunately,

in our city there are no proper

ramps in specialized places, in

schools, in kindergartens. I won’t even get started.

Thank you.

It’s a monstrous thing. You know, today

news came out that—well, you know the

Krasnaya Polyana resort, right?

Money, the Olympics. All of us, all of you,

paid for it, including for Krasnaya

Polyana. And today news came out that

Krasnaya Polyana refused to hold training for

children with disabilities so as not

to damage its image,

because supposedly everyone would be so

put off by seeing children with disabilities that

they need to be removed from there immediately. It is

utterly disgusting.

And in Russia, this is a monstrous problem.

A person may be, I don’t know, disabled

from childhood or may simply have broken their spine,

and lives on the fifth floor in a building like that. He, he

is condemned to live and die in that apartment,

because no one will be able to carry him down,

no one will be able to get that wheelchair through. And

once again I say that it is in our interest

to ensure a normal life for people with disabilities. His

legs may not work, but his

mind does. He can work. In all

Western countries there is experience of how

people with disabilities live

full lives, work, build

families. And in Russia we will do this, because

again, it is beneficial for us. They

don’t want to spend money on this, they don’t want

to spend money on ramps, on lifting

mechanisms, even on parking spaces for

people with disabilities, because it is considered

expensive. But I believe—I know and I can see from the

experience of other countries—that on the contrary it

brings in money in the end. You just

need to think not in terms of 1 year, but

in terms of 10 years, like a normal

country. I promised a question over there, where the

group of guys is.

Come on, one of you come up here.

How about me?

I served in the Anti-Corruption Foundation (ACF).

Alexei, I have a question on what I think is

the most important issue: the economy of our

country. If you come to power,

do you intend to carry out

nationalization

of the oil industry, the gas industry,

in general, of the entire national

economy? And what will happen to people like

Sechin, Miller, Gundyayev, and

others like them? Thank you. It’s interesting that

you grouped Sechin, Miller, and Patriarch

Kirill together. Well, it’s interesting that such

analogies come to mind. So let me ask

you this.

Well, you know, you know very well that

Norilsk Nickel consists of two big

parts. One is actually in Norilsk,

and the second is here with you, on the Kola

Peninsula.

Do you feel in any way that it’s a little bit

yours?

Yours to some extent?

Not in the slightest. So, I believe that

first, we do not need any

nationalization. But when these

oligarchic

little guys took for ridiculous money

the factories that the whole country broke its back

building over decades, that’s absurd. In

my program there is a compensatory

tax on the results of privatization. I firmly—

many criticize me for this, but nevertheless

I stand by it. I truly

I believe, and I’ll repeat it a million times, that

privatization in Russia was carried out

unfairly.

It was unjust; it did not create

healthy business, it did not work

properly. Therefore, the largest

enterprises that were sold off to

oligarchs for pennies during the loans-for-shares

auctions, must be subject to

a compensatory tax. That means all these

people — the Rybolovlevs, the Potanins, the Prokhorovs,

all these guys who buy

football clubs and basketball

teams abroad because they have so much money

they don’t know what to do with it — they will have to

pay a huge tax on the difference

between the real value, the current

value, and the pennies they

paid. That is the direction we will

move in. Yes. Well, who’s ready here?

Yes.

Alexei, good afternoon. My question is about

a sore subject, so to speak.

Uh, how do you plan to work with

public associations,

public organizations? Will you

uh,

do you envision working at all with

society, with the development of civil society

as such, and what will you do with

those public organizations

that criticize your

presidency, when and if that happens? And

I see.

Those who criticize my

presidency, I will love very much,

because

there is a rational reason for that, because

I understand that one day I will stop being

president, but I will want

the president to be a decent person, and

I need there to be organizations

that criticize the next president.

As for public organizations,

well, I head the Anti-Corruption Foundation

(ACF). How would I want the state to

work with me? Not at all. I’d want

to be left alone — simply so that

when I file a crime report,

and as for those who work

to protect animal rights and so on, they

need support; above all they need

premises, most often. And that is something we

can easily provide them, because

the nonprofit sector, again,

look at the United States — enormous

billions are generated in

the nonprofit sector. It is simply

beneficial. Let’s take a couple more questions. I

can see you’re all going to get sick otherwise. Yes.

Good evening, Alexei,

hi. Please, what is your vision of

affordable housing for a young family? How

do you see it?

So, affordable housing for a young

family, as well as for an older family and for

the middle class,

means, for me, that I will

scrap all this damn

bureaucracy related to building

permits. Right now people build

a house, and it ends up costing three times more

because of bribes. So I will abolish this

regulation, and housing will cost

much less. That’s the first thing. And second,

as in any normal country, if you

live, say, in England,

you go in and get a mortgage

for 30 years at half a percent annually, at

1.5% a year. We’re not in England, but,

excuse me, inflation in Russia is 4%. I

know for sure: we provide a small subsidy,

and everyone will be able to get housing at 2%

annual interest. Exactly the same. What’s

the problem? As I already said, if Bank

Otkritie is being bailed out and given hundreds of billions

at 0%, why can’t we give you

the same money at 2%? So I am absolutely

convinced,

even — well, when you say even 11%

— that’s madness. I believe housing is

not even an economic problem, but

a political one for the country. Here, people up to 40

live with their parents. There’s nowhere to live.

There are very few rental apartments, very few new

apartments. We will revive this

market. As I said, two measures.

We will abolish construction regulation,

set a normal mortgage rate, and

people will be able to buy housing.

May I ask a question? Ruslan, where are you? In

this wing, in this wing — we rarely take questions there.

I have a question. What will happen to

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin after

you are elected president?

An excellent question on which to

end our rally.

So, emotionally,

I have many grievances, including

personal ones, against Vladimir

Vladimirovich Putin.

Simply put,

he jailed me, he jailed my brother,

he has kept him in solitary confinement for two years. He

has imprisoned a huge number of normal,

honest people. He has terrorized the whole country.

He has truly stolen from and robbed us. He turned all

his own people — some judo coaches,

his classmates, his dacha neighbors —

all of them into billionaires.

Billionaires, by robbing us. I consider him

the tsar of corruption. I consider him one of

the main villains of our country.

That is absolutely true. I am not afraid or

ashamed to say it. But in order to ensure

a normal transfer of power,

so that there is no war, no

kind of confrontation, if he is ready to

for a peaceful transfer of power, I believe that

we can grant immunity specifically to him and his family.

immunity.

Personally, signing that would be fairly

unpleasant for me, but for the future of the country I

believe it needs to be done. But when

I say this, a lot of people later reproach me

and say: "Damn, so you're going to forgive everyone

then? Like Putin, the Rotenbergs, and the rest."

I'm telling you absolutely clearly: Putin,

his family—yes. The Rotenbergs,

no. Timchenko, no. Dmitry Anatolyevich

Medvedev

never.

Never.

All of them will end up in the dock.

We are not going to forgive these people, and

we are absolutely peaceful people, as you have seen.

Well, we held wonderful,

excellent, peaceful rallies even in

the rain and bad weather. My friends,

thank you so much for coming,

for listening to me. Once again I want

to tell you: realize your strength. We are the most

powerful force. No one else has such a number of

active, politically engaged people

as we do. Work every day, as I do.

If we want change, we will achieve it

easily. Persuade the people around you,

your neighbor, your relative,

your colleague. We will step into this emptiness, into

this vacuum, and take as much power

as we need in order

to finally build our beautiful

Russia of the future. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Murmu.

Great audience. Thank you very much.

Good luck. I'll come visit you again.

All right,

friends, thank you very much for coming. I

just wanted to finish with a reminder. Our

headquarters is located at 94 Lenin Street, where

you are always welcome, and they will tell you how you

can help the campaign at this stage.

Thank you very much for coming.

Murmansk, hooray.