Alexei Navalny’s press conference at the opening of his campaign headquarters in Ulyanovsk

regions. Our target for Ulyanovsk is to collect 5,000

signatures. For cities with over a million residents,

the target is 7,500; for cities of around half a million, 5,000 is the

goal we are setting. Right now, here we have

collected about 2,500 signatures.

Accordingly, the campaign office will handle their

verification and preparation for filing, while

the volunteer canvassers still need to find

another 2,500. But judging by what

we saw today, this target will not just be

met, but exceeded brilliantly.

We have

built a very strong office here.

As you can see, we have a good space too. In

the city center, a great many volunteers came

through. In fact, this is one of our record

openings. When, three months ago, we

opened our first office in

St. Petersburg, which is still 10

times larger than Ulyanovsk, and 250

volunteers came, everyone was extremely

surprised and said: "Wow, would you look at that,

not only within the limits of the Garden Ring (central Moscow),

but in St. Petersburg too

some people are showing up, Navalny volunteers."

Well, you saw that

even more people turned out today in Ulyanovsk,

and that is, in fact, probably an indication

of the scale and reach that our

campaign has, uh, managed to build up over these months.

If we do not lose this pace,

and I am sure we have everything we need for that,

and we will not lose it, then everything

will work out for us. And not only will we collect

300,000 signatures—we could collect a million

signatures—but of course we are also counting

simply on winning the election, because

no other political force in Russia has

such a volunteer movement, such

campaigning power. People need

to believe in themselves a little. They

will start campaigning, and some things will

not work out at first, as always. The office will be there

to back them up and help them do it. And

then, once they spread out and understand how

this is actually done—this kind of political

fieldwork, this canvassing—they will simply

see that there is no other force

that can compete with them.

100,000 volunteers. By the end of the

campaign there will be 300,000, but 100,000

volunteers can distribute 10 million leaflets in a week.

That is twice as much as

the audience of Channel One's highest-rated program.

That means we can genuinely

get our point of view, our

program, across to the majority of voters. We

know that our program is supported

by the majority of voters, and that is why we

will definitely win. Organizationally,

Dmitry Shestakov is in charge of our

Ulyanovsk office, where Dmitry is already

handling various organizational matters. And the office

is open every day from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. And it is

there, essentially, to

coordinate volunteers, train them all in campaigning,

and help them organize

campaigning and collect signatures. All right,

friends, thank you for coming. Ah, we have

opened the office very successfully. I am very pleased, and I am

happy to be in Ulyanovsk today.

It is my first time here, and I am happy because

of the number of volunteers, of how

emotionally everything went.

Our campaign speaks directly to all

the problems in Ulyanovsk. Here I can

say, unfortunately, because all

the problems that exist in Russia, starting

with low wages and

very low pay all the way to

the roads, can be seen here in a

textbook way; here you can

again, in a textbook and very

convincing way, explain: here it is,

the industrial potential. This is not

an exclusively agricultural region.

There are huge industrial

enterprises here, and the people who work

at these industrial enterprises,

who, generally speaking, ought to be earning

substantial wages. When we hear

that at a factory in Ulyanovsk, a person

working on the assembly line earns 15,000 rubles,

that brings us back to the question of

why everything in Russia is arranged

so unfairly, why

the nation's wealth is distributed

so unjustly, why we

cannot introduce a minimum wage

of the kind that exists in all

developed countries, at least at the level of

25,000 rubles. Therefore, first of all, I am sure

that every point in our program will

truly resonate with the views

and ideas of local residents. And second, we have

enough people here, enough

volunteers to get our messages

across. Well, tell me yourselves,

if

some other politician comes here, will he gather

this many volunteers? I doubt it,

because no one else is running real election

campaigns, no one else is engaged in real

politics. We are,

and that is why we are confident that

it will lead us to victory. Thank you

very much. I am ready to take questions.

Don't forget to introduce yourselves. What is your

name? Which outlet are you with?

Sergeitov, Kommersant newspaper. Yes.

You say you are confident of victory, right? But

tell me, do you think they will let you

win? If they do not, then by what

methods?

Ah, well, we know this government's methods. How

does it keep anyone from getting onto

the ballot? How does it prevent

someone from winning? They do not allow it,

of course, and they will try to keep me out as well

even though, under the Constitution, I have

every right to take part in the election. And they

will falsify the election in

the Ulyanovsk Region. That is also a problem,

though of course not as serious a problem as in

Mordovia, where we have just come from, where

there is outright, total fraud, but we

intend to train, prepare, and send

to polling stations no fewer than

103,000

very well-trained

observers. So we know perfectly well

that this government has something to lose.

These specific people have something to lose.

They do not want to lose those billions

and they do not want to lose absolute power.

So they will resist, but we

are confident of victory, because we know that

we will be able to persuade the majority of people

to vote for us. Thank you.

We do not see that as a problem at all,

because there is, of course,

the fact that volunteers are mostly

young people. Well, all these young

people have parents, they have

grandmothers and grandfathers. We have

practical experience of this kind, because

during the Moscow campaign in which

I took part, we even conducted

special studies that

showed that the 30% of the vote that I

received in that snap campaign,

that emergency campaign, came from

pensioners. Although young people also

made up most of our volunteers,

they were mostly young people. We know this

situation very well, and our volunteers understand it

perfectly well too. So mainly,

of course, they will campaign among those

people, and among the groups that are more likely

to go to the polls, including older people.

Yes, please.

Thank you. Alexei, what do you think,

what should your volunteers be preparing for?

Surely they will be pressured somewhere along the way,

I do not know how exactly

The volunteers need to prepare for victory.

No one is going to squeeze them. But look,

today we opened the headquarters perfectly well, with absolutely no

problems. We have a wonderful

office in the city center. We know that

the authorities really do not like us. We

know that they will try various

dirty tricks, but when it comes to large groups of people,

there is nothing they can do. But you

know, you had a rally here on March 26.

The authorities tried to ban it. But

what could they do? Arrest half of Ulyanovsk

or what? Arrest 500

people so that tomorrow 5,500 of their

relatives come to the administration building?

That is impossible. Of course, they will

try to intimidate people, they will mess with people's heads

in schools, in universities, and so

on, but overall there is nothing they can do

about it anymore. And we can see that people

are not afraid, and we can see that people

understand how important it is to take part in

politics, even despite the threats,

because there are simply no other prospects.

When this government has already, over 18 years,

shown that it will bring nothing

good, people are even ready, with

a certain level of threats and risks, to take part in all of this

anyway.

73 Online. And please tell me,

the coordinator of Navalny's headquarters in

Ulyanovsk—where is he?

He had some issues with the tax authorities.

What kind? Yes, he was administratively

disqualified,

yes.

What is your reaction to that?

Our reaction? Well, let me say this:

I do not know about that. I trust Leonid,

who appoints the heads of the headquarters.

I just want to tell you that President

Trump went bankrupt three times, was three times

officially declared bankrupt. And there is nothing

terrible about that. So, I know that our

head of headquarters is a law-abiding

person; different situations happen in life.

At the very least, when I look at

the Russian government, which is simply

made up of, I do not know, corrupt officials,

crooks, bandits, and murderers, I know that

everyone in our headquarters is definitely a million times

better.

We are choosing. We, we still—yes. And one more

question. One second.

Alexei, uh, Georgy Kuznetsov, Ulyanovskaya

Pravda. Please tell me, if the

election were tomorrow, what percentage of the vote

in the Ulyanovsk Region would you

expect? And accordingly, what

percentage of the vote are you aiming for in

2018?

We are running a real election campaign.

I do not want to mislead

anyone. In fact, I, and all of us,

and these volunteers, who not only

work for free but also help finance the

campaign—let me finish—

they are fighting for victory. I am fighting for victory.

Well, you see, as for numbers—I am not a political analyst,

I am a candidate. So I say to the Ulyanovsk

Region this:

In the Ulyanovsk Region, as in all the rest of

Russia, we expect

to win a majority and prevail in the first

or second round. Political analysts can tell you the numbers,

but we opened this headquarters here

to change the situation. And we

are going to change it, and we are going to build those numbers

up until we

win.

In Moscow, we went from 3% to 30% in 2

months of the campaign. Now we have a year

ahead of us. Count specifically the Ulyanovsk

51%

we, of course,

yes, also. Yes, Alexei Anatolyevich, in lum

case, if Rossiyskaya Gazeta (the Russian government newspaper)

Vitaly Akhme, if you still are not

registered as a candidate,

then what will happen to these volunteers, what

will happen to these campaign offices, what their functions

will be in

If I am still illegally not

registered, I hope that

Rossiyskaya Gazeta will come out with a huge

front-page story: Navalny

was illegally denied registration, and all

the people, the volunteers, and the campaign offices will take to the

streets. And the next day Rossiyskaya Gazeta

will then run a story saying

Navalny was ultimately registered,

because, well, how could I not be

registered under the law, under the

Constitution, by any standard of fairness. Do I have

the right to take part in the election? I do. Are there

enough people in Russia

who are against fighting corruption?

More than enough. So we are not

considering that scenario at all.

Of course I will be registered. Alexei

Ditsait, a German newspaper. You

were saying,

you have found yourself in Ulyanovsk. We are glad

to welcome you to this city. Yes,

you said that you are not a populist. You

said that nationalists do not

bother you. So how do you define

your politics? How should a German reader

understand what kind of politics Alexei

Navalny represents?

A German reader should be told that

Alexei Navalny came to Ulyanovsk. And

in Ulyanovsk he was told that

the salary here, converted into euros,

is probably around 250 euros. And Alexei

Navalny, like all the residents of Ulyanovsk,

understands that it is impossible to live in the 21st century

on that kind of money. Alexei Navalny

understands that here is an aircraft manufacturing

plant and here is an automobile

plant. And when Alexei Navalny

here in Ulyanovsk compares the wages

of a German assembly-line worker

at a car factory with those of a Russian worker and

sees a difference of many times over, both I and all

the residents of Ulyanovsk understand that this is

unfair and wrong. Neither I nor

the residents of Ulyanovsk are happy that

Russian oligarchs steal money

and invest it in the West. Neither I nor the residents

of Ulyanovsk are satisfied that Russia is seeing

capital flight and corruption, including

into Germany, while the German

government stays silent instead of

arresting all sorts of crooks, Russian officials

and their bank accounts, in accordance with its

own German laws. Therefore, whether

unfortunately or fortunately, in Russia

it is impossible to draw these ideological

distinctions. All these terms—

nationalists, left and right—they

simply have no meaning here. They really just

do not mean anything. No one can

define themselves politically, because politics in

Russia is a kind of chaos in which

corrupt people rule. We are fighting these

corrupt people and trying

to build a normal European

state. Write it exactly like that—well, I won’t

continue your rhetoric. Still,

when you come to power, who will be able to

guarantee that you will not also

get your hands on budget money, on

budget flows, and simply continue

the same thing, with only the face changing?

Excellent question. Let’s think: would

your publication be ready simply to believe

my promise? Probably not. And that

would be wrong, because you cannot

simply believe politicians’ promises.

Guarantees of this kind will be established

through political competition, through

change. That means the people gathered here, an

independent parliament,

which will impeach a

corrupt president,

independent media, Rossiyskaya Gazeta,

which will not write what it is

told by the government, but will

write whatever it wants; it will

lash a corrupt president

the way I do now. You see, the media do not

usually lash out, but I do. So in the

beautiful Russia of the future, the media will be

free and will fight any

corrupt officials. And that

is the main guarantee. Of course,

there must be turnover of power. Russia must not have

presidents who stay in power for 17 or 18

years. That is simply a political

axiom. Power must change hands, and

only then can it improve. My friends,

come on, are there any more questions from the Ulyanovsk

media? Yes.

Please tell us, do you intend to unite your

support in some way with other

opposition forces? And in general,

why do you think

unite everyone? Excellent question. Despite

their not wanting to at all,

despite the fact that German radio will

be outraged by me, I

will certainly try to unite around me

the left, even if they write that I am a

left-wing populist. The right, even if they

write that I am a right-wing populist,

centrists, liberals, although they, well, they

will not criticize liberals, yes. German

radioze

newspaper, sorry. Ah, so, of course,

we will try to unite everyone, well,

except for some completely deranged monsters. And

it seems to me that people now,

ordinary people, want change. They

want, well, not any kind of revolution, but

basic changes. Well, even something as simple as

a minimum wage of 25,000 rubles. But

that is such an elementary measure that needs to

be introduced. At least a basic, elementary

fight against corruption, well, at least a basic

tax reform would make it so that

well, Alisher Usmanov would pay more in taxes

than you do, right? Because right now he

pays the same amount or even

less. That's a little unfair. And

that is why people on the right, on the left, anyone at all,

they will definitely unite around

us, if they are truly independent.

My friends, it's almost dark already. I really

want to look at the Volga River. Let me go.

No, let's wrap this up.

One more question. What is your attitude toward Lenin?

Toward Lenin, I mean,

yes. And in general, they should rename

Ulyanovsk back to Simbirsk.

Questions of renaming, questions of removing

someone from the mausoleum and everything else—those are

matters for referendums. I am in favor of popular

rule. When I am president in the

beautiful Russia of the future, the president will not

have the right to call here, to

Ulyanovsk, and say: "Rename yourselves

to Simbirsk or to something else, some

third option." And in general, as for me, because

they would pick up the phone here and say, 'This is none

of your business, get out of here.' Like Alisher

Usmanov would say: 'Shame on you.' Because

well, whatever the referendum

decides, that is how it should be. I know there are

different disputes on this subject, there are more

complicated issues, yes—Volgograd,

Stalingrad, a referendum—the local residents

should decide for themselves what their city is called, and

no one in Moscow should order them around.

Thank you very much. I'm very glad. Then now

we'll do it individually. Thank you

so much, guys. We really need to

wrap up now. I'm very glad to see you and

to talk with everyone. Thank you that

this turned into more of a press conference than the selfie session

we promised. I will give Alisher an answer, and you will really

all like it. And so I

say what you've got.

I hope the newspaper Kommersant will write

about my response, but it definitely will not write

about the response.

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