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Hello. Thank you very much for coming.

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And I’m glad to see so many of you

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at this press conference in our campaign headquarters.

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I won’t speak for very long.

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Many of you were probably already at

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the opening of the volunteer headquarters, and then at

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the rally. And I’m happy that I finally made it

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to Chelyabinsk.

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It’s very encouraging for us. At the moment,

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Chelyabinsk and the Chelyabinsk headquarters are

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in fourth place in terms of the number of

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volunteers, meaning they are ahead of Novosibirsk

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and ahead of larger cities. In

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the Chelyabinsk region, we have effectively

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already met our minimum target

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for collecting signatures. And we have

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what, given the size of the city,

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is an unusually high number of volunteers in

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Magnitogorsk. So we are pleased

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with how things are going here. We saw

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that there were a great many volunteers today

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at the meeting.

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And I’m glad

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that I was invited today to

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the rally against the mining and processing plant.

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We have something to say to the people of Chelyabinsk,

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including, as I said at the meeting

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with the volunteers, here we can — I personally

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can say with satisfaction

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the phrase: “I told you so.” And here

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there are probably many people here, including

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media outlets that wrote that I was wrong

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to go after Governor Yurevich, wrong

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to investigate him.

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Wrong, they said, for me to make leaflets,

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special materials directed against Yurevich.

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United Russia kept defending him, defending him. And

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where is Governor Yurevich now?

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In London.

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Well, either in London or in Israel. But

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now United Russia itself and the authorities themselves are telling us

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what a bad governor

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Yurevich was. If they had listened to us then and

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taken our words seriously, and if he

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had been removed from office, then probably all

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the corruption cases that are now being

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talked about by the Kremlin, would not have happened. So

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we were right, and this also matters

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to every resident.

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We can see that the authorities

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understand

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that our campaign here is developing

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quite well. That is precisely why, ahead of

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my arrival here, the head of our headquarters

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was arrested. About 10 or 15 hours ago.

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This is Kirill Artyukov, let me introduce him to you.

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He is the deputy head of the headquarters. Regardless

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of the fact that Alexei Tabalov

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is currently under arrest, as you

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have seen, we are successfully opening our

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headquarters. Our meeting

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with volunteers went very well. This shows that

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they will not be able to decapitate

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or somehow stop

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this campaign in this region or in any

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other region. The campaign as a whole

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cannot be stopped by taking out one,

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two, three, or twenty-three people. Well,

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you arrest one person, but there are still

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volunteers. Most importantly, there are

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voters who want change. There are

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voters who expect from us

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what we are doing. There are people who

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understand that over 17 years this government has reached

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a dead end and can no longer say anything good

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for itself. And we have answers to

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questions, including those that concern

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the residents of the Chelyabinsk region. We are conducting

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an anti-corruption investigation, including

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into your situation with the

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construction of roads. You can see that

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I’m no admirer of Yurevich, but under

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the current governor, even compared

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with Yurevich, the roads have become worse. Why?

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Because the authorities keep consolidating

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road construction contracts into larger lots. And there are clearly

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signs of corruption. And, well,

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the environmental situation today is simply

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obvious — this problem is obvious.

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And we heard a lot about this today at

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the rally. I want to reaffirm once again my

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position: yes, I support

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the residents who are opposed to

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the construction of this

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mining and processing plant. It is

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a lie to say that it will bring

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some money or that it will bring

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some kind of prosperity to the region’s residents. And according to

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the statements of even the

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builders of this plant, the Russian Copper

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Company, over the entire course of its

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existence it will pay 80

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billion rubles in taxes. Even if we believe that figure

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— though it will be several times

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lower —

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let’s look at the figure of 10,000

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people diagnosed with cancer

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every year in the Chelyabinsk

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region. When we see how many more

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people will develop

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cancer and acute

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respiratory illnesses, and this is

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simple arithmetic showing that

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the additional spending on

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healthcare will eat up all the

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additional revenues that

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this project might bring. Therefore, we

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support the residents in their fight for

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the environment. And in Chelyabinsk this issue

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is extremely acute. It is very unfortunate that

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today neither United Russia nor

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representatives of other parties came.

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So, moving on to answering

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questions, once again, I am very pleased with

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how things are going here. I am very pleased

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with the large number of volunteers. In the

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Chelyabinsk region, we are going to have a big

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and interesting campaign. There are many of us.

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will support us here. I am confident that here we

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will be able to compete for the majority of

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voters. I am ready to answer your

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questions. Raise your hands,

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introduce yourselves. Yes, please. Sergei

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Makovich today. Alexei, please tell us,

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why exactly Tabalov became

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the head of the campaign headquarters. Was there no more worthy

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or suitable candidate?

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The decision on appointing campaign headquarters chiefs

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is made by Leonid Volkov. I do not handle that

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work myself. We have a competitive

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process. People send in their résumés, and people

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go through interviews. We do not have

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a system where we appoint members of the Progress Party

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or people who are somehow close to

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us. We have regions where there are

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nationalists and regions where there are liberals. People simply

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send in their résumés. And judging by the fact that

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Volkov appointed Tabalov, I

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trust Volkov completely. I think that

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Tabalov will be a worthy head

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of the headquarters. At the very least, everything that

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Tabalov’s team has organized has been entirely

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satisfactory to us. Next question, please.

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Svetlana Grigorieva, Full House. And who else

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will be a member of your headquarters?

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Well,

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Well, there you go, I introduced Kirill. Our

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headquarters are volunteer-based. That is exactly why I

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keep saying that we are opening volunteer

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headquarters. In each headquarters we have two or three

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positions where people receive a salary.

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Everything else is simply volunteers. At

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present, in Chelyabinsk Region

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there have registered

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2,000 people. Roman, yes, we already have 2,000

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volunteers. That means we need an enormous amount of work

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to coordinate

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those people

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who came and said: "We want to work

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for free." So for now we do not really

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have any need, generally speaking, even

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to spend large amounts of money on

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that. Yes, please. Ah,

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Hello. Your campaign... first, please

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tell us where you are from.

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Young Teacher, the newspaper Young Teache.

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Ah, the newspaper Young... Young, just Young

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Teache. Well then, Young Teacher it is.

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Excellent. In your campaign

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you have many points about decentralization

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of practical governance. Do you believe

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that in the future, the future in general will belong

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to, so to speak,

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anarchism to some extent, that is,

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the transfer of power to lower levels,

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while the federal level will be, so

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to speak, well, um, an additional

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element, while power itself will still

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be, let us not forget, self-government?

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But that is not anarchism. I

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have consistently argued that

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the authorities, the Moscow authorities, this

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notorious Kremlin, which has taken all

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the money and powers and dragged them all into

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Moscow, should stop hoarding them and

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send money and powers to

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the regional level and the local level,

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to the cities. This is in no way

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any kind of anarchism. It is a

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normal system that works in

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developed countries. Putin spent

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17 years building a different system, and it

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went bankrupt. In other words, he built everything

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perfectly. There is no money in Chelyabinsk Region.

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All the money is taken to Moscow. That is

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the plain truth. All your regions

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recently had another few percentage points taken away

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from the corporate profit tax. But

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has it turned out well that there is no

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money here for anyone, and that you are forced to beg Moscow

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for your own money?

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No, it turned out badly. That is why we

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look at the European system of local

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self-government and understand that the money

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that cities earn should remain

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here, for the most part. And there is

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nothing anarchic about that. On the contrary,

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it is an excellent system that

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works. That is not an insult.

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Please, Sergei Leonov. Sergei Leonov

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from Proru. Earlier you were talking about a flying

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helicopter, and now you are talking about roads and

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so on. Will there be ACF branches in

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the regions, in particular in Chelyabinsk

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Region?

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Chelyabinsk Region is actually an

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outpost of the Anti-Corruption Foundation (ACF),

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because Valery Zolotukhin, who,

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yes, who is even standing here, is a co-author

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of most of our investigations

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related to government procurement. And he, in

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fact, lives in Chelyabinsk and works

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from Chelyabinsk, not as some kind of,

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you know, Muscovite. And so,

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well, he works on the whole country. And in that

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sense, one can say with complete certainty

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that one of the most

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qualified people who understands

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government procurement lives in Chelyabinsk. It is just that we

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cannot direct his energy only toward

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Chelyabinsk Region, where he would expose everyone

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immediately, because

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the country is large, and he works on many

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things, but also on

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Chelyabinsk Region among others. We

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will strengthen these areas of work in all

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cities with populations over one million, and all the more so

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here, where, as I already said,

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we have more volunteers than in those cities

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that have larger populations than

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Chelyabinsk. So, as of today,

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we have raised 40 million rubles. And that is enough for us

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to run the campaign the way we

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are running it, based on the strength

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of volunteers. Funding is being

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provided that way. How much does this cost

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the premises per month? Around 60,000 rubles.

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So what are our expenses in Chelyabinsk?

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The premises cost 60,000 rubles a month. As

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you can see, it’s decent. It’s right in the city

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center, right? Well,

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I swallowed wrong there.

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Well, you understand that not all

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landlords, when they hear “Navalny headquarters,”

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are willing to cooperate or offer discounts. In any case,

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we

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pay for the premises, we have two

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paid positions, and we have volunteers. Fortunately,

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that’s a big advantage of our campaign

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and no one else has anything like it. We

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have a lot of people willing to work

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for free. That’s why our expenses are

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low, and we can run the campaign

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relying only on the money

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that volunteers send us. Next,

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yes.

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Agaryuk, Moskovsky Komsomolets (a Russian newspaper). Alexei

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Anatolyevich, well, um, six people were

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sentenced to fines as a result of

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taking part in the protests on the 26th. Won’t it

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turn out that in the end they’ll have to

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pay that money out of their own

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pockets? How will their situation be handled?

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Second, what about the people who lose their jobs

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as a result of

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distributing your campaign materials? Well,

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there seem to be quite a few of them,

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Well, I don’t know, you would know better.

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What is your position on them?

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Our position is as follows. First of all, I

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hope that everyone who was detained

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was registered with our headquarters. We

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are raising money, and of course we will pay

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the fines through a general fundraising effort for everyone.

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That’s the first thing. Second. You had a rally here

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on the 6th, right?

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Was it authorized or not?

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No.

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Did a lot of people come out?

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A great many.

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More than 3,000.

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So there were a lot of people. And the authorities

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were saying they would arrest everyone,

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detain everyone, disperse everyone.

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But in practice, what happened was that our poor

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Tabalov was arrested just a few

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days after the rally simply in order

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to try to disrupt

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my visit here. And even in Moscow,

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despite all the horror stories and despite

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the thousand people detained there, only

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80 people were actually jailed for a few days.

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The truth is that it’s impossible to

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repress large numbers of people.

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What they really do is grab one

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person and then point to him as a warning to everyone else.

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Look, we locked him up for 15 days,

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to scare everyone else. Or they

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make an example of someone by firing them, although in

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reality there aren’t large numbers of

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cases of dismissals or

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persecution. On that note, I arrived

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from Tyumen yesterday, where I was opening a штаб (campaign office). There

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in Tyumen, there is a schoolboy who

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was handing out leaflets, and the police

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came to his vocational school, and apparently

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raised the issue of expelling him. But that

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matter was resolved successfully. We

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protected him, and we will protect him, just as we will all

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the others. But it’s important to understand

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that, fortunately, this is not such a large

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number of people. They frighten many by, uh,

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going after one or two individuals. The real

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capacity of the authorities for mass

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arrests is limited. Again, fortunately, I saw your

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nice paddy wagons, and when Lena Marus was approaching

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the rally—Lena Marus, who is originally from

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Chelyabinsk and is the art director of the Anti-Corruption Foundation (ACF)—

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you see, those are close ties. She was walking and said,

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“I didn’t know we had

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paddy wagons here in Chelyabinsk.”

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Well, now Chelyabinsk does have paddy wagons,

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but there are only three of them. How many people

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can you cram into them? When

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thousands come out, it’s impossible

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to fight them. And that is exactly what we

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are counting on, because, well, go ahead—

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repress all of Chelyabinsk, go on,

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arrest everyone who speaks out against

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the authorities. It’s impossible.

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A question, again about the rallies.

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Did you expect there would be this many people?

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Because, well, by many estimates this

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far exceeded expectations. And what

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do you plan to do next with

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this wave of civic activism?

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Well, there’s one thing I don’t understand. I’ve heard

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the question many times: did you expect it? I don’t

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understand why you didn’t expect it. I

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did something simple. I went into

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the Chelyabinsk rally group and saw that

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2,000 people had registered there.

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And I understood that, well, roughly

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2,000 people would come out in Chelyabinsk. I

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am more surprised that we managed to organize it in

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eighty cities. And that

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goes directly to the question of repression and intimidation.

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People wanted to come out, and they did.

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So I was watching it. I understood that

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the number of people registered in

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the group roughly matched the number who

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would come out, because people

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were registering because they were ready to go

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to authorized rallies. And as for

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the protest wave,

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it’s not some kind of wave

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that I organized. It’s simply

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what these people are feeling. We released our

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anti-corruption investigation. The authorities

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are not just ignoring it—they are demonstratively

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ignoring everything. And they say, “Well,

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we’re not interested at all in what you

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think in Chelyabinsk or anywhere else.”

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People come out. It doesn’t depend on me.

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They come out against the authorities. They come out

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against hopelessness, against this

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general feeling that nothing can be

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changed. They will keep coming out. I will be

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part of this process. The next rally is

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on June 12. Follow the groups so that

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nothing catches you by surprise.

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You're next now. Yes. Alexei.

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Yes. Ah,

14:44

Alexei, it's commonly believed that in Russia,

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if you control television,

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just the TV channels, you control

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public opinion and the country.

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How much has the internet changed that situation?

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Those videos got 20 million views, right?

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20 million, probably even more already including Odnoklassniki (a Russian social network)

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even more. I'd like to tell you that

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the situation has changed, but that's not really true,

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of course, to this day we have, so to speak,

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punched a big hole in this wall of

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censorship, but television is still

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the dominant,

15:19

uh, the dominant way of delivering

15:21

information, yes, and millions of people are still

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being brainwashed, but whereas before they had, say,

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I don't know, 99%

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of the information reach, and we were somewhere out there

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in our blogs, uh, dealing with 1%,

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that's no longer the case. We launched our

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Anti-Corruption Foundation (ACF) programs of

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online broadcasting, which in terms of reach already

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rival the biggest radio stations.

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When we broadcast the rallies

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on the 26th, 4 million people watched them

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people. That means we can already

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compete with television. We, we

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are going to develop this, we are going to build

15:55

similar, well, excuse the word, homemade

15:57

TV studios, including in the regions, and

15:59

and we'll experiment with it. Will

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people watch local news of this

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kind? But one way or another, let me say again,

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the internet has dealt a major blow to

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the Kremlin's propaganda machine. That's exactly

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why, if you look, all the latest

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legislative initiatives from the Kremlin

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have to do with restricting the internet in one

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way or another. But we'll fight here, we

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won't give in that easily. By our tradition,

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at every press conference, if there is a

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willing representative of the

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National Liberation Movement (NOD), I

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give him one question. Please,

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just one question. Thank you. Yes, I

16:33

will try to put this briefly now

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all of this. My question is this. Tell me,

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please, there are rules that

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were written in 1993

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for us by Americans,

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with an organization called US...,

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adopted by the people at the [bell]

16:50

referendum in 1993. That is,

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the rules are

16:53

by the people of Russia,

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which, of course, you can look up,

16:56

it's all publicly available. That is,

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the rules are the subject, the governing subject

17:01

in relation to any

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official, including

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the prime minister and the president

17:07

of the Russian Federation. Accordingly,

17:10

all officials follow the rules. From this

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I conclude that the rules are primarily to blame

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first, and only then the people. That

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is, people follow the instructions of a system

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that was written long ago. And my

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question is: what do you think,

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are people to blame, or the rules? My

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view is that first and foremost

17:31

the rules are to blame, and then the people.

17:33

Let me ask a clarifying question then.

17:35

Do I understand correctly that you believe

17:37

that it was American rules that made

17:39

Medvedev steal 80 billion rubles and spend them

17:42

on palaces? Do you think you could put

17:45

only Medvedev there? I think

17:46

you could put anyone in that position,

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including you or me, and

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and then pass it all off as something

17:53

Medvedev did. I see, I understand. And

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then one question. I don't really understand what

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rules you're talking about. Then why

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do we need Putin? Why does Putin then

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follow American rules?

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Because the people adopted them in

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1993. He cannot fail to

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follow them. He is the guarantor of the

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Constitution

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and at the same time an American puppet.

18:10

No, he follows the rules that

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the people adopted in a referendum. Do you understand?

18:15

All right. Okay, I understand the question. And then

18:17

I want to tell you,

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you'll follow those rules too.

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You asked a question, let me answer.

18:22

So, as a candidate for president of

18:25

Russia, I represent the part of society

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that does not want to follow Putin's rules,

18:31

or American rules, or

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French rules, or Zimbabwean

18:35

rules. Here in Chelyabinsk, I see

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people who simply want to live and

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work like normal people. Well, you're

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probably a local too, right?

18:44

And I see people here who want

18:47

simple things, like

18:49

a higher minimum wage. I see people

18:52

who want, uh, a normal

18:55

environment. I see people who want

18:57

to buy apartments with mortgages not

18:59

at 15% annual interest, but at 2% a year, as in

19:02

Europe. So, of course, I have honestly

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said to NOD many times: you

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really ought to be my most

19:08

fervent supporters. I'm not against you.

19:10

I'm saying there is a situation, a system. You

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just need to understand that.

19:13

So, well, when people want

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to build a processing plant here and extract

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ore, but the company is registered in the

19:22

British Virgin Islands. So I

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think this is exactly some kind of

19:26

murky thing, and they are the real

19:29

foreign agents. I don’t like this

19:31

Constitution. These rules of yours—this is the

19:32

Constitution, after all. Right. Right. Let me once again

19:35

say that Russia’s Constitution is bad.

19:37

Under this Constitution, we have at times

19:39

elected governors, then appointed them, then who knows

19:42

what. Sometimes our mayors are elected. You

19:44

have a city manager now, right? First the mayor was elected,

19:47

and now it’s a city manager. All of it under this

19:48

Constitution. First four years, then six, then

19:51

consecutive terms, non-consecutive terms. I don’t like this Constitution,

19:52

just like you don’t. I very much

19:54

hope that Chelyabinsk will at least

19:57

vote for me in these

19:59

elections. Next, please. Thank you for the question.

20:01

All right, [applause]

20:05

two short questions.

20:06

Please tell us where you’re from?

20:07

Ah, Maryanova, the online outlet Otpustnoye

20:09

Razresheniye 100. First question.

20:13

What is the priority direction of judicial

20:15

reform? Yes, you’ve spoken about this more than once.

20:17

I have two points. First—

20:19

your attitude toward carrying

20:22

weapons freely. And the second point is the death

20:24

penalty. And the second question is

20:27

That makes four questions, or three.

20:29

The first one. And now the second question. Very

20:33

many people have completely different reactions,

20:36

but the question is the same. And as far as I know, you still haven’t

20:39

presented

20:41

an economic platform for achieving

20:43

what you’ve been talking about.

20:44

It has been presented.

20:46

May I answer?

20:47

All right, let’s start with—and if I forget any

20:50

parts, remind me. The death penalty.

20:52

I am against the death penalty. The Russian

20:54

judicial system is incapable of distinguishing

20:57

a guilty person from an innocent one. In

20:59

fact, 99% of our verdicts are convictions.

21:01

At the same time, jury trials

21:04

produce, uh, far fewer

21:06

convictions—60%. But jury

21:09

trials are being reduced, squeezed out, and

21:11

pushed aside. So, comparing

21:13

these things, I draw a simple conclusion. Our

21:16

professional judges imprison 30% of people

21:18

who are innocent. We have unproven guilt. And

21:20

if we allow these people tomorrow

21:21

to shoot people, then they

21:23

will start shooting left and right at those

21:26

who have committed no crimes at all.

21:27

As for

21:29

weapons, I believe that normal European

21:32

practice could be adopted here.

21:34

There’s no need to sell anyone

21:35

assault rifles, of course, but short-barreled

21:38

firearms for self-defense should be

21:40

legalized. And Russians in this sense are no

21:42

more foolish than Moldovans, people from the Baltics, or

21:46

residents of the Russian Empire before the revolution,

21:48

who could quite easily buy

21:49

pistols for self-defense. As for

21:52

the economic program, you are mistaken. We

21:55

have laid everything out in considerable detail, but

21:58

we will spell it out in even greater detail, because

21:59

the election campaign lasts a year. I

22:02

will come here a second or third time. It

22:04

wouldn’t be interesting for you if I told you

22:05

everything right now, would it? So

22:08

moving on, let’s just

22:10

Federal News Agency. What do you

22:13

think about Maltsev’s detention and

22:15

his actions? More generally, is he perceived

22:18

as a potential... Well, I

22:21

certainly view Maltsev as an

22:22

ally. I’ve said this many times, and

22:25

our political views do not

22:27

match 100%. We are not

22:31

politically identical, but what he

22:33

is doing now is opposition

22:36

politics. Maltsev created an independent

22:38

information channel, and that is

22:41

the main reason for the hatred toward him from

22:43

the Kremlin, because they do not

22:46

like it. A person goes on air every day, every

22:47

single day, and he is listened to by

22:49

120,000 people. They don’t like that. They

22:52

believe opposition figures are not supposed

22:54

to work with such large audiences.

22:56

As for his arrest, it is absolutely

22:58

illegal. And the way it was carried out was not just

23:01

illegal, but outrageous. In Saratov,

23:04

they sawed through the man’s door at night, staged some kind of operation,

23:07

with his whole family

23:09

at home, and for some reason they started dragging him under

23:11

escort to Moscow. And it turned out that he was

23:14

being held on an administrative detention. You cannot

23:17

saw through doors for someone under administrative

23:18

detention. This is absolute lawlessness and

23:21

precisely the kind of demonstrative lawlessness

23:23

meant to intimidate people. Next.

23:26

Yes, please.

23:26

Ah, Alexei, thank you for your

23:29

investigations, but I’m interested in one

23:31

question. Ah, Alexander Fotin, Civil

23:34

Media.

23:35

Here’s what I’d like to ask. You

23:37

recently released a video in support of

23:39

the protesting truck drivers. You,

23:41

accordingly, are speaking in their

23:42

support. But there are groups of people in

23:44

Russia who are in an even more

23:46

difficult situation. Women, for example. Recently

23:49

the Russian Federation decriminalized

23:51

domestic violence. And then there are, accordingly,

23:54

LGBT people, and, accordingly, from

23:55

Novaya Gazeta’s investigation, we know

23:57

what the situation for them in Chechnya is right now.

23:59

So as a presidential candidate, can you

24:01

outline your position on

24:03

feminism and rights,

24:05

So, LGBT rights?

24:06

In fact, you've named two

24:09

groups. In Russia, any social

24:11

group you can think of is, uh,

24:13

unfortunately, intimidated. In principle,

24:15

any people who see themselves as

24:18

a social group and put forward some

24:20

political demands are immediately

24:21

targeted by the authorities. As for

24:24

women's rights, well, of course, I believe

24:26

that the law decriminalizing domestic

24:28

battery is a terrible piece of stupidity. Uh,

24:31

what does domestic battery mean in Russia? Well,

24:33

today the state has effectively said:

24:35

"Well, you can beat her once, you can beat

24:37

her twice, and the third time it all

24:38

turns into a stabbing. This is the traditional

24:40

Russian pattern of domestic violence, where people

24:42

slash each other with kitchen knives

24:44

to death. And to decriminalize that is

24:47

absolutely the wrong thing to do. And in

24:48

that sense, I am of course in favor of

24:50

women's rights, but it even sounds a little

24:53

absurd to say that I am, well,

24:56

against women being beaten in the family.

24:59

But nevertheless, this is Russian

25:00

reality. But as for these

25:02

reports, I haven't studied them that closely,

25:04

but what I have read certainly sounds

25:06

frightening—that they are killing, uh,

25:09

people of non-traditional

25:11

sexual orientations.

25:13

And that the authorities approve of it—this sounds

25:16

simply monstrous, absolutely insane,

25:20

just insane. These are some kind of

25:21

legalized executions. Frankly, I

25:23

don't really understand why the authorities,

25:25

the federal authorities, are still silent on

25:27

this issue, but I will look into all this

25:29

information in more detail. Well

25:30

Can you say that you support LGBT rights?

25:33

Well, I support the rights of all people, and I

25:35

don't divide anyone into categories. In that sense, all

25:38

people, regardless of whether they are gay or not,

25:41

whether they love cats, whether they are women,

25:44

or men—all people must have equal

25:46

rights. There can be no other way.

25:50

Yes, please.

25:51

Ah, Alexei, could you please tell us what

25:53

you think about the reform of local

25:54

self-government in the Chelyabinsk Region? In

25:56

Chelyabinsk, we now have 170 deputies.

25:59

Mm-hmm.

25:59

Here, city mayors are not elected;

26:02

district heads are elected.

26:05

The reform of local self-government in

26:07

Russia now amounts to the destruction of local

26:08

self-government. Across the country, as far as I can tell,

26:10

I don't think there is even a single

26:12

major city left where the mayor is still

26:14

elected. Even at the level of

26:16

settlements, heads of administration are

26:18

hardly elected anywhere anymore. And, well, is that

26:21

good or bad?

26:22

Bad. We can see that appointed mayors,

26:25

these so-called city managers,

26:27

do a worse job than elected mayors.

26:29

An official who does not fear

26:31

public opinion works worse than

26:34

an elected official. Because how many voters does a

26:35

city manager have? One:

26:38

the governor. And how many voters does the governor have now?

26:39

One—the

26:41

president. That is what leads to the degradation of

26:43

the entire system. In fact, for example, in

26:44

the Moscow Region, something even worse is happening right now.

26:46

They are merging these, uh, local-government

26:50

entities. In other words, there is a complete

26:52

and total purge of this system underway,

26:55

because this is the only place where

26:56

at least some elections and

26:58

political competition remain. Of course, I

27:00

am strongly against it, and this is a major part of our

27:02

program for developing local

27:03

self-government. Please, and soon, as I understand it,

27:06

Sergei Udaltsov is due to become eligible for

27:09

parole. Will you cooperate with him

27:11

after his release, and referring back to the first

27:13

question, what about his views as a representative

27:15

of the communists?

27:16

Ah, well, you put that very nicely. I

27:19

hope Udaltsov will be released on parole

27:21

early. Yes. We can see that in our country

27:23

the practice is that political prisoners

27:25

are most often not released on parole

27:26

early. I hope Udaltsov

27:30

will be released as soon as possible, and with him, as with

27:32

any representative of the opposition, I

27:33

would of course always be in contact. Yes,

27:36

please.

27:37

Hello, Alexei. Uh, Boris

27:39

Zolotorevsky, from the publication Portfolio

27:41

Youth. Please tell me, this is

27:44

a question about lustration. Many supporters

27:47

are compiling lists of officials,

27:50

police officers, and judges. Some have even proposed adding

27:52

Judge Markova to them, who, in my

27:54

case, fined me 10,000 rubles for attending

27:57

the rally on the 20th.

27:59

Yes. But you say that

28:02

lustration should proceed not by

28:04

individual names, but by certain levels. That is,

28:07

it is a general process. So, could you explain

28:10

your position on this?

28:11

It's very simple. Look, what is

28:13

lustration? It is punishment without guilt,

28:16

when we simply say, for example, all

28:18

people in blue shirts,

28:21

you will never again be allowed to enter

28:23

headquarters. That is an example of lustration: punishment

28:26

without guilt. We say, for example, all

28:28

leaders of United Russia

28:30

will never again be able to hold top

28:32

public offices. That's one thing. But your

28:34

Judge Zolotaryova doesn't need any

28:36

lustration; she issued an unlawful

28:37

ruling in your case.

28:39

An unlawful one. I'm sure you will appeal

28:42

have already passed. Right now we're talking about the c

28:45

regional court

28:45

once you get through it, once you get through the appeal, we

28:47

will file an application to the ECHR for you. If

28:49

the European Court, which is part of

28:52

the Russian judicial system, issues

28:54

a ruling that in Zolotaryov's court it was unlawful

28:56

that Marko brought charges against you, and you, excuse me,

28:59

please, that Markova unlawfully

29:01

subjected you to criminal prosecution.

29:02

So what? We'll simply imprison her for

29:05

violating the laws currently in force. She

29:07

prosecuted an innocent person

29:09

for a crime. That is an active provision of

29:11

the Criminal Code. And all these people, all

29:13

these judges, all these organizers of

29:15

attacks, beatings, and everyone else,

29:17

no illustration is needed. They must

29:19

be held accountable simply under the laws currently in force.

29:21

That's all. My friends, thank you

29:24

so much. I was glad to speak with all of you

29:26

here. We just need to start making our way

29:27

to the plane. I was very glad to be

29:30

here in the Chelyabinsk region. I'm very glad

29:32

that everything went so calmly and well. And

29:34

even the police were today

29:36

super friendly toward our

29:38

campaign office. Unfortunately, though, one

29:39

campaign office chief was, I repeat, detained. But

29:43

otherwise they were very, very

29:44

friendly. Thank you very much. Very glad

29:47

to see everyone. I will come to Chelyabinsk again

29:49

many times. Thank you.

Original