Alexei Navalny’s meeting with voters in Moscow’s Beskudnikovo District

Hello, hello, thank you

very much for coming, please come closer

closer—nowhere closer to go. Well, that's fine, come up onto the

stage. Have a seat. I'm very glad that you

came to this meeting. We hold a lot of them,

and, by the way, this is my

milestone 70th meeting. I don't know—

when I was just starting out and held the first

meeting, I never even thought that someday

there would be a seventieth one. These meetings

are very different. Some are small, which

I actually like better because

there's more opportunity to have a proper

conversation. Some of them we've had

with hundreds of people there, and of course

there's no real conversation, although even in

such meetings there's a lot of value. We

hold these meetings because we asked ourselves:

what should a candidate be like?

Let's imagine an ideal

candidate—what would we want from a candidate?

As a resident, first of all, I

would want him to come to my courtyard,

stand in front of me, and answer my

questions—good questions, bad questions,

and that's something both I and my team are proud of. If there are no

objections, I'd structure the meeting like this:

first I'll talk a little about myself, then

I'll answer questions. No

objections? There's a question? Excellent, I'll

answer it a little later.

All right. Actually, that's an important, key

question. Where the hell did I come from?

No, that's normal, perfectly

normal situation, I don't know. My name is

Alexei Navalny, I'm 37 years old. Friends,

let's not argue, everything is fine, everything

is okay. It was a normal, fair question.

Well, you saw a person and asked,

"Where did you come from?" It happens, after all.

After all.

Really, I'm shown on television

quite rarely, and most likely

only in reports about how I

stole all the timber, so many people really

don't know me. As I already said,

I'm 37 years old, and I have a completely ordinary,

standard family by Moscow standards,

a wife and two children. My daughter is 11 years old,

she goes to an ordinary

school. My son is 5 years old; he goes to a completely

ordinary kindergarten.

I come from a military family, and all through my

childhood and youth I moved from one

military town to another. A military

town—and my parents still live

in a military town. Now I keep somehow

automatically addressing only you

and, by profession, I am

a lawyer. No, all right, wait, she's a perfectly

normal woman. Why are you scolding her? Let

her sit, everything is fine. By profession, I am

a lawyer. I have two higher-education degrees. I

graduated from the law faculty of

Peoples' Friendship University and the Finance

Academy under the Government of the Russian

Federation. If you're asking about Yale University, I

did indeed study there for one year, which

I'm very proud of. It's one of the best educational

institutions, and it was hard to get in.

If you've followed my activities over

recent years, what do you know about me?

Well, so you don't know anything, I

see. That I was released, that I stole all the

timber. Yes, you often hear that I was released,

that there was something, that he's fighting

corruption. Very often I'm simply known to people as

some kind of

person who's always making

demands of someone—there he goes, demanding

and demanding that Gazprom give him back

something, or saying that Rosneft

robbed me, and so on. Everyone asks me,

"Come on, do you really

actually think that you personally,

some guy named Navalny, were robbed by Gazprom?"

And I really do personally think so. Do you

think Gazprom robbed you? It robbed us.

We were robbed. And why do you think you were

robbed by Gazprom? Navalny robbed us.

Navalny robbed us. Well, all right, both

Navalny and Gazprom robbed us. Let's calculate

who robbed more. Okay, that's a good way to put

the question. Robbed us? Well, look—what does

Russia live on? Oil—oil and gas.

Exactly right. We extract oil and gas,

sell it to the West, and live off that money. Over

the last 15 years, during Putin's time,

Russia has received $3

trillion from the sale of oil and gas. Someone calculated—I was

recently told—that if you stacked $3 trillion

in bundles of hundred-dollar bills, it would

it would be 3,000 km high — hard to imagine,

but apparently that’s a huge

amount of money, and for each one of us — for

you, for me, for all of you — it comes to 640,000

rubles. Our share of the oil rent is 640,000

rubles per person.

Per person, per year. And not overall, not for all — for

all of the last 15 years.

So for my family of four,

that comes to 2.5 million rubles a year. What year?

I’m trying to understand. I go around to all these

state corporations, and when I say that Gazprom

stole something from me, I’m simply trying

to understand: where did they put my 2.5 million

rubles? Do you have any sense, any

understanding of where they put your share

of this oil rent? Did they spend it on Zenit (the football club), buy

football players, or something else? In Soviet

times, when we received that kind of money, we

understand that they built factories

plants, residential districts — they built

science, they created industry,

a great deal.

Where are these Putin-era petrodollars, which

are greater than the Soviet ones? There are, I don’t

know, around 100 people standing here, maybe 120. Who can

name for me any major industrial

enterprise that has been built in Russia

over the last 15 years? One. Not a single one. No?

Well, maybe there is at least one. Come on,

let’s remember. In Kaluga Region, they built

a logistics complex — what’s it

called? Well, that means — in other words, that’s

what they built. There are assembly plants — what do you

call them, screwdriver plants — small

enterprises. But still, any large-scale

enterprises, the kind everyone has heard

of? I ask this at every meeting,

I ask this at every meeting,

but please, don’t start fighting,

please don’t ruin my meeting right at the

very beginning.

Please — the opposition and the ultra-

opposition.

So, answering the question of what Gazprom

personally stole from me, I say that

Gazprom — all these people in all these

Gazprom structures — stole my factories

plants, healthcare, education,

railways — everything that should have been

built with that money, but wasn’t.

Rosneft is the same story, with the same

complaints. There’s a woman there, she’s

a vice president of Rosneft responsible for

legal

matters. And by the way, what do you think

her salary is? A state

company — Rosneft. What kind of salary could

a

vice president have?

Yours is 14,500, but hers is a bit higher.

I’ll say right

away: officially, 880 million rubles a

year.

Yesterday I was speaking in Zelenograd,

and when I said this, a woman in the front row

felt faint. She grabbed at her heart, and I was very

worried about her. But that’s not the point.

The point is that this person, with a

salary of 880 million rubles a year,

looks at me and says: Listen, why on earth

do you think anyone owes you anything?

That we owe something to you, to people like you?

That we have to explain anything to you, explain

where we put the oil, where we put the gas, at

what price — why should we?

We don’t owe you that. So leave us alone, please.

And at that moment, I understand exactly how

these people personally stole my 640,000

rubles from me, and 640,000 rubles from my child, and from

you, and you, and everyone. This is a real

problem, an entirely practical one, because

we have neither another life nor another country.

We all want this money, this oil rent,

what we dig out of the ground

and sell forever, to work for

us. I want to solve this problem. I know how

to solve it. I constantly bring them reform

plans, all kinds of

draft laws, rules on how one can

really fight corruption in

state companies. But no one is

interested. And so now, here, to

you, I have come as a candidate for mayor of Moscow,

who wants to earn your support,

count on it, and very much needs

that support, because I simply

want to solve the problems that I

constantly encounter in Moscow when I

live here.

Now tell me, from a different angle —

Moscow, the southeast — I’m concerned about

the problem of migration. Are you concerned about migration?

Yes? Is that a real issue here?

It is? When I was preparing

to speak in your district, I went to the website

of your local police precinct. The police are right here,

they won’t let me lie. What does it say there?

It says: there has been an increase in crimes

committed by foreign

nationals. Do you feel that? I, for one,

do, because two years

ago I didn’t know a single person

whose handbag had been snatched from their hands.

Now I have at least three women I know

whose bags were snatched out of their hands

by migrants. And I know that these migrants come

here to Moscow not because there are

jobs for them here, but because it is easy to

make money off them. Officials

make money off them. So that no one can

say I’m manipulating the numbers,

let me ask you: what is the salary

of a janitor? What is the salary of the janitor who

works in your courtyard? 11,000? 11,000?

5,000?

A janitor.

Wait, where did you say the janitor is standing? Ah—

Over there.

What?

5,000.

10, 12. You see, it's an interesting thing.

It turns out that if we take the official

approved pay standard for a janitor in

Moscow, then we'll see that there cannot

be a janitor whose sal-

ary is less than 30,000 rubles, but the janitors we

talk to all

tell us a different figure: 10, 15,

20,000. Where does the

difference go? It's a secret all of

Moscow knows: all these janitors—hundreds

of thousands of people—are brought here and housed in basements,

in rooms with 20 people each, in buildings slated for

demolition, in five-story apartment blocks.

They're relocated there because these janitors

kick back 10,000 to 15,000 rubles from their wages

.

It's a river of money. It goes to the management

companies, the district administrations, the prefectures,

hundreds of millions of rubles flowing there.

But I want to become mayor and fight this

because, like you, I see only

the flip side of this river of money. I

see crime, I see violence, I see

Moscow schools where there have begun to appear

classes where half the children do not

know Russian—you know about

this, because these children are not to blame for any of it.

They were apparently born in Moscow,

they've never seen any Uzbekistan in their lives,

they didn't specially come here.

Why are there kindergartens in basements, why are there

daycare centers for migrants there, what

... I'm glad that you already

...

Yes, that's right, you're saying everything correctly. You're

absolutely right.

Just wait, please don't be angry with

me, please, because that's exactly what

I'm talking about: migrants are brought here not

because there are jobs, but because

they bring money to all these people

because people simply profit from them. And

if we don't solve this problem now, then

in 10 years our children will face

the problem that hundreds of thousands of people are living in Moscow

who were born and raised here,

who will never go back to some

Tajikistan—they didn't come from anywhere.

They will never work

as janitors; they don't want to work

as janitors, but they don't have—they don't know

Russian. They didn't get a proper education.

They can't get into universities, they

can't get normal jobs, and

the only way for them to earn money

will be to commit crimes, and in 10

years our children will simply find this problem

unsolvable. I want to solve it

now. I came here to you because, well,

tell me please, in your

clinics, are there queues?

Yes? You get to see a doctor in two weeks? Well,

Listen, it's strange the way you're saying this.

A person with a disability gets to see a doctor in two weeks?

But I watch a program with Sobyanin on TV Center (a Russian TV channel),

and they tell him, you know, in Moscow

clinics there is electronic

registration, electronic

check-in. But it's no use.

I got sick and went there.

So you get sick and only see a doctor two weeks later.

Amazingly, you see,

my local clinic looks very much like

your clinic, but the clinic

they show on television does not.

And by the way, do you know that for

the healthcare of every Muscovite

four times more money is allocated

than for any other citizen of Russia? Do you

know that for outpatient clinic care alone

for each of us, there is an allocation of

20,000 rubles a year? For my family of four,

that's 80,000.

Just out of curiosity, raise your hands if you

went to your clinic in the last

year. A lot of sick people, thank you. And now

raise your hands if you did not go to your

clinic. There are still more healthy people among

us. But from the others, from each person, they took

20,000, yet the clinics don't work. I want

to become mayor so that these

huge sums allocated to clinics,

to healthcare, finally go

to general practitioners and therapists so that

people can see a doctor the same day they seek care.

Tell me, please, is it easy to get an ultrasound

done at your

clinic?

No. Strange.

Very strange indeed, you know. Because if you

go over to the metro, near the metro

there will be one of those things, an advertising poster

of Sergei Semyonovich Sobyanin, on which

it says: an achievement of candidate Sobyanin—

he bought 1,200 ultrasound machines for Muscovites.

He bought you 1,200 ultrasound machines—what a kind

man. No, no—but you can't, rightly,

No.

There are no specialists, and we at the Anti-Corruption Foundation (ACF)

know exactly why

this doesn't work, because we

looked into this program

for the modernization of Moscow healthcare

worth 100 billion rubles. We know that these

ultrasound machines and scanners were purchased at twice

the price simply so that people could

make money off them. They bought the most expensive

equipment, but there is no one to operate it,

and all these machines stand in the corner gathering dust; on

them no one works. To get an ultrasound,

you have to book a month in advance. Can you get an MRI at

your clinic? You wait half a year, half a year,

half a year—and yet by the number of scanners, meanwhile

incidentally, we outperform all European

countries; these are the most expensive scanners. I

want to become the mayor who will put an end to

the endless

sending people abroad to study in a bunker

so that at least in five years they can teach our children

properly, because

well, I don’t need a scanner that costs

At the clinic they give me a tour and show me:

“Here’s the scanner. We bought it for $5 million.”

So what do I care about those $5 million?

I want to become mayor because I and my

family need CT scans, ultrasounds, treatment, doctors,

and general practitioners. I will do this. I came here to you

because

I know exactly the size of

Moscow’s budget: 1.6 trillion rubles. Moscow’s budget

is second only to the budgets of New York

and Shanghai. You and I live in one of

the richest cities in the world. The richest

cities in Europe and the U.S. simply

cannot even come close to comparing with us. But at

the same time, here’s my question to you: what do you think, if

we are in third place by budget size,

what place are we in in terms of quality of life

among the largest

cities? You all seem somehow unpatriotic

in your thinking. You’re right. You probably know

the correct answer: 154th

place. 154th place. Even though our budget is enough for

third place, right now we have everything we need

to live normally. We have

money, infrastructure, an educated

population. We have everything. The only thing we don’t have

is one important thing: we don’t have faith

in ourselves, because we listen to these kinds of

stories about corruption. I am sure

that each of you could simply

tell me 100 such stories about

corruption. But we just shrug our shoulders

and think this is normal life, that nothing

can be changed. Yes, we are in third

place by budget and in 154th place by

quality of life. Russia, in terms of oil and gas sales,

what place is it in the world? First. And by

quality of life, what place? Sixty-

ninth. And we shrug our shoulders and think,

“Well, that’s just how life works. What can

you do? Sure, we don’t like it, but

what’s the biggest construction

project here? The metro runs through the district? No?

Well, they’re building the metro now, but road

construction—which ring road?

The North-Western Chord passes through here

here, right? Nearby. How much does

the North-Western

Chord cost? 70 billion rubles, and all the specialists,

all the transport experts, unanimously

say it costs twice as much as it

should. Newspapers write about it, it is

discussed, everyone knows. We all know that in the

construction of the North-Western Chord,

30 billion rubles will be stolen from us. That is enough

to build clinics and

schools all across Moscow, and kindergartens too, and we

would still have enough for more kindergartens. But we

just shrug our shoulders and say, “Yes,

it’s outrageous, of course. They’ll steal 30 billion from us,

terrible. But what can you do? Somehow

that’s how life is arranged.”

I came here to you with one

main idea, really: that

this is not the natural order of things; it is

an unnatural and perverse order of

things, and we can change everything. Our

problem is simply that we shrug

our shoulders. No one is forcing us. Show

me the OMON riot police here who are standing

there and will beat us if we do not

allow 30 billion rubles to be stolen from us on

the North-Western Chord. There are no OMON officers here;

there are three policemen standing there. I am sure they

agree with absolutely everything I am saying

from the first word to the last. It’s just

a government of crooks who rob us

every day. It is based simply on the fact

that we shrug our shoulders and think nothing

can be changed. And I hold these

meetings constantly because I am convinced of

the most important thing: even if people laugh at me,

I truly believe, just as it is written in the

Constitution, that the source of power

is the people. You are the source of power. Yes, on

television I am not there; on television they only

talk about what a terrible crook I am, that I

live in America, that I sent my wife to a

mental institution, and so on and so forth,

but I know there are people who do not believe

any of this. To elect the mayor

of Moscow, you need half a million people in a city

where 15 million live. In Moscow there are half a million

people who know everything, understand everything,

who can replace this government

with ease, each of whom even knows

that I exist, reads my—or has read

my platform, and knows there are answers to

all the questions. All of this can be done. Our

task is simply to bring these people to the polls

so that they stop shrugging

their shoulders, come out, and realize their power. We

can throw out any government, any

government can be brought in, and then thrown out again if

we do not like it. We are the source of power. I

am sure that through you, what I see before me

physically right now is maybe, well,

at most 200 people, maybe 150. But in

reality, that is no fewer than 10,000,

because everyone has friends,

acquaintances, relatives, neighbors on the

landing. Research

shows that the persuasive power of each

individual person is astonishing.

If you talk to ten people,

you will guaranteed—simply

guaranteed—persuade six of them.

People want to hear advice, and I hold

these meetings constantly, and I even calculated

that if I hold 100 such meetings, and I

I already said it: Yubileynaya, the seventies, and that's it.

In the end, things will be fine with me. After

I do, after all, carry it through,

And I will speak more or less personally, since with

you, with 1 percent of Moscow's voters,

that's a lot. Show me even one more

candidate who has spoken personally

with 1% of voters—there is no such person. I am sure that

by relying on you, I will be able, through you,

to reach those hundreds of thousands, even

millions of people. I am sure that if we

believe in ourselves,

then that long-awaited moment will come

when people finally come out to vote and

we will change this government, fix it for ourselves, and

elect the mayor who will work

for us, return power to the people, and

build a city for us and for our children.

Thank you very much. I'm ready to answer

questions. Thank you. Please.

A question. This morning I was listening to the radio,

and Echo of Moscow was reporting that allegedly you have some kind of

business in Montenegro

enterprise there.

They said on the radio that allegedly in

Montenegro there is something of that sort. In that regard, I am exactly

the person I claim to be, and you

will see all of that. Next question.

Please, where are my friends Nemtsov, Ryzhkov,

Yashin, Kasyanov, and all the others? Listen, I

am probably the only politician in Russia

who is on good terms

with everyone, from liberals

to nationalists. And these people do not

need, the people you just mentioned, any kind of

protection from me or legal

services—they are independent politicians,

they act independently. I came here to

see you because I want to find for myself

new, additional friends—you are my

main friends. There is no need to bring anyone here,

because I want with you, with all of you,

to become friends. I came here to

persuade you. Those various red people are there,

they act independently, but I

am an independent politician, and I am running in the election

in order to carry out my

program for you, in your interests.

Please. Mos... I see...

a lot of... well...

Briefly, who...

Mitrokhin—I don't see you... around Moscow...

There seem to be billboards for all the candidates, but I don't see

mine. Well, listen, if you probably

turn on the television, of course mostly you

will see Sobyanin, but the others

are shown a little too. You also won't see my

billboards, because we were refused on

all billboard placements—we were refused.

Avtoradio refused to place our

advertising. Odnoklassniki refused

to place our advertising. The mayor's office forbids

us from holding rallies, and so on. Well,

listen, all of this is understandable. It's not even that

I'm complaining—I have lived under conditions of

an information blockade for many years, because

for these people this is not just

an abstract thing. If Navalny wins,

that is something completely concrete. If

I win, very specific

friends of Putin—Timchenko and Rotenberg—

will lose Moscow contracts worth

billions of rubles. For them, my victory

means the loss of specific billions

that they are making right now.

That is why they will do everything they can to

block me from television, block me from

radio, even billboards, and the rest. But

listen, I understand that this is sad,

it's frustrating, but to be honest I did not

expect that they would allow it, so

from the very beginning—this is where I started—our

campaign was based to a large extent on

meetings with voters. They cannot take that away from me,

they cannot take away my right and

opportunity to come here and tell you all of this.

And I am sure that if today I can

convince someone, then those whom I

have convinced will work a hundred times

better than any billboards. Please, two

short questions. Will there be early

voting in Moscow—can one now

vote early? And second, if

you win, will you keep

anyone from the current team in office? Question

number one: early voting. Early

voting is possible. You need to go to

the territorial election commission

for your place of residence and say, 'I want

to vote early,' and in principle there they

should give you the right to vote early.

Question number two: will I keep anyone from

the current

team? What do we mean by 'team'?

The city is run by tens of thousands of people.

If we take the prefectures, state unitary enterprises,

municipal unitary enterprises, DEZs, and so on—all these people,

they cannot be removed, and in fact there is no need to.

Eighty-five percent of them, 85 percent of them, are in fact not

corrupt, because they simply have nothing

to steal; they are not in positions

where it is possible to pocket something. What

needs to be changed is, of course, the political

leadership—all those people who

are tied together like a mafia, each of whom

may work a little better or a little

worse, but they see themselves as a mafia. That

entire top leadership needs

to be removed. Working with these people

is possible, of course. Please... they will not

give you... they won't give it, they...

to you. A good question: ethnic

crime. It is indeed clear what

to do about migrants—I have

a program, and I can speak separately about that later.

About migrants. But what should be done about ethnic

crime committed by our own Russian citizens? Well,

you saw what happened at

At Matveyevsky Market, remember, Dagestanis

beat up a police officer, and in response

the Moscow government set up a concentration-camp-like facility

where they put

Vietnamese people. That was their original

solution to the issue. My solution to this

issue is that we need to

simply apply the law equally to everyone.

If there are three equally guilty hooligans there

fighting — a Russian, a Dagestani, and a Chechen — what

happens now is that the Russian gets locked up for 15

days, while with the Dagestani and the Chechen they start

taking them in and trying to figure out: what if

his father is a prosecutor over in Chechnya, and this one

has some police relative in Dagestan? How

would it turn out if we jailed him — wouldn't

someone come here with some Chechen

police officers and start a showdown? And they begin

sorting all that out. As long as our country has

these political

enclaves like Chechnya, where all the former

bandits have been handed security service IDs,

just go to the President Hotel,

go to Yakimanka — these so-called "basmachi" (a derogatory term for bandits from the Caucasus/Central Asia) are sitting there

just obvious gangsters, and

every one of them has an ID saying FSB major, all of them

sitting there with pistols. But this is

complete madness. Of course, this is an issue

at the federal level — fighting these

political enclaves. But my task as

mayor is simply to treat everyone equally.

If it's, say, a Chechen or

Dagestani hooligan, he will be jailed for

15 days exactly the same as a Russian, and they

won't start finding out who his uncle is, who his

father is, or what complications might arise

in Makhachkala — I don't care about that. My

job is to ensure public order

for you. That's the position I will

stand on.

Thank you. One person, one question, after all.

There are many of us here. I'd like to shift the focus a little.

Let me turn to something else.

We

are people who worked all our lives, we are pensioners, and I

have this question. You see, I have been

officially employed since 19[unclear],

but what does it come to? I worked my whole life,

I worked all my life, and as a lawyer you ought

to know and look into this matter. We worked our whole lives,

we received the status of Veterans of Labor

(an honorary Soviet/Russian labor title).

In due time we got our pension, we got

disability status, and then suddenly they tell us: aha,

if you're a Veteran of Labor, if you've received

disability status, then to hell with your Veteran of Labor benefits,

we're cutting you off, that's it, you're no longer a veteran.

Keep the certificate, keep the medal, but the phone benefit

we're taking away, the extra payment too — but you

still receive

it all because I ruined my health through my work.

Is that right? And suddenly I get

nothing — a fig sign, nothing at all — and

nothing. Is that right or wrong? Is that

the law or what is it? Listen, this is an obvious

thing. Is it right or wrong? Well,

of course it's wrong. At every

rally people come to me with this. I'll tell you now what to do about it.

At every rally, people come up with similar

problems — large families, and so on.

People with disabilities have problems not only

the ones you mentioned — with medications.

The problem is that it's impossible to get the medicine

you need; instead they give you substitutes.

At the same time, you know what needs to be done first of all?

Just look at the size

of the Moscow budget — it's gigantic. For example, in our

program there is a point saying that

we would immediately halt adoption of

the Moscow budget and its implementation for

2013, because we want

to double the Moscow pension supplement.

How much is the Moscow pension supplement now?

Four thousand-something, so that

the standard comes to 12,000, right? Yes, exactly.

That's right. We know for sure that in order

to raise it twofold, we need an additional

138 billion rubles to increase the Moscow

supplement twofold and make the standard

16,000. The money for this absolutely exists.

It's definitely in the Moscow budget. We know where

to get the additional money. I'll give you

a very simple example.

How much do you think is spent every

year on public procurement in

Moscow? 600 billion rubles, I'll tell you. And out of those

600 billion rubles, the Moscow government itself

openly says that 150 billion is stolen. Well,

they say we have enormous corruption,

150 billion rubles is stolen. What is 150 billion

rubles? It's 30,000 rubles for every Muscovite.

30,000 for you, 30,000 for me, for my

family of four that's 120,000 rubles.

I know exactly how to save that

money. In our Anti-Corruption Foundation (ACF),

we have already gotten

59 billion rubles' worth of corrupt procurement canceled, even though we

are not officials and have no

formal powers whatsoever. So, answering

your question in this perhaps rather long-winded

way: there is money in the Moscow budget

so that people are not simply humiliated

by taking 2,000 rubles away from them. Second, through

priority anti-corruption measures

that we know exactly how

to implement, we will free up additional

billions. And with that money we can

make social payments to everyone who

needs them in Moscow. Maybe in

other cities that's a problem, but in

Moscow it can definitely be done, and we will

do it. Next question, please. And

you know, I'd like to know how you will

fight this, and whether you will. We have this kind of problem — I'll repeat it

for everyone — we have this problem in

Russia, and in Moscow it is actually quite

large-scale: more than 50% of enterprises

operate with black and gray wages (off-the-books and semi-official pay).

Naturally, people here are not protected — there is no

paid leave, no sick leave, and then pensions are

tiny, and so on. I understand that this is

a multifaceted issue. The question of off-the-books and

gray wages — how can this be dealt with? Well,

of course, first and foremost this is a matter

of federal regulation. But Moscow

can also do important things. What can the mayor of Moscow do? And

in your opinion, in which sector

of the city economy are there the most

off-the-books and gray

wages? First and foremost, housing and utilities services. In other words,

it is actually the state itself,

the municipal services. We were just discussing all these

migrant workers here already.

Each one gets paid and receives half

of their wages in cash. So first and foremost

my

task

in city management

is that I have full ability to do this.

I understand how to do it. And

here we simply need, I don't know, measures of

basic oversight. It is fairly

easy to track everything. But of course, overall

gray wages are a matter

of federal regulation. As long as we have

such a crazy unified

social tax, as long as the tax system is like this,

then

it is impossible to fight this. This is

a matter of federal regulation. That is exactly

why we wrote on our poster:

Change Russia — start with

Moscow. A lot of strange and wrong things happen in Russia,

and all

change in Russia will either begin or not begin

depending on whether Muscovites want it or

do not want it. If Moscow elects

a mayor who truly relies on the opinion

of Muscovites, then for the first time a mayor will be elected

whom not the election commission

made mayor — not television, but Muscovites. I

am sure that we will begin change at the

federal level. Next

question: why won't this happen? They'll steal the votes.

They appoint us, they choose for us. Well,

listen — you see, this is exactly what I was talking

about. People here are simply

saying it won't happen, that you'll never

be elected. That's exactly where I started. We

for some reason

assume in advance,

we have programmed into our minds that no,

they won't elect you, and so on. But why not?

Why do we assume in advance that

nothing can be changed, that they will always

steal?

Right, because you voted for

one person, and do you know what they did to us?

We lived in the old building, and they... Let me

give you the microphone. Keep it shorter, shorter. We, we

lived in one building.

Uh, in '98 we were already in the new one, and

they took us to vote in

'90... And those people who, uh, in

'90 — we had already moved into

building eighteen. And what happened? All

our votes went to some other guy. Understood.

So then, your question is not about whether

I won't be elected. Your question is that

the votes

will be stolen. That's one important point. Yes, we have

a situation in which

a district has 100,000 people living in it, and three

women in the district administration rewrite the protocols for everyone.

Do you like United Russia?

No? Well, no. Fine, let's suppose

that even here, among those gathered, United

Russia is not liked. But what percentage

should its real percentage be?

For United Russia in Moscow — 15? 10? Well, 10–15.

Fine, let's say 30. And in the Moscow City Duma, how much of United

Russia is there? Ninety-five

95%. This is about the fact that we ourselves must

protect our votes. We have already

sent 25,000 observers and commission members

with voting rights. We are

mobilizing. I invite you — there is no need to

treat this as if they won't let us. Of course they won't

let us. We must take it ourselves.

Sooner or later, we will do it. Court

— we went to court over every polling station.

But before it gets to court, every polling station needs

to have 10 observers sent there. Around

each polling station there will be another 10

people standing by to back up

the observer. We have to defend

ourselves sooner or later. If someone comes up to you on a

trolleybus and says, 'Hand over your bag,' and

starts pulling it away, you fight that person,

don't you? It's the same here, exactly the same.

They aren't even pulling away a bag — they are

pulling away your pension for the next 10 years, they are

pulling away your money for healthcare,

education.

So why should this be any different? Therefore, a person who tries to take that bag...

...in the face...

Figuratively speaking, we'll hit them in the face. Next question.

Next question.

Please, you have outlined a range of problems. Roughly speaking, where

will you start? As I already

said, the increase in housing and utilities tariffs from August 1

is unjustified, it is absurd,

it is completely unclear what any of it is

based on. At every meeting, people ask me

a lot about housing and utilities. I personally

deal with Mosenergo and Mosvodokanal (major Moscow energy and water utilities).

This is nonsense. Tariffs in Moscow should not be rising.

We already pay far too much. Second, as

I already said, we will double the Moscow

portion of pensions so that

the minimum standard is 16,000. Third, I

will begin reviewing these

corrupt contracts. At every

construction site, people are making 200% profits simply

by skimming off the top. Wherever there were violations

of the law.

Fraud in the Moscow budget—these

are the three most important things. Next question.

Please, about housing. We've been

fighting over housing for two years. What do you mean

by housing? The waiting list? No—what about demolition, demolition

of the five-story buildings? Yes, and

the nine-story ones too. Look, as for the five-story buildings,

the issue is very simple.

The five-story buildings were built from 1962 to sixty-

eight. For how many years? For

25. They've already outlived their service life. My

position as a candidate for mayor of Moscow

is very simple: these five-story buildings make no

sense to maintain, it's expensive, they need to be

demolished, including the demolishable series, and the city will

benefit from it. If I'm a sensible mayor and

I look not at a two-year horizon, where I

need to spend money on rehousing and demolition, but

at a ten-year horizon, I see that this is

beneficial. Heating these five-story buildings

is impossible, housing and utilities are very expensive, and living there

is impossible. So we simply have to

demolish them if we want to govern

our city properly. So my position

here is completely unambiguous. Alexei,

Alexei, please. Ahem, I'd like to add

we're currently being relocated from a five-story building. I have

a two-room apartment, 45 sq. m. (square meters), and people

are being given the same kind of two-room apartment.

Why? Listen, by law you should

be given housing according to the number of people

registered there; they can't base it on square meters.

They should. Right now they've introduced rules under

which they allocate by floor area, but in fact

of course it should be based on the number of

families, and we can allocate that way. Well,

listen, under Luzhkov (former Moscow mayor) this all worked.

Under Luzhkov it was simply investors. All right, I understand

the question. Under Luzhkov, investors could even

make money from this. It's just that Sobyanin's

construction mafia makes money from

something else—it profits from the biggest

projects, like road interchanges. They put all the

money there.

My job isn't to make money

there or anywhere else. My job

is to serve Muscovites, so we can

relocate people from five-story buildings under a normal scheme,

settle people in the same municipal

district, and give as many apartments as

they are entitled to. These are not such gigantic

costs.

This is the next question, about housing and utilities. I ask that

since you have access to Putin, ask him

this question. I'm glad you think so. I

will try. The question is this: everyone is worried about

this accursed

housing and utilities system. Bring back the way it used to be—

the Ministry of Public Utilities.

Disband this whole

economist-accountant crowd. Just look at how many

people, how many people

are concentrated there—idlers. They do

nothing, and huge sums are involved. Put it all into one

fist: a Ministry of Public

Utilities, with city-level administrations

of public utilities, and district-level ones too, and

that will sort it out. Understood, the question. Well, first of all, I'm glad

that you think I can just directly

go to Putin—no. If you elect me,

I'll have a direct line, a helicopter line, I'll call

and pass it on to him for you, I will pass it on.

That's the first thing. Unfortunately, what you're

talking about is no longer possible.

The housing and utilities system has collapsed; it doesn't exist at

the federal level, it simply doesn't exist.

So at the level of the mayor of Moscow, this

cannot be established or restored. But

the main thing that needs to be done—you say

we should drive all these people out. That's right,

because this is a mafia-like system. Who

owns all the management

companies, the main maintenance offices—who handles

repairs? Who is responsible for

landscaping and beautification? Some subsidiaries of the main

district administrations, and so on. This is the most

genuine mafia system. Yes, this needs to be—

it's all happening completely out in the open.

This has to be fought.

Please, next question.

These days they say, we're installing

meters for you. I say, how much does the meter cost?

They say 6,000 rubles. I say, all right,

but do I need to install them? I already have

them.

They say, we don't deal with meter-related questions.

And why is it that, say, one person

living in a one-room apartment has to pay

for the whole building? You've just described the issue with

meters: they force a person—he had

one meter installed, then they say he needs another

meter, then they'll tell you this one isn't

a certified meter. Let's get a

certified meter, pay for the

certificate—I went through this myself, I installed a meter

myself. But this is just a typical

example of outright mafia and monopoly—they

just keep extracting money endlessly. Now you

know they've introduced a minimum

social electricity standard, and now

they're doing the same for water, and they tell everyone, well,

guys, you're using so much electricity.

Medvedev tells us: let's somehow

cut back, buy yourselves different

light bulbs, replace your stove

with an energy-efficient one. You all have

the money to buy a stove with a ceramic

surface, of course—absolutely no

problem at all. This is just an obvious, simply

a scam. It's done so that we

pay more for housing and utilities, because we

will exceed this social norm.

It's impossible not to exceed it if you have

two light bulbs on at home.

In that case, that's it—you've

already exceeded it. This is simply a mafia-like system that

has to be fought. Let's have one person,

one question. This concerns the issue because

Just look: the person works all

day long, goes to work—how could he possibly

use up so many cubic meters of water in a month while living alone in a

apartment? That’s actually very easy to explain.

They

First of all, let’s say they wrote off some new

losses, pocketed the money, and included it in your

utility rate. That water leaked out through old

pipes, and they simply spread the cost across the whole building.

So you paid less for your own

water, and more for the

water that leaked into the ground or

was simply sold off somewhere under some shady

contract. That’s all there is to it—you

are paying for other people. That’s how it

really works. That’s how

Moscow’s housing and utilities system is set up: we are constantly paying for

someone else. Look at the water rates—from

... to ... Why do some pay 50 and others 8?

And why are those who pay 50 subsidizing those who

pay 8? They’ve stuffed our rates with some kind of

absolutely astonishing

nonexistent items. They call it an investment

component. They keep telling us:

we built a new power plant, we installed new pipes everywhere,

so let’s raise the

rate. But that’s a lie, and

everyone knows it—none of it exists.

In 2011, Mosvodokanal (Moscow’s water utility)

made 3 billion rubles in net profit

off us, and then they say:

we’re raising the rate. They go to the Moscow city government

and say, we want to raise the rate even more.

And the Moscow government says, fine,

raise the rate. Guys, you just made

3 billion on this—where did that money

go? And why should you be paying a higher rate?

But no, they raise it. Moscow’s

housing and utilities system is a genuine

mafia-style system, and it has to be fought

like a mafia-style system. My friends, I have

another meeting ahead of me, and later this evening

I’ll be on Echo of Moscow (a Russian radio station) to discuss

migrants. I’m very grateful to you for

coming here. Thank you very much.

All other questions can be handled on an individual

basis. I would very much like to have your

support. I hope you will become

my campaigners and bring lots of

people to the polling stations. We will

definitely win.

Hooray!