Alexei Navalny’s meeting with voters in Moscow’s Khoroshyovo-Mnyovniki district

So, you see—how much?

15.

Thieves from Uzbekistan

earn more than we do working here.

Wait, you see, you see what an interesting

thing this turns into. It's an open secret.

Could you come over here, please?

Please repeat the same thing into the microphone.

Just say it into the microphone.

Hello. I repeatedly ask

migrants, these guest workers, a question. And

their official salary is 25,000 rubles,

but since the housing maintenance offices are all effectively sold off,

and who knows who's sitting there, what they actually take home is

12,500. I've asked many of them about this.

The housing office takes 50%.

So that means they will, and that's why they will

rob us and rape us.

You see, this is such an astonishing

secret that all of Moscow knows. At

every meeting I conduct this poll, and

every time people tell me: 8,000, 10,000, 15,000.

But according to the official standard,

it is established that: "In Moscow there are no

street sweepers whose salary should be

less than 30,000." But all the actual

migrants we

speak to say 5,000, 10,000, 15,000.

And this really is

a river of cash that they

hand over every month

to the management company, the district administration,

the prefectures, and so on. These are hundreds

of millions of rubles in circulation,

that all these officials take. And all of this

is known to all of Moscow. I want to become mayor

in order to stop this, because

I see the other side of this stream of money.

Those very crimes that

are being committed,

they affect me too. I'm not going to

—I don't like living in a city

where at 8:00 p.m. you have to go to the metro

to meet your wife. That should not happen in a

normal city. I am standing here because

I follow very closely the processes

that have been taking place in Moscow

over the past few years. I know exactly

how large Moscow's budget is. Who knows

what Moscow's annual budget is?

6 billion, something like that.

1.6 trillion.

1.63 trillion. 1.63 trillion rubles a

year. In terms of budget size, Moscow is second only

to New York and Shanghai. We

must all understand very clearly

that we live in one of the richest

cities in the world. Prosperous cities in Europe

and the United States cannot even come close

to matching Moscow's wealth. And yet,

where do you think we rank

in quality of life among

the world's largest cities?

Fiftieth.

Fiftieth, eighth.

Twentie...

Fiftieth?

No, no. It's already

eightieth.

No need to guess any further than

154th

place

in the ranking of the world's largest cities by

quality of life, we are in 154th

place

With the money that Moscow already has right now,

Muscovites could afford

good education, quality

healthcare, and roads on which we

could successfully fight traffic jams, as well as a smaller

number of migrants. But we have none of this.

We seem to have a city,

infrastructure, an educated

population.

And what is stopping us from living normally? We are missing

just one thing, you and I. We lack

faith in ourselves. We lack faith that

we are capable of changing something. Answer

the questions, please.

Thank you. Please keep it brief with this microphone.

What do I want to say? I have the following

question.

You know,

to

run such an electoral

campaign effectively, as you are doing, you need to

support your convictions

theoretically. I heard that you have two higher education degrees,

but we, being Soviet people,

are used to understanding that today's

situation is roughly shaped by

two political science currents. These are

liberal democrats

and liberal conservatives.

I would like you to tell us

clearly,

which group you will align yourself with, and whether you will

represent only their interests.

Well, look, let me ask this:

raise your hand if you are, as you put it,

liberal conservatives.

One,

and the others—raise your hand if you are

liberal democrats.

There, two, four liberal democrats.

I've found six. Seven.

Listen, if I want

officials not to buy apartments for their

daughters for 100 million, am I a

liberal conservative, a liberal democrat,

who the hell knows. If I want to solve

the migration problem by normal, lawful

means, am I a liberal democrat,

a conservative, or maybe I'm left-wing, maybe I'm

right-wing, maybe I'm green—who the hell

knows. I represent one political group:

people like me—people like you. I

have felt all these problems firsthand.

I feel it. I want to solve these problems.

It doesn't matter whether I'm a conservative or a liberal. I don't

want them to stuff into my housing and utilities bill

a 300 million ruble payment

for United Russia. All of us, when last year we

paid for electricity and

power last year, paid 300 million rubles

in sponsorship money to United Russia,

which Mosenergo paid, and then charged to us

by including it in the tariff. Does that make me a liberal-conservative

or the other way around because of this? Hell if

I know. I just want to solve these

problems. I've had enough of them. That's all.

Please, I

I'll come over. Go ahead. Oh,

your hand.

I'll give you the microphone, but briefly.

I'll put my hand here.

Alexei, you said everything very well,

just wonderfully. But we all know perfectly well

that illegal migration, and also

our very poor healthcare. By the way, here

a nurse at our local clinic earns

12,000 rubles—a Russian woman from Moscow. All these

problems come down to one problem:

corruption. And all the officials are

tied to one another. They have long-standing corrupt

connections, and you're alone. And everything you say is right

—you think the way we

think. But specifically, how are you going

to fight this? What's your mechanism—do you

have a well-thought-out plan, will you fire everyone

or what?

Thank you very much. Well, first of all, I'm not

alone—I have a team, and most

importantly, I can see that here too I am

definitely not alone. The most important thing

is that there are hundreds of thousands and millions of

people with me who want to change the situation.

That's the first thing. Second.

Who runs the city? How many people

run the city of Moscow?

No, no, another one.

Hundreds of people, tens of thousands of people

work in prefectures, district administrations, in

state enterprises, housing maintenance offices, municipal enterprises, and so on. 85%

of these people, strange as it may seem, are

not corrupt at all, because

they aren't even in positions

where they can steal. These are

completely ordinary people who

earn decent salaries, who

value stability and a normal

life. I'm sure some of them are standing here,

including together with us. They want

a normal life. They want the same

normal local clinic, low

corruption, and so on. So my

task is, relying on that 85% who are not

corrupt by virtue of their natural

position, to squeeze those 15% who

cannot be changed. And most importantly, at the

level of the city's political leadership

we need to replace the top 30 people in order

to establish the right

personnel policies and principles. When I

say this, I very often

get told it's nonsense, that

principles are meaningless. "Give us names,"

they say. But let me give you an example after

which, I think, it will become clearer

just how important principles are. Tell me,

please, what is the main

corruption case in Russia right now?

Serdyukov.

Apart from Navalny's case.

Serdyukov. Serdyukov.

Serdyukov.

Yes, Serdyukov.

Serdyukov.

Then tell me this, please:

is Serdyukov in jail?

No.

Has Serdyukov been formally charged?

No.

No. Serdyukov still has a Mercedes assigned to him

by the Defense Ministry to this day. And he still has a flashing light

blinking on the roof, despite what they say

on television about how terrible he is.

Vasilyeva. Is Vasilyeva under

house arrest.

Under house arrest. How many rooms does she have

in her apartment?

13.

13 rooms. Everyone answers in chorus.

They know.

I know. She can go outside for 3 hours.

And she can go outside for 3 hours. How old are you?

10.

The child is 10 years old. He knows that

Vasilyeva is under house arrest. She can go out for 3

hours. During those

3 hours she is regularly photographed in

jewelry stores. What's more, lawyers

know—or maybe not everyone knows—that

her house arrest is a formal

restriction of freedom that will later

be counted toward her sentence at two days for every one day. And if

Vasilyeva is sentenced to 2 years, she will immediately

be released, because she has already, in effect,

served her time.

Is anything I've just said

news to anyone?

No. Even ten-year-old children know this.

If you conduct a poll, you'll see that

99.9%

of Russians are simply enraged by the situation with

Serdyukov. Just absolutely furious

about what's happening.

But this is a completely obvious

principle being imposed

by the state. They are saying: "Look,

everyone—officials and ordinary citizens alike—

this is how our system works and will keep working. You

can be incompetent,

corrupt, a former furniture store manager

who became

...became defense minister and looted everything. But

if you meet the main conditions, namely

loyalty, keeping quiet, and

kicking back your share, then everything will go

fine for you.

The principles have to be different. I will become

a mayor who follows a very

simple principle: if a person is suspected of

corruption, I fire them immediately. If

a person is caught taking bribes, I

put them in jail right away. This principle is not

theoretical; it is absolutely

practical, and it will force people

to work properly. If people believe

that this is not just rhetoric, not just

statements like these, if they know

that my own deputy, acting in my name,

is not taking suitcases full of cash in the next office,

then they will adjust and

the whole system will start working. After all, there is,

for example, the city of Singapore, populated by

Chinese people who, broadly speaking, are

inclined toward corruption. There was major

corruption there too. Then Lee Kuan Yew came in and

said: "In order to defeat

corruption, I jailed half of my

friends." He simply jailed those who were

caught. He kept jailing them until everyone

was convinced that yes, they really would go to prison."

It did not matter whether you were close to him or not,

a former classmate, a university friend, or a neighbor from the

dacha cooperative (a shared summer-home association) — you would go to jail, 100 percent. And everyone

started working properly. And I will jail everyone,

100 percent of those who deserve

to be jailed. And then things here too

will start working properly.

What if they are connected to Ozero Cooperative (a dacha cooperative associated with Putin's inner circle)?

If they are connected to Ozero Cooperative,

then how will you...

I will say: guys, maybe you are connected to

Ozero Cooperative, maybe you are not.

If you get caught, I put you in jail. There is

nothing else to it. Please, your question.

How am I supposed to ask it?

Friends,

...team. Good afternoon, everyone. My name is

Elena. The question about the team is a good one. Your

comrades are not very friendly. My question

is this. It is about honesty, yes, about what

you are saying, and about the situation that

made the news. Campaign materials — I think

everyone saw on NTV and Channel One

that illegal campaign materials were found

being distributed by a member of your

team. You have not explained anything. Why

are you staying silent? At least say what you have to say

to those who raised this issue.

He did not have time during the debates. He was given too little

time — just a minute to explain.

Did you see what the young woman is talking about?

May I...

Levichev? One second. Levichev announced

that we supposedly had some illegal

materials. They broke into people's apartment,

sawed through their door, found 20 stickers

that were completely legal, by the way.

Those people were jailed for 10 days

for resisting the police. There were no other

consequences after that. It is all

nonsense. Listen, fine, maybe right now

it is convenient to ask a question like that.

Is there anyone here who is planning

to vote for me?

Yes. Yes.

Then why would I be campaigning to you? I do not

understand at all. [laughter]

Every one of these people, every one of these

people can make a poster that says

"Navalny for Mayor." And it will not

say "paid for from the

election fund of the mayoral candidate."

It will be a poster that you made. And

by your logic, by Levichev's logic, they would need

to saw through the door, break in there, and

say: "My God, this is Navalny's underground

headquarters — a person drew a

poster." But our law states quite

clearly that everyone has the right

to campaign on their own as much as they want. You

can print flyers on a printer,

make posters, and so on and so forth.

That is our right, and the right of those people

who were in that apartment, to make

any flyers in support of me. And when

Sobyanin or Levichev tells me — well,

turn on, I do not know, TV Center or Moscow

24 — in every single segment, in every

single segment they talk about me; yesterday there was a segment about me

on TV Center that began by saying that not a single person

came to a meeting with Navalny,

not one person,

and at the same time they run stories about how

wonderful they are. And then they also

accuse me of illegal

campaigning. It is just ridiculous. Please,

your question.

Alexei, we are very grateful that you came to see us.

Thank you very much. Please come visit us more often.

I want to provide some information about why

there has been nothing about this either on the blog or on

the website. There is nothing there; today I looked,

and all my friends...

You know, I ran into this

problem back in 2003. The Ministry of Defense

in all military housing buildings that

fell under its authority at that time.

The way they cheat us and shortchange us there — it is all tied to

privatization.

The privatization law was never repealed, was it? No.

But for us it is still blocked.

No, no, no. The fact is, no one here can

privatize their housing. In '75 I, together with an initiative group, went to court...

I, together with an initiative group, in court...

It would be good if you would raise this issue of reopening

privatization. We got it reopened, and then

people followed, we drafted lawsuits, and then it

was shut down again. It is closed again for us.

The building has not been repaired since 1962, and I in this...

I live in this building. No repairs are being done here.

What’s more, we have Slavyanka (a Defense Ministry housing management company), and it won’t

even let us transfer to GBU DES, where

Sobyanin at least allocates some money for

repairs. Help us. What should we do? We will

vote for you.

You see, it’s an astonishing situation, isn’t it?

This is Slavyanka, where criminal cases have already been opened against all

of them,

and yet they continue tormenting people,

despite the fact that they are such

crooks, they do not allow people

to privatize the apartment in which you

have been living for how many years now?

Since 1962.

Since 1962. And this is

completely illegal. I myself grew up in

a military town. Well, we privatized

our apartment. My parents privatized

their apartment in a military town, because

it is every person’s right

to privatize, as long as it is not some kind of active military garrison

.

No, it’s an ordinary one.

So, you understand,

if I tell you right now that tomorrow

I will solve your problem, then I would be

a windbag and a liar. This problem

can only be solved by changing this

government. This Slavyanka we’re talking about,

they seem to be dragging it through the mud, Oboronservice and

so on; we know that they are all

outright crooks,

apparently. But nevertheless, even now, at

this very moment, they continue tormenting

ordinary honest residents. And against this same

background, Sobyanin, having privatized an apartment

in Tyumen, is privatizing a second apartment here

of 308 sq. m. Until we change this

government, which despises us so much

that it does all this openly, nothing will

change. Come to the elections,

vote. If I become mayor, I will solve this

problem.

Alexei, may I,

please, let’s do one person, one

question.

Will you help us transfer these

five-story buildings to the city?

Yes, that’s exactly what I was talking about.

These five-story buildings should—look, well,

this is just a strange situation. But these

five-story buildings—where are they located? In the city?

Well, of course the city should take them over.

It is a single housing and utilities system, a single

supply system. You see, this is

simply a war between the city and

the Ministry of Defense. The city says:

"We won’t take your five-story buildings without

money for major repairs." Yes, money,

That’s exactly what I’m saying. It’s absurd, because

the mayor’s job is to take care of residents. If

there are five-story buildings here where

people live, I will help you. I will solve all

these absurd problems. Naturally,

of course, I give you my word. Please. Yes,

ask your question into the

microphone.

Could you list the major

state-owned and private

corporations in which you are a

shareholder? And, speaking plainly,

could you explain what you have been living on for the last 5

years? Thank you.

As for transparency—can I

list the major state-owned and

private companies in which

I am a shareholder, and with what money I

bought these shares? I am a shareholder.

What do you live on? How do you support yourself?

I am a shareholder in

Gazprom. I am a shareholder in Rosneft.

I am a shareholder in Transneft. I

am a shareholder in Mosenergo. I am

a shareholder in about a dozen

energy companies that were formed

after the breakup of RAO UES. Altogether,

the shares I own are now worth,

probably, 200,000 rubles. Where did

that come from? Where did you get 200,000

rubles?

200,000 rubles.

A share costs 8 rubles, 20 rubles. I invite all of you,

my friends, to become shareholders in

Gazprom by investing 100 rubles. Come

along with me—you’ll be suing

Gazprom. It’s fun and costs very little

money. Next question, please.

Boris has a question.

How do you manage to maintain such a good

tan? And now a serious question.

Right now there are debates on M24, and we

see, so to speak, political passion,

politicking. Typically, the criticism is directed

at opponents. There is very little rational discussion, right.

I would like to know,

you have probably lived in Moscow for a long time already,

maybe you even saw Gavriil Popov (the first mayor of Moscow after the Soviet period),

but what do you think—after the change

from Luzhkov to Sobyanin, for

me it was a kind of characteristic time

of change, because Luzhkov once

said, why should I leave? I clear the snow,

everything is wonderful. Do you see

any changes now, after all, taking place in

Moscow? What positive things

would you take from that? And how do you

assess those positive aspects?

Thank you. As for the tan, well, as

you can see, I spend a lot of time in the

fresh air. Sometimes you stand there at

12 noon at a meeting, and in an hour you get so

tanned that it would be better not to

tan at all.

As for the second question—what good things were

done under Sobyanin? I do not want to

deny the obvious. When Sobyanin

replaced Luzhkov, he largely inherited

Luzhkov-style methods of governance, but there were

a lot of the right declarations. It was

announced that he would bring order to

the housing and utilities system. And it seemed they had started

to sort some things out. But two years passed, and as we

know, the day before yesterday — three days ago, rather —

MOEK was privatized. It was handed over

to Gazprom at an unclear price, and Sobyanin

is directly responsible for the fact that

a new monopoly has emerged, and now we will

be paying more for housing and utility services. Sobyanin

said that he would stop the demolition of

monuments, historical landmarks in

the city center. For a year they really were not

demolished. That did not

now they have started demolishing them again.

They are being demolished.

Sobyanin said that he had put an end to

infill development.

Infill development is still there in Moscow,

infill development,

but it remains. It is continuing.

Sobyanin said that he would conduct

a review. That was the right idea. I supported all

of that, a review of major

road construction contracts. But

who are now the main contractors for

road construction in Moscow?

The Rotenbergs. In Soviet times they were

judokas, sparring together with Putin.

And now they are building roads for us.

Who are the main contractors for construction

in the Moscow metro now?

Timchenko. Them too, and Timchenko. Timchenko is

the very same guy I am constantly

suing. The chief seller of

Russian oil, who gave up

Russian citizenship, a citizen

of Finland, living in Switzerland,

through his Swiss company,

which sold all our oil and made him

a billionaire in the process, is now building

the Moscow metro for us. And if before him 1 km

of metro cost 6 billion rubles, which is very

expensive, now 1 km of the Moscow metro

costs 9 billion rubles. So quite simply, he

quite obviously, from every

kilometer pockets a full 300 billion.

So, well, I can say this: yes, Sobyanin

built bike lanes, put bicycles in place.

I am not denying that. There are bicycles,

Sobyanin put them there, but I would still like

to see something more important,

more significant.

And it is not working for him, and none of this works

for one simple reason.

How many voters does Sobyanin have?

I want to win over half a million voters and

become mayor. For me, that is the only

way to become mayor: to gather 155 million

voters. But Sobyanin has just one voter.

And everything he does, he

does in order to please that one

voter. I need to please you.

Take the five-story apartment blocks into city ownership. Yes. I need

to please everyone by lowering housing and utility rates. I

need to please all of you by driving migrants out of

Moscow. I have a lot of work to do

if I want to be re-elected

next time. But for Sobyanin, in order to remain

mayor, he needs to hand contracts to

Rotenberg, he needs to hand contracts to

Timchenko, he needs to secure the financial

interests of this entire Putin gang.

That is why none of it works out for him.

That is why I want to become a mayor who has

155 million voters, and I do not want to be a mayor who has

only one voter. I do not want that. Mo,

please.

No, well, he is not asking,

why Sobyanin has never once raised pensions.

That, by the way, is a question that interests me

very much. It would seem

that this could be done even from the standpoint of

winning voter support. All of this can

be done. That is exactly why in our

program we explicitly included a point stating

that we would immediately halt the adoption of

the 2013 budget until

we raise pensions. Already in the

current budget

there is money to raise

pensions. Besides that, savings can be made on

a huge number of things in order

to raise pensions. A simple example.

Do you know how much money in Moscow every

year goes to public procurement?

600 billion rubles. Of those 600 billion rubles, according to

the city administration's own admission, every year

150 billion rubles are stolen. What is 150 billion rubles?

For us, that is 30,000 rubles per person. That means

30,000 rubles a year are being stolen from you, from me, from everyone gathered here

every year just through public procurement.

I know exactly how to stop this. At

our Anti-Corruption Foundation (ACF), we canceled corrupt tenders worth 59

billion rubles

already. I already have all the

laws, draft laws, and resolutions written out.

I know exactly how to save those 150

billion just by fighting corruption in

public procurement. And that money can also be

directed toward additional social

payments not only to pensioners, but to everyone

else as well. Do you know how much the benefit is for

a large family with four

children in Moscow?

5,000.

Three,

five.

Well, not for everyone, around five. I...

Five.

It comes to five.

All around five, right?

4,900. So then, how many people are in your

family?

Six people.

6 times 30 — how much is that?

A lot.

Please answer the question. 4,900 a

month.

There’s your answer. Where are we supposed to find

additional resources to

raise everything enough to pay

everyone in need? In Moscow, in such a

rich city, it’s simply unacceptable

that people here have to buy

their own medicines—people with disabilities are told,

"you have to purchase all of this yourselves." That’s absurd.

We have more than enough money, and we certainly

can afford it—we absolutely can

afford to raise pensions for retirees.

Another question, the young woman.

Please solve this,

as a father of many children.

Go ahead. Uh, I’m dealing with this

bureaucratic delay called

improving housing conditions. There are many

elderly people sitting here, yes,

who have been waiting 15 to 20 years for their own

housing. I came as a father of many children and

said, exercising my legal right: "I have this many

children, I’ve already heard that even families

with fewer qualify." They told me, "Well, first let us

recognize you as a low-income family. Go over here

to our, uh, what’s it called,

office. Basically, yes, if they recognize you,

come back to us. Then we’ll, uh, how do I put it,

put you on the waiting list."

Why? Just a question. And would you be able

to change this bureaucratic system

so that people can actually get apartments when

new developments are going up all over the city?

The question is that a person who is

part of a large family,

a father of many children, cannot even get

onto the waiting list. Right. And let me guess something else.

By law, you’re also entitled to a plot of land.

Have they given it to you?

I’ve been on the district administration’s waiting list for two years.

Two years. Is there at least any sign of progress?

No.

And there won’t be. Not a single family has yet

received one. Do you understand? We annexed New Moscow

(the large territory added to Moscow). Supposedly there’s land all the way toward Kaluga

there. Yet at every single meeting, a large

family comes up to me,

and they say, "We keep applying." And they’re told,

"There’s no land." How can there be no land?

Look at the map. It’s the size of

Belgium. For heaven’s sake, how can there be no land? And this

is happening because they can’t make money

off it. And as for the

waiting list,

will you be able to do that,

I will do exactly that. Look, when it comes to the

waiting list, the first thing—the simplest,

most obvious thing—I’ll do is this:

we have 400,000 people on the waiting list.

Can any of you see that

list? Who’s first on it, who’s second,

who’s four-hundred-thousandth? Can you

look it up? No. Nobody can.

Nobody can. I will be the first

mayor who finally opens up that waiting list

so that we don’t have situations where

someone like Sobyanin gets an apartment ahead of others, or

someone like Navalny gets one. Here,

we’ve had people on the waiting list like

TV host Vladimir Solovyov receive apartments. We’ve had

Andrei Malakhov receive a subsidized apartment

from the city, and so on and so forth. They

keep all of this hidden

because you don’t matter to them. They need

to cut into that line themselves. That’s why it

is closed. So I’ll do one simple thing

so that you can be sure that neither

TV hosts like Solovyov nor mayors like

Navalny can cut in. I’ll simply open it all up, and

we will all see who is first, who is second,

who qualifies for benefits, who gets special priority. And we’ll know for sure

that this is exactly how it all

moves forward, because that’s what’s needed

for accountability. Go ahead.

Briefly, please.

Briefly, yes. And what should we do right now?

Right now, you need to persuade your neighbors,

get them to come vote, and change this government,

because this government will never give

you either the plot of land you are entitled to

or the apartment you are entitled to. Maybe this

sounds utopian to you, but I’m saying

that until we change the government,

we cannot expect anything.

And we absolutely must change it,

because we are that power. My friends,

I hold three meetings like this every

day. I still have two more ahead of me today.

Thank you very much. I’m very

grateful that you came. It was

very important to me that you listened. I

would very much like to rely on you,

to have your support, and together with you

return power to the people. Thank you.