Alexei Navalny’s meeting with voters in Moscow’s Mitino district

Who knows—who can name for me at least

one major industrial enterprise

built in Russia over the past 15 years?

I ask this question at every meeting.

Every single one. This is already my thirty-

fourth meeting like this with voters.

And at not a single meeting has anyone

been able to name one. Well, because such an

enterprise does not exist.

I want to see where the railways are,

built with Putin's money—with

our money, rather, received during the Putin era.

I know the statistics showing that Russia

builds as much railway in a year

as China builds in a week. Even though

China has neither oil nor gas.

Show me our modern

space industry.

All I see is a rocket that takes off and

crashes. Show me the science

that we are funding with those $3

trillion we received.

There is nothing. All I see is the reform of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAN),

whose purpose is to take away from these

elderly academicians their real estate.

Where is the infrastructure, where is healthcare,

where is the education that belongs to me, my

children, and you. That is why I believe that I have been

personally robbed by all these people. I mean,

I can see this list of billionaires in Russia.

I see the statistics for the year 2000. Do you know

how many official

dollar billionaires there were in Russia? Six. And now

do you know how many there are? 121.

The main record that Russia has set

is the rate of growth in the number of dollar

billionaires.

The main record Russia is setting

is that all the homes in London

worth more than a million pounds

are being bought by Russian officials. Am I supposed to

be proud of that? No. I believe that

I have personally been robbed. It is as if

I were riding on a trolleybus and I had

my 640,000 rubles—my share of the oil

rent—and someone stuck a hand into my pocket and

pulled it out. They pulled it out of my family's pocket too, and

out of all of yours. That is why I will

never leave alone either

Gazprom, or Rosneft, or

Transneft, or all the rest. This

group of people that took the $3 trillion

received from the sale of our

natural resources and simply kept it for themselves.

And here, at this point, I am now addressing

you as

a candidate for mayor of Moscow who wants

to earn your support. I want to earn

your support. I want you to vote

for me.

I want you to tell others about

me. I came here to persuade you.

And I am telling you that I am standing here

first and foremost because I am the most

ordinary, simple Muscovite, living in

an ordinary apartment building, living the life of an ordinary

Moscow family. And all the problems

I am talking about here are not even just the

problems that you yourselves experience—

they are my problems. I want to solve the problems

that my family has

run into. I am talking to you here about housing and utilities services

not because I know that this issue

concerns you. It concerns me.

It concerns me. For my apartment in a

prefabricated panel building, I get a bill for 9,500

rubles. How is that acceptable at all? And I

understand that I am not receiving services worth

that amount. I understand that the tariff

keeps rising. I want to become the mayor who

will finally conduct an audit of housing and utilities tariffs,

so that we can finally understand: why are we

paying so much? Why did Mosvodokanal

a state-owned company, make

a profit of 3 billion rubles in 2011,

and then in 2012 still

raise the water tariff? They operate at a

net profit. Our company operates

with a net profit of 3 billion, and yet the tariff still

goes up. I want to conduct an audit

so that everyone can see it—you can see it, and I can

see it too.

the astonishing things that happen

when tariffs are set. Did you know, for example,

that when last year you

paid for electricity and heating in your

home, you also paid for sponsorship support to

United Russia in the amount of 200 million rubles. Mosenergo

transferred them a donation of 200 million

rubles by including it in the tariff.

They justify it; they come to city hall

and say: "Here are our urgent expenses,

without which we cannot continue to exist."

And there is a line item there: "Support for United Russia

200 million rubles."

I want to become the mayor who will conduct

an audit of this tariff and expose,

once and for all, all these nonexistent

investment components, these virtual construction projects

that are included there but in

reality are never carried out. I do not want

to pay for that. I am sure you do not want

to pay for it either. The example I

give at every rally about the head of my district administration

in Maryino. You may

have seen how a month ago he was removed from

office. He was removed because his

wife—you probably saw it on television—was driving a

jeep and ran into pedestrians.

The pedestrians recorded the whole thing on video. There was

a scandal, and the district head was fired. That jeep—

remember? It was a Range Rover with

the license plate 999.

And this man, the district head,

has spent his whole life in municipal service. He

was the head of the district administration in Nekrasovka,

then in Lyublino, then in my district of

Maryino. His whole life in

in municipal service. He has a decent

salary, but judging by his officially declared

income, he really ought to be earning less than

I do. But he openly lives the life of a

dollar millionaire, completely

without the slightest embarrassment before me, or

the residents of the district, or anyone. And I do not want

to pay for his millionaire lifestyle through my 9,500-ruble

utility bill. That is why I

want to become the mayor who will put a stop to all

of this. I came here to your district and

climbed onto this stage.

Because, just like you, I go to an

ordinary city clinic. And my

wife goes to an ordinary city

clinic

or to a children's clinic if she

goes there with the children. And, just like you, I can

be shown a TVC (a Moscow TV channel) report a million times,

with the triumphant, beaming Sergei

Semyonovich Sobyanin saying that we

have this electronic appointment system.

You come to this electronic registration desk and

you get to see a doctor right away. Well, that is

nonsense. I have been to an ordinary clinic. I do

not live on Rublyovka (an elite wealthy area near Moscow). You are all nodding

your heads, because everyone knows it. We, we

go to ordinary clinics,

but we cannot get in to see a doctor. And do you know

by how much

more is spent on healthcare for any

resident of Moscow compared with

any other Russian? By how much more

is allocated per Muscovite, what percentage more

is allocated for a Muscovite than for any

other person? Who knows?

By 70.

By 70%. Any other guesses?

Twice as much.

Four times as much. Four times

more is allocated for every person sitting

here than for any other

citizen of Russia. For every one

of you standing here, and for every Muscovite,

the amount allocated for outpatient clinic

care

is 20,000 rubles a year. So for my family

of four, that is 80,000 rubles.

That is a huge amount of money. And I am simply

curious. Please raise your hands,

those of you who have been to your local

clinic in the past year.

I see. Some of you have. And who has not been to their

local clinic? Aha. Let me tell you,

my friends, 20,000 rubles has also been written off

for each of you.

I want to become the mayor who will direct these huge

funds that are already being allocated toward

finally hiring general practitioners,

internists, and the doctors

that Muscovites need in 90% of cases.

Now just tell me, is it easy to get an

ultrasound in an ordinary clinic?

No.

You all tell me: "No, just go up,

please, to any metro station, and there is

one of Sobyanin's little campaign tents there." And in the section

listing Sobyanin's achievements, the first thing

displayed is: "Bought 1,200 ultrasound machines for Muscovites

". It gives the impression that he personally went out

and bought us 1,200 ultrasound machines. But I

know that it is impossible to actually get an ultrasound. We

are all forced to go to private

ultrasound clinics because getting one at a public clinic

is extremely difficult. I want to become the mayor

who will make sure that the huge sums allocated for

equipment are spent not on

buying that equipment at twice

the real price, but on making sure

that people can actually get an ultrasound. Because

sometimes my wife needs one, my children need one,

I need one. And apparently, as I get older, I will

need ultrasounds more often, like anyone

else. This is about caring for a normal life.

I am standing here before you because

the issue of migration does not just

concern me,

it has become part of my life. Because

when I was preparing for this meeting with you, I

looked at what people here were writing about

migration problems, all these outcries. You have

that former state farm here,

what is it called?

Teplichny.

Teplichny,

where for two years there has been an illegal camp

for migrants. I looked carefully at the history

of it, and several times

orders were issued saying it had to be

shut down, that all of it was illegal.

And yet it is still there. Funny how that works,

isn't it? What happened at Matveyevsky Market?

So, some Dagestanis beat up a police officer. In

response, the Moscow government

set up a concentration camp where

200 Vietnamese people are being held.

What is that supposed to be? Well, please,

go to this Teplichny place. I invite both

Sobyanin and everyone else to come to my district,

Maryino, and take a walk in my Maryinsky Park

after 9:00 p.m. Then he will understand

why the women living in my building

are afraid to go outside in the evening.

And then he will learn that for me this

crime statistics are not just numbers

on a piece of paper. I know this because I personally know

several people, several women, whose

bags were snatched by these migrants.

And I know perfectly well

why migrants come here. I want

to become mayor because I know that

migrants come here not because

there are jobs here, but because people profit

from them. Let us simply

take a quick poll. Who knows how much

their local street cleaner earns? Who has asked

a street cleaner what his salary is?

10,000. 10

7

10 10

4 21

10

10

15

15

Here’s an interesting thing. If we all

read together the interview

with Sobyanin’s deputy Biryukov, who

is precisely responsible for this area, or

just look at the official standard. I

have looked at it. The current official

pay standard for street sweepers tells us

that there are no street sweepers in Moscow

who earn less than 30,000 rubles.

Yes, the funny thing is that any real, live

street sweepers we

speak to give us figures like 10, 15,

8, 4, 5. My street sweeper told me 18.

And this is the kind of secret all

Muscovites know: these migrants are brought here

to be kept in conditions like slavery,

30 people to a basement, because

each of them, along with his salary,

each one of them, every month, simply

flows like a huge full river along the route

of the management company, housing services,

the district administration, the prefecture, the police station,

the migration service, and so on, and so

on. I want to become the mayor who changes this

because I do not need

migrant-related crime and

so on. This is my problem, one I

encounter myself. I do not live like Sobyanin, behind

the Rublyovka fence (an elite wealthy suburb outside Moscow), with reports brought to me.

No,

this is part of my life. I am standing here

before you because I follow

the budget process very

closely and carefully watch how

money is spent in Moscow. I know the size

of the Moscow city budget. Who can

tell me what Moscow’s annual budget is?

52 billion.

A 500 billion deficit.

1.6, 1.6 trillion rubles. Moscow’s budget

is smaller only than the budgets

of New York and Shanghai. All of us sitting and

standing here must understand one

important thing: we live in one of the

richest cities in the world.

And the richest cities of Europe and America

simply cannot even come close

to comparing with Moscow in terms of their

wealth. With the money we already

have right now.

Right now, Muscovites could already have good

healthcare, quality

education,

roads where traffic jams are successfully being dealt with,

traffic congestion,

fewer migrants on the streets

and all the other things enjoyed by

residents of major cities around the world.

They have all that there; they have problems too, but

they deal with them successfully. And I am standing here

before you because I have written

a program that the best specialists helped me write,

drawing on the experience

of how other cities successfully solved

all these problems. We can solve them all,

and we have the money

to solve these problems. You know,

if I were standing here

running for mayor of Kostroma,

and you were all residents of Kostroma, you would

say to me: "Navalny, here you are

running, and we demand that you build us

another outpatient clinic." And I would

say to you, my dear Kostroma residents, there is no money

in our budget. You will not get

that clinic; I will not make easy

promises that cannot be fulfilled. But I am

running for mayor of Moscow. So I tell you,

my dear Muscovites, in our

budget there is more than enough money for everything.

For us to live normally in

Moscow, we have the city, we have

the infrastructure, we have a very

highly educated population that

is capable of managing all of this. We have

everything. The only thing we lack is faith in ourselves. For some reason, we

have simply somehow decided that

nothing can be changed. At every

meeting, someone comes up to me,

shrugs, and says: "Well,

all of this is true. We know all this,

everything you’ve said is already known."

"But nothing can be changed."

But why can’t it be changed? I came here

because I believe it can

be changed. But why have we accepted

that there is this kind of system of power

that robs us, insults us, and

simply despises us,

and we just say, all right, that’s the way things are.

Show me—I don’t know—is there an army here

standing guard over us? No, I think there’s

maybe one police officer somewhere here

watching over us, and that’s all.

Here, through your own district, runs this

North-Western Chord (a major highway project), right? And about

this entire North-Western Chord, everyone unanimously

says that it costs 83 billion. And all

transport experts tell us

that, first, from a transportation

standpoint it is fairly pointless,

and second, it costs twice as much

as it should. Its original

estimate was 30 billion, and now it has risen to

83. But we all know that in the construction of

the North-Western Chord

so much money will be stolen from this one project

as would be needed to build

additional outpatient clinics and schools not just

in the North-Western

District, but across all of Moscow. We

We know all this, we understand it all. We shrug

our shoulders and say, "Well, nothing can be

changed." That's just how things are. But why

are they that way? Are we the stupidest people?

Are we the most cursed, the most

pointless inhabitants of the planet or what? No

— no. I'm standing here because I believe

that this is the source of power,

that people choose their government. And people

choose their mayor themselves. Not the Central Election Commission,

not television, not Churov. People choose.

This whole gang entrenched at the top

doesn't rule everyone through fear, but simply

through passivity. Because we

shrug our shoulders and think: "Well, nothing

can be changed." Everything can be changed. I

don't have the opportunity to appear on television.

I don't have the opportunity to plaster the city with billboards.

But you still came here

somehow. I did let you know about

my presence. I announced it in my

program. And the persuasive, campaigning

power of each one of you is

tremendous.

I believe that through you, through meetings like these,

I will speak to hundreds of thousands, to

millions of Muscovites. And in order to

elect the mayor of Moscow, we need 1.5 million

people. Moscow has a population of 15 million,

with 8 million voters. And in order to

elect a mayor, taking turnout into account, we need 1.55

million people. There are 1.55 million people in

Moscow who know everything and understand everything.

Each of those one and a half million people can

stand here with me and

say exactly the same things.

Our task is simply to reach those

one and a half million. I am absolutely certain

that, relying on you, through you, I

will speak to hundreds of thousands. If we

cast off this haze from ourselves, if we

finally understand that on the

North-West Chord (a major Moscow highway project), they are stealing not just

billions, but our billions, they are depriving

us of clinics and schools,

they are depriving us of roads without traffic jams, then

we can change everything. We just need to

realize our own strength. We absolutely will

realize it. I am absolutely certain that with

your help, we will put pressure on the authorities. We

will force them to change, and we will make sure

that the government in Moscow is worthy of its

wonderful residents. Thank you very much.

I'm ready to answer your questions.

Please. Thank you. Thank you. I'm very

pleased. All right, you ask, and then I'll

repeat it for everyone.

Well, I understand the question about the waiting list, about housing.

I understand.

I'll repeat it for everyone afterward. And so I

came

and they told me to go

outside Moscow. That's exactly what happened, I wanted everyone

...Alexeevna. I see. Natalia

Alexeevna has a question. Now I will

answer. Thank you. The question is that she

has the right to receive an apartment.

Natalia Alexeevna, there are just a lot of

people here. If I spend too long listening to

the question, then—yes, yes, please.

What should the president do, meaning Sobyanin,

so that he looks into it, and so Sobyanin doesn't write

telling me to go somewhere else.

Should that be brief?

Sobyanin told Natalia Alexeevna

that when she asked for the housing allocation due to her by

law, she should go

to another city and find housing there. Am I quoting

that correctly? Well, listen, you recently read

Sobyanin's statement that

we would build wonderful cities for

pensioners beyond the Urals and in the Russian Far East

.

Well, it's funny, yes, a funny thing, but it

simply illustrates how much they

despise everyone, if they can make statements

like that, after which they

should get zero votes, but they are not

embarrassed at all. And as for the issue that

concerns apartments, housing allocations, and

waiting lists, which I get asked about at

every meeting—here the matter is simple.

Tell me, please, can any of you

go online or to some

library, look at the list, and

see the queue? Who is first in line,

who is second, who is third? Can that be done

right now? No.

I want to become the kind of mayor who will do

one simple thing: publish the entire list,

so there is a list of everyone waiting, from first

to last, a list of beneficiaries, a list of

super-beneficiaries. And so that everyone can

see it and monitor it, because

we buy a huge amount of housing for beneficiaries,

a huge amount. Only all these

beneficiaries somehow turn out to be

city hall employees. Here, at a preferential

price, you know, TV host

Vladimir Solovyov, one of our 'beneficiaries,' bought

an apartment for 3 million rubles (about US$90,000 at the time), which is worth

around 30 million rubles (about US$900,000). And TV host Andrei

Malakhov received an apartment on

Kropotkinskaya. That's how this system of power works:

for some reason, TV presenters, as 'beneficiaries,'

get apartments even though they have their own

money. But you, Natalia Alexeevna,

are being told to go to another city.

And they would tell me the same thing if I

had the right to receive housing. And they tell

everyone that. So I want to become a mayor

who simply makes this transparent.

Just let everyone see it. Then no one will be able to

slip anyone into the line. It seems like

an elementary measure, but it's an obvious one. Yes,

just publish the waiting list—but no one

does it. And do you know why they don't? Because

just go ahead and look,

for example, to the city

election commission’s website and look there

at the list of candidates’ assets. Mine,

for example, you’ll see my assets. I have,

a 78 sq. m apartment in Marino (a Moscow district). You’ll see the car

my wife owns, some VAZ-2108,

which I bought back in 1996

and it’s still listed under my name

because I sold it by power of attorney.

It’s all there. Look into

me and my property, and then go to

the Sobyanin section, and you’ll see that

somehow Sergei Semyonovich

Sobyanin’s underage

daughter owns a 308 sq. m apartment.

I’ve never even seen an apartment like that

in my life.

Explain to me how a person

who has been in government service since 2001 can

buy himself an apartment in the city center on

Rochdelskaya Street, 308 sq. m in size.

If he came from Tyumen, an important

official came from Tyumen, then he should have been

given official housing, which maybe

he could later privatize.

Not his daughter, but he himself. But I think

everyone here has dealt with housing problems.

Remind me, please,

what is the housing norm per person?

How many square meters? 18.

18.

You’re saying it in unison. 18. So how many

family members does Sergei Semyonovich

Sobyanin have, that he got a 308 sq. m apartment?

That’s why the waiting list is opaque,

because they hand out apartments to themselves.

That’s all. I want to become the kind of mayor who

does one elementary, obvious, and very

simple thing. It could be done tomorrow:

open up the waiting list, and then it will be clear

who is actually on the list and who are these dubious

daughters with mysterious 308 sq. m apartments.

Next question. Please.

Please tell me, for a year now we’ve been going

to rallies over this chordal highway. Now

they’ve already started building it, and you

are already saying what a huge sum

has been allocated. If you become mayor, I have

two questions: will you be able to stop this

construction? Probably not. And

one more question is connected with these

events. It’s easiest of all to fight

this migration by shutting down all the markets. But

you understand that Moscow can’t do without markets.

Today I went to Vykhina (a Moscow district),

to the Vykhino market, where pensioners always

shop at the lowest prices

all the time. So if you become

mayor, what will your policy be on

this?

Question number one. Thank you very much.

Excellent question. Question number one: what

to do about the chordal highway? It’s being built. So if

you become mayor, what will you do about

the chordal highway? Question number two: what will you

do about migrants? We’re all

unhappy. What are we going to do? Let’s start with

the chordal highway.

Markets, not migrants.

Well, markets then. And that is connected with

migrants,

with the chordal highway, as with any other

construction projects. The chordal highways are not

the be-all and end-all. This one

is just very expensive, so people cite it

as an example. Yes, we all know the chordal highway

costs 30 billion rubles. There is also the Southern ROKADA (a major road project), which

costs 10 billion rubles. And everyone says that

it too is twice as expensive as it should be. On the Southern

ROKADA, someone will also pocket 5 billion

rubles.

The mayor’s job is to make sure the biggest

construction projects are approved or not approved

only after proper calculations. That seems like

an elementary, obvious thing, right?

If you take the newspaper Vedomosti from the day before yesterday

and read there

Sobyanin’s interview, he is asked:

"Sergei Semyonovich, what is your greatest

achievement?" And he answers: "My

very great achievement is that in

Moscow we launched three of the most

expensive construction projects in the world.

We’re building roads." And it was very hard for us to do

because there is neither

strategy, nor a plan, nor calculations.

I’m not joking, go read it. I’m not twisting

his words; that is exactly what he said. I want to become

the kind of mayor who, before spending

38 or another 83 billion rubles on something,

will first produce a strategy, calculations, and a plan. That’s

all. The mayor’s job is to make sure

the contractors are normal

construction companies. Who is currently

the main road construction contractor

in Moscow? Who knows?

Mostotrest.

Rotenberg. Rotenberg is that

Putin judo trainer.

Back in Soviet times he was a judo coach,

and now he is our chief builder

of roads in Moscow. And who is, remind me,

please, the main contractor for

metro construction in Moscow right now?

Timchenko.

Timchenko? You know everything without me.

Timchenko, the very same guy I’m

constantly suing. The main trader in

Russian oil,

a citizen of Finland, who gave up

Russian citizenship. A citizen

of Finland, living in Switzerland and

through his Swiss offshore

company selling Russian oil and

becoming an official billionaire with

an enormous amount of money, is now

building the metro for us and also, amazingly,

at twice the price it

should cost. So my job as

mayor is to make sure that construction

projects are properly justified, that first

everything is calculated, then those who want

to criticize can criticize, and we understand

what the real amount should be. Then

we hire a real, proper

contractor, not Timchenko and Rotenberg,

who win all these tenders

without any competition at all, and only then

start spending money. That's all. I mean,

there's nothing original about it, it's simply

how things are done in every normal city. There's

nothing to invent here, and no need to reinvent anything.

It's just that right now, decisions about

launching the biggest construction projects

are made not because someone decided

that the North-West Chord highway is actually needed.

No, they came into the office and said: "Your

budget is somehow too big, 1.6

trillion, let's cook up something

for about 80 billion." And so

they did. That's not an exaggeration.

Look at what's happening with

the reconstruction of Leninsky Prospekt.

First they said: "We're going to carry out

the reconstruction of Leninsky Prospekt; anyone

who's against it is an idiot." Now, with the election approaching, residents have

raised an uproar. Sobyanin came out

and said: "Fine, we won't do

the reconstruction of Leninsky Prospekt."

After the election, he'll say: "Let's go ahead

and do it after all." Is anyone doing the calculations? We have

Moskomarkhitektura (Moscow's architecture committee), we have

NIPI Genplan (the city planning institute), we have the construction

complexes. Is anyone calculating anything at all, or

are we some kind of village with just

chaotic construction? I want to become

the mayor who finally brings

order. A question about migration and

markets.

40% of all Tajik men in the world

male.

Wow.

Okay. Now raise your hand if you

have entered, without a visa, any

European country.

How did you manage that? You probably have

a passport of some other

citizenship, I suppose. Which country did you enter

without a visa?

Montenegro. Visa-free entry. In

Montenegro, yes. Poland is in the European Union. You need

to get a Schengen visa. So, look,

here's the point. A visa regime applies

to both you and me. Neither I nor you can

enter Germany or

France without a visa. If we travel,

for example, to the United States, we'll have to provide

fingerprints even at the embassy and at the

border. We do it, and nobody dies from it.

So please explain to me why

any Uzbek or Tajik, even without an international

passport, using only their domestic

passport, can come to Moscow at any time

simply by buying a ticket and showing up.

Why are Tajikistan or

Uzbekistan somehow closer to me, to us, than France and

Germany? Yes, they are former republics

of the Soviet Union. But we have a visa regime with Georgia

(the country). Do we have a visa regime with Turkmenistan?

Yes, we do. Nobody died from it. Everything

is fine. It works. So what is the difference

for us standing here between Georgia and

Tajikistan, or between Turkmenistan and

Uzbekistan? None. So the first measure

that needs to be introduced is a perfectly normal one. Don't

worry, we have plenty of balloons, we'll

give you another one. A normal, lawful

measure is to introduce a visa regime with

the countries of Central Asia and the South Caucasus. I,

by the way, am the only candidate who

openly supports this. All the others

keep wavering back and forth on it.

This is normal. They don't let me into

Germany without a visa. They don't let you in either. It's

normal if we don't let in

citizens of other countries so freely. That's how Germans

protect themselves, and that's how we should protect ourselves.

Measure number two is

a measure against those contractors and

companies for whom it is currently very profitable to hire

illegal migrants. Right now, if you hire

an illegal worker, their labor is cheap,

and if you get caught, it's just a small fine

or a small bribe. I have drafted

a bill stating that if a company is

caught using the labor of

illegal migrants, it

is disqualified. That means it will never again

get access to city

funds. This is a measure that will actually

work.

And measure number three. Within a year, we will

introduce a rule under which any

commercial or state

organizations that use

budget money will not have the right to use that

budget money to hire foreigners.

If it is a fully commercial

enterprise using its own money, that is not

our business. Let them hire whoever they

want. But all these contractor

organizations, these GUPs and DEZs (municipal utility entities), and so on,

and so on, that work with our

money, must use that money of ours

to hire Russian citizens. And they have the money

to do that, or even to hire Muscovites. The money for

it exists. We hear a lot of tales and

myths on this subject. You've surely heard

this one: "If all the Uzbeks leave Moscow,

we'll be buried in filth." Have you heard that?

Of course.

They say it all the time. Supposedly, if the Tajiks leave

Moscow, there will be no one to clear the snow.

Heard that?

Well, we've all been living in Moscow

for a long time, haven't we? And the truth is that

Until 2003, there were no migrants at all in Moscow.

There weren't any. In most

Russian cities, there are no migrants.

In Russian cities with populations under

500,000, there are no migrants at all. In

Belarus, there are no migrants at all.

Look at the ranking of Russia's most livable

cities. There are no migrants there. By

adopting these three basic

rules, we can seriously reduce both

the number of migrants and the number

of crimes associated with those

migrants. We will definitely do that,

because my job as mayor is to work

for Muscovites. They, as I said at the very

beginning, drag them here because they

kick back to me from their wages

10,000 rubles every month. Next question.

Yes,

you didn't say anything about the markets.

There are a lot of people here, so let's keep it to one

person, one question. Please choose the main one.

Could you give the microphone to the person asking,

so we can hear the question?

I'll repeat it for everyone afterward.

The first question is about the financing of the

election campaign. You know that

United Russia is constantly outraged:

"Oh, Navalny's election campaign

is being financed improperly."

It's true that in terms of the size of our

campaign fund, we are second only to Sobyanin.

Sobyanin has raised, I think, about 1.2 billion

rubles, while we have raised 35 million rubles so far. What drives them

crazy is one simple fact:

the sponsors of our election

campaign are ordinary people. Twenty

or rather by now around 25,000 people

have sent us 100, 200, or 500 rubles.

That is exactly how our

election campaign is financed. United Russia

simply cannot calm down. It just

cannot wrap its head around the fact that there are

people who sponsor an

election campaign, people who

send their own 500 rubles

for an election. We compiled statistics on who

is sending us money. You know, I myself

was simply amazed by this figure. Who do

you think it is? Just tell me: who is the

representative, the typical representative

of the population, in terms of gender and age, who

donates the largest amount on average

of money?

Young people say pensioners. But in fact,

for some reason, the average, typical

donor of ours is a 60-year-old woman.

They still give

small amounts, around 500

rubles, but they donate even more than

young people do. I am very proud of that fact,

because our election campaign is

the first election campaign in

Russia to be financed

by ordinary people in the true sense. That means a great deal to me,

because I

have spent many years

proving to everyone—to you and to myself—

that I can live by the same principles

that I demand from officials. Our

Anti-Corruption Foundation (ACF) is financed in exactly

the same completely transparent way. You can go in

and see who earns what salary, who

does what, their last name, first name, patronymic,

and each person's work statistics.

We have been doing this for many years.

It's difficult work, but in return people

donate money to us because they

are confident that we will use that money

properly, and we do use it

properly. That is exactly why people

continue to fund us now.

That is exactly why yesterday 35

internet entrepreneurs,

not especially big players, not especially

wealthy, but nevertheless they quite

openly declared that they support

Navalny and will also

help finance his election

campaign. Gazprom will not finance me,

and I don't need it.

And all those utility companies,

they finance Sobyanin and everyone else.

But naturally, what is a hundred times more

valuable and important to me are the people who

send me their small donations, and

the entrepreneurs who openly

are not afraid to support me. And the second

question was about my fate.

As I understand it, this is a question about all

these criminal cases and so on. Well, you

know that at one point I was even

jailed once, right? And yet here I

am standing before you, speaking. And at

every meeting where I am asked

about this, I say every time

to residents: thank you very much, because

it was thanks to you that I was released. It was

thanks to you, thanks to those who came out

into the streets, thanks to those who were outraged.

And for the first time in history, we showed

the authorities that we do not believe they have the right

to imprison anyone without due process

on the basis of any fabricated

charge. And we do not want things to

be that way. And something happened that I myself

did not believe in when they led me to the cell.

Of course, I understood that I was not going to spend

five years in prison, but if someone had told me

that people would take to the streets and that the

next day I would be released, I never would have

believed it. So my

fate—grand as that may sound—

is entirely in your

hands. As long as I have the support

of the people behind me, nothing can

be done to me. No one will jail me, and we ourselves

will put them all behind bars.

Yes, please. Go ahead, go ahead.

So, I want the microphones for you

to be turned on. Don't hide. So, many of our

residents and all Muscovites

want to know why Sobyanin publishes

decrees of his that don't work. I would like

to make sure this question reaches

Sobyanin. Ideally, I ask that it be conveyed

to him. If he issues such decrees and

they don't work, why are they published in

the press? Specifically, this affected everyone with water meters.

Everyone, all of us.

Specifically, it was published in all the newspapers

that water meters did not need

to be inspected,

that's right

Let Sobyanin answer us in the press or on

television why we should even go to vote for him

at all. And

What do you think, Lidia Petrovna, and everyone

gathered here—I will pass along Lidia

Petrovna's question

and that's it, because his people are here.

His people are here, yes, of course his

people are here. There are surely representatives of the district administration here

taking notes on everything,

filming everything, and so on. But, Lidia

Petrovna, the conclusion is: you're absolutely right. I, I came here

precisely because all these laws and

all this outrage—I share it with you as well.

The very same laws that don't work

for you also don't work for

me. But if our conclusion is that we should simply

not go to the elections as a sign

of protest against Sobyanin, that's like the story about

the rabbit: "Don't throw me into the briar patch."

Sobyanin is just waiting for you

not to go to the elections in protest.

Then he'll bus in his Kyrgyz migrant workers on

three buses, and they'll vote at

every polling station, and he'll say: "You know,

I won with 85%."

Muscovites have trusted me again. Muscovites

have placed their trust in United Russia. Thank you very much, Muscovites.

Are we really going to let ourselves be deceived like that?

That's all. Therefore, Lidia Petrovna, I share your

outrage, but this tactic of your fight is

the wrong one. Please.