Alexei Navalny’s speech at a rally after the elections in Kostroma
Text version
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Good evening, dear friends.
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>> Good evening.
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>> Thank you so much for coming. I know
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there are a lot of jokes here about how
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you came all the way to Marino (a district of Moscow) to see Navalny. I
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really do live in this district; along
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this street my wife drives our children
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to school every day.
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But I want to begin by telling you:
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"Have no doubt,
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I will come to your neighborhoods too, if
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needed." Is anyone here from western
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Moscow?
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We’ll come to them.
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>> Yes,
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>> Is anyone here from eastern Moscow?
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>> Yes.
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>> Shall we go to them?
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>> Yes.
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>> Is anyone here from central Moscow? Yes.
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>> We will go wherever we need to and make sure that
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sooner or later everyone who wants to
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will be able to do so, including hold rallies
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and events in the city center, which
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belongs to them, in any city in Russia.
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That is the meaning of our struggle, among other things,
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because all of this belongs to us.
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I’d like to tell you, well, a short
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story from my recent meetings with
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voters when I went to support the
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campaign in Kostroma.
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I’ll tell it in full, because in
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Kostroma itself I gave the shortened version.
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I came to a meeting in a town called Buy,
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where power has truly been seized
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and belongs to the mayor. In other words, there
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the mafia literally runs everything there.
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I came to a rally; there were a lot of
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people there by that town’s standards,
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and I said:
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"Your town is run by mafiosi." People
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were very pleased. After the rally,
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a couple of people came up to me and said:
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"Alexei,
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thank you so much for coming here
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and saying it plainly."
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And that is the part I told in
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other towns in the Kostroma region. But the full
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story is that there too people came up
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to me and said: "Alexei,
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you said everything correctly, but
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nothing can be changed."
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So the first thing I want to say here
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is that our struggle
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is not a struggle between us and United
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Russia, or even between us and
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Putin. It is a struggle between those who
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know things are bad and believe that
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they can be changed, and those who
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know things are bad but do not believe that
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anything can be changed.
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So I welcome here the people who
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believe,
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believe in better things,
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who know
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that bad times do not last forever,
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that happy endings are not only found in Hollywood
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movies, that life itself is arranged in such a way
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that progress wins,
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that creativity defeats ghouls,
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that science defeats those who steal
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dissertations,
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that those who are not afraid to come out to a rally
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defeat those who sit like bedbugs in
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their cracks.
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Our mission, my friends, is to work with
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those who do not believe.
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You can go up to any police officer
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guarding the rally and ask
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him: "So, do you like the fact that 84%
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of Russia’s national wealth
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is controlled by 10 families?" And the police will
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tell you: "Of course I don’t like it, but
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nothing can be changed."
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It can, and we will change it.
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And all those 86%
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for Putin or United Russia are no
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more convincing than 99% in Turkmenistan
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or Zimbabwe. When we read about
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percentages in Turkmenistan or Zimbabwe, it
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belongs in the humor section. We laugh
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at it. And our children will laugh at
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today’s inflated approval numbers too. And
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even now we can already laugh
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at them, because the governor of Komi
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how many percent did he get?
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>> 80% in the recent election. Nationwide
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support for the United Russia party. And now
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we are being told that he organized an
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organized criminal group. So I
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don’t understand—tell me, organizers
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of the rally, did Vladimir Putin send us a greeting
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letter with the words:
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"Dear participants in the protest rallies,
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everything you said is true. Those in
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power are crooks, thieves, and bandits."
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>> That’s right.
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>> There is no such letter. But sooner or later
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it will come, we will receive it, and everything will
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become clear to everyone.
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Very often people say to me:
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"So, Navalny, there will be a rally, and you
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have to come to that rally and tell us
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what your plan is, what all of our
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plan is."
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>> I want to tell you about my own
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personal plan."
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My plan is, in everything that
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is happening,
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to try to remain a decent person.
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That is extremely difficult against the backdrop of what
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is happening now. But on the other hand,
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it is easy. My plan is to do everything—
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if someone killed my comrade,
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a well-known politician. My plan is
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to state clearly from this stage that I
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believe Ramzan Kadyrov killed him.
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Possibly on Putin’s orders, and I will not
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is to stay silent,
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even though I could be dragged through the courts
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or sent to prison. Do you support my plan
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or not?
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My plan is this: if I know that a
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journalist has been attacked, and that
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the attack was organized by Governor Turchak,
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I demand that he be held criminally
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accountable. I will say it
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plainly. I will not bleep out my words.
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I demand that Turchak be questioned and brought
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to the defendant's bench. Do you share
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my plan? Yes.
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If there are political prisoners, my plan is
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to express solidarity with them.
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If there is censorship, my plan is
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simply to say: "I am against censorship," and
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to spread the information that I
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believe should be shared. That is my duty as a
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decent person. Do you share this
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plan of mine or not?
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If I see that independent media in
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Russia are being strangled and cannot develop,
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and they introduce, for example, paid subscriptions,
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my plan is to buy that
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subscription and help the independent press survive.
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Do you share this plan? Yes.
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>> My plan is to remain a decent person.
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My plan is to take part in elections
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when elections are actually possible. My plan
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is to boycott elections where
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we have not been allowed to participate. Do you
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share this plan or not? Yes.
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>> My plan is that
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someday, when my son asks
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me, "Dad, what were you doing at that
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moment?"
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I would say to him: "Zakhar,
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at that moment I tried to remain
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a decent person. There is no other
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plan."
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You and I believe that truth
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is stronger than lies. And a decent person
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who speaks the truth is stronger than a liar
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shielded by OMON (Russian riot police), walls, and so
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on.
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We know that decent people will win
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sooner or later. We know that the basis
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for action must be moral. And every
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time we ask ourselves what it is we
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need to do, we simply need to answer
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ourselves: do what decent
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people do in this situation. We may be fewer,
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but our children and grandchildren will hold
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us up as an example to those
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who face such a moral
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dilemma every day, every hour, in the
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future. My friends, I welcome to
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this square all decent people, those
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who were seized, those who had enough
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strength and persistence to come here. Let us
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remain decent people, and let us
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make
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our attitude toward this government
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the attitude of decent people toward scoundrels,
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our main political strategy.
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That is my plan. Thank you very
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much, my dear friends. Thank you.
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Go!