Alexei Navalny’s speech at a rally in Galich (Kostroma Region)

I look at Kostroma Region now,

where elections are taking place and which, for some reason, has suddenly

officially been deemed by our authorities to be one

of the poorest regions in the Russian

Federation. I keep asking all

officials the same question: why is it that

Kostroma Region is somehow

this uniquely poor place? Do you know that

your regional debt amounts to about

20,000 rubles per person, including the elderly and

children. People here seem perfectly normal, ordinary

people, just like in other regions: they live, they work,

they pay taxes, they earn wages. And yet all that they

have produced has somehow turned into broken-down

roads, which have become the calling card

of Kostroma Region, and debt of 20,000 per

person. That cannot be right. I look

at the budget, and you can look too. We know

that our country is the number one producer in the world

of oil, number one in the world

in gas production. I see that in

Kostroma Region, without any oil or gas,

a huge amount of taxes is collected, and I studied math

in school. I know

that 2

minus

3 equals 0. But in your case, 3 minus 3 somehow... Well, I came

here to campaign against the authorities

because the authorities have created a system

so perverse that everything collected on the territory

of Kostroma Region is simply taken away to

Moscow and nothing is sent back, while the

money that belongs to all of us

from oil and gas revenues is simply

stolen. And this is not just a figure of spee

People often say, “they steal, they loot,” but this is not some

theoretical idea. Over the past 17 years,

Russia has received from oil and gas sales

about 3 trillion dollars. An enormous sum.

Who do those 3 trillion belong to?

If they were taken out of the ground, then who—well, really—

who should they belong to?

To the people—to us, to you, to everyone standing here—just as

it happens in Norway, just as it happens

in the Arab Emirates. It is national

wealth; this national wealth

should belong to everyone. Where are the traces of this

national wealth?

What has been built over these 17 years? Where is your

share of the national wealth? And I see

that there are various rankings in which

our country stands: in the ranking of

life expectancy, we are falling;

in quality of life, we are falling;

in education rankings, we are falling; in rankings

of the state of housing and utilities services, we have already

collapsed altogether. I won’t even mention

the rankings for the condition and number of roads. But

there is one ranking in which Russia

is steadily moving forward. Who knows which one? Well,

corruption, of course. And what other ranking?

The number of billionaires per capita.

There you have it, there you have it—that’s the math.

It’s very simple: if the country is so poor,

as the government tells us, then why

are there so many billionaires? That is where

those 2 trillion went. They

carved it up among themselves that way. Well, some of it

spilled over into their pockets.

In the number of dollar billionaires,

we are second only to the United States. That is why there is such

poverty. That is why, without any fear

that they will open a fourth

criminal case against me, or accuse me of

slander, or once again say that I

came to Kostroma and incited someone to do something,

I say to you boldly that power in this

country has been seized by thieves. These thieves have

dragged everything away, and I came here to urge you

to vote against these thieves,

to vote for the party that will

hold all these people accountable. We need to begin

with oversight, because, just look

at these simple things.

What happens? The head of the state

company Russian Railways, Yakunin—you know, the former head now,

he left a week ago. It was our Anti-Corruption Foundation (ACF)

that produced those

famous photographs of his estate. It was

we who established that while he

was heading a state company,

one son lived in London, another son lived in

Switzerland, and both sons were officially

millionaires.

Officially. We look into his business,

and it turns out that the areas around railway stations

all over the country were bought up

by his son for some reason, who then builds hotels there

using Russian Railways money, and so on and so on. Well,

this is obvious corruption, isn’t it?

Really, tell any ordinary person—you don’t need

to be any kind of investigator. There it is,

corruption: take him, charge him with abuse

of office, and jail him.

Does that happen? No, it does not, because

someone has to keep watch over this; someone

has to deal with it; someone has to demand that

you put him in prison. It should not be Alexei Navalny

who demands it; deputies should be demanding it. But

look at our situation: the prime minister belongs to

which party? United Russia. In the Duma, which party

has the majority? United Russia.

Here in your region, who has the majority? United Russia.

Who does the police answer to? United Russia.

The prosecutor’s office? United Russia. The Federal

Security Service? United Russia. If

everything is United Russia, can it

possibly oversee

itself?

I may be asking a silly rhetorical question, but still

this is what is happening in the country we live in, and

before our very eyes Yakunin builds himself

some colossal estates. He was

dismissed last week. And

what did they do—put him on trial?

No. Punish him? No. Instead, Medvedev met with him,

shook his hand, and gave him

a certificate for excellent

his work

under a monopoly that is subordinate

Only United Russia is supposed to be in the Duma, but at least

you should at least get your Kostroma people in there

who will say these words without fear

When you talk to any United Russia member, well,

he says it directly, just like that

“Of course you’re right, Navalny, well done, you’re

right, but I can’t say that, I’ve got

the party to think about.” That’s why they stay silent

about all these obvious things that

need to be said from the podium, all of them, every one of them

and yet they stay silent. You have a party running here

I’ll repeat: I’m not even a member of this party, and

the candidate Andreychenko, who is standing next to me,

I only met him a few

months ago, but I came here to campaign for him

because when he was deputy

governor of your region under

Slyunyaev, he fought Slyunyaev

in court, he sued him and won those court cases

when Slyunyaev tried to bring

criminal cases against him and put pressure on him

his relatives were fired, and so on

but he still won all the court cases

Can you imagine winning court cases against

a governor in his own region? It’s practically

impossible. He did it. He was one of

the people thanks to whom Slyunyaev

not only fled from

the Kostroma Region, but even changed his

surname, and now in the city of

St. Petersburg he goes by

Albin. So I would like you, in the election,

to come out on the voting day and support the party

RPR-PARNAS and send Andreychenko and Yashin to

the Duma. These will be people who will not

just sit there nodding and saying

yes to every word from the governor

they will ask questions: Why

are utility rates so high? Why are our

Kostroma taxes going to Moscow?

Why are medicines that should be free being given to us for

money? Tell me, please, are subsidized

medicines from the approved benefits list easy

to get here?

for free? I ask this question in every

town in your region, and everywhere I hear: no,

they don’t give them out. Why not, if money for them

has been allocated? I want Andrey to go up to

the podium

and say: money was allocated for

subsidized medicines, so why are they being sold?

If someone is selling them, then the money

is being pocketed. That’s the kind of person we need, and

that’s why I came here to campaign for him

My friends, I’ll be happy to answer

your questions. For now, I’d just like

to hand the floor over to Vladimir so that

he can also say a few words to you

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Alexei. Good afternoon

dear friends here. Perhaps this is my second time

some of you were already at the meeting

when we were here with Ilya Yashin. But

a lot has changed over these two weeks, and

well, what I wanted to say is that I wanted to ask you

to forgive my opponents

from United Russia, who, excuse me,

are feeding you nonsense. We’ve just arrived, and

we’re told that locals are being told

that if you vote for PARNAS, and if PARNAS

wins, the truck crane plant

will be shut down. You know, that kind of

nonsense, that kind of rubbish—well, well,

probably not even a first-grader could come up with it

It’s just that, unlike perhaps

those now in power in Kostroma

in United Russia, I perhaps know better than they do

that the truck crane plant got a kind of new lease on life

when the Kostroma Region

was part of the “red belt” (a group of Russian regions known for strong Communist support), and Shershunov

was called a “red governor.” Yes, well,

it was under a “red governor,” after all, that

the investment project began

to be implemented. So this kind of

stuff and these tales they’re feeding you

this third-rate

dish, so to speak—it’s simply disrespectful

to you. It’s an attempt to play on

some foolish things. Naturally,

if PARNAS wins and gets into

the regional Duma, there can be no talk whatsoever of closing

the Galich truck crane plant

because it simply can’t be that

if seven years ago, while in office, I

met with Mr. Belov and he

shook my hand at the celebration of the anniversary

[music]

of the truck crane plant or whatever—it’s nonsense. But anyway

so, excuse me, don’t pay attention

to those pathetic people. But those

pathetic people, for example, won’t tell you

that your Vodokanal-Service

provides water supply services

and the water rates are probably the lowest in

the region—the highest, in fact. And where do you

pay? To the RCC, right? The RCC collects the money, and

Vodokanal-Service and the RCC are all managed

by the company Rusenergocapital

the same Rusenergocapital. And who is Mr.

Dmitriev? One of your own, from Galich

Yes, exactly, the very man who is now

running for the regional

Duma from United Russia in the city of Kostroma

there he is. But United Russia won’t tell you about that

they tell you instead that PARNAS will come and

Mr. Dmitriev will start feeling uncomfortable when

he has to answer why and how exactly

he sets the tariffs

for Vodokanal-Service in Galich, what those tariffs are

and why his company alone controls them. And

I personally know where this

RCC came from—it’s all a consequence of

that idea when municipal

settlement and cash centers were shut down and

this company was created instead, the one that

collects money from residents. They even

They tried with the city water utility 3 years ago to...

in Kostroma, the city water utility—this is what

they won’t tell you about. They scare you

with some mythical factory closures. We

do not want to shut down factories. We want

you not to be robbed. That is exactly why we

are going to the regional Duma. I have lived in Kostroma

Region for 30 years.

They are now saying about me, well, your own

fellow countryman, God forgive me, Lyosha Anokhin. Well,

Alexei Alexeyevich, now he

is saying that I am here stirring up

trouble and practically burning tires, but

he would never say that to my face. He

he tells that to veterans about this,

to some old ladies. But to my

face—he won’t even call me. He has

my phone number. He could call and say,

Yurich, what nonsense are you

doing here?

That is why

we want—our candidates, our list—we

want to go to the regional Duma only

to work. We do not want to be deputies as such. Look,

believe me. I spent 15 years in

government, and honestly, I have already seen everything there.

I’ve seen it all there; nothing can surprise me. My

having it written on my business card

that I am a deputy of the regional Duma—well, my

personal vanity will not grow

because of that. It does not interest me. But I have seen

other regional Dumas, the second convocation,

the third convocation, where the deputies were not

silent fish. Where people stood up and

asked the authorities questions, where they brushed it

the wrong way, where we officials, when

we came to the regional Duma, excuse me,

would sweat from their questions and from the tasks

they set for us. But over the last 10 years

nothing like that has happened.

In general, I believe this is

wrong. Since regional issues exist, they must

be discussed, and unchecked United

Russia should under no circumstances

have a harmful effect on your lives or on the

development of Kostroma

Region. So we are not enemies—on the contrary,

we are friends. And we are real patriots, not the kind

who write “patriotism” on posters,

“stability”—yes, they have stability.

The state debt was 8 billion rubles and became

16—consistently high public

debt, consistently equal to the region’s own revenues

of the regional budget. That means, basically, there is no money in the

region. We believe this must be

resisted. We want to

resist it. We feel your

support. We know that we are

not alone. And we know that if

we did not enjoy

people’s trust, they would not be launching

all kinds of smear campaigns against us now on TV channels and

they would not be saying that we are here planning

to eat babies. This is happening only

why? Because they are afraid. They are afraid

that we will keep telling the truth.

Right now they are hitting us for the truth, and we will

go on speaking this truth. But we are not

afraid. We are ready, and we will work

for you. Please support our

list, support the list of the RPR

PARNAS party, and you will choose, well,

worthy deputies who for you

over the next 5

years will fully repay your trust, and you

will not have to be ashamed of your choice.

Thank you, thank you very much, Vladimir. Now,

before we move on to questions, a man

already came up—he has a question. I just have

a small remark. I found your dialogue about

the water utility interesting. Yes, everyone

knows everything, everyone knows everything, and it is very

interesting. I have just arrived from Buy

where in the city there is simply such a

Leviathan—the mayor of the city owns

everything there: television, the newspaper, local

utilities,

roads, public services, housing and utilities—everything

belongs to him. I ask people: do you know this?

They say: we know, of course we do. We’ll

tell you everything ourselves right now.

A mafia that operates

openly, just openly. The residents of a sizable

town know that they are ruled by an

organized criminal group. And here, with your

water utility, when the ruling party itself

sets the tariff for itself and itself

controls itself—well, that is effectively

a crime, at the very least a conflict

of interest. Everyone knows everything, but they stay silent. And in

Buy, a woman then came up to me

and said: yes, we know, it’s the mafia. But you

have come now, and you will leave again. That is the plain

truth. But how are we supposed to fight

it? Well, then let him fight it.

Choose, yes, a person who will

fight. If he is now saying that I

will fight, and we know that he has fought

before, then let’s give him a chance, let’s send

him to the Duma. Let him go around and break up

this mafia. If he does at least something,

that will already be good. You had

a question. My friends, we are ready for questions. You

wanted to ask a question—go ahead, you speak,

and then I will repeat it so everyone can

hear. A microphone? Yes, give him one. Let’s give you

a microphone, yes. Briefly.

All right, let me hold it if you want. Here.

Personally, I am a builder, and I...

Porus

the house of the merchant Gromo... house

the head of the city district, Shpanov, this is

a museum. You Russians, you were wonderful

builders, wonderful...

...Litvinenko’s blood, you know? You know, yes, he is

gone now. Govorukhin wrote Russia We Lost

(Russia That We Lost). You...

[music]

lost it. Fools. I’ve been to Poland, to

Germany, and unfortunately I haven’t been to Muslim

countries, but they live perfectly well,

guys. But look, this is important.

I see, thank you. Please sit down. An important

point was just made, and I completely

disagree with you. That is, I agree that

it really is a wonderful town, but

this idea that “you lost it” — but who exactly are “you”

really? Who is the complaint aimed at? Look,

the problem is something else. The problem is that all

the money is being siphoned out of here. Galich developed and

was a real town when Galich’s money

stayed in Galich. But now we have

an idiotic system. And with what money

are people supposed to build anything for themselves or

make repairs when all the taxes

collected here are taken away? Kostroma Oblast

collects billions in VAT. How much do you

think of the main

tax — value-added tax —

that is collected in Kostroma Oblast

stays here? Any

guesses? Five percent? One? Zero? 0%.

stays here. That’s why we’re saying

something simple: fine, not 100% — leave us

20%, and there will be money to actually

do things, make repairs, and so on. After all,

what is the town of

Galich — founded who knows when — for?

So that people can live here. We need

to build ourselves a country in which we ourselves

can live normally. That is

the key national idea. And when

money starts staying here, then things will begin

to develop. As it is, it’s no surprise that

people drink themselves into ruin. Kostroma Oblast

is, of course, depressed; of course people

are leaving it. There are no jobs, no life,

no medicines, no way to get treatment.

It’s impossible — of course people leave. So

let some portion of the taxes remain

here, and let some other part go there.

How do we do that? That’s the question, because

right now the official position of the ruling

party, United Russia, is that everything should go to

Moscow. Your governor, for example, will come

here and say, “Damn it, Moscow took

all the money, we have nothing,” but

make him say it. “You’re the governor —

officially state the position: demand that

regional taxes be left here.” But no, no, sorry, I’m

afraid not a single United Russia member

will do that. There must be people

who will say it out loud. Andreychenko

will say it. I see a

question over there.

Please.

Of course. So, when you met with people around

the towns and so on, did you fight in the same way

when you were still in

power? Well, I’ll tell you honestly: when I was

in power, well,

I traveled around the region quite a lot, a great deal,

because at that time the authorities in

the Kostroma Oblast administration

believed that

the whole region had to be developed. Now they

tell you that what needs developing is

Kostroma, Volgorechensk — that’s where

technology parks and the like will be created. When I

worked there, we had a somewhat different

approach. Well, ours was somewhat — well,

sorry, I can’t speak for

the governor or the deputy governor. Yes, I

was at a somewhat lower

level at the time; I did what I was supposed to do.

So yes, I dealt with what Alexei

is talking about — I know it perfectly well:

relations with the Ministry

of Economic Development, with the Ministry of Finance,

under what conditions, what specific

requirements had to be met for funds from the

ministry to be transferred into

the regional budget. And if you don’t meet those

specific requirements, then

the region receives nothing at all under certain

programs.

So it’s hard for me to say that I

was out there fighting. Well, yes,

basically.

That’s why I believe — and my main

conflict with

him came after I had already

left my job, because, well, well, well, I know how this

system works. Yes, I’m not going to stay in the system,

so to speak, but I think it’s wrong. I

left the system and started telling him,

speaking openly and publicly as much

as was possible. So I know perfectly well

all the region’s issues and problems.

For example, now when I look

at the regional administration, I

get the impression that apart from

the governor, nobody there works, because

every day on the administration’s

website they write:

“the governor instructed,” “the governor gave

an order,” “the governor demanded,” and so

on and so forth. Everything is the governor, everything

the governor demanded. It creates the

impression that there’s nobody else there,

that he’s the only one. But my previous

protégé, so to speak — yes, he too, he

also gave orders.

They counted 12,000 of them over two years.

Twelve thousand orders. The result? The result was debt: 4

billion when this gentleman arrived;

now it is

16. Friends, can you imagine?

My friends, let’s — that’s an excellent question.

Let’s say I’ll ask it too. I met

Andreychenko two months ago,

but did Andreychenko fight the governor

earlier, fight the authorities earlier? I don’t know him

well; he’ll say something now, and I’ll try

to piece together that chain from what, well,

is openly written there in the newspapers about

I read about him in the newspapers too, when we

were deciding whom to invite onto the list, yes, that’s exactly

what we did. I see a headline:

official Andreychenko sued

Governor Slyunyaev. Was that fighting? Well,

to me, yes, he was fighting. Then I see: official

Andreyev won a court case against the governor. Was he

fighting? He was, and openly. Then I

read further:

Andreev continues litigating anyway. To

me, that’s fighting too, you understand. Maybe he

wasn’t tearing his shirt off in outrage, but how many

officials are there at all who

sue their own governor? Well, frankly

speaking, if I asked you to name three,

you’d hardly be able to name even one.

It’s more of a unique case, so I

know Andreychenko even less well than you do. I

think he should be sent to the Duma

now so he can keep fighting them there.

Next question. When are the documents—right now,

right now, right now.

Wait, the water—together with... Wait, one at a

time. Come up, miss, ask your

question. Could one of your people, just specifically on

let’s do it this way: who, who is specifically

from Galich? A question. Are you from Galich? Do you want

me to show my passport? Behind me, behind me

are all the women of Galich; behind him are all the women

of Galich. Shall I give you the microphone? Go ahead.

Yes, gentlemen. You’re lawyers, right? Yes. If you

teach the women of Galich how to get clean

water in Galich, we’ll make

all the men vote. Just tell us how, because

I pay 50 rubles for water, and for the filter I

pay twice a month: 60 plus 60, 120 rubles

Plus I buy drinking water, uh, 142

for the canister, uh, 280 rubles, so instead of 50 rubles for

water

it comes to somewhere around

500, and on top of that they shut my water off. They say they’ve

got some kind of cleaning going on, and then some

other thing as well. They don’t wash the streets, the lake—

the lake is right there, five minutes away, and

on my street, Lermontov Street leading to the hospital, they never

wash the streets. The dust rises higher than the houses, and we all

breathe it in. So do something. No, don’t

do it, don’t do it yourselves. Let your deputy

teach us how.

This is an astonishing question, really.

The town is, generally speaking, located in an

environmentally clean area on the shore

of one of the largest lakes. I live

one kilometer away from

an oil refinery, and for me that

would be a relevant issue. But the fact that in

Galich people are fighting because they

don’t have proper drinking water is

absurd. It’s very simple: to teach us, you need

to look at what the tariff is made up of, because

you pay it. You get a utility bill,

a housing and utilities bill, and included in that bill is, among

other things, the purification of drinking water. You pay

for that, but there is no one person

who will come right now and start digging into

what the tariff consists of, who is taking this

money, where the filter is at the station, and so

on. Why are you paying for pumps when they’re

old, and so on and so forth? I don’t

have a magic wand

that

will make the water in Galich wonderful, no. But I do

have a person who, on your behalf,

will come and look into what is wrong with

the housing and utilities tariff, and who is stealing the money

that is allocated to make sure the water is

clean. Are you local? Please, let the locals—

please, I’ll just add a little. The woman

who spoke, she

was

for... elections, for fair elections. First of all,

that’s what we need to fight for. That’s one point. And

the second point: Alexei, you are a rare guest in

our town, a very rare one, yes. So, yes,

therefore, well, I want to give you a little gift

and invite you to a photo exhibition:

“Galich at the Beginning of the 20th Century in Photographs.”

That is, Galich 100 years ago was

a completely different town, and perhaps it would be right

to also emphasize

that the money collected in the form of

taxes should, for the most

part, go into the local budget so that

the town can develop, can

build proper roads around it, so that it

can do other things as well. So now I

thank you.

Very much.

Thank you, that’s very nice. You came right up. Usually

they say voters are bribed, but here people

are giving gifts to candidates. Thank you very much,

I’m very pleased. Yes, please, yes.

Please, of course, yes. Go ahead, yes, you.

Alexei Anatolyevich, a question. I’m also a resident

of the town of Galich, we follow what you do. Thank

you for

that, and I have several

questions.

In our country, in Russia, life is very

hard in general. Aren’t you afraid of

this, so to speak, open terror

that has now been declared against

the opposition? That’s the first question. The second

question: will you run in

the presidential election in that

year? Third question, the third question:

explain this to me. You know, here

our pensioners, average residents of Galich, receive

well, up to 9,000 rubles, and basically the same

goes for salaries. How can anyone live, especially

a young family, on that kind of money? I’m

also asked this question constantly

by people in Galich, looking at how much our officials

earn. We were just sitting here

talking on the sidelines,

and it’s not 50 times more anymore, it’s probably 200 or

300 times more. This, this—this is

something we simply cannot understand: why?

That’s exactly how it seems all the time now.

that the Soviet Union is coming back, but back then in the

Soviet Union, a pension was 120 rubles, while

an official from the Party’s Central Committee

earned, well, 700 or 800, so it came out to a 10-fold

difference, certainly not 300 times, so that’s why

Please answer my questions.

Thank you very much. So, I’ll start with the first

question: am I afraid?

Believe me, it’s easier for me than for him, because

when I was jailed on a fabricated

case, people came out in my support, and I was released

the next day, even though they had sentenced me to

5 years. When there are constant

searches at my place or they put pressure on me in some other way,

a lot of people are watching what’s happening, and I

have a lot of support, which, all in all,

gives me strength. But for people like

Andreychenko, it’s 100 times harder. Because

when you’re somewhere in Kostroma or

even in some

Bui, right here his wife came up and said, I

have to deal with the local mafia here,

which gets money from that same

mafia — well, you know how all this

works, no need for me to explain it to you — and so

when I think about what happens to

those people on the ground who are fighting

crooks, I tell myself: what do you have to

be afraid of? They have it 100 times worse, and if you

get scared, they’ll crush them completely. That’s

the first point. Second, about the presidency. Well, I was

pleased that some of you applauded, but

at the moment, as someone convicted three times,

as a criminal offender, I am barred from taking part in

elections. That is exactly why these

criminal cases were invented: so that I would have no right

to participate in elections. I took part in

an election once and got 30% of the vote in

Moscow, the country’s largest city by population,

without money, without administrative

resources, without television coverage. They simply

realized that at the same time, during the

election campaign, I was jailed, and on

every TV channel they were saying, “A crook — there, he’s been

locked up,” and so on. Even so, every

third person voted for me.

So I know my rights. As a

normal, honest citizen

of Russia, I have the right to run for office.

That is why I will fight to ensure that I can

run for any leadership position —

whatever positions you trust me with, those are the ones I

will seek. I am sure that sooner or later, with

your support, I will either run myself

or I will support

someone else. Right now I am playing the role

I can play: I travel around and

support people like Andreychenko,

people I believe in. Third question.

A very good one, about how I keep reminding people

that it seems as if we are heading back to the Soviet Union,

but selectively. That is happening because

in the Soviet Union there was never

such a gap. The lowest-paid job was

80 rubles, and the highest-paid maybe

700 rubles — that’s what a cosmonaut or

a top-performing miner might earn. And now, what is the average

salary here, Galya, I don’t know — tell me, the average

salary in Kostroma Region is 21,000 rubles, but

it seems to me that here it’s lower,

lower.

Ten— because they follow us from city to

city. That unshaven guy was already in

Nerekhta and so on. It’s a whole

crowd of these

crooks — representatives of United Russia,

that’s who they are. And miss, you were

also in Nerekhta — they bring all of you there on

one bus, and this one was in Nerekhta too.

Look, friends,

my friends — once again, look, look how

this works. United Russia is afraid

to come here itself, so it sends these young clowns instead.

They paid them 1,000 rubles, and he comes here

and starts shouting. And I tell them: do you, do you

respect these people? Do you respect these

people? I am answering questions directly

right now, I am answering the questions

that local residents ask me. Whatever they ask,

those are the questions I answer. Young man, please move

over to that corner and don’t disturb the people,

including elderly people, who came

to listen to the answers to the questions

they ask me.

Now look, you see? He’s shouting. Why?

Why is all this being done? So that

the overall impression will be: some

opposition people showed up, and there was a scandal,

this one is yelling, that one is yelling — no need

to vote for them, they’re some kind of scandalous,

strange people. But I hope you will take all of

this in stride. You can see

the cowardice of these people — they are cowards,

crooks, and scoundrels, and that is exactly how they should

be treated. If you see that someone has come who is not

a local — like those over there — then that means they should

be treated accordingly. Once again, we see that

we see that

they are crooks. So, answering the question: you’ve arri—

why is it like this? I came here, and are you local? Are you

from Nerekhta, are you local? And are you from Kostroma?

Guys, you’re 1,000-ruble hecklers, you understand?

They paid you, you came here and started shouting, instead

of raising these people’s wages,

they’re paying you crooks over there

for this nonsense.

Tell me,

please. That is exactly what they want, my friends.

My friends, don’t pay attention to them. They

want this. They want you

to get angry, for some kind of fight to break out, and

so on. So,

I’ll continue. So why is there such a gap

between an ordinary salary and, for example,

the salary of a State Duma deputy? How much

does a State Duma deputy earn? Who knows?

450,000 rubles. A perfectly normal situation, right? So then,

My question to United Russia, Putin, and everyone

else: If you want to join the Council