Alexei Navalny’s speech at the opening of the campaign headquarters in Samara

Thank you very much.

May I get through?

Thank you. Thank you to everyone who came.

Hi. Thank you very much.

Ah, dear friends, good evening.

Thank you for coming to our Samara

headquarters. It looks like we’ve set yet another

attendance record. And we’re going to have to,

well, shout. So, we’ll shout.

And today we are opening the fourth

regional headquarters of Navalny’s campaign in

Russia. The fourth headquarters of the presidential

campaign. We opened headquarters in St. Petersburg,

Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg. And now, uh,

Samara. Can people in the back hear?

Just a second, just a second, we’ll think of

something.

You’re all filming. This is going to be a great

shot. When I step onto the chair

it’ll get more views than

yesterday’s film.

Make way, don’t

make way. Clear the way.

No, no need. No, thank you.

No, I think this little one at least

is sturdier

than

Right. So, friends, first of all. Well,

sorry that it’s cramped. We hope that

being together makes it warmer, but it’s important to understand

this—so let me start with an organizational

announcement.

This is a working headquarters. That means there won’t be

some fun hangout here, there won’t be

any kind of relaxed

atmosphere. This is a workspace,

and we looked for it with exactly these

considerations in mind. In other words, it is exactly what

it should be. Of course, we’d probably be happy

to rent a space twice as large,

so that twice as many people could fit

inside.

Right,

You go first. Go on, go on.

Oh, great. And it kind of, kind of

bounces a little. Let’s make way.

So this space is what it is

because people sent us money, and we expect that

people sent us money, and we expect that

I’ll move. Well, that is, we expect that

they’ll send us more money, and we—and the people

who send it—expect that

we will spend it as efficiently as possible. And

efficiency is probably,

all in all, the motto of our

campaign in a certain sense. That’s why we

don’t have some super-fancy office. We

took exactly as much space as we needed to

ensure normal work. And

today, first and foremost, we wanted to talk

specifically about the work—about

what we expect from each regional

headquarters, from those who registered as

volunteers, from those who came

today. Because we hope that all

of you will help us.

You know the formal rules of the game. We need

to collect 300,000 signatures for

nomination and candidate registration. And

this will have to be done during such a

wonderful period—roughly from December 25

to January 15. Well, the lawmakers apparently

decided that there is no better time in Russia

to collect signatures than

exactly that. And we all understand perfectly well

—we’re all adults here—

uh, that this is impossible to do unless we carry out

the necessary preparatory

work. Unless, in advance, for every person

who is going to come and sign for you,

by late December or early

January, you have already checked all of their

passport details, looked them in the

eye, and know that this is genuinely

a real person who really will

come to you.

So the task of the headquarters—an absolutely

practical, absolutely technical task—

which the Samara headquarters, like the other 76

regional headquarters, will be solving, is

this:

to talk.

Please turn the light back on.

Someone must have bumped it.

It means speaking with 10,000 residents

of the Samara region,

of whom

at the end of December, on cue, when the time comes,

on that day, 7,000 will come right here. Well, also

we will have a headquarters in Tolyatti, to the Samara

headquarters, to the Tolyatti headquarters. And those

signatures will be collected there. And moreover, we will

already have everything checked in advance, all

their passport details verified, and we will

know that these are real people, and so

on. It’s a technical task, but

without it, uh, nothing is possible. That is the first task

the headquarters will solve. And in that

sense, I’m sure everything will go

well here. Right now, in the Samara

region, almost 5,000 people have already

registered. So half of the

task is already done, even though we are only

just opening the headquarters and, essentially, have not yet

started the campaign. The second task is

election monitoring. We understand that we

expect our campaign to be

fairly strong. We will secure

the candidate’s registration for the election.

So if he, the candidate, takes

part in the election, the result will have to be

defended. We want to train 100,000

observers. And in cities of over a million,

very ambitious goals are being set.

Uh, well, something like 2,500, 3,000, 4,000

observers—however many we can manage. Samara,

I’m sure, is the kind of city that can

export trained observers

simply by the trainload and busload.

The Orange Revolution,

and there too, in the district center and in Chapayevsk, wherever

you like, and maybe there, I don't know, in

Ulyanovsk, Dmi—Dimitrovgrad.

We'll see. Right. Well, here we will

cooperate, first of all, with reputable

organizations in this field. We ourselves

have some new experience too. It's tremendously nice

to see Lyudmila Vasilyevna

Gavrilovna

Gavrilovna, my apologies, Kuzmina,

the legendary chair of Samara

Golos at our meeting as well; with this

task too, I have no doubt that we

will cope.

Signatures, observers. The third task is

campaigning. So, what is an

election штаб for? It's campaigning. Simply

campaigning. What is campaigning? Simply

talking to people, leaflets,

social media, something else. And here we

run into one hellish problem

that any campaign headquarters has.

But for ours, first and foremost, it's

a problem—I call it the problem

of the inverted pyramid.

The list of staffing needs

during an election campaign

looks like this: one smart person, 10

fairly smart ones, 100 people handing out leaflets, and

thousands who carry those leaflets around

in stacks, fold them, and so on,

distribute them.

That sounds insulting.

But the list—the list of people who come to us

looks like, well, an inverted

pyramid. Thousands of people come

with higher education—designers,

investment bankers, and so on, and so

forth. Everyone says, "Give us

something interesting, something

super-substantive

rather than just campaigning and handing out leaflets."

But we will try to make this activity,

nevertheless, somehow

as meaningful as possible, as

interesting as possible. For that, the headquarters will

work; for that, the headquarters will create

all the necessary opportunities." That is,

here is Yekaterina Gerasimova, the Samara

coordinator—I can see almost everyone.

And that very small team

that we will actually have there

working full-time, uh,

four people in Samara, two people in

Tolyatti—just six people for your

huge region. This is the minimum

team whose task will be, well,

to create this kind of service infrastructure.

That is, to make sure that each of

you, whether you have 15 minutes a

day or an hour a day, or not minutes a

day at all, but are ready in the summer to take, I don't know,

say, a week's vacation and devote that

week's vacation to the campaign,

so that we can receive everyone, train them,

find work that suits their taste, their spirit,

and their experience, and give them the chance to make

a contribution to this wonderful shared

campaign of ours.

This will require considerable effort. The headquarters will

work on it. It will happen gradually.

We'll probably start, sometime in April, this

work of checking the passports

of those who registered and will leave

a signature, those who registered on the

website. Probably sometime in May we'll start

street campaigning there, sometime

in Septem—observers.

It will be a gradual process,

because, in fact, there are very few

headquarters staff, and they need to organize

this many people—so many people,

different people, good people, with their own interests,

their own wishes, their own

capabilities. But in the end, not immediately, but

gradually, we will build a system in

which it won't matter whether you're a student or

a pensioner, whether you have 15 minutes or 2

hours, whether you prefer working with people

or more, I don't know, on social media or

more somewhere in the back office actually

folding leaflets. The headquarters will gradually be able

to offer each of you something where you

can feel yourself, well,

part of one team, part of one

big undertaking that we will carry out,

and, I'm sure, accomplish. That's why we

have gathered you here. What can I say? And what

will the headquarters be doing in the near future?

That is, we'll leave for Ufa tomorrow,

to open a headquarters there. Katya will stay here

and will invite everyone and talk to them.

Hi. What's your name? You're 20 years old.

Okay. Are you ready, say, in your

dormitory to hand out leaflets? Ready.

Good. How many rooms do you have there? 300.

Okay. Let's make an arrangement. You

will come every week, and we will give you

300 leaflets. Hi. Who are you?

You're 35 years old. Do you have a car? Are you ready

to put a sticker on it? Let's put

a sticker on it for you. And also, in your building, let's

have you hand something out, and so on. We'll

talk to everyone, understand from each person

what kind of help we can count on, what

we can offer. And little by little,

little by little, we will build this campaigning machine

here. This is what will happen

in this room.

94 Krasovskaya. Remember the address and

come by.

Thank you for coming. Today about

the nearest... I can't see everyone. I hope you can

hear me.

Switch places. What?

Not two at a time, no. Not two at a time.

I’m scared. There’s a structure here. And,

a short, uh, announcement about our upcoming

plans. On March 19, in Samara Region,

there will be several very small

elections, but they will still be

real election campaigns, and there will be

monitoring. As, uh, Leonid said, one of our

tasks—and a very important one—is

to train 100,000 observers. Starting

next week, the campaign headquarters will already be

holding, uh, observer training sessions, and

there will be an opportunity, on March 19 already, to

try your hand at these small, but

still important, elections. That’s it.

Cool. Thank you.

Well, I can feel that it’s already getting

very stuffy in here, and I dragged out

the introduction, so let’s move on to

the main part of our—also, open

the windows first. Please open

the windows. If we can get the windows open. Let’s do that.

Okay.

Uh,

So, Alexei Navalny, candidate for

President of Russia, on legal

grounds—with a bit of excess weight. If I fall

from here, that’ll be an extra five pounds (about 2.3 kg). No,

I’ll fall softly.

Thank you so much for coming. There are so

many of you. I was just thinking, damn,

there are a huge number of people here—but then how is it that in

St. Petersburg, which is a much larger city

than Samara, I figured it out. Probably

because there aren’t that many regions where

the governor is quite so exotic. Your

guy

said that I’m some kind of nephew of Uncle Sam

and Saakashvili. You probably all came

to take a look at what Uncle Sam’s nephew

looks like.

Yes, exactly. Today in Moscow they gave me a match,

because, according to

your governor, I want to come here

to Blinka.

I want to come here in order to

throw a match, and everything will go up in flames. So,

so, in a sense,

yes,

that’s true.

But I don’t want to throw in a match

to make everything burst into flames.

What I really want is to flip the switch and

turn on the light in this room.

And all of us together will become that

switch that turns it on, so that

everyone else can suddenly see

that everything has been stolen from them, that from

this room the furniture has been carried out, that they’re already

ripping up the floors and lamps, because it is

here, in Samara Region, that you can see

the disproportion between how this wonderful

rich region, which really, by every

indicator, ought to be much

wealthier. Sorry, I need to

interrupt. This thing here—

there are people sitting here.

Let me turn it

a little bit.

The famous Samara ingenuity.

Let’s give them a round of applause.

I forgot—you have an aerospace

university here.

Thank you very much. So anyway,

really, this region simply cannot

—take any indicator, any economist

would look at it and say that

what is happening here, those roads

that we see when we drive from

the airport—they’re not just bad, they’re worse than in

the 1950s,

because this region, like the whole country,

has been robbed,

everything here has been looted. And all of us together,

my friends, must become that light

that will show, in fact,

that will tell and explain to every person in

the country why there is really so little here

because there is so much over there in Tuscany.

Who has seen our film?

Thank you very much. That is exactly what it is about.

But listen, 70 billion rubles (about US$1.2 billion at the time). That is

more than the entire turnover—well, more than

all charitable giving in Russia over

several years. And they use these

charitable foundations for

their dachas. And this is just a small thing,

just a small part of what we found. Your

governor—even, Lord, at

the governor’s son—we found dachas

worth 700 million rubles (about US$12 million at the time). And that’s just what no NGOs,

no special services, not the FSB (Russia’s security service), not intelligence—just

easily found using open sources,

because this is a government of thieves. If

Governor Merkushkin is afraid that in his

region—the region he for some reason

considers his own—there will be people who

will speak out against this government

of thieves, then he is right to be afraid. Those people

are here. Thank you very much for coming. I

better

believe that together we will run a real

election campaign. And no matter what anyone

says about the power of television, about

how it’s impossible to reach

anyone, about how people are tired

and don’t want to listen to anything anymore—that’s

just nonsense. No one has ever

really made the effort, no one has ever run

actual election campaigns. That’s the point. And I

see here not only young people for whom

this may be their first election or

their second. There are clearly also those here who

have seen several election campaigns, uh,

in their time. Were there normal

election campaigns, were there candidates

who actually traveled around and spoke in front of

people, rather than party activists?

Yes. No, no, because even, well, the law

the election law does not provide for that. In

our country, by law, an election campaign

is supposed to take place within 40 days, but I need

to open 77 headquarters in the near term, according to the plan.

That is, even if I open one headquarters every

single day, I still won't

make it in time. So that is exactly why we are all running

a real, normal, human

election campaign, starting it

a year in advance, bringing you together. I am doing my part

of the work: I travel, I speak, I explain things,

I answer questions, and now I will answer

any and all of your questions. And I very much ask

that you treat this election

campaign not as mine, because whose

election campaign is this?

Ours.

Hugs and kisses to all of you. Of course, this is our

election campaign. In this campaign, I want to be simply

one person

who may be

at the sharp end of this attack,

but even so, that is only one part of the whole. I

am doing my job

by going around, taking selfies,

talking, speaking, serving as some kind of

target for law enforcement

and for this government. But that's okay.

I'm not afraid, and I'm comfortable in this role,

because I know you are behind me. So

who exactly am I supposed to be afraid of? These

clowns who showed up today with

an American flag. Seriously, damn it, in

every region, the same guy follows us around.

Same guy.

Look, I'm not exaggerating.

You've seen it.

You see it all across Russia. It's

ridiculous. I always say to him, "So, you

travel around with an American flag?" And he

says, "That's because you're an American

agent." Well, maybe you're the American

agent.

Maybe Medvedev is an American agent.

Maybe the Rotenbergs, who are citizens

of Finland, are foreign agents, or

Timchenko, the largest producer of

Russian oil, is a foreign agent,

because he is a Swiss citizen.

We here, in fact, are

the most patriotic gathering of all. We are

patriots of Russia, because we are running

an election campaign for the good of the citizens

of Russia. An important thing I want

to say before I move on

to answering questions.

Two important things. Point number one.

It is important to understand that every point in our

program—and we have tested this through all our

polling—is supported by the majority

of Russian citizens. So if someone tells you,

"Putin has 86%," you can confidently say: "And

we have 89,

because the law on combating

illicit enrichment has 90% support

there. The idea of fairly

redistributing national resources.

90% support a compensatory tax

on oligarchs. 95% support, in general,

the fight against corruption and judicial

reform; 100% support that. In fact, we have

the program of the majority. The task

is simply to go out there ourselves and explain all of this

to every person. And here

is the second thing I want to say.

At every headquarters, I say this on the livestream all

the time; maybe you've heard it already.

Please tell me: for a person,

we tested this in focus groups

and found out: what is the most important

source

of information about politics?

The internet.

The internet.

Television.

Friends and acquaintances.

In every focus group,

the main answer to where a person

gets their knowledge about politics—how they know whom

to vote for and whom not to vote for—is:

They tell us: "I have one

acquaintance, and he tells me everything."

Each of you should become that kind of

acquaintance, because that is the main

source. Because an acquaintance can beat

and defeat Dmitry Kiselyov and Vladimir

Solovyov and all the rest, really.

There is nothing more important or

more powerful than a real, living

person,

who tells people what is really happening,

who told them about

Medvedev, who told them that

he was at a meeting with volunteers. So

let's run an experiment: when you get back

from here tonight, go ahead and post on

social media: "I went to a meeting with Navalny,

first I froze outside, then I was almost

crushed in the crowd. Maybe someone will say it's a good thing that

you weren't—but people will read it, and they will see:

"Wow, my acquaintance, a real person,

nobody paid him, he went there of his own free will

somewhere, and he's even handing out some kind of stickers."

That means, apparently,

this really is a political force, because I'm not

alone. We've seen this many times with

stickers, for example car stickers.

They have the effect of exploding

bombs, because a person lives in a fairly large town

of 100,000 people and

suddenly sees a sticker on a car

with a Navalny sticker. And he is genuinely shocked,

because he thought he was the only one

in the whole city who reads my

blog or who thinks people should not

steal. But the truth is

that people like that are the majority.

We just need this majority

to demonstrate,

to pull him out.

There are far more of us here. They can bring in,

I don’t know, Medvedev, Chaika, Putin, if

they want real volunteers for themselves

to gather political supporters for free, there will be

far fewer than all of you here.

That is why we are the main force, we are the power

here, and we will become that power

for real after our campaign. Thank you

very much. Let’s take questions.

Yes, Alexei, when you mention the name

Putin, do you mean some kind of

great ruler, politician Putin, as

a figure in his own right, or is he a puppet of some

majority shareholders of Russia

behind the scenes?

I’m joking that Putin’s name might

Well, no, he is definitely not a puppet. I mean,

there is no system in which Putin is

just some random guy whom

evil forces are putting forward. He is the evil force.

He is a man who, by chance,

ended up at the head of Russia. Yeltsin simply

appointed him. He turned out to be quite

cunning enough to usurp power step by

step. And of course, he is a villain and

the chief mafia boss. I mean,

literally a godfather who personally

decides who gets which

multi-billion-ruble contracts. Right now, this is

the plain truth. And many

journalists who work on this subject can

tell you that not a single

state contract worth over 50 billion rubles is

awarded without his personal instruction.

He literally sits there and says: "Give this one

to Chaika, and this one

to Rotenberg. But we gave Rotenberg

too much last time. Let’s

pass this one to Patrushev."

So he really is a guy who sits there

one day waging war in Syria,

sitting over a map of Aleppo and all that.

Restoring Palmyra one day, and the next day he

is distributing money among his own group

of people. That is what elections are for, because

we do not like this. And these elections are

specifically, among other things, a fight against

candidate Putin, because he is

the candidate of corruption, the candidate of

theft, the candidate of lies, and we will

defeat him. Question.

And the rumors about Putin body doubles? Are they just

rumors?

I see the same thing you do: that the people

look very different, but I don’t know whether that’s

some kind of defects, problems with cosmetic

surgery, whether he slept well or didn’t. Well, I

think that, of course, it is a rather boring

topic, but they really do look

different, guys. You have

placards in your hands—raise them, those who have

a placard right now.

After your... all those great campaigns,

will he take part with you? Will you

ever reconcile with him

... Kaz? The point here is not

not about personalities.

Our campaign is volunteer-based; it

relies on volunteers, it relies

on values.

My most important principle there is

the fight against corruption, the fight against conflicts

of interest. A candidate who

ran for office and said, yes, I have

money, but I’m not going to show my declaration for it.

I transferred it to

my parents, and there is no problem with the fact that I

got around this whole system—that person does not

work for me. A candidate who thinks that

Liksutov—I don’t know if you have read my

investigation into Liksutov—is not

corrupt, well, I simply am not

on the same path with him. Even if a person knows how

to organize certain things, I

conduct an investigation and I see that

this official stole many billions of rubles

in the procurement of metro cars. And so

a person who thinks, well, let him

steal, because he looks European

and wears a tie, does not

work for me. And I am not going to lie to you

about that.

It is like the principle of Lee Kuan Yew,

who defeated corruption because he applied it even to

three of his own friends. I do not want to see

a single person around me who

will be tolerant of corruption, who

will say: "Lyosha, please don’t criticize

this crook, because this crook

is supposedly pro-European in his

politics." I very much hope that you,

if I ever slip up,

will say to me: "Alexei, in Samara you said

one thing standing on a table, and now you are not

criticizing this official." I

hope that in this sense you too will

become a mechanism that forces me

to always stick to the right

principles. Question. Yes,

Alexei, you say that you

will train election observers. In Samara

there is always the highest percentage for United

Russia. And deputy Mikhail Matveyev

in Samara fought ballot stuffing. In what

way? There was video showing people stuffing

ballot boxes on a huge scale, but it turns out

the observers were simply removed;

the police even opened cases against them, that

is, against the person who had simply witnessed it,

while nothing happened to the actual offenders. How will you

fight this? There may be observers,

but we still won’t be able to do anything. They’ll throw us out and

that will be that.

First, there was the point.

The first point was that here in

Samara we have the biggest ballot stuffing. Seriously.

And where did your man in Mordovia come from? You have

will have them here. You will, because this is exactly

this stan

the Mordovianization of your region, it

is continuing at full speed, and

the only ones who can stop it,

so that it doesn’t become 99%,

as it has been in Mordovia for many years, is you.

So, what do we intend to do?

You know that in every election there

the Communists say, "We sent 94,000

observers." Has anyone here ever been

an election observer? A member of an election commission

even

a commission member. I think many of

you know how this works: parties

that have the right to send

observers simply hand their quota over

to the administration.

And very often, formally, the observers

from the Communists, the observers from the LDPR, are the

very same United Russia people. We will have the right

to send 100,000 observers. And our

task, our simple little know-how,

is that we will send

real observers. We will not

trade quotas. These will be normal

trained people, committed people. Each one will have

support. In other words, we are investing heavily

here in money and effort. Because in fact

the truth is that

truly large-scale election monitoring in

Russia has never really been organized by anyone.

There are, of course, brave people. You mentioned

a name. These are well-known people who even

in some difficult region, like

Kazan, go into their particular

district and eliminate all falsifications. But

that is more the exception than the rule. We will make it

the rule. We will make it

a system. That is why we started a year in advance,

to make all this happen. Obviously,

it will be difficult. You have problems here, but

still, it’s not Mordovia yet. We

will do everything to make sure Mordovia doesn’t

happen here. Yes,

Excuse me, please, I would still

like to go back to one earlier point

— or rather, not even ask it as a

question, but comment on it a little. You

speak very well about how

important it is not to let certain people in,

people who may have compromised themselves.

It is very important not to repeat the mistake with

which Mr. Yavlinsky has been methodically going from one election to the next

— Mr. Yavlinsky, who, broadly

speaking, has probably turned into a kind of

powerful spoiler. In this kind of

strong declaration that this

person is tainted, I won’t take him

with me. That doesn’t mean you have to

answer this right now, but

of course, some maneuvering—we see you as

a politician who can surely

maneuver. That is how we

want to see you.

Could you hear the question over there?

Yes,

It’s an important point. On the one hand, we must

stand by our principles; on the other hand,

well, you can’t remain a politician who

says, "Everyone is bad, and you’re all fools."

So I’m not going to stand here in a white coat on top of

the table while you’re somewhere down here, below, with

your phones

on an armored car.

Ah, on an armored car. But still, here

the important thing is not to maneuver, but to choose

the right position. I believe that,

of course, we need to unite with everyone

who is against this government. A lot of people criticize me

because I believe that with

the Communists you can unite, with the LDPR

you can make tactical alliances, and so on, but

it’s one thing to have tactical alliances with people for

election monitoring and so forth, and another thing

entirely when it comes to team members. And here

is the most important thing: if I demand that

Medvedev not cheat, then I myself cannot

do it either. I cannot have people on my team

who, when going into

elections, do the same kinds of

things—cheat a little, exploit

legal technicalities—for which, for

the very same things, I criticize officials.

So this is an important issue. Each time we

will decide it case by case, but each time

your opinion will matter to me. So please,

keep an eye on me as well. And if

something happens, don’t hesitate to warn me. Yes, a question

I have one. A question about your campaign:

it’s a powerful, impressive step, but

as you said today on the air at Echo

of Moscow, you yourself believe that the maximum amount of power

should be concentrated in the hands of mayors

and municipalities, right?

Yes.

So is this campaign some kind of step

toward the future creation of that

structure that will take part in

municipal elections, in councils, in

city dumas, in mayoral elections? Because

obviously, this way, just like this,

you can’t take power, and even, well, maybe,

you can influence something, but

steady work starting from the municipal level,

in my view, has to be there

it has to be.

That’s right, it makes sense. But

at the same time, we have to be very, well,

we must not deceive ourselves.

I mean, the question is: how can you even

run a city if they have taken away your

authority over construction? And power in

Russia right now

can be changed effectively only if you possess

a mechanism for replacing it. Municipal

deputies are very often heroic

people who are doing the right things, but

they cannot really achieve positive change

unfortunately. I don’t want

to take an extreme position and

say that municipal

elections are unnecessary. Of course they are necessary. No matter which

campaign office I visit, they tell me: "We have

an election coming up, support us, we want

to take part." All of that matters. But

still, the main political

goal right now is, of course, the office of

the president. Simply because the country,

well, is structured so grotesquely that there is no other way

to change things from anywhere else. You cannot elect

the governor here. He is appointed for you.

It gives the impression that in the region, well,

there isn’t a single suitable person. They have to appoint one from

somewhere else. As for the mayor, you can elect one

in an election,

right?

Can anyone name even one

major city where an elected mayor still remains? Or rather,

where there isn’t a city manager?

Roizman, Tolyatti,

Roizman, Yekaterinburg. But all the powers

have been taken away.

So there is no longer a single even somewhat

large city where the city authorities

actually have real power. So, of course, we need

to strike at the heart of this

mafia-like system, right there, but at the same time,

of course, not take maximalist

positions. I see a hand in the back. Yes, yes,

Yes. In the back. Alexei, we hope to see you next time

not on a table in

Samara, but on a tank in Moscow.

If there is a revolution in Russia, could you

lead it

The last part? Are you ready to

lead it?

Well,

a revolution in Russia.

What is a revolution in Russia?

For the current regime, which is utterly

corrupt, depraved,

amoral,

and deceitful,

simply speaking the truth is a revolution.

When the governor here is elected

in relation to this system,

that will, of course, be a revolution. When the courts

start delivering justice properly, that too will, of course,

be a grand revolution. Right now you are all

reading about Lebedev

and these stories. The head of Russia’s Supreme Court

jailed dissidents in Soviet times

for distributing the Bible.

He is still putting people in prison now. Then he jailed Pussy Riot

for dancing in a church. They

carry out searches on people whose children—

or rather, whose parents—I’ve gotten slightly mixed up now—

whose parents they

authorized searches against. So, of course,

changing this judicial system

will be a revolution. It is a matter of

terminology. But you and I undoubtedly

want changes in this country that

will be revolutionary compared with

what exists now. So yes, we want

a peaceful anti-criminal revolution, and I

am ready to lead it. Yes.

A question about foreign policy. What will happen

in foreign policy? At least in broad

outline.

What will happen in foreign policy?

So what will we do? Will we keep looking for

an enemy abroad, or

Well, as for foreign policy,

it’s simple. I have

priorities. I have a limited

amount of money. And there in Tyumen

the oil wells are pumping—that’s 60% of the federal

budget.

Tomorrow nothing so dramatic will change.

Tomorrow the economy will not start

growing by 10% a month. So in any

case, for now we can only count on

what we already have. It’s a simple dilemma.

Do we rebuild Palmyra or repair the roads

here? What are we voting for?

That’s it.

My foreign policy is, above all, a policy

that puts Russian citizens first,

Russian problems first, and everything else

after that. It is great and important to have

and play a major role. And voting in the

UN Security Council is very

important. Money and other resources should be spent on that.

But for heaven’s sake, we are forgiving

debts

to countries left and right. We forgave these ones

$10 billion, those ones $20 billion. Meanwhile

we ourselves are still paying off all the debts of the Soviet

Union and continue financing everyone under

the sun. We don’t have the money. The U.S. is rich,

so let them pay for it.

When the average salary in

Samara Region is what?

15

Officially it’s 32. Does anyone believe that?

Officially

no,

when the average salary—the real average

salary—right here in a region that is

industrial, wealthy, developed, and

well-educated, reaches 100,000 rubles a month,

Then there won’t be any. There will be,

There will, there will, because there is plenty of money.

Come on, why wouldn’t it be possible?

Don’t we need to avoid inflation?

Excuse me, but I’m having a discussion with you.

So, Argentina.

Argentina, you see, where there are practically

no natural resources—certainly not in

comparison with Russia—pays an average

wage, sorry, a minimum

wage of $500 a month.

$500 a month—how much is that

rubles?

30

30,000

more than the average here, while there

that's the minimum. If

Argentina and Chile can pay that, then

Russia, with its oil and gas, can definitely do it

100%, guaranteed. I mean, come on,

just look at any state corporation.

Well, it's about the fact that they just siphon off

all the money, they just carve out all the

money. There is enough money for

the average wage in Russia

to be the same as in those countries where

GDP per capita is similar. Russia is ready

right here and now to pay people, on average,

100,000 rubles. Russian business is ready, everything

is ready. The only thing needed is to stop stealing money.

And there's no need to waste money on

all sorts of nonsense. That's all. When wages here reach

100,000 rubles, then I'll

think about rebuilding Palmyra. That's my

approach to foreign policy. Yes.

As is well known, Russia is an appendage of

the West. And

what growth areas do you see for Russia

to get out of that status? In other words,

where can money be invested so that it,

as they say, starts progressing? Yesterday

on Shevchenko they were talking about a fifth-world country,

roughly speaking, just serving the West

Russia has become, to repeat the question, a raw-materials

appendage of the West. What growth points do you see?

It's true. It's true. Russia

has become a raw-materials appendage of the West to

a much greater extent than the

Soviet Union ever was. Right now, 60% of our

federal budget comes from oil and gas. And if

you add oil, gas, and basic processed metals,

the figure is much higher.

So in reality, Putin has turned Russia into

a raw-materials appendage of the West. And the West will

never help us fix this

situation, because, well, why would they

fix it? If somewhere in the East there are

some fools living there

who are willing to be a raw-materials appendage.

Fine then, let them be. As for

investing,

there's no need to invent anything artificially.

You just need to give people freedom. Business

needs the freedom to operate normally.

Because in reality they've strangled everyone,

crushed them.

It's hard. Are there any small business owners here?

Yes?

Quite a lot.

Well,

you still have to file

some kind of reports. Is it easy to do business in Russia?

Completely impossible, honestly.

Just impossible.

Just impossible. That's it. Everywhere I go,

everyone says, "It's just

impossible." Right now I'm doing a lot of work,

writing complaints to the ECHR, including

as a way to earn money. Most of the

appeals aren't even from people

who were tortured by the police — they're sole proprietors.

I had a gas station, the cops came and

seized it. I had a kindergarten, then

FSB officers came, and one of them took it for his wife —

my kindergarten. And so on, and so

forth. You just have to let people live, and

then everything will develop. Samara

was developing before the Revolution. The Russian

Chicago — where is all that now? If

there are people, they're educated, they have

an entrepreneurial streak, what do we

get? We get nothing at all, because

no one is allowed to live in peace. Chicago

Mordovian Chicago. A fine Mordovian

Chicago. Question.

So it turns out Vova was useful to the bourgeoisie

then.

What?

So Vova was useful to the bourgeoisie.

Was Vova useful to the bourgeoisie?

Well, up to a certain point, he was.

That's why, as someone who has actually

sent 100,000

reports to foreign

law enforcement agencies about money laundering.

Yes, they invest in all sorts of places —

Switzerland, England. I write to

one prosecutor's office, then another.

Just open a criminal case already.

It's money laundering under your laws. Not a single

case exists. Not one. So I know perfectly well

that all these stories about

the West being very critical of

Putin are complete nonsense.

The West is never going to solve any of

our problems. Their approach is fairly cynical and

simple. Well, if they're such

fools,

that they elected this kind of government for themselves and

put up with it, and that government sends

us billions in stolen money — well, are we

supposed to refuse billions? No,

we won't refuse. We'll

shrug our shoulders, of course, but we won't

turn it down. So until, well, until the moment of

the war, he was useful to the bourgeoisie, but

at the same time, the bourgeoisie doesn't care what kind of

government Russia has. They'll accept any

government. For now, they're just looking on in bewilderment

and saying, "But there are 140

million people there." Why do they actually

put up with it

put up with it? Just think for yourselves: what

instruments of coercion are there, really? Who here

has been under administrative arrest?

I mean, it's not like I'm just saying this,

like it'll happen someday, right?

The truth is that there aren't even any particularly strong

instruments of coercion. That's right.

they jail people there, specific individuals,

are being repressed. Those who are here, well,

I can see people looking at me there, also

disapprovingly, saying: "Yes, there is repression

in your country too, of course, yes, but

these are isolated cases. There is no mass

coercion. We simply failed ourselves,

didn't do enough, and basically

went along with it. But the fact that we are gathered here

shows that fewer and fewer people

are willing to go along with it. The question is:

there is one form of coercion: military conscription. What are you

going to do about it?"

A professional volunteer army. A normal

army can only be a contract-based one. And

we can see that from the example of all modern

professional armies. There is one exception:

Israel, but that is a country that is

constantly at war. Everything there is

completely different. It has a gigantic military

budget. So I believe that conscription in

the form it exists in now is

simply a tax on those who cannot

buy their way out of it.

Why does no one from Moscow serve? Because

in Moscow, basically everyone, well, there is

money; they come, pay off the draft office, and nobody

serves.

And the farther out into the regions you go, the poorer

the region, the more people end up serving.

It's a tax. We must abolish it, and we

must move to a professional volunteer army;

the country has enough money for that. Next question.

Alexei, let's imagine you became

president, you won, and Crimea was won.

You don't sound very convincing somehow.

Will Crimea return to Ukraine?

Good grief, I was already upset again—why is it

always a question about Crimea?

There was no question about whether we would take

other countries over debts so as not to

write them off.

We definitely are not going to seize other countries,

because, well, here at home

once you get outside Moscow, go 100 km (62 miles)

away, and you really start seeing

abandoned villages. Nobody lives there, nobody

works the land, there's nothing there. I

recently once again went to visit

my brother for a prison visit in Oryol Region,

You drive through Oryol Region,

Bryansk Region—in principle, you're driving through

the most densely populated part, the European

part of Russia, formally speaking. But in reality there is

absolutely nothing. Emptiness. Some abandoned

buildings, again, some sheds standing around. No,

nothing is growing, no cows are grazing.

Because it's snowing, of course.

I mean, there's nothing there, so there is no need

to seize anything. We need to develop our own land.

As for Crimea,

Have you really never heard my

answer to this question?

I'll start. Here we go. First, we hold

a referendum. Second, we understand that

the problem will not be resolved in the foreseeable future.

Unfortunately, that is the reality. All of you will become

my age, then older than me,

then quite elderly. Your

children will stand there before someone and

ask them this question, or they themselves will stand here

and discuss Crimea in exactly the same way.

An unsolvable problem. Just as the problems

of not a single, in fact,

territorial conflict that

currently exists on planet Earth, get resolved.

Next question.

What is your view on legalizing cannabis?

Usually, all the books say

that you shouldn't answer questions like this.

Still, I think I will answer, because

Russia simply needs a different

drug policy. What we don't need is, uh,

the legalization of cannabis; what we need is

the decriminalization of many things. What do

all Russian prisons currently look like?

Well, both the statistics and

personal experience show it.

My brother tells me that our whole

penal colony is packed with Tajiks convicted under Article 228 (drug possession and trafficking laws).

Why the hell are they sitting here? Just send

them back to Tajikistan. What the hell are they

needed here for? I mean, really, young

people who were caught out of stupidity with

small amounts of drugs—

they all get 5 to 7 years, and they become

hardened criminals,

their lives are ruined, they can't find

work, and, well, so on and so

forth. Then it all goes downhill from there. So

legalization in the direct sense—meaning

selling it in stores in Russia tomorrow—

is impossible right now. But pharmacies do sell it.

But change what, exactly?

They sell it in pharmacies.

Well yes, where

everything has changed now.

I follow this funny public page

called "Found on Ramp," where these

junkies describe how they sell their

drugs. These days it's done through the

dark web fairly

easily. All the agencies that are supposed

to be fighting drug

trafficking mostly provide cover for

it. And,

Exactly, the main drug dealer is

the Federal Drug Control Service. So right now, first of all, we need to

deal with the issue of the enormous

prison population, which is mostly

sitting there for no good reason. They pose no

danger to society. Let's

deal with that first, and then move on to this.

Save the comments for later. Comments

afterward, please.

Should Russia take part in

the space race, or is it a pointless

waste of money?

And

I'm a space enthusiast.

Very strange. Especially, especially instead of

with the question about drugs. It's just that I don't

personally fly anywhere, but really

right now, major investments in space do not

have a practical return. However, I

even when I was doing my internship at

the Khrunichev Center, a very interesting kind of

organization, I mean, I believe that this is also

one of Putin's crimes—that

we have now lost our leadership in

space. Countries that do far

less than we do earn

$10 billion a year from commercial launches.

We earn, I think, $100 million

a year. Very little. So into

space we need to invest even more,

we need to develop it more aggressively, because

well, the return—and a very large, powerful

return—will come, just a little later.

Therefore, for example, I think

the FIFA World Cup.

People may criticize me for this. I think that in

Russia, under the current conditions, it's madness. 19

billion rubles for your stadium. It cost 19 billion rubles;

what was the original estimate? 12 billion,

now it's 19 billion. When the championship is over,

10 days will pass, and you'll all be left with

a stadium that will be insanely difficult

to maintain. It will suck all the money

out of the regional budget. This stadium

will drain it in 20 days.

Exactly. And most importantly, we can see

from the example of other countries, rich countries,

that hosted, for example, the Olympics.

Even in rich countries, the facilities stand

abandoned; nobody needs them. The same thing

will happen here. But when it comes to

space, I genuinely believe we need to

invest, even if there is no immediate return, because

there the return for the next generation

will be much greater.

That's one of the growth areas.

Well, yes, one of the growth areas. Now I

see you now as an honest person.

Well, but you haven't been in power yet,

you're only in the opposition.

Yes.

And power corrupts a person.

And power corrupts anyone. We

shall see. And

so,

if everything works out and you become

president,

what is it, where is that inner core of yours that

will keep you from also

repeating the same thing?

Did everyone hear the question?

Good question.

I can even point to that inner core.

So,

any person—I'll answer now, this is important—

any person will be corrupted by power.

There has not been a single example. If a person

stays in power there for more than 10 years,

they do not remain normal. Therefore

the remedy is simple. No one should

remain in power for more than 8 years. I

believe the term should be reduced to

4 years. More than 8 years is harmful.

Remember Putin as he was in 2004,

his famous interview where he said, well, basically,

that after more than 7 years of being president, anyone

starts to lose their mind.

And now we can see,

he's been sitting there for 17 years, and he really has

completely lost it. You understand,

it's completely unclear what is driving him and unclear what

is happening. Therefore

a normal president—and I want to be one—

must first of all make sure that

he cannot remain in power, that

people won't simply keep re-electing him there,

but will remove him from power by any

means. This is the most important task. There is no— I mean,

well, it may seem to me now that I am

such a great guy and this won't happen to me,

that I'll be in power for 40 years and

everything will be fine. But are you really ready

to believe me on that? I myself am not

ready to believe myself, because I have not seen

any other example. They always become

bad, so that's the only way. So, 8

years and goodbye; 4 years and goodbye,

if you worked badly, goodbye sooner; there is no other way. Question:

when you become president, what will you

do about the law?

Well, the Dima Yakovlev Law (the Russian ban on U.S. adoptions of Russian children),

first of all, we will get rid of all the swine

who voted for that law.

Thank you. And I think that, knowing how

this law was passed, we will also bring

criminal charges, send to

the dock those who pushed through

this law by exerting unlawful

pressure. This law is stupid; it needs to

be repealed. So, well, Russia, the country, the nation

has a task: to make sure

there are no orphanages, that there are no

abandoned orphans. As a nation, we must solve

this problem so that there are no orphans. But

to make it so that this unfortunate

disabled child remains there for another 10

years in an orphanage where, as we know, there are not enough

diapers, where the Investigative Committee

is conducting inspections because

children are simply lying there dirty, infants,

disabled children lying there dirty. And we cannot, cannot

allow them to be adopted somewhere simply

because we have decided that

we won't let Russian children go. But that's monstrous.

These are simply criminal people.

We will make sure there are no orphans, no

orphanages, as in the United States, for example, or in

most countries in Western Europe, but

not by methods like these, right?

Alexei Anatolyevich, what do you think about

Lustration? Is it mandatory?

We’ve already answered that too. It’s an important question.

Listen, listen, you’ll get to it.

Is lustration mandatory?

Just like in ’91, there was no

lustration? If we again go without lus-

Right, in 1991 there was no

lustration, and that’s why basically nothing came of it.

Basically.

But Germany definitely had it, didn’t it? It

is possible. Germany had it, Poland had it, the

Czech Republic had it. It is possible. It’s a matter of

broad consensus. Lustration cannot be

declared by a president, for example. It

has to be voted for by a parliamentary

majority. But if you ask me,

I believe lustration

is necessary. But again, I gave the example of

Lebedev, the head of the judicial system. He doesn’t give a damn

who gets jailed. He jailed

dissidents, then during perestroika

he jailed those who were against Yeltsin.

Now they jail people for being against someone, against

Putin. These are hypocritical, shameless

people. And we do not need such people. They

need to be thrown out. I believe that without

lustration, very little will work out. And my

vote, of course, will be in favor of lustration.

Question. Yes.

Go ahead. Dear candidate, I am a history teacher

with many years of teaching

experience. I was forcibly dismissed. The case

went all the way up to the highest

authorities. There was a whole wave of

teachers being fired on fabricated reports and reprimands.

Then they pin some kind of slander on you. In

general, this whole wave in Samara

is continuing. I am very interested in a

serious question. Our courts are,

to put it mildly, inactive. When will there be

a proper system—yes, yes, thank you, we know her—

when will a real judicial

reform be put in place, like in France once under Charles de

Gaulle? He replaced the entire

judicial corps overnight. I will simply, I don’t

know, be at your feet if someday, perhaps,

you become the head of state,

and do all this, because the whole system is

rotted through.

Dear candidate, look: the courts

do not reinstate the most conscientious

workers, teachers. Our Samara

courts do not return to their jobs people who have worked

for 35 years and whom, in fact,

there is no one to replace from that Soviet generation. You too

have suffered because of the courts. But why is the entire

legal community silent, not only

in Samara but across Russia? Why

are the other citizens, and we also have

political prisoners—I am a mother twice over,

a grandmother, crying from the depths of my soul—why is everyone silent and

taking no action? Judges must be elected.

Judges also should not enjoy any special privileges.

Just look at how many they have.

There should be lay assessors, as

there were in Soviet times, whereas now

they exist only in criminal proceedings.

Thank you very much for this emotional

speech. You see, we’ve already found

an excellent volunteer. Listen, I

will be the first myself. At your feet—let me

answer. So, I’ll be the first at your

feet for proposing this and

speaking so emotionally. Because I see

it. I see that brazen, smirking

face that put my brother in prison. I

see all those people who, well, even in

small matters—I won all my

cases at the European Court. And in

administrative-arrest cases, I personally watched

those police officers standing there

and saying, "Yes, he was shouting, yelling

there, pushing people." Then they turn on the video,

and there is nothing of the sort. The judge watches,

he watches, they give false testimony,

which is a criminal offense. They just don’t care. And

they look at me and smirk. Well,

one second.

And they smirk and say, like,

go ahead, try to do something to us.

If I start talking about this for long, I’ll

be even more emotional than you are.

So, people often ask me about the first three

decrees, the first three actions. First,

the release of political prisoners.

Second, a law on combating illicit

enrichment. Third, judicial reform. Without

judicial reform, none of it will happen.

There must be a place in the country where

any person can find justice. They

may have a dispute with the mayor, with the

governor, with their mother-in-law, with a neighbor over

dividing up a dacha plot. They

must be able to come to court and obtain

justice there. Until such a place exists,

nothing will work worth a damn. Therefore,

yes, of course, judicial reform is our

priority. Question.

Uh, later, over there later. My name is Kostov

Mikhail Relfinovich. I live in Samara and

work there. A little louder, please.

I’ll repeat it later.

To come up to you right now and

ask a question, it took only 3

minutes to get through this crowd of people.

Do you need people like that? I’m curious.

That’s not exactly a question.

I got through to here. I arrived just 5 minutes

ago. I made my way through all these people, and in

3 minutes I got to you and asked you a question.

Do you need people like that? Seriously?

What’s the problem? This is a candidate’s job.

I’ll answer now. This is

came

to get to you. It took me 3 minutes.

Are you interested in people like that, who could

be of interest to you? Of course, any people are of interest,

but that’s the thing. I have to be, well,

I should be, as much as possible, accessible to you.

I understand your emotions. I'm standing

here, and I can feel it running down my

back. I can imagine what you are feeling

in those jackets. But the task is to be

quite accessible, so that everyone can

ask me a question. So of course, yes,

it is important to me that everyone has

the opportunity, like you, to come up and ask.

It's just that I have big problems, people know me

here, many know about my problems, but I don't want

any trouble right now.

Well then, let's discuss it separately after the meeting

we'll talk it over.

I'd like to meet with you. It would be interesting

it will be. Yes, yes, of course. Next

question. I promised to go over to that side. Yes.

Look, if you win at the ECHR (European Court of Human Rights)

Yes, yes, that's right. So, that means you

will get through, but what should be done if, after all,

the court does not overturn your sentence in the

Kirovles case? That is, what should we do,

those of us who want to vote

for you? And what will you do

if that sentence is not overturned? Who is

your successor?

So, the first campaign office we opened was in

St. Petersburg.

That was still before the verdicts, before the second

Kirovles case. And there I was asked

a similar question: "And what will you do

if the court, like, does convict you after all?" I

said there, and I'll repeat it here. So, it's not

a matter of if the court convicts me, because the court

will most certainly convict me.

Well, you can see that they, for example,

were commenting today, from Peskov

on down.

They all say: "Well, what's the point of talking

to this criminal?" Because for them

this is important: to make me a criminal,

don't let him anywhere." That's it. They do not want

you to be in the elections. They understand perfectly well

that this is not Navalny's campaign

alone. It is the campaign of all those

people. They deprived you of political

representation—deprived all of us of it, in fact,

and did so definitively 12 years ago.

Do you think there is anyone there who wants to give you back

political representation? Do you think

there is anyone who wants you to get

60% tomorrow, elect your own people to the local assembly,

and choose your own governor? Of course not.

So the ECHR (European Court of Human Rights) will definitely overturn this

sentence. They definitely will not

overturn it themselves, but that does not matter.

We should not base our actions on that. Under the

Constitution, I have the right

to run for office, and most importantly, I have

the moral right

to run as well, apparently, because

you came here. Therefore our

campaign, this part of it, consists in

forcing them

to register me. And in fact, no matter

how powerful we may think the authorities are,

when faced

directly with society, from

Pikalevo to Kondopoga,

the authorities have always backed down and given way. They

released me from prison because

people took to the streets in Moscow. Just

as here. When, through their secret

opinion polls, they realize that there is

a critical mass of people demanding

access to the elections, they will allow it and

they will have no choice. Let's take your

neighbor first, and then you. Yes. Ah, hello,

Alexei. You are often asked a question about Crimea.

We've all heard your answer to that question.

I have a question about Chechnya. Tell me, what do you

plan to do with it? It is a subsidized

region. And how do you want to

manage it? Because you'll have to deal with

Kadyrov, and Dagestan in general, and all of that

whole

The North Caucasus as a whole. In fact, in

Chechnya, for example, the situation is less

problematic than in Dagestan, because

in Chechnya there are Chechens there,

it's a monoethnic society, whereas in

Dagestan there are a million nationalities, and

they choose the authorities there by quotas—it is very

complicated. But in general, the problem of the North

Caucasus, it

does not require some separate solution.

The North Caucasus needs the same things that

Samara does, only even more so. They

need courts, they need justice,

because those people see how

100,000 rubles per person in federal subsidies are poured in there

(about 1,100 USD per person). But where is that

money? No one can account for it. People there are even

poorer than here.

Well yes, of course. We see those flashy

videos with Porsches driving around, Kadyrov there,

and all that, but that's just one family there,

one clan, and everything else is poverty.

They need the same thing. Exactly the same thing.

They need a fight against corruption. They need

some kind of at least halfway decent

leadership. They need local

self-government, at least in those villages. They

need a judicial system. And you won't

believe it, but huge numbers of people write to us

considering that they try there

to create an image of me as a nationalist and all

that. There is simply an enormous

flow of letters from the North Caucasus, because, well,

it is even harder for them than it is here, because

already back in the Yeltsin era

they were getting 99% in elections there. No one there

goes to vote anymore, because there is no

point. And of course they very much want at least

some positive changes, and we are

ready to give them that. Yes,

let's say we take the presidency. How

do you plan to stay in touch after that

with the people? And will we be able to ask

you questions just as freely as

we can now?

Ah,

good question.

How would I stay connected with the people if I were

president? Should I organize

those hellish live call-in shows with people on

Which means,

good government is good

because it does not need live call-in shows

because, generally speaking, you would not have

that many questions for me. Well,

you would have some, but not that many, because you

would have a governor whom you elect.

You would have a mayor with real powers. I would simply

redistribute authority in such a way

that the president, well, would not be getting so many

questions. I would come here,

you would come meet me and ask

about Syria, about Crimea, about foreign

policy, but it would not be a question about

some kind of local agenda,

because money and power should

remain where people live. I do not

where they face problems. We will turn

all of this right side up. No need for

live call-in shows, no need for special

mechanisms. There is a mechanism, a better one,

the ideal mechanism is elections. I myself

can be re-elected, or they can re-elect

my party, my majority

in the State Duma. So that is feedback. I

will try to win your support

so that you elect me. And that is

how democracy actually works.

And it will work in Russia.

About orphans.

Well, you already asked. Let's do the question about orphans.

I didn't ask about orphans.

About those orphans.

I'm already standing here.

other people too.

I keep hearing questions like, what will happen

if you become the top guy?

My main question is: if all of you came here,

does that mean you've already decided that this is your

president? Let's not say

"if." I like that approach.

Yes, please.

What is your attitude toward gay people? How do you

feel about gay people? Would you legalize gay

marriage if you became president?

That is... Well, the approach here is simple. I

believe no one should be singled out and

no one should be discriminated against. Everyone

should enjoy equal rights. Gay, not gay,

I don't care. Everyone has the right

to take part in mass demonstrations.

Everyone has the right to express their opinion.

As a lawyer, in fact, I believe that

civil unions are possible, because

there is the issue of inheritance. Say one gay man ends up,

I don't know, in prison, and his

husband or wife can't come see him because

he does not have, he does not have a signed

document. It's a whole problem. Inheritance

doesn't work, and all the rest of it. These are

normal people. They should be given all the same

legal mechanisms as everyone else

has. So, uh, I think that, well,

there is no need to invent something special for them or

make things unnecessarily complicated. We have

the quite successful experience of European countries.

It can be applied here. Yes.

Alexei, what will you do about

the problem of people who, well, for years

cannot obtain citizenship? They are

ethnically Russian, say, they lived

in another country, for example in Ukraine,

came to Russia, and then just spend years waiting.

I understand, I understand the question. What should be done about

those who, I repeat, cannot obtain

citizenship? Feldman, where is he? I

was telling a great story an hour ago.

You were telling it—can I tell it?

It was about Frantsin. Can I tell it?

No.

Fine.

We can imagine; there are many stories like that.

Okay. Sorry, I'm going to tell it anyway. It's

actually simple. A person lived

in Russia, was a Russian citizen, went to

another country, then came back here with a child.

The child is 2 years old and cannot get, for 2

months cannot get citizenship,

because the migration service requires

a language proficiency certificate. Two months. Two

months. I mean, they are literally

mocking people. They drive people to such a

state that you just want

to punch someone in the face. You came here, you are a citizen

of Russia, you have a child, and your child,

even if the child was born in Ukraine, they say,

let the two-month-old show proof of

language knowledge. I submitted,

I wrote and submitted a bill

that is essentially similar

to legislation adopted in Georgia, in

Israel, under which citizenship is automatically

granted to any person whose

birth certificate, or whose parents' birth certificate,

states that he or she is

a member of that people. That is, it says

Russian, or Tatar, or

Chechen. He comes here, and they say to him:

"Brother, you're one of us, here's your

passport."

It says Russian in the Ukrainian passport, and

he

if it says Russian. Damn it, then what is Russia

for?

Russia exists so that it can be

a country for those peoples. It is

a country for Russians, a country for

Tatars, a country for those who have no

other country. Right,

national federation. And if, damn it,

So the situation is this: someone arrives,

a Russian person, and they aren’t given a passport—well then

everything loses its meaning. Then it turns out,

what is the state even for if it

casts this person out? That’s why I

drafted a bill. So, Alexei, may I

ask a question?

Yes.

A question regarding the taxation of citizens.

That is, do you think it makes sense

for citizens to pay taxes themselves—not just the 13%

they see, but the full 30.2%?

And do you plan, when you remain

in

We have that written into our platform. In fact, we

do have it written in: that people

should see what taxes they are paying. Because

right now, a person doesn’t even see

their personal income tax; they just receive their salary.

In Russia, that’s how people think. Salary is what

you got in cash or what was transferred to

your bank card. But the fact that from that amount, from

those, say, I don’t know, 50,000 rubles, you

paid 13% in income tax, and then

another 32% in social tax.

When people, Russian citizens, realize

how much they actually pay in taxes, they

will view the authorities differently.

What

The employer? How much

how much does the employer pay? Exactly,

because in my Anti-Corruption Foundation (ACF)

that’s our main expense item,

enormous taxes. And very often

people themselves think that this

state owes them nothing, because

they supposedly give it nothing. But they do. We

all give it huge amounts of money. So

yes, that is in our platform.

Yes. Thank you,

Alexei. My country, Russia, invested

enormous sums in building

Olympic facilities—I mean the

Sochi Olympics.

So here is my specific question. Does the ACF—well,

we were all promised that our children would

be able to use all these

Olympic facilities for free, and so on. I

have a large family.

So

my question is: does the ACF monitor,

or even look into, who currently

owns these Olympic facilities?

No.

Who has read our investigation into

the Olympics?

So,

we published a special report in which

the construction of every single

facility was investigated. We roughly established how much

money was stolen on each one, and who

owns them. But now, of course, we are also

monitoring the situation, because in Russia

what has happened is that now

the same thing is happening to them that happened in

every country. These facilities are mostly

impossible to use; nobody

needs them. Vnesheconombank

closed out all the loans and wrote them off as

bad debt—the loans on which all this

was built. All of it is being transferred to certain

people—like Roldugin, Putin’s so-called "wallet" (a trusted associate accused of holding assets for him),

for example, one building was handed over to him, and

so on and so forth. So, well, I

hate to disappoint you, sorry, but if you

come to Sochi tomorrow and say, "I

want to use this place," you won’t hear

anything encouraging.

I think they won’t let us anywhere near it.

That’s why, that’s why I came here to you.

I came here to you and stood on this table in order

to unite those people who

aren’t allowed anywhere near anything, even though they very much want

to get closer. Yes. A question.

Alexei, do you plan to limit

the influence of the Russian Orthodox Church on politics

in any way?

The church is separate from the state. I want

that principle to be actually enforced. I myself am

Orthodox—and yes, that sounds like "I am an officer’s daughter" (a Russian meme mocking staged declarations of identity). I

I

mean, there’s no need to invent anything.

The church—naturally, the Russian Orthodox Church—is

the predominant confession here. It is

normal for people to donate

money to it. Some assistance from the

state is also normal. But what must stop is

the greed. Take the same issue with St. Isaac’s Cathedral in

St. Petersburg—it’s not about the church, it’s about

a billion rubles

coming in from tourists along with it,

that are being collected. So, well, we need

to stop the commercialization, we need

to stop all this false

garbage surrounding the church, when all

these guys, Communist Party members since '77,

are now being

shown standing there, bowing and crossing themselves.

It’s disgusting to watch,

disgusting. That needs to stop. That is

the first thing. And

would you repeal the law on offending believers’ feelings

if you became president? Or rather,

would you at least push for its repeal?

All laws connected with this,

with Article 282. Of course—what offending believers’ feelings?

Come on, that’s nonsense. I’m a believer,

go ahead and offend my feelings. No,

an unbeliever.

Exactly. And he’s a nonbeliever. My

feelings cannot be offended.

And I don’t care—atheists, Buddhists,

Zoroastrians—fine. Good for them. Why should I care?

I don’t care. The law on offending believers’ feelings

is nonsense. If there is vandalism,

if someone breaks crosses or tears things down, that

is covered by a different statute. But the law on offending

believers’ feelings is really just

nonsense used to imprison people. Yes.

Go ahead.

Alexei, you know Vyacheslav

Maltsev, right?

Yes. As for Maltsev,

right? A whole team has come here from

Saratov with Maltsev.

Maltsev's friends are here.

You probably know that he believes

that the revolution will happen on November 5.

Do you believe that?

I asked him about it when he came to

our office and did a livestream there: Slava,

is that a literal date, or is it

more metaphorical? He answered me in a way that

made me think it's more of a metaphor.

It's a kind of symbol. Well, I don't know, my

understanding is that nothing is specifically planned for

the 5th, the 11th, the 17th

to happen, but if it does, great.

I'm definitely not against it.

I think well of Maltsev. He is, uh,

well, also a rather exotic,

extravagant guy, but what he's

saying now is absolutely the right

stuff. I think well of him. Yes,

next question.

Alexei, please tell us, as part of

decentralization, would you consider

the idea of moving the capital from Moscow to

Siberia?

from Moscow to... [inaudible].

I don't think moving it to Siberia is a good

idea, because we have to remember that in Siberia,

beyond the Urals, only 10% of the country's population lives

there, right? And the climate conditions are

harsh. But as for Moscow now, it

has, on the one hand, sucked the life out of

the entire country. And when you travel

to the regions, you can literally see it

with your own eyes. I'm a Muscovite, I'm a patriot of Moscow,

I absolutely love it, but Moscow also gets

nothing but problems from this. I've already given

this example here with the numbers. Do you remember

what your city's budget is? Who knows?

I remember: 23 billion.

Correct, 23 billion. And did you recently see

the report on how much will be spent on

reconstructing part of the Garden Ring?

Not reconstruction—beautification.

Beautification. 12 billion—half the budget, damn it,

of a city of over a million people—they're going to spend

it there on a few streets, on beautification, on

trash bins and paving tiles.

It's insane. And most importantly,

what does it actually bring Muscovites? Just that

everything is expensive, it's impossible to live, traffic jams, hell

all around. So,

yes, some of Moscow's functions definitely need to be

taken away. What really matters to us is

decentralization.

But if, by the way, you dig through

my posts from

2011–2012, I wrote

that

the capital should be moved out of

Moscow. It wasn't a bad idea to move

everything to New Moscow, but unfortunately they

didn't go through with that idea, because

well, this notion wins out that

everything has to be in the Kremlin; for them the Kremlin is a symbol.

They sit in the Kremlin, and it's part of my

program that the authorities should not sit in

the Kremlin. It's a medieval fortress. It's a

medieval fortress. State authorities should not

be located there. So

Feudal lords live in a fortress. Makes perfect sense.

We don't need feudal power. We need

we need a normal new

capital, apparently located

somewhere near Moscow, and not everything should be

centralized, even literally in one place.

And we will decentralize this power, and that

will be an important part of it. Yes, please.

Aren't you afraid that you might be

Crimea happened, [inaudible] happened—aren't you afraid that you might be

killed? Afraid of that?

Well, yes,

anything is possible in this country. In terms of the number of

murders, we're among the highest-ranked countries in

the world, and definitely in first place in Europe,

despite the fact that in terms of the number of

police officers, we outnumber everyone.

Unfortunately, the likelihood

of violent crime being committed against

any one of us is

higher than in almost any other country. In road accidents here,

an entire city, damn it, dies every year.

35,000 people—35,000 people die in

road accidents because of bad roads, because

money is stolen from road construction. And also because of

road lighting.

Road lighting, exactly. There are no streetlights.

So again, think about it:

35,000 people die. Each of those

people earns a salary and supports a family.

That's, damn it, about half a percent of the country's GDP

lost just because of this alone. So,

well, I take a philosophical

view of it. I don't get any, I don't know,

masochistic pleasure from thinking about

the fact that there is some kind of risk. Alexei,

but at the same time I fully understand that

any contest on my part, in terms of

security, with these people, will

lead nowhere. No bodyguards

will protect me. But realizing all this

does not lead me to conclude that I should

give up some idea of mine, or

my vision of Russia, because this is

my country. Well, yes. Different things can

happen. Sure, yes.

I'm ready for anything,

because I believe that my right

to say what I think needs to be said is

more important than all the other things that

exist in the world. So, my friends,

I'm very glad,

that perhaps even ideas of mine like these, well,

purely ideas and statements that

belong not to the realm of practice, but to

morality, still have your support. I am

terribly glad and grateful that you

came. Damn, I'm really worried that you

will all go out into the streets tomorrow,

get sick. We'll lose all the volunteers in

the region.

Thank you so much for coming. I

hope I answered at least some of your

questions. We will definitely win,

simply because historically this regime

is doomed, while we are historically destined

for nothing but success. That's how the spiral of

civilizational development works.

They are here, and we will be here, because

everything is moving in that direction anyway,

because feudalism is already over.

Russia is experiencing a renaissance of feudalism, but it has

outlived itself. And that is why we will definitely

win. Once again, let me say to you:

realize your strength. Realize that the 310

people in this room

right now are, politically speaking,

the main force in the Samara region.

Stronger than Merkushkin, stronger than all

the others. No matter what he calls us,

whether it's nephews of Uncle Sam or grandchildren of Saakashvili,

and so on. He says all that. They

say all of it simply because they

are afraid of you. But they should be even more

afraid.

Realize that even with this strength alone

we will be able to win over thousands,

tens of thousands of people.

That is how it has always been, and how it always will be.

Humanity is about how people

united by a common idea always

defeat a bunch of unprincipled crooks and

liars. And we will definitely win.

Thank you very much. We'l

March social rally. Everyone come.

A couple of organizational points about what,

I basically mentioned at the beginning, but

after all these emotions, it wouldn't hurt to

repeat them.

The campaign office will start operating on Monday,

March 6.

The campaign office will start operating on Monday.

You can come yourselves and tell us about

yourselves. When the flow, naturally,

dies down, we'll send out a message saying:

"Friends, come by, and March for us will

be spent on this. Don't rush, we'll have time to speak with everyone.

March will be spent making sure that

Katya and her staff speak with each

of you, fill out a special chart, and

understand who needs leaflets, who needs

a car sticker, who needs something else, who needs

something else. Who is the head of a homeowners' association,

who has some kind of civic organization,

that can campaign, who has

I don't know, a video blog and 1,000

subscribers, or a small website and

can put banners on it. So

throughout March we'll talk to everyone and figure out

how each of you can help us and

how we can help you help us.

If this doesn't happen right away, then don't

worry—just come to the office yourselves, okay?

In any case, it will be a gradual

process, because there are a lot of you, while in the

office we have three staff members—soon there will

be four. That's the first thing. Second,

this is important—I know I say it every time,

but it really is important.

So far we have raised 25.5 million rubles.

in donations.

our a

average size, average size

of a donation is a little over 1,000 rubles,

while the median, the most typical one, is about

500 rubles. And, say, a placard costs

something like 200, and a car sticker

150, and even a small sticker for

a phone costs around 30 rubles. All of this is made from

very real people's money, which,

well, many people in this room sent in,

along with many others. So let's

treat it with the utmost responsibility. In other words,

don't take things just as souvenirs.

Okay? If you took a sticker,

then stick it on and wear it. Wear the badge,

hand out the leaflets, put the car sticker

on your car, because real people

often send us literally their last

money. Okay? This is simply

a request for understanding, which I'm

sure everyone in this audience has.

Please return the placards—we need them for

the events. There is a campaign materials stand

by the emergency exit.

There is a campaign materials stand there. So far we have only

printed very small quantities.

Right now, all the money that people

send us is being invested in this—in

opening campaign offices. That is, right now,

probably,

the main expense item is rent and all

that sort of thing. We will print more

campaign materials. By summer, when our campaigning

machine is fully up and running, there will be

print runs in the millions.

We will absolutely provide enough for everyone. For now, the print runs are

small. Still, you may take some,

but only if you're sure that if I

took a sticker, I actually used it. If I

took a sticker, I put it somewhere. Okay? That

would be fair to those who

sent the money. Thank you.

I ended on a lofty note, and you took

people's placards away from them. Well then,

thank you very much, friends.

Thank you very much.

There will be victory. We will win.

A special rally in March. Youth.

Come along.

Come.

world religions id

Let's go.