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

If you have a screenshot, uh, with the invitation, uh,

do it now, uh, or show

the mailing. Everyone with it goes in first. Those who

don’t have that mailing or don’t have

a screenshot, you go to the end of the line; we will

I mean, you’ll still get in anyway.

That’s it. It’s just the procedure.

you can show it right away. Yes,

I’m going over to the entrance now.

They’re not letting us through to you.

I’m going over to the entrance now. There will be

Sergei and me there, and we’ll let you

in gradually. Please don’t

crowd

the entrance, because there isn’t much room.

Hello,

me

no, well, there’s not much space there, it’s like in some kind of

garage. Right, now we, sorry for the

shaking, will try to film and

stream, so bear with us.

And you’re doing the livestream too,

of course. Look, six people are watching there

already.

There’s no point calling, it’s busy

me. Well, I’m on air all the time. I a couple of

times...

I never even have the ringtone on. I

picked up.

It’s even hanging around my neck already.

I’ve got a new one.

Look, this year’s model

they updated it.

No questions. I think I did an honest report.

.

Now I’m not an honest reporter.

Why? What do you mean? On my own behalf I

you see what kind of

without an invitation.

But I’m a journalist, I can’t do that.

I didn’t even sign up as a volunteer.

Journalists. So then,

a persecuted profession.

the very main one, which...

I brought a flashlight with me, by the way,

a small one. Until the batteries die, it

will keep working.

So, looks like... there are about 100

people here, right?

About 100, yes.

Now

the email isn’t

What happened? Andrei Polyakov, how did you

end up like this?

Slipped.

I’ve fallen low.

Fallen low and found myself a stick.

I see. My sympathies. Truly.

Please take care of yourself.

Russia needs me in fine shape.

No, it’s a different place now. Anton, look,

Bastionnaya 8T. You need to get urgently to

Bastionnaya 8T. It’s before you reach the

Oktyabr factory. That’s it,

hello.

Hello.

Hello. Here he is.

Hello.

We’re live on Facebook.

Excellent. Say hello to Facebook. Hello.

Hello.

Whew,

just

film under

There they are, the children of the underground.

They practically drove people into a basement.

Take the flashlight from me.

It’s in my backpack.

Do you know how to use it? You do already. Just

close the backpack.

Hooray! That’s it. Hello, Tambov.

Hi.

Thank you very much. It’s incredibly nice that you

made it, got all the way here. And this was a

particularly important city for us. We

set a record here today. We were refused by

how many, Diana?

21.

17 turned us down.

17 venues, three of which had definitely

already agreed. At some venues

we had even paid a deposit. And, well, in the end we

ended up here with you, at a motor depot.

And that’s wonderful. And that’s very good,

because, well, the administration and the

governor of Tambov Region had a

devious plan, which was basically this:

well, we won’t give them any

premises, we won’t let them in anywhere, and

that’s it, the corruption problem is solved. Then no one

in Tambov Region, in the city of

Tambov, will be discussing corruption anymore.

As if nobody is interested at all. We

beat them. But did they beat us?

No.

In Saransk, I spoke out in an open field.

You probably saw the photos. And in Pushka

in the summer we couldn’t even find anywhere

a hangar. By the way, all American

presidents speak in hangars, so

this is actually wonderful. I really

like it. I really like this stage.

And I’ve spoken standing on an overturned speaker,

and on a broken chair, and on some kind of

cabinet that we also turned

on its side. There’ll be more. I can do it; I’ve spoken

in the rain, and if they never let us into

any venue at all, ever again, well

fine, I’ll carry a folding

stool with me, set that folding stool down

and speak to people, because I know

for an absolute fact that I am not the only

person in Russia who wants some kind of

change. I am not the only person in

Russia who wants a fight against

corruption. I am not the only person in

Russia who is dissatisfied and enraged by the fact

that Medvedev stole 70 billion rubles.

There is no investigation, nothing at all. And all around us

there is poverty, broken roads, everything falling apart.

Everything was there. They found no corruption in

your film. They did not

find any corruption in our film. They did not

find any corruption. Apparently, that is why we are

here, you see? Because in our

film they found no corruption, and yet you

went to the rally on the 20th.

There were arrests

twelve people were detained. On the 12th

will you go

absolutely.

Even though people were detained, you will still go.

And so we have to show that, friends,

if you did not find corruption there, then

you were looking for it badly. And our campaign

is about simple, basic questions, to which

everyone, by and large, already knows

the answers, but for some reason the authorities are simply

trying to confuse us, trying to prove

that nothing can be changed, nothing

can be overcome. We are doomed to live

like this until the end of our lives, and our children are doomed to live in

poverty too, and that no problems can be solved.

Impossible to solve anything. What, is it impossible to build your philharmonic hall

for several years or what? I mean,

damn it, I look at a photograph of this

building, and it looks as if it was hit by

a missile. I see that, what, 300 million rubles

have already been allocated. Another 700 million rubles

are planned. And all this has been under construction

for many years. And, well, excuse me, but I

refuse to believe that it is impossible

to finish a philharmonic hall in a major city, a regional

capital. I mean, all over the world,

buildings do get completed. What, what?

And the reason the governor gave?

And what reason did he give? According to

corruption. Corruption.

Wow.

In effect

the governor himself. Well, that is exactly how it is. And

that famous descent of yours there, what is it

called? Triumphal, right? The same thing

there too.

They allocated the money, built it, and two years later

it all fell apart.

Come on, I mean, I do not know, but we are, we are

modern people, you and I. We can see

that there are cities and countries where

they build things and they do not collapse. This

amazing thing exists in many places.

And it can exist here too. And our roads,

our famous roads, can be repaired as well.

Because it is true. For how many years has humanity been

building roads?

Since...

6,000. I usually say on my livestreams,

yes. Let us put it this way: for thousands of years, thousands of years

humanity has been building roads and has learned

how to build roads. They are everywhere; in most

even African countries, the roads are in decent condition.

And it turns out that all this, well, this whole

civilizational development, it

what, somehow bypassed Tambov Region,

bypassed Russia as a whole altogether,

because here we are unable

to build roads. And yet any road here

costs 20 times more than in China.

And yet it still falls apart, and

at the same time two synchronized

processes are taking place. Here a road is falling apart, and

somewhere on the southern coast of France, near

a new mansion is appearing.

So, are we okay with that?

No.

Will we ever accept it?

No.

And the most important thing is that the majority of

the population is completely on our side. They are just as

fed up with all of this. They also

want a normal life. They

understand that all of this can be overcome.

There is plenty of money in this country. It is

an astonishing thing that we really live

in a very poor country into which

an unimaginable поток of

petrodollars is flowing. Here is today's news: oil

has fallen to $51 per barrel. And $51

per barrel still means trillions

of rubles. Trillions of rubles. In other words,

this money should practically be pouring down on each of us.

Strange, though: do we actually see this money,

or not? My favorite exercise

at meetings like this in every city

is this: tell me yourselves, please, before

I give you the official statistics,

what is the average salary in the city of Tambov?

12-13.

Are you kidding? Are you kidding? Do I

live in Tambov, or do you? Seriously,

name a real salary for me. So it comes out to about

10,000 rubles. So, let us

imagine that instead of opposition politician Navalny, you are meeting with

not opposition politician Navalny, but some kind of

United Russia party member, uh, whoever

I do not know, anyone at all. So,

"Stop lying, American agents,

State Department agents rocking the boat.

Official statistics say that

the average salary, average, not maximum but

average, in your city is 22,000

rubles."

Right.

Do you believe that or not?

No. Again, this is kind of my favorite

experiment in every city. I do it and

it is important. Let us simply

assess this right now

together. Who here has an acquaintance, a friend,

a buddy, a relative, who

earns less than this average 22,000

rubles? Raise your hand.

Did I hear that right? Yes.

People can say that. Fine. Raise your hands,

those of you who know people who earn

less than 20,000 rubles.

And don’t go below 18,000 rubles.

They say this in every city. You can

keep your spirits up, but no, we’re going to

lower and raise it. Less than 15,000 rubles.

Less, less than 12,000 rubles.

Ah, there we go.

Wait for me, go ahead and

for a full workday. A full workday.

day.

Not to play along with me, but

answer honestly. Who knows people

who, for a full workday, earn

less than 10,000 rubles?

Yes.

So what does that mean?

It means, well, a historic defeat.

They work badly, right? They work badly,

you see?

They don’t work enough.

They say they don’t work enough. But the thing is,

we laugh about it there, ha-ha,

hee-hee. It’s always a cheerful

vote when I ask. But

this is a historic defeat, it’s

a catastrophe. A person earns 10,000 rubles.

Utility and housing costs here are insane. And they’re still

constantly trying to raise them. How much

do you pay for your apartment on average?

3,000.

Five.

Five or six. Well, I heard three mentioned.

Let’s say three. Fine, three. Let’s go with three. 10

minus 3 leaves 7. How much does food cost in

a month for a family of two?

10.

There you go. For us.

That’s exactly the point, you see? So how

do people live if they earn 10, and after

utilities they have 7 left, while food requires

spending 10? What do they do?

They plant potatoes. That’s right, isn’t it?

They live off whatever they can scrape together. And that is

the catastrophe. That is the reason why

we are here. Because

it’s a rich country, sitting on all these pipelines.

Money should be pouring in here. We’ve got,

mineral fertilizer. We sell ore and

things like iron ore pellets.

I’ve learned all the terminology. Yesterday I was writing

a response to Usmanov, and now I know everything about these

pellets. We’ll publish it soon. And

And again, yesterday I was just sitting there

looking through customs invoices, how much

he sold, which offshore company

shipped what. I’m telling you, billions, guys,

billions.

No exaggeration. All the documents

will be shown. Billions are flowing out, damn it,

and billions stay over there. And here we

are left in a country where, basically,

And yet all the objective preconditions are in

our favor. We have raw materials. We do. We have an educated

population. We do. We have some remnants

of industry. We do. But these

oligarchs, they sit on the remnants

of industry. All these factories

here in your region, for example, you have black soil (highly fertile soil), right,

plenty of it, as much as you want.

Russian soil—grow whatever you want. But

even so, we live in poverty,

everyone is in poverty. And yes, you can talk about

how in some cities people live, yes,

more richly, and in others more poorly,

but our gap between richer and poorer

is basically the gap between

15,000 rubles and, say, 45,000

rubles,

which is still less than the average

salary in Estonia, which, as you

know, has nothing. Have you ever heard of

Estonian oil fields?

Gas fields,

mining and processing plants, canneries.

Well, there is a cannery there—sprats. I think

that’s not Estonia, that’s Lithuania or

Latvia. But in any case

So what it comes down to for us is that we

have the prerequisites, not for

some luxurious, glamorous life, but for

a normal, decent life, yet we

have none of it. Why? Because

of corruption, because certain people have entrenched themselves

in these positions, and they do not want to leave

their posts. And your Tambov Region

is a perfect example. What happens here

in elections? Well, of course, it’s

probably better than in Mordovia (a republic in Russia). 99%

of the resources. But your governor could

give master classes in

falsification. He could just travel around and

give seminars on how to rig

elections. We really do know that

here in the Tambov Region, United Russia

does poorly at the polls. We know that

perfectly well. We see videos from your

polling stations. They want to stay

in those seats forever. Putin has been in

power for 18 years already and wants to stay another 12

years. And we both know—we read

history textbooks, we study what

happens in other countries. We see

that it simply does not happen that a person stays

in power for more than 10 years and does not go mad

in the process. Those are Putin’s own words. In 2007

he said that after 10 years, any

person in power

goes crazy.

So it turns out that by his own

words—and rightly so—if

after 10 years you go crazy,

then for the last 7 years our country has been run by

a madman.

But not just any madman—one who is,

of course, a little crazy, but also

a pretty cunning guy who very deftly

hauls away these billions. Only in our country do we have

a cellist, damn it, who had

offshore companies found in the British Virgin

on those islands there. Panama, in Panama. Kira is telling me

it's $2 billion. Well, where else

are there such rich white-ribbon supporters? Only here

with us. And it's offset only by our

poverty. Because these communicating

vessels, all this marvelous money,

all these houses on the south coast of France,

all this real estate in England—officially,

London realtors themselves say that

most homes worth more than 1

million pounds are bought by Russian

officials.

They pay the money and buy them, but

in fact, all of you are financing it.

We are the ones making all this happen. And most people

are irritated by it. Most people are

unhappy about it. Most people want

change, without a doubt.

But what hinders us most of all? What

is the main enemy of our

election campaign?

Putin.

Putin. The owner.

Fear.

Fear of fraud. Well, what other

options? The people on the commissions, that

they're against us, that

we're not playing on the whole field of the country,

that we're not playing across the whole country,

just, like, the internet and everything else.

Can't lose,

television propaganda.

So, the main problem of our campaign,

our main enemy,

well, there are all sorts of Putins, corruption,

fraud, and everything else, but

our main problem is people's lack of faith

in change. Because you

can go up to anyone. In a moment I'll

start taking questions soon, and

I'm wrapping up my speech already. And if you

go up to anyone and show them

a point from our platform, they'll

say: "This is all great, I'd sign under every

point." Because they're

obvious and right. Ah, but then they'll

inevitably add: "Why are you telling me all this?

Nothing can be changed,

after all."

And at every—well, almost every—meeting

with volunteers, someone comes up to me and

says: "That's it, you said it really well.

I applauded you, I clapped, but you

understand, Alexei, that nothing can

be changed. Honestly, tell me—do you understand that

or not?" And inevitably someone says

the phrase: "Corruption can't be changed. These ones

stole, and the next ones will come and steal

too." Have you heard that?

And people also often say this: "Well,

these ones have already stolen enough, and new ones will come,

and start looting all over again." So the main

obstacle, really, to

a normal life is this conviction

deeply rooted in most of the population that

nothing can be changed, that we are doomed

to poverty, that Russia is this, well,

abnormal territory where everything will always

be bad. But you and I know that

that isn't true.

We know that Russians—Russian people, however

you want to put it—are not somehow

inferior people. We are absolutely

exactly the same as people in Norway, Canada,

or especially Estonia, where 40% are Russian-speaking / Russian

residents. It's all the same.

We are a normal civilization. We built

this country so that we could, well, live

a little richer and a little better than we

do now. We can change all of this. And this

knowledge—what you and I have realized,

yes, the 1% of the active population, the 2% of the active

population—we have to carry it to everyone

else. What we need is not to defeat Putin

there, not even to prove that Putin is

a crook. Everyone more or less understands that he is

a crook. Well, just show them Medvedev's palaces.

Everything about Medvedev is already clear. We just need

to convince people that change

is possible and that we can live better. That's what

needs to be explained. And I assure you, my friends,

that we will be able to explain it. Well,

how many are here, I don't know, 150 people,

right? In Tambov there are 288,000 people,

correct? I'm not mistaken, am I?

This number of people is enough to

win over the entire city, because

no one else is doing any political

work at all. We are essentially

out there alone in an open field.

A lot of people here don't know who

Navalny is.

A lot of people here—well, I know, because we

conduct surveys. I can see that 50% of people

are afraid that

50% of people don't know who Navalny is.

Ah, and many of those who do know, they

say: "Yeah, that's the one who stole timber

from the forest." Right,

right? The one who's supposedly some kind of Freedom agent,

an American spy, and so on,

and so on. But

propaganda—sure, everyone knows—they

speak to audiences of millions on

television, while I'm here

in a hangar. But

we have something they don't. Real

live people who can go up to

anyone and say: "Well, you know,

I'm actually a volunteer for Navalny myself.

I work on the

campaign, I personally finance this

campaign." Just out of curiosity,

has anyone here ever donated

money to the ACF or to the campaign? There you go,

see?

And that is the most powerful campaigning

argument: that there really are such

people. So we just need to start doing

this work. Every week, persuade

one person, tell several of your friends

about what we are doing,

give them a link, and it will turn into

an avalanche. Just tell me yourselves, here

the Communist Party of the Russian Federation is carrying out some kind of active

activity,

and not Yavlinsky is taking part in the election

campaign. Zhirinovsky is doing something.

They came by train.

Who came by train

by train?

And at the station he handed out money and

moved on.

And he was handing out air fresheners.

She was handing out air fresheners. Great. But

real political work in Russia

is something no one ever does. We are the first.

The main misconception, or one of the main

misconceptions, is that this government is some kind of

monolith. As if, my God, well,

look at us, there are few of us, we are on the outskirts of the

city, and they are so powerful. As if behind

them stands everything: the army, the police, and it is simply impossible to

break this machine. But that is not true. There is no

machine at all. There is just emptiness.

There are just people who happened to end up in

power by accident. I mean, how did Putin become president?

Well, Yeltsin was simply brought a few people there, while he was hungover,

to choose from. He

picked this one. He became president,

he usurped power rather cleverly,

showing himself to be a resourceful sort of person.

But in essence, it is no longer held up by

anything at all. There are no large-scale repressions. Here

your region here is considered one where

everyone has been crushed. There was a rally, and it was

unauthorized on the twenty-sixth,

right?

At first it was authorized.

First authorized, then

unauthorized.

So you came out. As I understand it, there were around

150 to 200 people there. Correct? Yes. Yes.

How many people were detained?

10.

Eight. I read that. Eight. Well, eight.

Nine.

Nine. Okay. Let’s say 10.

So what? So these are the repressions:

they detained people, fined them, or locked them up for

a few days?

They fined them.

They fined them. That is all this super-repressive machine,

all it can do is

fine 10 people. In fact,

they cannot do anything more than that. They

lie on TV, sit there, and are terribly afraid

that we will finally wake up and realize that

none of this is built on anything at all.

It is held together simply by inertia, by the fact that

people have just gotten used to it. I mean, well,

we have never lived well, so no need to

start now. All of this rests on the fact that

there are no volunteers, no campaigners,

no one is doing systematic work. Right now we have

107,000 volunteers in the country.

We can basically deal with any television channel,

just like that, with a snap of the fingers. 107,000

people, if each of them presses one button a day,

will reach 15 million

people. And Solovyov will simply fall

to his knees and weep, because he has never even dreamed of

that kind of reach. And these are real

people, not bots. These are people who have

relatives and acquaintances who

look to them. Understand this,

as I conclude my speech. All your

friends, relatives, acquaintances, whoever

they may be, they look at you, and you will persuade them all.

We conducted surveys and

asked people, how do you

decide whom to vote for?

Who influences people the most? What do

you think yourselves?

Exactly. Everyone says: "I have a

friend who explains everything to me."

The power of personal persuasion should not be

underestimated. That is the most important thing. They will

argue with you. You will post something

on VKontakte. I was at a meeting with

Navalny, I liked it there. Then some people will come

into your comments and say:

"Boo, like, he is an American agent,

but all of that will stick in their minds." They will still

vote for us in the election, because

they will have seen that all of this

is real. They are impressionable, they are

good, wonderful people, but all change is always made by

1% of the active population.

And right now I see that 1% in front of me. So,

my friends, realize it—let us realize together

our strength, and then we will defeat them all and

defeat corruption, and achieve

a normal, wonderful life. Thank you

very much. I am ready to answer questions.

Alexei, I would like to make a statement for two minutes,

and then you can respond to it.

Only two minutes. All right, come up

so everyone can hear you.

A minu,

that our president is not a fully formed

organ of state

power; that is, under the Constitution he is not

assigned to any branch of government and

therefore acts in violation of Article 10

of the Constitution. That is, state

power is exercised on the basis

of separation into judicial, legislative,

and executive branches. If he is not a fully formed

organ of power, then he

has no right to sign decrees,

make decisions, and so on. This

needs to receive a judicial assessment either in

Russian or international insti-

in Russian courts

or, or in international ones. Well, a preced-

a precedent, so to speak, in this

sense. I'd like to cooperate on this

issue further going forward.

Here's my question.

Would you support such a proposal?

Ah, well, look, absolutely, even from a

formal point of view, from a legal

point of view, well, of course, you're right. And,

of course, he has no right to run for another

presidential term. Yes, they violate the

constitution every day. Every day. Well, under

this constitution, governors weren't allowed

to be re-elected for several terms

in a row. And yet they are. There's some kind of

constant monkey business going on. Under this

constitution, well, I have every right

to take part in the election, right?

Yes. Yes,

well, you have— all right, fine, forget about

me. You have the right to nominate

a person,

right?

Well, you're basically real grassroots

people. Everyone has passports, I assume.

You have the right to nominate. But I came here

and I'm asking: "Guys, will you support me,

please, are you ready to nominate me

as a presidential candidate?" Raise

your hands if you're nominating me. Thank you

very much. That's it. In essence, that's all

we need. They come at us with

their legalistic nitpicking, some kind of

petty lies about how it's not allowed, convicted, not

convicted. Alisher Usmanov was convicted, and he

can do whatever he wants, damn it. He sits there recording

a video address dressed up like Jabba from

Star Wars, while we're not allowed

to do anything here at all, you understand? So we need to, we need to,

of course, we will work both

legally, and we're ready

to cooperate with you, but more importantly, in substance

we need to understand this, because tomorrow they could,

like in the film Kin-dza-dza! (a Soviet sci-fi satire), come and tell us:

"Hey, patsaks (a caste term from the film), why are you without

your muzzles?" Yes, put them on quickly. But

all their legal tricks that they

come up with are aimed at preserving

power and enriching themselves. But at the same time,

of course, both in substance and in law

we, we are right,

And you'll be elected, and then they'll issue this

judicial ruling saying that you, so to

speak,

Well, listen, what judicial ruling? They don't care

about judicial rulings. They don't care

about anything at all. When depending on how you're

elected, you'll be a powerless president.

A powerless president. Under the current constitution

as it stands. So you

So, when I'm elected, I will be

a president who obeys the law. But

I assure you that even under the current

laws, without any term extensions,

without rigging, with independent judges, with

independent prosecutors, I will break up this whole

gang. Everyone who belongs

in the dock, I will send there.

I will make sure that oligarchs

pay taxes, that oil revenues

are distributed fairly. So,

I assure you, I will not be a powerless

president. Let's just elect me

— that's the issue.

And how will you break them up if the FSB (Federal Security Service) and all

the security agencies aren't on your side?

What will you use to break them up? What kind of force?

You think they're not on my side?

You think they're not on my side? Seriously? But

on the 26th, you saw them

carrying me by my arms and legs into that police van.

Well

there

they carried me in there, right? And then, when

when that van—did you see their faces

when the crowd started rocking it? Honestly,

my face too, yes. I was surprised and

I was trying to tell everyone there that they shouldn't

rock that bus at all, they should

keep the rally going. But I assure you that

every time I'm detained,

they bring me to the police station,

everyone gathers there, I'm sitting in a cage,

and they line up along the cage

like, "So, tell us."

It's always the same. All right then. And how much

does a police officer make here?

Theirs is decent enough.

All right. It's higher than the average, than the aver—

It's not about salaries. It's higher than

average. Well then the question is: can

a police officer—say, I don't know,

a guy who's 22, 23, 25 years old—can he

get an apartment here?

No.

And can he buy an apartment with a mortgage?

Well, if he arrests you, he will.

That's exactly the point: no, he can't. That's exactly

the point: no. They're the same people, I already know

all of them. In Moscow, I'm detained by the same

people every time. I'm already like, "Hi,

Kolya, hi, Pasha, how are you?"

That second operational regiment—I know them all."

It's always the same. It's just that their

level of disbelief in change is even higher. That's

the only distinctive feature of the lower and

middle ranks of the security services. They simply

believe even more strongly that nothing can be changed.

They know even more than we do about

corruption. They've all watched my film.

They all say: "You really nailed it there,

good job." Like, "Can I maybe

take a photo with you?" And all of that

definitely happens. But they just think:

"Well, sure, you're great, but this is, you know,

like,

this is Russia, right, people will always

steal here." And I say: "Why would they

always steal?" Well, like, they just always will

to steal. And why? Well, well, there always will be.

to steal. And that's the kind of dialogue it is.

So to say that they are on

Putin's side is not true. Of course,

the generals who, excuse me, have become

multimillionaires,

they are on his side, but they are a tiny minority. They are

a tiny minority, you understand? We don't even have

that classic kind of confrontation

between large groups, where, say, 15%

are rich and everyone else is poor. In

our country, 84% of the national wealth

belongs to 0.1% of the population. That is

literally thousands of families.

So everyone is on our side. It's just disbelief. That

disbelief is what we need to overcome. Question.

Go ahead. Yes.

Going back to Usmanov, a review

of privatization will happen.

Going back to Usmanov, regarding a review

of privatization and his first million.

Look at my response to Usmanov. There I

go into detail about the first million, with

documents; everything will be there. But tell me this:

do you support the loans-for-shares auctions

that took place, do you in any way support or

approve of them?

No.

Do you think property is now

distributed fairly? No.

No. And I don't think so either. But we simply should not

frighten anyone with statements like

reviewing the results of privatization, because

people immediately start thinking that their

privatized apartments will be

taken away. And there's no need to say that.

That is why in our program we

formulated it in such a way that

first, those who took part in

the loans-for-shares auctions—and that means

they got the largest

giant Soviet factories for next to nothing,

like Norilsk Nickel or those same

mining and processing

plants—they must pay

a compensatory tax.

That is absolutely possible. People often

say to me: "United Russia (Putin's ruling party) — that's populism."

No way, excuse my language, it is not

populism. In the United Kingdom they introduced

a compensatory tax on the results of

privatization, and it worked perfectly well

there, and everyone paid the tax. And that

tax went toward solving social

problems. And overall, I believe that we

need a tax on resource windfalls, on

the raw-materials oligarchs. There are billionaires

in Russia, great guys. Yandex

was created by people, after all. I mean, well, it

didn't exist before, and then it appeared.

Take someone like Durov, yes—though of course

VK was taken away from him, so he

didn't become a billionaire, but he did

create it. There was nothing, there was emptiness, and they

built it. So there are people in Russia

who are rich, very rich,

billionaires, and they are rich entirely

by right. Those people should be embraced and

kissed. But the resource oligarchs,

of course, should be taxed. They should not

be thrown in jail simply for being an oligarch,

meaning, if you didn't pay any

bribes. But of course they

must pay taxes, because—well, how much

do you pay in income tax?

13%. And Usmanov pays 13%. But is that

normal? Is it right when

people simply pull something out of the ground,

sell this ore, and also pay 13%, just like

you do? No, that's not normal. So, unquestionably,

tax measures must be used to

correct these defects

of privatization. Yes. And will it be a one-time

tax or spread out over time?

Ah, look, the tax on

the results of the loans-for-shares auctions should

of course be one-time. That is, we

should say: guys, one time you

pay a lot, and after that we leave you all

alone. As for the broader question of

fair taxation, that

must be permanent.

Hold on, please,

because, well, hold on,

progressive... people don't necessarily need

a progressive income tax; rather,

first of all, we must ban

transfer pricing, when

profits are simply shifted to offshore jurisdictions and so

on and so forth. Someone like Usmanov,

or, I don't know, anyone at all, any

oligarch, would pay 52% tax somewhere like Norway,

whereas in Russia he paid,

and pays, 13%, and until recently paid

9% tax on dividends. Well, of course, that is

completely absurd. Therefore, overall,

we must make it so that the tax

system does what it is meant to do:

redistribute wealth fairly.

And when it comes to natural-resource

wealth, then absolutely, it

must be distributed fairly. Whose

oil is it, anyway?

Ours.

Well, do you

believe that by right a share of that wealth

belongs to you?

Well, yes. And do you receive it? No. That's why I

want to become president: so that

you actually feel it, as people do in some

rich oil-producing countries of the Middle

East, where money is deposited directly,

for example, into people's accounts. Well then, what about gasoline prices

after your election? As for gasoline prices,

what will happen to them?

Aha. The country is not...

Gasoline prices will

uh...

be set, well, I don't know, they will be

be determined based on real

market costs, because only in

Russia—and this really happens only in

Russia—does this absurd situation occur.

Oil was $120 a barrel, and

the price of gasoline was X. Oil fell

to $50 a barrel, but the price of

gasoline went up. That's not a joke. It

really happened only in Russia.

What's more, Putin, back then,

answering this question, said outright:

"But motorists, they kind of have to

pay their share." And basically, motorists,

we're taking an additional tax from them, and

that is a redistribution of

wealth in the country. Well, there you have it. So

they don't want to take money from the oligarchs and

redistribute it that way,

but to them, apparently, rich people are

motorists. So: no

monopolies, no cartels, transparent

gasoline pricing, and then prices

will fall along with the price of oil.

Yes.

When the film comes out, will you—

can we ask about the film?

Yes, absolutely. All our plans

regarding investigations are completely

secret. But you understand yourselves, I mean

if I go around now and

say, "Oh, we're planning this or that

investigation," people will run off, I don't know,

to delete social media, look for some

documents. But you've seen it yourselves—even the same

Medvedev case, all the information came from

open sources. If they weren't

so brazen, just outrageously

brazen, thinking that, well, basically

they've got God by the beard,

of course they'd behave more carefully, but he

wouldn't be posting little photos on Instagram right

from his yacht, and it wouldn't be so easy to

photograph it so easily there in Plyos (a town on the Volga)

and so on and so forth. So, well,

we don't want to announce anything, uh, because

we don't want to interfere with our own

investigation; we'll have many different

investigations. But at the same time, as for

Vovan, guys, you need to understand that

almost all the investigations that have already

been done are investigations about

Vovan, not just ours. An investigation

into the Rotenbergs. About whom? Well, about him.

And why? How did a judo trainer become

a billionaire? How did a judo trainer

become the king of state contracts? He is

the main supplier of services for

government procurement in every area. From roads

and corpses to, I don't know, school breakfasts.

He handles all of that too. The same goes for

Timchenko, and that same wonderful

cellist Roldugin. Well, every

investigation into how a cellist got

$2 billion—that is

an investigation about Vovan. It's just that he, unlike

Medvedev,

is also obsessed with luxury, but it hasn't

reached such a pathological stage with him

as it did with Medvedev, who built, what, six

palaces. With him it's more like,

he's like a miser brooding over his gold,

stuffing chests with treasure; that is, he has

offshore accounts. That is much

harder, first, to find, and second,

much harder to visualize, because

well, a palace is right there—you

fly over it, photograph it, show it to people,

and there's nothing to say in response. But offshore

schemes are harder to track. Question. Ah, Vladimir

Vernu, Open Russia. I have

several questions for you.

Let's do one, because there are a lot of people here.

If there's time, then the rest

but pick the main one. I want

to hear about lustration from President

Navalny. Will there be lustration?

Still, a second question. Still, in

the 2018 presidential election,

if Putin were to win rather than

Navalny, what would Navalny's subsequent

actions be after election day?

Yes. And, and, and the request I mentioned,

the 60-day deadline is approaching. I was simply

an organizer of the March 26 rally. The guys

are asking if you could just draw

attention to it.

What 60 days are approaching?

The days

after the court ruling to pay the fine.

Ah, yes, yes, yes. Right then, uh, lustration.

Well, okay. And let me, let me ask you this.

Suppose there's your governor, whom

we know falsifies

elections. Should he remain in power?

No,

he should be punished. Somehow

he should, but it has to be properly examined.

So yes, absolutely. I believe that

the people involved in all of this,

don't even need to be lustrated; they need to be

held criminally liable

under current law. People often

say, "We'll lustrate these crooks."

But crooks don't need to be lustrated.

They need no such thing. I don't need to lustrate

Usmanov. He'll be going to prison under me, because

he gave a bribe. There's

a criminal statute for that: bribery. And both Medvedev and

Usmanov do not need lustration; they

need a proper criminal

process and a fair trial. And the same

goes for most officials who are

involved in corruption. As for those who are

involved in corruption but where we haven't managed

to find direct evidence—note this.

Oh, that's some kind of thank-you note. And there are

excellent laws on combating illegal

on illicit enrichment, which we have drafted and

which I will implement as soon as I

become president. If an official

has expenses that do not match their income,

they earned 10 million rubles over recent years,

but their house is worth 50 million rubles and they cannot

explain where it came from, then against them

a criminal case is automatically opened.

And there is no need for any

lustration either. As for lustration itself,

lustration is punishment without guilt, you

know that, right? That is when we

simply say that the entire leadership of

United Russia is guilty, guilty or not, we

punish you, ban you, for example,

without sorting it out. This is a matter of broader

consensus. The newly elected Duma must

vote for it. My vote would be,

of course, in favor of lustration. I believe that

a great deal failed for us back then

after the collapse of the Soviet Union because

there was no lustration. The same crooks,

liars, hypocrites. Well, you see these

people who used to be there, who

supported blowing up churches and fought

for so-called scientific atheism, and now

they stand there and, supposedly, bow low to the ground.

These hypocrites who

are ready to run from one party to another,

have seized power. Therefore

lustration is, of course, necessary. And the second

question was: would President Navalny do

what

if you are not elected,

If I am not—damn, that is extremely unlikely.

So, we are absolutely running a serious campaign.

I say that without any irony. I

believe that we must work for

victory. Over this weekend, by

Monday, I will hold eight

such meetings like this. Then I will hold even more

meetings. So our headquarters and I,

we are working well and working hard. I

ask you to work properly and work

for victory. So without any irony, I

believe that we can win. But,

of course,

defeat is possible in any campaign,

right? It seemed obvious to everyone that

Hillary Clinton would become

president, and then bang—she did not become

president. Roughly the same thing happened in France.

But listen, if I do not

become president, let us think about it:

will corruption remain in Russia or not?

Of course.

So I think I will not be left without work.

If I lose in a fair

election, then, well, I will continue, uh,

together with you, to do what

we do: fight corruption, uncover corruption,

and spread information about corruption.

As for the payments, well, we have raised the money,

and we are sitting here not understanding

why people are not coming to us for their

money. Everyone who has two

instances. So, the first and the second,

send in the paperwork and we will pay out the

money. That is, it has already been collected, so

whether it is 10 people or however many you have,

please get in touch. Question.

Here is a question. Let us say, in Euro-

Norway, there it does not belong to the state

and the entrepreneurs who are billionaires

there—they created all of that themselves.

But here, they just sat down on ready-made resources.

They created nothing—neither oil nor anything else.

Why not, especially since they have already

stolen so much that it would

compensate for it. Why not simply

remove them, lock them up, and

distribute the property to other decent people?

It is like what Usmanov said, that I

want to take away and divide up his balls. Well,

listen. Even though you expressed all this

in such a radical

One last quick question. As for

Ukraine—what about it, because it is clear that there

Ukrainians are being killed there.

So, as for that, let us start with

the oligarchs. You voiced this sort of

idea in a rather radical way.

Why not jail them all and then

take everything and redistribute it? Well, we cannot

put people in prison without a fair

trial. President Navalny

would not be able to throw anyone directly into prison,

because President Navalny

would only be able to send someone to the

defendant's bench, and it would be the court that sends them to prison.

It is far more effective

simply to introduce tax mechanisms under

which this money would be properly

distributed. There are many different

options. For example, in some countries

all oil is controlled by state-owned companies,

in some countries there is a state monopoly on

oil exports. There are many different

mechanisms. And we will apply fair ones

that will allow us to ensure that

this oil money goes to everyone, more or less.

Well, there will be no need to

drag anyone out of an office

and haul them off to the basements of the Lubyanka (the former KGB headquarters). Well,

there is no need for that. Because if we

allow any president—even me—to

start throwing people in prison left and right,

well, it is not impossible that in 10 years I myself

will go crazy too and say, "Who was there

with me at that meeting in Tambov?

They know something bad about me." Well,

that is it—everyone recorded compromising

video, lock them all up. Yes, but we must not

grant such excessive powers. As for

Ukraine,

the war with Ukraine—this whole

mess that Putin started—is,

of course, criminal. It is in the gravest

hurts the interests of all citizens

of Russia. Because of this, we simply become

poorer. Because of these idiotic countersanctions,

we pay more for food. This is

absolutely harmful. And here we need to

do what Putin has already signed on

paper. We need to start, at the very least, by

implementing the Minsk agreements

our own grandmothers just like them.

Well, of course—listen, war in

Europe, war. And this is some kind of hellish

thing. If someone had told us back in

2012 that Russia would

go to war with Ukraine, we would have said: "What,

are you crazy? That's impossible to imagine."

Right? But now it's happening. And of course,

it needs to be stopped as soon as possible,

because it makes us poorer, among

other things. Let's look at the issue from that angle.

So,

I had a question—more of a request, really.

I often talk with friends, and many of them are

very much TV people, they watch television and

are fans of it. They keep telling me all sorts of things. And

what if he comes in and, like in a computer

game, there's a villain and there's a hero. The hero

keeps moving toward the goal, and then

sits down in the villain's chair and becomes

a villain himself. Could that happen?

Well, as I was saying, that I would jail

everyone who was at that meeting. Look,

that was just a joke.

That's an important question. It really is. And

it is, in a way, possible.

The most important task of any normal person

who becomes president

is to create a system in which, if you

do become a villain, you are quickly

called out, impeached, and thrown out. But right now,

I happen to think that I'm actually

a great guy and could be president for 100 years

and wouldn't be even a tiny bit

corrupt. I believe in myself. I don't

know whether any of you believe in me that I

could do that,

But does that need to be written directly into law?

Navalny is a great guy, we trust him,

so let him do whatever he wants. But no,

because we have the same thing with Putin.

People run around telling us: "Let him

be tsar, let him be everything." Your

former mayor of the city,

he was also the

head, head, head of the administration,

if I remember correctly, went to a rally with a portrait of

Putin and declared that he was ready to

die for him,

and then he was caught having stolen

100 million rubles

from the city

Exactly. That's how it works,

you see? Once you become president, everyone walks around with

portraits of Navalny. That means

they all want to steal 100 million rubles if

you've already become president. So of course,

we need to build a system in which

I may be president, but I do not control the courts.

If I want to ban your rally here

in Tambov, the Tambov court will tell me:

"Get lost—you have no authority over things like

that." I won't be able to shut down newspapers. And if

I become corrupt and turn bad, the

mass media will tear me apart

and shred me, and my approval rating will drop

through the floor." An independent prosecutor

will bring charges against me, just like is happening now

in the United States. I mean, come on.

A man who is the head of the most powerful

country in the world. GDP, a huge army, and yet

he's constantly running around there while someone

keeps bringing charges against him. His

relatives are under investigation. Go ahead,

try launching an investigation now into

Putin taking bribes, for example.

You laugh? Because it's impossible. I

have to create a system in which

an investigation into Navalny taking bribes

is possible. Dasha is probably tensing up somewhere

right now hearing me say that.

And where are you going to find so many new

people? I mean, that's a whole army

of entirely new people, isn't it?

No, actually, it isn't. Not an army

of new people at all. There are 144 million people in Russia

Either we believe that all of them

are pathologically dishonest and corrupt

and that's it.

There are more than a million officials. Where

More than a million officials? Well then,

officials directly involved in

corruption will be jailed. Officials

who cannot explain their

wealth will be sent to the defendants' bench

and jailed as well.

We will replace the top layer, and there are

enough people. As for the lower levels, they

will simply live in a new way. People

get used to anything. If they are forced into

this degenerate style, if

we currently have negative selection,

if an official rises through the ranks only if

he is the most deceitful, the most hypocritical, the most

crooked. If they see that

the authorities are normal, then they too will work

normally, the way they do in

many countries where corruption has been successfully

eradicated. Corruption was eradicated,

for example, in Singapore. No one there

carried out mass executions. There

were mass imprisonments, there were arrests

of top officials. Corruption was eradicated

in Hong Kong. Corruption was eradicated even in

Georgia, where petty corruption was stamped out.

So we will stamp it out here too. No

armies are needed. What is needed is, well,

for the president to be normal, for the government

to be normal. But right now, well, your

governor, deputy governor, department head

some department or other—can you really

convince him not to be corrupt if he

sees Medvedev’s palaces? Well, of course,

it’s impossible. He sees that this is how

an official is supposed to live. That’s why they’re all, after all,

absolute crooks. If they see that the

president is a normal person, that the president’s income is clear,

that it’s clear what his family does,

where they live, what they

live on, and all of that is more or less transparent,

they’re visible, they’re photographed—then

officials will live normally too. Question.

Alexei, what’s the situation? If you take

office—will this just be a simple idea

or expert advice explaining: here,

this or that point in the program needs

to be changed. Will you be flexible? Will you

listen to other opinions, or will it be like

the communists: we’ll build communism and that’s that?

No, look, there’s a limit to any flexibility.

I’m a reasonable person, I understand

that any program is a compromise, but

some people think oligarchs should be

jailed, while others think they shouldn’t be

jailed and that, on the contrary,

oligarchs are useful. Some are more right-wing,

some more left-wing. And this is always—I

gave an example on air yesterday, about

feminists. I’ve got

both feminists and people who

hate feminists chasing after me at the same time. And they all say: "Come on,

we’ll support you only if you

adopt our program." But that’s always

a compromise. And of course, right now we’re mainly

focusing on those parts of the program

that apply to everyone. But

even under pressure from certain

groups, I’m not prepared to abandon the basic points of my program.

Many people, for example, criticize

my law on combating illicit

enrichment. I won’t give it up. There are

decent people who think this is

a return to the Stalinist regime. I

don’t think so. I won’t back down on that.

The point about introducing a visa regime with

the countries of Central Asia. A lot of

liberals, yes, from the left, criticize me for that.

I won’t give it up. I genuinely believe that

Russia needs a visa regime with the countries of

Central Asia, because hundreds of thousands of

unskilled workers come here

as labor. They don’t pay taxes here, and they also

suffer because of this state. And there’s

nothing good about that. I think there

should at least be a visa regime. And, yes,

I’ll be criticized for it. And closer

to the election, all those people will crawl out again and

start shouting: "Navalny is a fascist," and all the

rest of it. But I won’t back down. I’m

Hitler, remember?

I won’t give up these points in the program,

but at the same time I’m ready to engage in dialogue with everyone.

Question:

But does Russia need...

Ah,

...oligarchs.

This is genuinely interesting. For the first time in all

how many campaign offices have we opened now,

Ruslan? The thirty-sixth.

This is the thirty-sixth. First question:

I’m just curious—who is in favor of

the death penalty? Raise your hands.

Thank you. And who is against the death penalty?

That’s unusual. Most people

support the death penalty. Most

people even in developed countries

support the death penalty. The U.S. has

the death penalty, even though, well, you know,

it’s a developed country. I’m firmly opposed to it.

I think the fact that there is currently

a moratorium on the death penalty is

the right thing. And there’s also a philosophical issue here,

yes, concerning whether we have the right to take

a person’s life, even if they have committed

some terrible crimes, but

specifically as applied to Russia—are we

really prepared to give these judges

the right to decide questions of life and death?

Judges in Russia are just a complete

disaster. Sorry, but I know from personal experience.

What kind of trials have I had? I’m

accused of some kind of embezzlement.

A representative of the company I supposedly

stole something from comes in and says: "Navalny

didn’t steal anything from us." He tells the judge,

"He didn’t steal anything. Here’s the document.

Nothing was stolen from us." And the judge

says to him: "Well, the investigator knows better

whether something was stolen or not."

This isn’t a joke. This is an actual case and hearing.

Look at the transcripts, the documents

—it’s all there. So replace the judges

with these judges. Well, I’ll replace the judges. But right now,

to allow the death penalty under the current

judges, who are completely corrupt and dishonest,

is impossible. Even when—even when

there are honest judges, I personally

understand that despite the fact

that this is supported by the population

for the most part, I am against the death penalty. I

believe that life imprisonment

is actually a harsher

punishment than the death penalty. As for

the budget, that’s...

well, just in terms of...

well, as far as budgets go, the death penalty...

One second—the death penalty is very

expensive. Look at the United States. The death

penalty costs an insane amount of money because

it involves a huge process, long

appeals, the person sits for many years before execution,

and then there are also

those injections or whatever else

they use. The death penalty is very

expensive. But really, this isn’t a question

of the budget at all. It’s a question

of our overall attitude, so to speak. More than that, I

believe that more developed legal

systems, for example the European ones, why in

Europe there is a moratorium on the death penalty—they

support a moratorium. I understand that

it is a controversial issue, yes, but I am simply answering

the question about my personal view. I am against

the death penalty. Did you want to add

something?

The right to carry arms. Remind us, your position

used to be completely unequivocal—what about

now?

It is still unequivocal now. There is also a very

mixed attitude toward this. I get criticized

for it. I believe, and I can say this with certainty,

that Russian citizens should

have the right to own handguns

for self-defense. That is, I am against—there is no need

to hand out assault rifles to anyone, right? No

selling assault weapons and all the rest,

or some kind of mortars. But a pistol,

excuse me, that kind of weapon was sold in

the Russian Empire before the Revolution. And in

Moldova, pistols are sold and no one

has gone around killing everyone. The main

argument for why they should not be sold

is: because Russians are supposedly crazy. They

will grab pistols and run out

into the street and start

shooting at passersby with them. That does not happen in

Moldova, right? It does not happen

in the Baltics either. And in fact, the number

of deaths from firearms

is incomparably lower than the number

of deaths in traffic accidents. Therefore, I believe that

civilian

handguns should be legalized.

Yes. And what would you say to those people

who believe that a change of power in

the country would inevitably mean a repeat

of 1917 (the Russian Revolution) with all the accompanying

events?

Okay. Excellent question. What can we

say to those people? Tell me, please,

does a change of power in the country mean that

you, with legalized weapons,

will run out into the streets of Tambov

and rush off somewhere in order to burn

or destroy something?

No, I believe there are not the slightest

preconditions for violence in the event of a change

of power. When people say “revolution” to me, well,

excuse me, but victory over

corruption in Russia is

a revolution—it is revolutionary change

for our country. Normal, fair

elections in Tambov Region—that is

a revolution, but it is a wonderful revolution and

one that does not threaten us with any

upheaval at all. When it happens, we

will live better starting the very next day. We

will be richer starting the following year. I

will become president. I will introduce my measure

regarding the minimum wage:

25,000 rubles. And no matter what anyone tells me,

that

and pensions,

well, pensions must be raised to

the subsistence minimum. And that means to the

real subsistence minimum, not

the 8,000 rubles they are now. And no matter what anyone

tells me, this is beneficial for

the economy, and it will not significantly affect

inflation, because inflation is affected

primarily by natural

monopolies and their tariffs. Therefore, no,

none of the violence of 1917

will happen. We will—we will simply

smile more and more broadly when

these positive changes happen. Yes,

there are many questions here from Finland,

one of them is specific and quite simple.

Alexei Anatolyevich, uh, are you planning

to deliver checkmate to everyone who has been brainwashed

by propaganda,

for example by undergoing a test at some

private firm using a polygraph, well, on the subject

of being a State Department agent and so on? What exactly are you

accused of?

A polygraph.

A polygraph, also known as a lie detector, is not

something that delivers checkmate. Well,

listen, I had a great court case on

the subject of being a State Department agent. Let me

tell you. Did you see Kiselyov’s film,

where I was supposedly an agent of all

intelligence services at once?

Yes,

I filed a lawsuit, and we went to court, but

we understood that even in

a Russian court now, we would, uh, simply

celebrate there and completely tear that Channel Two apart

altogether. And we lost. And

in the ruling we received, it literally said

—literally, I am not exaggerating,

I am not trying to make you laugh, I am not lying, actually

—it said that Navalny

had gone to court because he was unhappy

that Channel Two had said that

he was an American agent, Agent Freedom. But

the court established that in translation, Agent

Freedom means Agent Freedom. And

that is not offensive at all. And Navalny

cannot complain at all. It is the same thing

with a polygraph. A polygraph establishes only one thing:

whether a person is nervous or not.

As for taking a poly—well, fine, let us set one up,

I will drag a polygraph in here right now and take

the test, and then other people will say:

"This is

what they always say about officials then,

that it was rigged, that promises were made." They

95% would not pass.

If officials are going to take polygraph tests,

then, please, I am ready to take one

along with everyone else, but overall,

why is the polygraph not used in

the civil service? It is used only in

the special services, because in fact

it only reveals nervousness. All right,

Take Medvedev, for example—suppose he became super

calm and passed a polygraph test.

Would we say, "Dimon, that's it, we believe you. You

passed the polygraph, so we've forgotten about all

those, uh, palaces of yours because you passed

the polygraph"? It's more of a

PR stunt.

Question.

Alexei, what is your view of Chechnya and

what actions would be taken with regard to

Chechnya when you become president?

I view Chechnya exactly the same way I view

any other federal subject. Chechnya is

part of Russia, with its own problems,

where people are even poorer than here, despite

the fact that colossal amounts of money are allocated

to it. And colossal corruption just as massive

devours all that money. If I were asking here

about salaries, in Chechnya people would name

even lower figures. So I

believe that Chechnya's problem is not

about whether people talk about war or no war there.

Chechnya needs everything that

the rest of Russia needs, only

more urgently, because there is more

corruption there, more injustice,

more problems, and everything else. And

I simply stand for equal rights. I don't

understand—I don't understand, let me answer this—I don't

understand why our state

officially allocates a subsidy there of 80,000

rubles per person. And here the subsidy is, well, I don't

know, maybe 10,000—I’m not ready to give

the exact figure—but several times less.

So what is worse here than there? Sure,

there was a war there, obviously, but the war ended

a long time ago. You look at photos

of Grozny, and I see these palaces and

skyscrapers there. I was just driving through

Tambov, and I didn't see anything even remotely like that

here—because they simply aren't here. That's

unfair. Of course, all

federal subjects are different, but even so

we should strive

to make them equal and allocate

the same amount of money. As for the question about a headquarters

in the Caucasus: there have been a huge number

of requests from the Caucasus, just enormous numbers. And

from Chechnya too. And you know, in Makhachkala

there was a rally on the 2nd, right? Uh, and a great

many requests came from there. For now, the one thing

holding us back is that we're not sure

we can guarantee safety

here. For example, there is also

a problem here too. Just yesterday, uh,

that's why I'm not announcing to you, guys, that starting

Monday, come to such-and-such headquarters,

because we rented a space,

paid three months in advance. Dian,

did we pay three months in advance

F-for two. For two.

Please come up here. Diana,

the coordinator of our headquarters.

Tell us about the headquarters—how they

kicked you out of there.

Well, I'd like to say that we did everything

possible, absolutely everything we could. That is,

uh, we rented a space, we,

as, uh, honest and fair people,

informed the owner about what

the headquarters was being opened for and what would

be located there. The owner thought it over

for several hours, and by evening he gave

his answer: that he wasn't afraid, that he couldn't be

intimidated, and that he was giving us the green light. And

we moved in there and started doing

repairs, uh, bringing in furniture. So then, two

days before the headquarters was due to open—today we

were already supposed to be there in some capacity.

And then the owner tells us that pressure was put on him,

pressure on his business, on his

family, and that we urgently had to move out

within the day. And the next day

the owner was already bringing in other

tenants to look at it. It was a whole

circus. And as for a venue for

the meeting, we had already been talking—more precisely,

we had specifically discussed a venue for the meeting with

seventeen sites, but all of them refused.

With three venues we had a firm

agreement. And for one of them we, well,

we paid in advance. And in the end, at around

7:00 p.m. yesterday, we were told that they

couldn't host us. So we quickly

moved everything here. Uh, and I'm glad that

the meeting took place.

Diana, a question for you. Does all this

stop you?

No, of course not, it only pushes me on. It

makes us angry. But guys, even without

a space, we'll still be able to work just fine. I mean,

what is a space to us? Sure, it would be

easier with one. But even if

all across the country they come in, start

intimidating people, and drive us out from everywhere, we

aren't going anywhere, right? So

all right. You came here, signed up as

volunteers. Now you have the information

that there is no space yet. Are you, are you

crossing yourselves off, dropping out of

the volunteers? I'd like to say that

we will find a space in any case, and as soon as

the headquarters opens—and it definitely will—all

of you will find out where it will be located,

what its hours will be, and so on,

and so forth. In other words, we will definitely

open the headquarters, and it will operate

the same way as in other cities where

headquarters are already operating.

Dian, thank you very much. You've done great.

You're welcome.

Support her—let's work together.

Listen, I forgot to tell you something important,

by the way. Why does this whole

issue with premises make me so

angry? And why do I, uh, why do I

so badly want the campaign in Tambov

Region to really go well for us?

I’m sure of it. After all, I’m practically one of your own

countrymen. My—uh—my grandfather’s family on my

mother’s side, they—uh—I have

a dark family story about how they

were from Tambov Region and fled, and changed

their surname. Well, obviously, in Soviet

times it was, so to speak, a forbidden

family story.

Their surname was Antonov. Uh, well, I

assume that it was connected with

that man, yes, because somehow

it really was forbidden to talk

about it, and they really did change

their surname, so, well, you could say

that I’m descended from some Tambov

bandits, although of course the Antonov

uprising was not about bandits, but

heroic people. And in that sense, I see

Tambov Region as a place

where people are genuinely ready to work.

They showed that in their time they were even

willing to sacrifice their lives, yes; they were only subdued with gas

(a reference to the suppression of the Tambov uprising with chemical weapons). So I’m sure that

we’re going to have a great campaign here, and with

or without a venue, we’ll beat

everyone. We’ll step into this political vacuum

with our own ideas and get our message

across to everyone. It’s simple, guys: every day

you need to do at least one thing. Spend 5

minutes a day on real campaigning. And there are

enough of you here that in 3 months

the whole city of Tambov—I don’t know—would

know who I am, and on every balcony there would be

banners hanging, and everyone would be speaking out for

the fight against corruption. On the twelfth,

we’ll bring more people to the rally than there were

before. We will. You’re doing a great job.

Our team is already giving me alarming looks

because it’s time for us to head to

Ryazan. Thank you so much. It means a lot

to me, and I’m very glad that you came here.

[inaudible]

Thank you so much for making it here. I’ll

definitely come back again. You’re the best.

Well done. Thank you.

Can we take a pho—

We can take photos. Who wants

a picture?

Yes. Everyone.

Let’s do it. Okay, wait, wait. We have

a special system for how to

take photos faster. Ruslan,

Ilya, please help me. So,

I promise that with everyone who wants

a photo—I love taking

pictures. Uh, and two people will

stand here now. Please get

your phone ready, turn it

on, and hand it over. Let’s all take a few

steps back so no one falls off the

stage. I’ll step down from it.

A few more steps, guys.

And post on Facebook here that I’m in a hurry,

but that the police are on their way here. We’re

stalling the police right now. Let them

come.

Let’s do it from this side, friends. This way

we’ll go.

Enter from this side, exit from this

side, hand over your phone ready to go. And

tell me if you want a hug,

or to shake hands. Decide for yourselves, whatever you like. And

Friends, one more step back, please?

Oh, thank you. A corridor.

Let’s take one more step back, just so

there’s more room.

Two at a time.

Alexei, can you take pictures and answer

questions at the same time?

Here, hold this please, I’ll turn around.

Now I need to get in the picture myself.

I also want to mention that over there on the left

there are stickers, badges, and other things.

You can take some from there—just not too

many, but

Thank you.

Dima, I’ll take it myself.

Guys, don’t rush.

Come on,

girls,

I think.

Okay, Alexander, I’m ready to record

a stand-up while people are hanging around here.

Not now, wait, there are more important

things to do here. Maybe we’ll find time

today.

Well

let’s record it. Later, whether it works out or not,

we’ll do the stand-up.

Right now we are

Alexander Smaleev, Sergei Stepanov,

Tambov Blog. Right now we are

at a meeting there with Alexei Navalny,

the opposition politician—they’re distracting me.

Later,

Yes, let’s record that they’re distracting you—tell them not to

distract you.

Yes, they’re distracting me, but

people have met with Alexei Navalny.

We’ll definitely put together a report and show

you the most interesting parts of his

speech—what he talked about.

What people wanted to hear, what questions

were asked today? And this is already the thirty-

sixth, I think, campaign office

to open in our country, in the city of

Tambov a campaign office has opened, though with

some problems. Right now we are

actually in a hangar in the middle of nowhere,

because they banned it, and, as

we were told, a proper office had been rented, a

normal venue had been rented, then

some

people intervened, and the meeting was effectively

under threat, if not for this venue. Well,

Alexei Navalny has already met with

people in other regions out in the open air,

in a field, and

That did not stop the opposition. Right now,

Alexei Navalny is leaving, heading on

to the city of Ryazan. There he has

another meeting scheduled. And as for you,

stay tuned for a short report. Subscribe to

our channel, leave likes, and take care.

Uh-huh. There you go, well done, a real pro.

Photo session.

Guys, for now let's

line up. I'm not

No, not in a line, just all together.

The whole thing is streaming on Facebook right now, and

later we'll make a shorter report.

Nice,

right? How did you like today's

meeting?

It's incredibly inspiring, honestly.

So, not disappointed?

No, quite the opposite.

Did you manage to ask any questions?

Yes, I asked about He Is Not Dimon to You.

Uh-huh.

Yes, I liked everything.

Will you campaign with renewed energy now?

Absolutely.

And do you believe it's really possible

that he could become president?

Really? The only question is in what year?

Of course,

no, in 2018.

All right, thank you.

Yes, thank you.

We'll go on in a moment.

Sergei, your impressions?

Yes, I'm asking people right now about

their impressions.

Vladimir Zhilkin, tell us, please,

aren't you jealous that Alexei

Anatolyevich managed to gather so many people?

Well, first of all, we've gathered no fewer ourselves.

That said, overall it should be noted that

Alexei Anatolyevich did a great job,

he really drew people in, despite the fact

that the authorities once again tried

to break it up and prevent people from

meeting. He came today,

and the meeting happened. Thanks to the entrepreneur

who turned out not to be a coward. And so

I suppose this is a message to all

businesspeople: you are the future of Russia,

the future of Tambov, so please,

do everything you can to make our future

as positive and pleasant as possible.

A lot depends on you.

Thank you.

While the photo session is going on, can I ask a couple of questions?

Yes, of course.

You're a supporter of Alexei Navalny, right?

A like-minded supporter in every possible sense.

Completely like-minded. And is there any

disappointment at all, maybe?

No, none whatsoever.

I've been waiting for this meeting for months.

I was genuinely burning with the desire

to come here and attend this

meeting.

Uh-huh. I wanted to ask him a question about

the minimum percentage after which he,

Alexei Anatolyevich, would no longer

stay in politics. Do you have such a

number in mind? Let's say,

the election takes place in 2018, and

Alexei Navalny is on the ballot and gets

some small percentage. After that,

would you say, "Well, I backed the wrong guy"?

I don't want to consider that scenario. I

believe in the best, and everything should work out.

So you're really sure he'll be elected in

the first round?

You can never guarantee anything 100%, but

you always have to believe in the best. I believe in

the best. That change is still

possible, that there is at least some

chance for it. Yavlinsky, for example, kept

saying over and over that he would definitely be elected,

time after time, and always ended up with

some tiny percentages. He doesn't say things like that,

so he has a much more realistic sense of

his own strength and possibilities.

So you consider him reasonable?

Of course, naturally.

Thank you.

No, not really.

So

while people are lining up here

can I ask a couple of questions?

Yes. Let's ask the young woman. No,

can't we? Better not. All right, let's ask the guy

then. So, is there any

disappointment or delight

after this

He lived up to all expectations.

He lived up to all expectations. And what were you expecting,

exactly? That he'd be this fiery

politician, a fighter?

Well, I looked him in the eyes and believed him.

Which eye?

Both of them.

Both?

Worthy of trust?

Yes, they are.

I see. Thank you.

With the eyes, that's dark humor right there. Yes,

no one asked about that for some reason.

That's a shame. Why avoid it?

Well, he himself treats it with humor,

so

will you say something on camera?

Where can we watch it later?

It'll be on the Tambov vlog. Right now

it's a Facebook livestream, so

you can look up Sergei Stepanov on Facebook

and watch it there.

Are you ready to say more?

Yes, maybe we'll manage now

to ask, but it's far from certain, so

stay with me. I'm not running off, I'm here.

Right, maybe ask a few more people in the background

someone.

Let's ask the patriarch of Tambov

journalism.

Decide, and I'll go. Let's go somewhere so that

outside. Yes.

I think you've seen many politicians and

their speeches before the public, back when

there were still real elections in the 1990s.

What is your view of this kind of

fiery energy — will it burn out?

I don't think so. I think he has a reserve of

staying power. I'm even surprised that

Alexei, uh, for quite a long time

kept up the pace and didn't

slip into overstrain. During that time he

structured his speech very skillfully.

And I don't know how others see it, but in my

view it was very, very convincing, although

right now it's hard to give a detailed breakdown of his

program, but in my opinion, uh,

he comes out ahead at meetings like these.

Many politicians do poorly when meeting

with

at

the public at open meetings, but here it's a clear

win. There's a political analyst named Leonid

Rodyakovsky. He said that Navalny is

an excellent blogger, journalist, and public

figure, but not a politician, because

politics is done differently. Do you

agree? And I partly agree with that at this

stage,

when this is essentially a period of getting acquainted,

he has very skillfully

drawn the attention of young

people, who mostly follow bloggers. So

I think

since the election is still far off, he will change the format of

his campaigning

work, and he himself understands that. But for now,

in my opinion, he's acting appropriately.

Do you think he is capable of

reaching agreements with officials and other

politicians?

He is. I think he will

negotiate with them from a position of

administrative strength.

That is, before the election he will not

make deals.

I think there will be some

attempts of that kind,

because winning, winning

supporters among officials is very

advantageous for politicians.

Yes, thank you.

Guys, if you didn't take stickers, you can get them

here for now. You see, they

cut power to the entire building, stopped the work of the

business, to stop us from taking photos.

We

managed in time,

and anyway, we're still going to take pictures.

They turned off the lights in the hangar,

but outside the lighting is actually

better.

So, who still hasn't taken a picture?

They cut off the electricity

for the entire facility.

Sure, totally by accident.

Listen, it's in this thing of mine. Hold this.

I did leave a sweater there, though.

Go get it. What are you doing? They'll close everything now.

Go on, run, quickly. There's not much time.

Yes, come on, hurry back. Right now

it's chaos. Yes. They've shut down the wholesale

depot. Someone here has refrigerators, and

their food will spoil. Crooks, that's what they are, so with

them... Please step aside,

Zhenya.

Alexei, are we doing a group photo?

If you want, we can.

Yes, let's do it

then. Don't disperse. We'll finish up

the individual ones

Listen, can you help? My arm is

Look, in this thing. Right here

are the batteries

in the backpack. There's a box with other

batteries in there. Got it.

Right. So where should I post it? On Facebook.

Sergei Stepanovich, there's a setup there

people are watching there. No, no, put that

there. Yes, in this one, take out that box

from here.

Can I help with something

right now? Maybe— no, no, this one here,

yes. Take it out,

put it on the floor. Open it.

Here, take those batteries,

look, the nicer-looking ones, not these,

but those rechargeable batteries, yes. And please,

put them in. Replace them. No, no, those

don't go here

battery,

please.

No, no, you've put the other one in wrong.

Okay,

you put one in

I won't look very good. I mean,

I could, but I won't. Let's

keep an eye on the luminaries here.

Okay, now these

there, all of it there

apparently, carefully. You need to train your arm

to use the right one,

so it can stay raised for a whole hour.

I'd make a joke.

I know. Yes, but not in that sense, of course.

Listen, can you hold this for a moment?

Just hold it.

They don't want this.

And they also wanted to say that

Igor, come here please. We need to

move it.

They're writing that St. Petersburg is with you.

Invite him on the radio. Some people here

are saying, well, not on the radio, because they

are flying off, leaving for Ryazan now. Maybe

maybe we'll manage to do a little interview now

record a short one,

but it's uncertain.

Let's do it. Great.

Talk to Sira.

Who's already taken a photo?

I want to ask a question. Who took a photo? No,

took a photo. Tell me, please, aren't you

afraid that this photo will be

added to a case against you, for example?

No. No. Participation in an illegal

photo session.

Well, I think if they do come after me, then in the end

when they pile it on the president, I'll

get a pretty decent compensation payout.

So that's the business plan,

you could say that.

I see. Thank you.

A career through a photo,

right? Then later you can show everyone: look,

I was photographed with Navalny back in 2017

when he was still nobody

and that's it. Every door is open. Yeah, is that what you

think?

really

it worked out, started

Volunteers are carrying chairs

and tables. Now that's the right way to lift.

And that's the wrong way. Your back will

hurt.

Here again

it should still be

bright acid-colored. Right, I've come over to the livestream.

You can share your impressions.

Go

the livestream is on now

of course we will.

Some people have already run off, though,

so this isn't everyone.

So, who has a camera that can

take a shot?

A camera.

Photojournalists, this is your chance, really.

Photo of the Year in Tambov journalism.

Why does everyone look so gloomy? Come on,

cheer up a little.

By the way, did you know that journalists

from Tambov were banned from coming here?

Officially

the police vans are already waiting for you.

Thank you very much.

Are there really some Cossacks here or what?

There are Cossacks here? No.

Police vans and Cossacks. Well,

listen, maybe,

maybe, what do you think, maybe

it's even for the best that they postponed

the meeting several times — the Cossacks didn't have time

to find the bandits? No, I think the very

fact that the meeting was moved, it, uh, works

in Navalny's favor afterward. It's very

cool that the meeting is taking place at a wholesale depot

by the way. Incidentally, the most influential, uh,

parliamentary party in Germany held its

first meetings on lawns, and

then a year or two later it became one of

the strongest parties in parliament, in the

Bundestag.

It turned out authentic. Yes.

We're watching.

Alexei,

do the numbers still work?

And this is the local taxi.

Three fives. I just

you'll wear yourself out.

Go ahead.

Thanks a lot, guys. Excellent.

Tututu.

So here we have our heroine, who

suffered here,

you could say. Have they sent the compensation yet?

No,

no, they still haven't sent me

the ruling yet. They promised it in three,

but it's already been a week, more than a week.

So what do you think, were these

sufferings worth it? Even during it,

basically, yes. Well, calling it suffering,

is hard, of course, to be honest.

Well, I sat there for 8 hours, that's fine. But at least

it was an experience.

But what a biography. You know,

you'll have something to tell your grandchildren. Yes

I need to

say this more clearly

about the case.

I heard everything.

Right, they're leaving.

No, not here. I asked — we'll go now.

We won't be able to ask anything now,

because the Q&A session

is over.

Sanya, what are we waiting for here? For now

we're waiting, but I doubt they'll talk to us,

as I understand it.

Well, basically we asked a pretty normal question

like that.

I wanted to ask a few questions. It seemed like

we had an arrangement with the press office, but

apparently it's just a matter of timing here, that

they don't have time.

Oh well, did you manage to ask your question?

I did a little too.

With that, we're probably wrapping up

the Facebook livestream.

Thanks, everyone,

for watching. Today was

a record-breaking livestream. Wow.

There are 65 people in the live broadcast right now. People

I don't know.

Alright, alright, get ready.

Please,

okay, the three of you. All three together.