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

Shine the light over here, on the person. Ah, alright then.

Where?

Mm-hmm. There. Thank you.

It would be best not to drag this out.

In the morning I was going to go out with my dog and

take a walk. But I couldn't open

the door, even though all the locks were unlocked. So

I asked a friend to come over and see

what was wrong. I dropped the keys down to her from the balcony.

She came and said, "Your whole door is

covered in foam." I had actually noticed that

when I looked through the peephole, there was

something there, maybe spit or something,

something yellow. That was it. She said everything here

was covered in foam. She picked at the door with the keys and

managed to get me out; there was foam on the doormat. So

the whole door was foamed up, all the cracks. And I

called the campaign office coordinator, Alyona

Khlestunova, and said, "Wake up, you

probably won't be able to get out of your apartment

right now." And she couldn't. It was

the same thing, the same situation. She also

had acquaintances called over. And at that moment my

boyfriend arrived and said that your

car had been vandalized. The windshield was covered in paint,

the tires had been slashed,

the hood was covered in paint, the roof was covered in paint, and the

exhaust pipes had also been filled with construction foam. And the same

thing happened to the campaign office coordinator, and my

boyfriend's car was also

damaged in the same way.

Good... So, what is it for us now,

at the moment? Daytime.

Evening already—this local time is

confusing. Good evening, dear friends.

This is, after all, a capital—one of the capitals

of Russian education, a city

of students. I mean, this is a city

that is not about this at all, not about what

the authorities did today. But on the other

hand, I thought—maybe it's even

good. Forgive me, please,

ladies, of course, because, well,

it showed the maximum

that the authorities can

throw against us. You saw the picket

downstairs, right? And you saw the activists' door

covered in construction foam.

Those are your 84%.

It got on the hairdo.

It got on the hairdo. How awful.

So, are we going in?

And now the line I warned you about.

Let's go in, and let's not crush each

other.

Our interi—

as if I don't know. Are you

flying?

No, I mean

sitting on top of each other. Some kind of chest.

Guys, come in.

Thank you very much. Two more floors

then left, right.

hold—

Well then, pass it along.

Friends, those who are coming up now, what floor were you on

when the fourth

was coming up,

so the second and third are still on their way up the

stairs,

and the second and third are standing there.

Yes, yes, yes. I just went up and there were twice

as many people there, and there was

plenty of space. There's lots of room, and we have

a magical arrangement, so everyone will be able to

see.

No, I mean

sitting on top of each other. About the

pirate chest.

Is there anyone who will need a chair?

Given that it's stuffy and

we'll be standing for an hour to an hour and a half,

it's better to say so right away. We have them if

it's not very easy for someone to stand.

Well, put it right here.

If anyone needs a table, we have one here

by the railing.

No, here—come over here and sit down

yes, right here.

Can you hear?

Yes.

Can those in the back hear?

Yes,

we can hear here.

Okay. Well, in general,

yes,

it doesn't really matter.

Alright, hello everyone. We are opening the Tomsk

campaign office.

Once again, nobody came. Do you see even one

person?

Listen, this is exactly what I said today at the

press conference at the beginning.

We went to St. Petersburg, and everyone

was saying, "Well, obviously, you only have

supporters in Moscow. In St. Petersburg

there's a huge line for the opening."

Then they say, "Well, sure, Moscow, St. Petersburg,

the two capitals, that's understandable." Then we went to

Yekaterinburg and Novosibirsk, and there was

a gigantic line. They say, "Well,

it's Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk, uh,

big liberal cities." Then we went to

Ufa and Kazan, and there was a gigantic line. In

Kazan not everyone could fit in, so we held it in two shifts.

They say, "Well, like, those are

cities with over a million people." Well, now we've come to

Tomsk, and it's a good thing we rented this space.

Even so, as I understand it,

it's a bit cramped. And soon it's going to get very hot. And

if you have a chance to take off your jacket

and put it somewhere, that would be a very

wise decision.

And

everyone started taking them off,

all students—just say "wise decision"

and that's it. Very good. That's

the right thing to do.

Friends, I’ll just very briefly go over

a few organizational matters, and I’m not planning

to take up much of Alexei’s time, but

there are a few organizational points we need

to cover.

The campaign office

will start operating on Monday. It will be open

from Monday through Saturday, from

11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., at 117a Frunze

Street, fifth floor. So, just so you know, not here.

We have a very modest space there.

If we wanted to hold the opening there, we’d probably have had to do it in

about six shifts

because it’s a small

room—exactly the kind of space you need for

work.

And, basically,

first and foremost, we’re focused on

work. And the Tomsk office

has a serious task ahead of it.

This is the first office—the eighth in our

campaign—but the first one we’re

opening in a city with fewer than one million people. You

know the legal restrictions. We

have to collect 300,000 signatures in total, but

no more than 7,500 from any one region. So

in all the million-plus cities, as we’ve

said, guys, your task is simple:

7,500. Those are big cities, and anything more

isn’t allowed anyway. That’s easy.

For Tomsk, this is,

I’m sure, also manageable, but it

will be a little harder, and the office will be focused

primarily on accomplishing it.

Right now we have 1,000 people registered

from Tomsk and Seversk

who have promised to give their signature.

And, essentially, in the near future—

I don’t know, in a couple of weeks after

the initial

organizational period is over—the office will deal

specifically with that. In other words, the office, represented by

Alyona and Kseniya. Hi, Alyona and Kseniya.

The office will be working on inviting those

1,500 people and checking

their information, entering it into various

special spreadsheets, checking passports

against various special databases. Basically,

doing everything necessary to make sure these are

perfect signatures, fully

ready for formal submission. When will that submission period begin?

I think you know as well: under

the law, the period for formally processing

the signatures is set

from December 25 to January 15. And if we don’t prepare very well

for that in advance,

then naturally, nothing will work out.

So literally in 3–4

weeks, the staff will be working on this from morning till night—

that is, processing those 1,500

people one by one and working

with them, checking their data,

verifying everything, and so on. And your

task will be to bring in more and more

new people, so that during the time

the office is working with the first

1,500, you find and

register and bring in another 1,000, and

then another 1,500. And that’s how we’ll

get to those 7,500 or so.

So that’s really

the whole organizational side of it—it’s fairly simple.

So you’re not really counting on them that much.

I mean, they’re great and they’ll be doing

very important work, but they’ll be

completely swamped. And

the key task for volunteers is

self-organization. I’m sure you already have

some kind of Telegram chat

or a VKontakte group, and so on. Self-

organization. You need to organize yourselves here on the ground

and figure out how

to get us 7,500 signatures. Well, okay,

another 6,000—there are already 1,500. Though actually

it’s really more like 4,200, because, to be honest,

for cities of around half a million, our target is

6,000, not 7,500—the country is big,

so we can afford that. But if we manage

7,500, that’s great. Right. And

the women there will be sitting and checking signatures

together with a lawyer, coordinating you, but

look how many of you there are—200, 250—and there are only

two of them. Maybe three. So anyway,

the main thing we’re counting on is your

campaigning and your self-organization and, so to

speak, your work. Plus, at the

office there will be training for election observers. Soon

we’ll put out the call and start signing everyone up as

observers and preparing them. And also at the office,

when

the snowy

snowdrifts ease up a little

—does that ever happen?

Well, okay,

sometime around June, the office will probably be

ready to organize street

campaigning. And that too will be a kind of street

campaigning based on the principle of

self-organization. I mean, the Kremlin has

a propaganda machine in the form of

television and newspapers, while we have

a campaigning machine in the form of you. And it’s

a very, uh, how should I put it,

steampunk machine. There’s

a little wheel here, some doodads there, and

a little pipe here, and a little gear there. It’s all

kind of ramshackle. But still, we

have to assemble it, and it still

has to start moving. Am I the only one who doesn’t know

what steampunk is?

Who else doesn’t know, along with me?

Me too. Okay, we’re lost. Okay.

Homework: find out what steampunk is. There.

And that’s how this machine will run. I mean,

how are we going to assemble it? Alyona

and Kseniya, over the next two weeks before

they start working with

voters and signature-givers themselves,

Over the next two weeks, they will

be inviting people to the Vasyk headquarters. Or you can come yourselves

from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Monday through Saturday, and they will talk with each

person individually.

I’m ready to devote 30 minutes to the campaign, but

every day. And I’m not ready to do 30 minutes

every day, but in the summer I’m ready to take

two weeks in a row and campaign. And I’m ready

to work on the street, while I’m shy about going out there, but

I’m ready to, I don’t know, sit in the back office and

do something useful there too. And I’m

ready to put a sticker on my car. And I’m ready

to distribute leaflets in my apartment building. And I’m

the head of the homeowners’ association. There’s a homeowners’ association chair here.

Excellent. And I’m the head of a homeowners’ association. I’ll

hold a meeting there. And I can do this or that. And

I can do this or that. And I don’t know, maybe I’ll go

to my grandmother’s village for the holidays and campaign to everyone there

there. So, that means someone will be

a wheel, someone will be a gear,

someone will be a whistle.

Alyona and Ksenia will be the engine. And this

whole thing we’ll somehow put together. They will

write all of you down in some kind of spreadsheet,

figure out who can do what, how they can do it, what they’re ready

to do, and then all of this should get moving and

defeat television. Well, that probably sounds

a little scary right now, maybe, but

there really is no other option,

so this is exactly what we’re going to do.

So here’s what is going to happen.

Uh, the coordinators will speak with all of you,

understand what each person is ready to do, and assemble

this campaign machine.

Then we’ll launch the campaign machine,

pour fuel into it in the form of

leaflets, stickers, newspapers, campaign cubes (street campaign stands), all the

rest of that stuff. And little by little it will

start moving and kind of nudging

voters along. And the coordinators will

be occupied with working with the voters and

checking the data. And then you

...

Yes, Alexei Navalny, candidate

for president of Russia

.

Thank you very much, friends. Thank you

very much, Leonid. It’s interesting that in every

city, Lyonya jokes about snowdrifts, and everyone

laughs. And after that, every time I

say: "In every city, Lyonya jokes

about snowdrifts. And everyone laughs again.

That perfectly illustrates the overall state of

the Russian economy."

Two things.

One very nice person—I don’t see him

right now—somehow cleverly managed to get in here

before most of the crowd.

He came up to me and said: "We feel awkward

that somehow, this morning in Tomsk,

you weren’t given a very warm welcome. That’s not

our city." Well, this morning I

was scraping foam off my jacket, so, uh,

yes, I noticed the problem, but it was

actually a wonderful reception. It

was a wonderful reception, because

when I arrived here—you told me this yourselves, I

didn’t make this story up. Here’s the person

right here. And it was a wonderful reception because

as soon as I walked out of Tomsk airport,

and then also learned about the wonderful

story with the foam, I understood that they have nothing

to set against us. Everything this government has

after 17 years, billions of dollars,

an extreme concentration of

everything, election fraud, all of it—

all they have is a little

construction foam and two eggs.

A lot of construction foam, a lot of... I

don’t know, this started for us in Nizhny Novgorod,

after all. Apparently there was some kind of

meeting with Putin. They sat there thinking:

"My God, what can we put up against them? What

should we do? What should we do?" Someone said

there, some smart guy, well, I don’t know, Kiriyenko or

someone: "Foam will help us, with a little bit of

foam."

Seriously, they use this foam. It’s

pretty funny and, all in all,

a rather inexplicable piece of nonsense, to be honest. Well,

because you can just peel it off.

The Presidential Administration may not yet

understand that, yes, but it can be

peeled off, and yet they think this is how they can

stop us. I want to say that,

first of all, having come here once again, I understood very

clearly that in order to stop us,

they’ll need something much

stronger than eggs and construction foam.

Two eggs and more construction fo—

they’ve probably already stolen that too.

Hello.

Let’s be serious.

Quite possibly. Quite possibly.

And the second thing: at the press conference

that just took place, I was asked:

"What do you expect from your volunteers?"

And I said there: "I expect exactly what

just happened. Come up here.

"

May I

Ksyusha and Alyona?

That is exactly what I expect from all

volunteers. And I hope that this is what you expect from

me, and from all decent people in general.

I expect exactly this: that if you suddenly

wake up in the morning and your door is blocked, you

can’t get out, your friends come over and

say: "They’ve sealed you in, they’ve poured paint on

your car," but nothing happened to them.

They didn’t text me saying:

"Sorry, Alexei, I’m not working at the

headquarters anymore." They weren’t scared, they didn’t run away.

Your opinion of Putin

has changed. How?

I thought about it. No, I didn’t. Nothing

has changed. And it seems to me, I’m driving you away,

that,

well, things have only gotten worse for them. So, who

was outraged by all this crap with the foam?

Of course,

who in Tomsk was outraged by all this crap with

the foam.

I'm already used to it.

You shouldn't get used to it. Any normal

person would be furious about this. And I can see

that there are more people here than signed up

for the volunteer meeting. Probably,

some of them came, among other reasons,

because of the foam. I can see that, I don't know,

all the people I managed to speak with

on the way—taxi drivers, anyone at all—they

are all outraged, and they understand that, well,

the authorities simply cannot rely on

methods like these, and the authorities cannot

use this as a tool

to hold on to power. They simply won't

succeed. You can't govern here with foam

and you can't do it with foam and eggs. What is being done to us

is actually something far

worse. They're not just throwing eggs at me

or at you—they're not just throwing eggs

and construction foam, they're stealing from us

billions. And we will not tolerate this, and

we do not want to. We understand very well what

is really going on. Not foam, not

eggs. The Rotenbergs, the Kovalchuks, and Timchenko.

A huge, rich country has been robbed,

plundered.

And we are the people who will not

put up with it. And in fact, in our

country, the majority—

the majority of people understand this. Any

Tomsk resident you go up to and

ask these questions will start talking about the foam.

I've repeated that word a million times already. And

when it comes to any act of corruption,

they'll say, well, guys,

of course I support you.

In fact, on any issue on the agenda

in our country, the majority is with us, because

well, our position is simply the reasonable one.

We're talking about the simplest things.

No one here wants to put up with it. Everyone wants

to hear answers to the question of what exactly

happened with Dimon (a mocking nickname for Dmitry Medvedev). Who has seen our

film?

Who's going to the rally? I am.

I am.

And do you know that it was banned? Yes.

Who's going to the rally anyway?

Oh.

So they shouldn't have done that, because

there are now a few fewer pro-government people. But in

any case, thank you. And this is far

more than that NOD picket (National Liberation Movement, a pro-Kremlin group) that I

ran into. It's far more than the

number of people they can

gather for a free rally, because

there's basically no one for them at all. Are you having

that pro-Putin rally here on

Sunday?

Yes. They're rounding up students for it, as if they

were coming voluntarily,

and everyone knows it, you understand? Everyone, damn it,

who lives in this country knows it.

And that is exactly why

all this power, all these 84-86%

—it's one huge fiction. It's not a monolith.

There's one very important thing that I now

want to tell you as I move on to the

election campaign.

It seems to us like there's this wall there,

like you can't break through it no matter what, and that

nothing can be done to them and everything is

useless. But there's nothing there. It's empty,

it's a flimsy fence. Because in reality

this regime is based not on people, not

on an idea, not on supporters. It is based

on one simple thought that they have

imposed on many people: nothing can be changed.

And this is the main thing you will be

fighting against in the election. The main thing

that, I hope, all of us together will be able to

fight and defeat in the election. This

idea that nothing can be

changed.

You may convince them that I'm good, you

may convince them that Putin is bad. You

will tell them about Dimon (a mocking nickname for Dmitry Medvedev) and tell them about

the Rotenbergs, and it still won't matter. Many people

will say to you in the end: "Sure, all of that is clear,

you're absolutely right, but nothing can

be changed anyway."

And this is what we need to prepare for

in order to fight this idea,

because together with this idea

comes another very simple, but much less

pleasant thought. Then

it turns out that we're the worst. Then

it turns out that history, or I don't know, evolution,

has predetermined that we in Tomsk or in

Moscow, or I don't know, in Makhachkala or in

Novosibirsk are stupid. That we're simply dumber

than everyone else on Earth.

We're worse than people in Finland.

We're dumber than people in Canada. We're somehow

completely inferior compared with

the Swedes. But that's not true. I, for one, am not

prepared to believe that. Are you prepared to

believe it?

No.

Well, I know that's not true. There are very few

cities in the world—perhaps none at all—

like Tomsk that have become such

clusters of education. If someone created that, if all of you

study there, if it's actually

pretty cool, then, well,

all in all, it means we're not stupid at all.

It means we can do anything. It means we

deserve a better life. And to those people

whom we will meet during the

election campaign,

who, in fact, already

support us anyway, because they are against

against corruption, for lower housing and utility costs, for

the fair distribution of the nation's

wealth. These are the people who need to be inspired with

the idea that everything can be changed, and that we will

change it all. Corruption has been defeated in countries

that were far more troubled, like Singapore

or Hong Kong, and demonopolization was introduced in

economies that were far more monopolized.

And some Finns drink more heavily

than Russians. And still, over there,

all of this works. And they have one of the lowest

levels of corruption. And here, too, this will be the case in

every part of Russia. And here, we will

achieve it.

our election campaign is precisely about

that—about the fact that we refuse

to see ourselves as inferior

and refuse to see our country as

doomed.

Who wants to emigrate?

I do.

You know, sometimes people say, "Don't ask

questions like that if you're not sure

what answer you'll get." Right? I mean,

sometimes... But the thing is that,

first of all, from what I can see—I've just paused to look—

probably the majority still

doesn't want to emigrate, and those who

do want to would still prefer to stay

here anyway.

still want to stay here. And

they want to emigrate because living

here is impossible,

because they don't let anything develop. Here

we are in Tomsk, a wonderful city,

an intellectual city.

The Russian Berkeley, I don't know. Here, in

theory, there should be all kinds of

startups developing, everything should be very cool

and trendy and wonderful, and people should

be walking around with paper coffee cups

through the streets. Just like in

the pictures. And everything needed for that is here,

right? Everything is here for it.

The only thing missing is money. They just

stole everything and won't let anyone

develop.

They can't even repair those poor, wonderful

wooden houses of yours. Why

is that? Because the Tomsk budget is

what? 58 billion rubles.

the region.

58 billion rubles is the regional budget, right.

The budget of Omsk—did you hear at the

press conference?

Tomsk's budget is 13 billion rubles. And I use

this example at every meeting. And the smaller

the city, the more horrifying it

sounds, because in Moscow, for the

reconstruction of one section of the Garden Ring (a major road in central Moscow),

12 billion rubles were allocated. That is,

the annual budget of a huge city. With

that money, you are supposed to fund

healthcare, education, all housing and utility services,

repair roads, pay salaries, clear snow, in

theory, and cover the wages of all

state and municipal employees

with the same amount of money for which, in Moscow,

they are supposed to repair one stretch of road

on the Garden Ring, while at the same time stealing

most of that money. Is that a normal

system?

It's not a normal system. And everyone

understands that. And once again I come back to the point

that

our ideas, our program—they are so

obvious that there is hardly any need

to persuade anyone. We simply

need to give vivid examples and

show them an Italian villa, for

illustration. But really, everyone is already

convinced. The main thing is for us ourselves to believe that

it isn't hopeless, and to convince everyone

else. We will succeed. I am simply

100% convinced that we will

succeed. And, uh, to wrap up this

introductory part before

taking questions,

let me ask you something. We conducted

focus groups in different cities. Not in Tomsk,

but we did conduct them in

Novosibirsk. And there we asked everyone

what their main source of

political information was. What do you think

the answers were?

The internet.

The internet. What else?

Television,

local media,

rumors.

Local media,

rumors,

a friend who's telling you everything right now.

And that person watches livestreams of

previous meetings. Yes.

But the main and most reliable source

of information in all the focus groups was

this: I have this one friend, and he tells me

everything.

And that friend matters more than Solovyov (a pro-Kremlin TV host), he

matters more than Kiselyov (a pro-Kremlin TV host). He matters more than

television, more than the internet,

more than me, more than anything. And our

task is to become that kind of friend. Each

of you has the task of becoming that kind of friend

for many people.

Do we have many volunteers or few?

How many are currently registered in the

region?

45,000. And in the region

300.

300 volunteers are currently registered,

45,000 across the whole country. Is that a lot or

a little? It's little.

It may seem like very little. Such a

big... only 300 people. But

then name me a political force

that has more volunteers.

Who? Who has seen Communist Party volunteers?

And who has seen volunteers? Seen them.

Communist ones. Which ones? What...

The Communist Party of the Russian Federation

They do. Fine. The LDPR has volunteers.

Izrai

United Russia has volunteers. United...

They do, but it's hard to...

They do. In what sense...

it's hard to call them volunteers?

They exist, but they're paid.

They do, but it's hard to call them volunteers,

because they get paid. These are

the kind of "volunteers" who work for

money. So the truth is that we shouldn't

really underestimate our own

strength. Right now, there is not a single

political force in Russia. Not a single

political movement, in fact,

has existed over the past 20 years that

had more volunteers and

more real capacity to run a

campaign. What we are going to

do will be the biggest campaign in

the entire history of modern Russia.

A real campaign.

All our presidential candidates

are used to doing what they're used to doing—

nothing. You saw that comparison chart.

Me, Zyuganov, Yavlinsky, Zhirinovsky.

How many campaign offices did they open? Zero.

How many meetings with volunteers? How many did they

hold? Zero. How much money did they

raise? Zero. They do nothing. Well,

that's why they get 2%, because if you do

nothing, you get nothing. But we're

going to do it completely differently. We will open

campaign offices, we will actually work with

volunteers, we will raise money,

we will use our enormous strength. 45,000

people across the country. They can do

anything.

And these United Russia clowns, they

are very, very afraid. Here in your

region there's this wonderful guy living here,

who said back in 2011 that

I should be burned because I called

United Russia a party of crooks and thieves.

Who was that?

Ilyinykh.

Ilyinykh.

And now he's a deputy governor, as I

understand it.

So. And the simple question is: what has

United Russia done since

2011? Even, well, even for a

supporter of United Russia, if you ask

them: "Guys, what have you done since

2011, when you wanted to

burn Navalny? You didn't manage to

burn him. I mean, you supposedly won,

what good have you done?" And the answer is:

"Nothing." Even they themselves can't

say anything, because real

incomes have fallen for the fourth year

in a row. And we will do all of this, and we will

all of them,

burn them all." Volkov looked at me warily.

You can't say we're going to burn

them. We'll, uh, let's say, eat

them up. We'll devour them. Right. Who is in favor

of eating United Russia alive in these

elections?

They don't taste good. No more. They don't

taste good. They don't taste good, but let's

be honest, we'll give them a fight. And I do not

doubt that we will win that fight.

Are we ready to do it? Yes.

Ready to answer your questions?

Thank you.

What? The sign that was there.

Whoever has a sign, raise it,

ask your question.

If we manage to arrive at a common

goal, you will win the election. What kind of

direction will you choose in foreign

policy? Will you oppose

the West

in foreign policy? I was asked

that question today, and I have a very

clear answer to it. So, the first thing

we must do, being here in the city of

Tomsk, the first thing we must do in

foreign policy is build a road,

for example, finally, on the left bank of the

Tom River.

The first thing we must do in foreign

policy is clear the snow.

So, the task of

our foreign and domestic policy under

President Navalny is this:

to become richer. Because only on the basis of

citizens' prosperity—put very

crudely, only from the growth of the salary of every

person standing in this hall and out on the

street—does military power depend. There is no such thing as

military power without money. What is the average salary

in the city of Tomsk?

Do you agree? You know, I always, always

ask this, and people always say it's 30%

lower than the official figure. Because

your official average salary is

33,000 rubles. Do you believe that? No.

Exactly. So there will be no

foreign economic power, no foreign

policy power,

if, damn it, in one of our most important

cities the average salary doesn't even reach

$500. There was news today, wasn't there,

about how that wonderful

smoking ship of ours, which was sent off for 7

billion rubles, came back and will now go in for

repairs for 10 years, and those repairs

will cost 15 billion rubles. So, in other words,

foreign policy and the military are very

expensive, and they are only a

derivative of citizens' prosperity. When

the average salary in the city of Tomsk is

100,000 rubles,

Then we will be able to afford a strong

army as well. And that is precisely the foreign and

domestic policy task. A question. Yes,

you are talking about a floor. We have this kind of

regional agreement that

is signed by the governor and signed, uh,

by the business owner.

At the moment, our minimum wage is 9,705 rubles.

Not just yours — across the whole country.

No, ours is the lowest. And we have

the very lowest, this is the

lowest regional minimum wage,

it is below the subsistence minimum.

Our subsistence minimum is 10,315 rubles

for working adults,

6,000 for children, and 8,000 for the elderly.

Look. Look, look, now

a question to test how well the volunteers know the candidate’s

program. What is our position on

the minimum wage? What should the minimum wage be?

25.

25. My friends, we should be saying this

in unison. We are volunteers, after all. How are we going to

explain it otherwise? So, you are absolutely right. And

this is one of the most important points in our program.

Many people criticize us for this, because

we believe — I believe, and it is my deep

conviction, and we have done many calculations on

this issue — that there cannot be a salary

lower than 25,000 rubles. That is the minimum wage,

below which it is simply impossible, because

a person in Russia cannot live on less,

than 25,000 rubles. On 25,000 rubles, a person

will live very badly, frankly speaking. But

if it is less than 25,000, they simply cannot

live at all. They cannot get medical treatment, they cannot

buy food for themselves, they cannot

clothe their children for school, they cannot

start a family. We’ll get everything out, we’ll

keep filming.

Absolutely right. So a person cannot

live, they merely survive. That is why we propose

to live

a comrade has come to greet us

on behalf of the police administration. Synek

Dmitry Gennadyevich

deputy chief of police for the protection of

public safety of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs for

the city of Tomsk. A report has been received that

there is a bomb in this building. I would have liked

to say something that would provoke

that reaction.

Therefore, dear citizens, I ask you

to leave this building so that there are no

incidents.

An alternative proposal is needed

I am evacuating the building. I am not joking.

Well, go ahead, we’ll finish up too

under

You understand it, and we understand it, that

this is all fake. You see, once again they have

used construction foam before, and now a bomb,

a virtual bomb.

Blow it up completely. Look, even

they said it correctly

there may be a device,

Am I understanding correctly? Even the bomb,

you see, is not real, because

it is decorated, we will leave in 15. I

understand that you are lawful demands of a

police officer.

We will go out.

You will not identify yourself.

Raise your hands, those who are complying with

the lawful demands of the officer.

Therefore, please,

your ID. Your ID.

And look how great it will be when

all the volunteers are piled into one entrance.

One person.

And one more person. I

once again I ask you to leave this building

frequently

we are saying. A report has been received that

here in this building something has been planted and

is located here.

Comrade lieutenant colonel, you understand that

this is a li

Let’s check the neighboring entrance.

Let’s call there and find out.

You are receiving,

I am explaining once again,

and we will be able to talk outside.

And do you know what is funny?

They are carrying it out — let them. Friends,

please be quiet, friends,

so that nothing arises and then we can continue.

So, on camera — you see how many

cameras there are here. I am saying that we

are complying with all lawful demands

of the police. So, the next question.

You said that you want to introduce

a visa regime with the countries of the near abroad

(post-Soviet neighboring countries). I am

Yes, yes. I, I, I am a student from

Kyrgyzstan. And Tomsk is a student

city, and there are a great many people from

Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and other countries.

And I would like to know how, in

principle, this

visa regime would work. And the next question: what

is your attitude in general toward Russia’s policy

in the CIS countries (Commonwealth of Independent States) and the near abroad, and

the advisability of creating the Eurasian Union? Those are

all my questions.

So, the first part, regarding

the visa regime. I, of course,

support introducing a visa regime with

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

believe that for students like you, this

would not be an obstacle at all. In fact, it is

quite good. At one time I was — yes, I support

it

when, when I was a student in the United States, well,

I got a student visa, came there, and

everything was perfectly fine for me. Therefore I

believe that we need to establish some kind of

at least some basic order in the area of

migration. And we need a visa regime as a

measure that is used in all

countries. As for Russia's policy toward

the countries of the former USSR, well, it is

strange; it's hard to compare

policy toward Belarus and Ukraine,

right now, isn't it? That is,

Putin is a typical post-Soviet

dictator, just like those in Uzbekistan,

Kazakhstan, uh, Belarus, and so

on. And he, well, helps—he sponsors

these regimes; they sponsor one another. And

it is disgusting. The fact that on the

territory of the former USSR we see

powerlessness, poverty for some, and monstrous

wealth for others is, well, in part

the result of this mafia's work.

So of course I condemn things like that,

because overall, as I said at the start, I

believe that on the territory of the former

USSR there are normal people living there who

can live in a democracy. And as for

the last part of the question—it was about the European

this, uh, I

Eurasian, yes, EurAsEC

EurAsEC. Well, I think it is necessary, just as

any integration process is necessary.

It's just that right now it's some kind of non-functioning

strange thing. It's unclear what it's even about.

A parody,

exactly, it's a parody of the USSR. That's right.

We have the same mistake. Comrades,

everyone has left

security.

Once again, we remind you, dear guests, please

leave the premises. An

evacuation is underway.

The building is being evacuated because

a report has been received that there is an object

in this building resembling some kind of

suspicious device,

so that my people are here—don't shout, Comrade

Lieutenant Colonel, we are conducting an evacuation

just gradually

leaving. The ship leaves last

because

they understand

the captain.

So,

you don't want there to be a rally outside.

You won't let us meet here. So what

are we supposed to do then? Let's

move outside.

That's why I'm saying that in 15 minutes we

will finish and disperse.

I'm explaining once again, I am carrying out some kind of

right now there

including

specialists who will inspect it.

Please head out. Head out. Head out,

guys. Head out.

All right, my friends, here's what we'll do next.

One second. You do want me to

see you, so now we'll do the following

thing. The main thing is not to crowd on the stairs,

not to fall, not to crush anyone. Carefully

get dressed, go outside, and walk over to

that huge snowbank that I will

climb onto. And we'll spend the remaining 10 minutes of the meeting

outside, since Tomsk City Hall

has decided that, well, it's perfectly fine

to stop us from meeting indoors. Let's do it outside, no

problem.

Guys, please help so that we don't

need to drag over this makeshift armored car. Who

can

help Alexei get up there?

Friends, please leave the signs

here. You can take these stickers over there

but only very quickly,

before they explode.

Hey, Seryoga.

Hard hats are worth it.

Commander.

As I understand it, they've decided to scare

Siberians with an outdoor rally. I came from Moscow,

I'm not afraid of that.

It's warm, though.

Besides, this isn't really a

rally at all; we're just waiting while they

clear the supposed bomb. Right.

Yes. Yes,

here's another example of something that needs to be

told to all the residents of the region so

that they think: "What idiots

these authorities are, what stupid things they do,

because, well, fine, they've just

thrown us out, but this is a shopping

center, a business center; there is probably,

some kind of fitness club there, I can see someone

was on an exercise machine, damn it, and they're telling him:

"Get out." Someone has a shop there. In other words, these

people don't let anyone live in peace.

For them, work doesn't matter. They simply don't give a damn about

anyone. As long as some idiot

there in the administration—whom even the

police consider an idiot—well, he

said they needed to break it up, and they ran off

to disperse everyone.

Do we need that?

No.

No,

we want a normal country.

Yes,

we want a country where they don't come running up and,

damn it, throw people off exercise machines, don't

kick them out for no reason.

We want a country in which every

person with political convictions

has the right to gather modestly in a hall.

We do,

right? We'll make it happen,

right?

Let me answer a couple more questions, if there are any.

.

I'll refund the rental money.

I have a question.

I don’t think they’ll refund the rent money. Yeah.

A question. Let’s say, even if you

officially win, and all of this is

known to you, they’ll still just flat-out tell you: "No."

So what then? A revolution, or what?

Great question. I’ll repeat it for everyone.

Suppose you won, but they simply

said: "No."

Here’s the thing: when I win,

I know that I’ve won. And you know that

I’ve won, right? And then someone comes up to me,

well, I don’t know,

Putin, Kiriyenko, whoever, and says:

"No." Then I step aside, point

at you, and say: "Well, tell them no."

Because, well, on my own I’m just

a person standing at the head of this

campaign, playing my role. But

is this campaign mine, or ours?

And the "no" will be said to all of us, not just to me. That’s

all.

What’s going on over there?

They’re asking us to move outside the grounds. We’re going beyond

the perimeter, onto the road or something? Fine, we’ll go.

By the way, funny thing. A police officer

comes up to me, when I’m saying something

there, joking around, and he

turns to me angrily and says

I’m just doing PR.

If they hadn’t come here, damn it, we’d have

a great meeting, great

visuals, there’d be tons of posts on

social media. Alexeich, let’s go to the White House

(the regional government building). Not far, just outside the grounds,

please.

On the second. All right. So I can’t

really say anything to that.

There’s a bomb here. Be careful.

I understand, right. You

And why didn’t you inspect it first?

We’re not proceeding. Please wait.

We’re waiting. I rented this hall for an event.

Because there could be a blast

wave or some other

kind of shock wave here.

A blast wave. Please move out,

onto the roadway.

No, let’s turn and go over there.

Right, yes, let’s go from the other side.

please move beyond the building, beyond

this area here, where it is possible

to carry this out now, because we will be

You do understand that this is absurd.

I’m telling you again, I am carrying out lawful

orders. Do you understand? If you do not comply with

lawful orders. You

Whose lawful orders are you carrying out?

I am acting in accordance with the law on police, in compliance

with which there is

an obligation to the public.

Under the law on police, do we have any

rights?

Yes, of course.

Then maybe, within their rights, they can

stand here with me for 10 minutes? Once again, I’m asking you

to move outside the grounds.

State our rights out loud. The Beautiful Russia

of the Future.

Will things like this happen in the Beautiful Russia

of the Future?

No,

of course not. In the Beautiful Russia of the Future,

Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, you will

be busy catching criminals,

not wasting time on nonsense.

Look how much fuss you’re making.

That’s not right.

Then show me where to stand. Let’s go.

Let’s go. The police are leading us to

We’ve got an escort.

One guy told me, swore up and down

that no one had offered him anything. And he’s supposedly not corrupt

What a way to spend a Friday evening at the club.

I want to address not only those who

came to meet with the volunteers, but also

those who were kicked out of this building

for no clear reason. So

all together, we must stand up against

this government, which is busy with

idiocy.

It doesn’t let you work normally. It

doesn’t let you gather normally. I

apologize. I apologize for the fact that you were

thrown out of this building because of our

campaign, but this is yet another example of how

the party of crooks and thieves, United

Russia, wants to steal everything, including

your time at the fitness club. Do we need them

or not?

No.

Starting tomorrow, we will tell

the whole Tomsk region about this nonsense

that happened.

We’ll tell all of Siberia

about it, because this is an example of idiocy,

an example of the fact that they are not needed at all,

they don’t understand what needs to be done. In

fact, they even helped us. They don’t even

understand how to fight us with this

volunteer movement.

Once again, I just want you to speak up.

I’ve lost all my volunteers, we were not

protected,

my friends,

any normal person would understand that.

What can they set against us? Not

a real bomb,

just a little foam on a door and all this

nonsense: "Citizens, disperse." But we are the very

citizens. We are the reason

the country exists at all. Because either

the country exists for its citizens, or it

exists for Putin and his three Rotenbergs.

Surely the country is for us, after all,

right?

Yes.

I urge you to believe in your own strength.

Finally.

And a fire truck too.

I can say one thing. Back.

Thank you, Tomsk. This is the best meeting, the most

beautiful.

Thank you, guys. Let's disperse in an orderly way

and get back to work starting the next day.

We start working again tomorrow.

Today they were jamming the radios.

Well,

So what happened? Please don't film me.

Please don't film me.

Stop filming me,

please. -you will be

entitl

steps

It's such nonsense, but I hope it gives

us strength to keep fighting. Thank you very much

for what happened. Well, this idiotic

government has committed yet another act of idiocy,

for some reason it wouldn't allow us to hold a normal

meeting, made up some bomb threat, and not only

evacuated us, but also an entire

huge shopping mall. Uh, but this just

goes to show that the authorities simply

don't care at all about the residents of Tomsk, because

as you saw, there were

several hundred of our supporters here, and also

several hundred ordinary people who were

at the fitness center—they drove them out

into the street for no reason and won't let them go about

their business. But this government is afraid of us,

because it understands that in any

fair election it would lose, because

everyone knows that this is a government

of thieves. And for now they are holding on only

because they keep us off the

ballot and interfere with our ability to hold our

meetings. But nevertheless, we held it anyway

because, well, we are right, we

know that we have rights, and all their

nonsense means nothing to us. We don't care. Thank you.