Text version
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my own arm actually started to hurt physically
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when I heard that. Well, let's hold up the mandates a little longer.
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The mandates a bit longer, just a bit longer—you can
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switch hands. Let's show our support.
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My first campaign promise, as a
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nominated candidate, is that I will definitely
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simplify this procedure. In the beautiful Russia of the future,
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we'll nominate candidates—and maybe even vote—
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over the internet.
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[applause]
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[music]
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[applause]
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Some of you were at my
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speeches in Russia's regions and cities.
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Some watched them online, and
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just about all of you were nearly driven
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crazy by the videos you just saw from my
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speeches, and so you
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probably noticed that very often
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at the end of a speech in some city, I
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ask: please tell me, do I have the right
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to be a candidate from Vladivostok?
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Please tell me, do I have the right to be
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put forward by Kaliningrad? In Moscow,
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I still haven't managed to hold a large
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rally. You know that the Kremlin considers it
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very dangerous, and every one of my attempts
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to hold a rally in Moscow ends
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with me going away on a short-term
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vacation for two or three weeks (a sarcastic reference to being jailed). But still,
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right now enough people have gathered here
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that this can effectively
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be considered a rally. There are so many people here
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that we have been able to nominate a candidate for
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president, and you've already voted.
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But I would still like this
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to be said out loud. Please tell me, do I have
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the right to call myself the candidate from
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Moscow?
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Thank you so much, guys, and today, with
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great joy and pride, I can
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declare that thanks to you, and thanks to
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the wonderful, amazing people all across
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the country who made this possible, I stand
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here as a presidential candidate from the whole
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country—from all of Russia.
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[applause]
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There are 84 days left until the election, and it may
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be that other candidates, having only just realized with surprise
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that they are candidates, are planning
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to begin—only planning to begin—their trips and
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meetings with people. And they worry: if they have
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support, will anyone come to a
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meeting in Novokuznetsk or Samara?
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Will they manage to open a campaign office? But I—we, together with you—
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already have the answers to these
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questions. We are already doing it. And having personally
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spoken literally with tens of thousands
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of people across the country, I want to say clearly
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and plainly right now: we are ready to win this
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election. We are ready, and we will win this election.
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I say this without any irony at all. We have
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become convinced over this year that there is no
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mass support anywhere for Putin's government.
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The farther you get from Moscow, the less of that
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support there is—even taking into account
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the administrative resources at their disposal,
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even despite the endless lies on television, still
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they have no support at all. There is only
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weariness and emptiness. And so all across
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the country, you know, like a tumbleweed,
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there rolled along one phrase that had grown very tiresome to us:
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a phrase:
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"But there still aren't any other real
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candidates besides Putin." And that
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is something we have already changed. There is another
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real candidate. He was nominated in
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Serebryany Bor, on Beach No. 3.
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[applause]
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We are going into this election in order
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to win—not just to campaign,
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even though we are the only ones who actually do that; not
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just to open people's
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eyes, even though we are the only ones not afraid
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to tell the truth; not in order
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to focus on giving
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people hope and drawing them into
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political activity, even though we are the only ones who have
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attracted nearly 200,000 volunteers across
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the country and brought to rallies people
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who had never even
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been interested in politics at all; not in order
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to receive state funding; not in order
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to become more famous—but rather
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to win. After all, over 18 years this has turned into
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a kind of strange exotic idea.
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After 18 years of political system degradation,
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no one any longer believes that people take part in elections
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in order to win. But you and I—we are
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different.
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We are going in order to win, to change
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the government,
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to form a government, to work for
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the citizens so that they become more prosperous,
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so that life gets better, so that its quality
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improves, so that at long last there are some
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real prospects in the lives of tens of millions
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of people. That is exactly what the country needs now; that is
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what voters need. We know how to
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do it. We have a positive program.
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It is the best program of all those
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presented in this election. We
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will fight for victory. I am confident that
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we can win.
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Despite the enormous disparity in
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resources and access to the media,
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because in our country there are honest and
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brave people. And most importantly, in our
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country, truth is on our side—it is simply no longer possible
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to deny it.
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Yesterday, sparing no effort and telling myself, "Endure it,
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Alexei, this is the work of a candidate," I watched
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the congress of United Russia (the ruling political party).
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And candidate Putin delivered his new
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key campaign promise: we
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Russia will join the top five largest
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economies in the world.
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Sounds great, a fine idea.
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But here's the thing, really.
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Back in 2011, he gave us the same
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loud and grand promise: that we would enter
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the top five largest economies in the world.
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They tried so hard that the goal only became
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more distant, even though every opportunity was there. After all,
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during the first half of Putin's presidential term,
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oil prices were
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fantastic, and in the second half simply
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high. And that is the truth that
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people across the country feel and understand.
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Everyone realizes that with this
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government there are no prospects and there can be no
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breakthroughs. At best, we are
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simply marking time and slowly
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falling behind the rest of the world. It is guaranteed that
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if these guys remain
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in power, these will be another six lost
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years?
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Does anyone here want to lose another six
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years?
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No one in the country wants that. Yesterday, Putin
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said that Russia has a humiliatingly high
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level of poverty and destitution, and it makes you
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want to say: excuse me, who exactly are you
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addressing right now? Wasn't it you, over your
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18 years in power, who took from these poor people
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oil, gas, and metals worth trillions of
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dollars,
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sold them abroad, and repaid them
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by turning the poor into the destitute? That was you.
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You did that, Vladimir Vladimirovich.
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It was you, Vladimir Putin, who turned our
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country into a source of personal enrichment for
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yourself, your family, and your friends.
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That is why you should no longer be
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president. You are a bad president.
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You have no positive program. You do not
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know how to govern the country, and in this
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election we are challenging you, and we intend
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to win.
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[applause]
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Those very people in the Kremlin
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understand everything perfectly well too, and they know that
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they have no serious support,
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of course. But they are cunning people, and they do not
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want to lose the tremendous opportunities
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for enrichment that
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corruption gives them. So, as far as we can see, their
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strategy is very simple:
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to make sure they definitely do not lose,
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when it comes to Navalny, they need to make sure that
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Navalny does not take part in the election. There is
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nothing new in this for us, really. This is exactly what
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the whole country has been told for an entire year by
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the Central Election Commission, whose representatives
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have kindly joined us here today. I am addressing
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them and saying: don't worry, you are in complete
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safety here. And our answer is obvious.
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Our answer is based simply on common
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sense. We say that it is impossible
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to recognize as a legitimate election campaign one in which
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the main competitor has not been allowed to run,
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the only candidate
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who is actually campaigning. Can we
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recognize this as an election?
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As a real election?
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Do we want to recognize this as an election? We do not.
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We will not recognize it, but we will not step aside.
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We will campaign so that as
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many people in the country as possible do not recognize these elections
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and do not recognize the власти that emerges
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from them either. This will be an
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all-Russian strike.
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Elect us—or just try to keep
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us off the ballot, and we will organize a strike.
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And of course they will say to us,
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of course they will say—those very
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candidates who have done nothing
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for the last four years. But they will turn to
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us and say: but guys, if you are not going
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to the election, then you are basically the couch
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party—so they will tell us, without getting up from
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the couch and with no desire to get up from it.
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And we are candidates in an election to which we were
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allowed, and although we say openly that we do not
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expect to win and are not fighting for victory,
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we still want to use the opportunities
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of the election to campaign
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against the authorities and say on various
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TV shows various important and bold things.
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Reasonable? Fine, reasonable. We are not against it.
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It is just a pity that you only decided now
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to start saying these things. And if it is so
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important, if this is the main goal, then carry it out.
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But when you do this and fulfill
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your super-mission, five days before
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the election, what will you need to do?
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Withdraw your candidacies in protest.
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These are not real elections; the main candidate has not
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been allowed to run. Say whatever you want, and do not
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take part in this shameful, indecent
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procedure of pre-programmed voting.
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Disrupt the election, and if it is not real,
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force the Kremlin to call a new election—but
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this time register all candidates.
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That would be fair, and it would be in the interests of
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the country.
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One way or another, one way or another, we regard
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these elections
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as a struggle for our future, for our
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country, and we will not stop. We, together with
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you, are still the central players in this
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campaign, the central players in politics, even if
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they are trying to push us all out.
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But look: the Central Election Commission has already said that the main thing
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for them now is turnout. Why? Because
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they are afraid of our strike. We will
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fight, because I know that our struggle
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is needed, people are waiting for it, they are counting on it. Who else
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besides us can a teacher hope for—
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a teacher earning less than the real
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subsistence minimum, or a doctor who
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is forced to say to a patient the words:
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I'm sorry.
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Please come with your own bandages.
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A programmer who understands that in any
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other country, for the same work, he
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would be earning three times as much money.
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A local police officer who has lost hope of
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ever getting an apartment; a political prisoner
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who understands that he will be released only
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when the government changes.
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A businessman strangled by taxes and
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endless attempts to take his business away—they
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have no one to rely on except us. They
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are us: people
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who have come together in order to make
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their lives better, and their country better, and
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we will achieve it.
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I thank all of you for—this is an enormous
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trust—to be your candidate.
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To represent your interests.
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I promise you that I will not let you down. We
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will together turn our
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Russia into a beautiful Russia of the future.
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[music]