Navalny live on air, Siluanov on pensions, strikes in Belarus

Hello again to the viewers of our TV channel,

our YouTube channel, and Navalny Live. We

had some minor technical issues, but I’m

back on the air, and this is once again

Navalny Live and the program *Russia of the Future*,

which I, today’s host,

Lyubov Sobol, will be presenting. And we

I’ll comment on and talk about the main

political and social news

in our country that took place

over the past week.

A little later, joining our broadcast

will definitely be Alexei Navalny, as I

said—unfortunately, for now only as a guest.

Of course, all of us, together with you, are waiting for

his full return to the air and to our

studio at Navalny Live. Of course, everyone

has missed him very much. I can see

your comments that you write in

the live chat—keep writing them there and under

the broadcasts, under the recordings of the live streams—that

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this or that news story. So he will definitely

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Now, probably, to the news—there’s been a great deal

of it piling up. And the main topic this week, of course,

that everyone is discussing and about which

a lot of alarming

news is emerging, is

the coronavirus and the situation with Russian

healthcare. Around the world, infection rates are rising

from the coronavirus,

and in Russia they are rising as well.

The increase is sharp, and as of today

new data has been published showing that the daily

increase is more than 17,000 cases—17,717

new cases

in just one day. And the graph of coronavirus

infection rates in Russia looks like this.

You can see it on your screens now. If

you look at it, you can see that

the number of cases is significantly—almost twice—

higher.

Yes, much higher than it was at the peak

of the first wave this spring.

The situation is very serious. At the same time,

the authorities in our country are not declaring

a quarantine or non-working days. Vladimir Putin

said that there is no need

to return to the regime of non-working days,

closing businesses, or other springtime COVID-related

restrictions. And as I said

on the previous broadcast, I think this is explained

—Putin explains it, of course, by saying that

our healthcare system is fine, that everything is good.

I’ll comment on his statement later.

But doesn’t it seem to you that the situation is actually

such that the authorities are afraid that if they introduce

serious restrictions

like those that existed

in the spring—for example, various regimes and

the walking restrictions in Moscow, the closure of

businesses,

the shutdown of production facilities—then this would, of course,

deal a severe blow to the Russian economy.

The economy could simply collapse, and today

they prefer to preserve the national wealth rather than

spend it, as I understand it, although

we proposed using

the reserves that our

country had accumulated under the Five Steps program. This was

a very large public

campaign in the spring to spend these

reserves, which had been accumulated for a rainy day,

to support businesses—both small and

medium-sized businesses—and people directly,

those who are suffering

both from the downturn in our country’s economy and from

job losses, and of course from the coronavirus

and the coronavirus pandemic. So now

the authorities are presenting us with this position,

telling us: well, you know, our

healthcare system is fine, we will definitely

cope. But the data and the statistics

show the opposite, because

just now there was an analysis and

a study published by RBC (a major Russian media outlet); they

based their research on data from

Rosstat (Russia’s federal statistics agency),

and they wrote in their article that almost two

thirds of young families—64 percent of young

families in Russia—in the second quarter of 2020,

that is, very recent data,

could afford to buy only food

and clothing,

but not durable goods. All of this

is confirmed by official

According to Rosstat data, last year

the figure was different, much lower, yes.

Only 50 percent of families said that

their money was enough only for food and clothing, and

at that time, among household categories, this

category—young families—was considered

the most well-off. In that same year,

the least well-off also, over the course of the year,

saw their situation worsen, as did non-working

pensioners. This is also indicated by

this RBC article: 62.4 percent of them

said they could not afford

to buy anything beyond food and clothing. A year

earlier, that figure was 58 percent. In 46

regions of Russia, more than half of families cannot

buy all durable goods

they need. The highest share of such

households is in Altai, and in Kurgan,

Astrakhan, Ulyanovsk, and Pskov

regions.

And yet publicly, Putin tells us that no, we

are doing fine, and that everything with healthcare in

our country is in order. And of course he is completely, well,

this statement of his can completely

be called another lie, and it probably shows

among other things, his detachment from

the reality that exists for

Vladimir Putin. Putin

said that our healthcare system has worked

quite effectively, and that now we have

reserves, established reserves, personal protective equipment,

medicines have appeared, treatment protocols

have appeared, methods have appeared, our doctors already

understand and know what needs to be done and how.

That is, confidence has come that we

can cope with these problems,

Putin says. And this despite the fact that we

can see from the news, from the media, and from social

networks—and we do not have to look far. I

think that many people watching

our broadcast today either currently have

relatives who are ill,

or loved ones, friends, acquaintances, or

have already had coronavirus, and they roughly

understand how our

healthcare system is actually

coping with the coronavirus pandemic.

And this could be seen in the news

that appeared this week from

various Russian regions, and there were very

many such reports. In Novokuznetsk there was a horrifying

video—footage from a morgue where

they bring

those who died from coronavirus, but it turned out to be

overcrowded, and the Health Ministry said that the bodies were not being

collected by relatives because they themselves were

ill or in quarantine. And I am not going to

show it—it spread through Telegram channels and local

public pages in Novokuznetsk,

this video from the morgue, and I will not, I do not want to

show it. The footage is quite disturbing,

hard to watch. I think many of you

have probably seen it—it became quite

viral on social media.

A voice behind the camera literally says the following,

I quote: "There are bodies everywhere, bodies everywhere,

you can fall, trip, you have to walk

over heads." And this is against the backdrop of

Putin cheerfully telling us that no, everything

is normal, healthcare is fine, there are

no problems, medicines have appeared, and

treatment protocols have appeared—no, everywhere

everything is excellent there. Meanwhile, the Health Ministry of Kuzbass (Kemerovo Region) at that

time responded to the publication of the video and

said that the main reason for the accumulation of

the bodies of the deceased was that relatives of the dead who were in

isolation or had fallen ill

had no opportunity to collect

the bodies until the quarantine period expired

or until they recovered. In addition,

another factor was the staff shortage of

pathologists. And doctors in Kurgan

asked Putin to send military

medics before people started dying right

out in the streets. That was a quote

from their statement, and the doctors' letter was published

first by URA.RU, and it was also reported by

the BBC,

the BBC Russian Service. On your screens now

you can see: "What is happening here—Kurgan

doctors ask [Putin] to send military

medics"—because the situation has already spilled

onto the federal level.

Because it truly is horrifying, and

it really is a complete—well, and if

anyone has seen this video, they probably can

hardly describe this situation any differently—it is simply

impossible. And in the letter, the doctors said that

the healthcare system had suffered a complete

collapse: there are no hospital beds, there is a catastrophic shortage of medical staff,

there is catastrophically not enough, not enough

oxygen supply. Remember, on the previous

broadcast I talked about how

there was also news, I think, from Rostov

-on-Don, that there was not enough oxygen,

and because of that, 13 people there at once

died, according to local media, because of

the oxygen shortage. And doctors wrote that

you see, the situation in our

country is such that hospitals lack

cheap oxygen—not some expensive

equipment or anything like that,

not some costly drugs,

but simple, cheap oxygen is lacking in our

country. And now the same news

is coming out of Kurgan as well.

I quote: "The ambulance service is

overloaded." Let's put the quote back

on the screen.

"Patients wait for ambulance crews to arrive for days,

and for a doctor from the clinic for a week or more.

"We urgently ask that assistance be provided to us

in treatment by sending military

medical personnel before people start

dying right in the streets." All of this

is stated in the appeal, and at the end of the letter

there is a call not to assess the situation based on the words of

Kurgan officials, but to send a team to the region.

a commission so that its members could help

to see what is actually going on here

with medical care for the population during the period

of the pandemic, and the Health Ministry responded to this

letter, and in addition to that, medical workers were also

sent military medics, exactly as

the Kurgan doctors had requested

At the same time, Dmitry Peskov said that this

problem had essentially fallen on the region itself, and said that

it was necessary to find out why, first of all,

they were appealing from the medical, well, medical

institution specifically not to

the regional ministry, but rather to

the federal level.

Well, because this is not an isolated case.

And this is not an exception, and it is clear that

the responsibility, to a certain extent,

lies with the regional

governments, with the regional

governors, but it is clear that this situation

is not an exception, and in many regions

what is really happening in the healthcare system

is that it is not coping, that

there is a shortage of oxygen

that there is a shortage of medical staff. A little later I will

talk about the students who are being

mandatorily sent for

practical training and who are becoming infected

with coronavirus. There are constantly

reports that there is a shortage of

personal protective equipment for medical workers; this has been

shouted about constantly since spring. This

problem has remained acute, and to this day it has not

been resolved. The Doctors' Alliance and

the independent trade union organization

of medical workers keep saying that

there is not enough personal protective equipment

for doctors. Obviously, there is not enough of it.

The students who are being sent for practical training as well.

But according to Putin, everything is fine, and only later

does an open appeal appear

from medical workers, where they say that soon

people will be dying in the streets, while at the same time

they are being told: no, medicine is in

perfect order, and such restrictions

will not be introduced. You have to understand why

they say they cannot introduce restrictions:

because they understand that people will start

to protest and simply cry out

probably out of desperation, taking to

the streets en masse. Because if they introduce

restrictions and there is no financial

or monetary support from our

state, then people simply

will have nothing to eat. So if they are going to

introduce restrictions, which obviously

like in the spring, with those so-called non-working days,

now the situation, according to the statistics,

is twice as bad. Put those charts up there,

let's show the first chart on screen again.

Let's show it. The situation is simple:

at the peak of the second wave, the second wave

is obviously stronger than the first, according to official

infection statistics

for coronavirus. They are not introducing these

restrictions because with them, they would have to

help people get through the restrictions, and

businesses would need help too.

So that businesses do not lay off workers

because they have no money to pay wages.

For them to survive, taxes would need to be canceled,

they would need assistance

in paying salaries, and they would also need

help paying money for

the rent on the premises they occupy.

Whether it is some

restaurant or some other kind of small

or medium-sized business.

That is why our authorities do not want to help

people; that is why they avoid introducing restrictions.

That is why they, that is why Putin says

that everything in healthcare

is fine, which is obviously completely untrue. And

Dmitry Peskov said that it was necessary to

pay attention to why the appeal was made not to

the regional ministry

of health. And Dmitry Peskov does not want to ask

why such a situation in healthcare

in our

country arose in the first place, why no one

prepared, or was not prepared

adequately enough, for the second wave

of coronavirus. But he did note

the lightning-fast reaction

of the federal authorities to the medical workers' message.

Here is my question: why do medical workers have to

write open letters instead of

doing their jobs directly?

Why do they have to turn to the media? We saw

what happened when they were not paid the benefits

that the president had promised them: medical workers

went out into the streets and recorded

video appeals addressed to the federal

authorities.

Why did they have to appeal to the federal authorities

instead of

doing their work? Because

our healthcare system is not functioning.

Feedback mechanisms are not working either, so

when shortages arise, they understand that

apart from this cry for help, there is simply

no other way to solve the problem anymore.

Patients at the Kuibyshev

Central District Hospital. The next

news item: near Novosibirsk, people were placed

on stair landings. This is already another

region that was also discussed in the media this

week. A photo of this

was published by Taiga.info.

You can now see it on your screens.

And NGS.ru received

confirmation of this information.

The deputy chief physician for

organizational and methodological work

at the Kuibyshev Central District Hospital, Andrei Nikitin, reported

that this did happen because

the hospital was overcrowded.

And also a story about a specialized hospital, yes, about

In Omsk, two ambulances

brought patients with

suspected coronavirus to the building

of the Omsk Region Health Ministry because of a shortage

of hospital beds. The editor-in-chief of the outlet

streamed live from outside the Health Ministry building

and spoke with relatives and

patients' family members and doctors. According to

the publication, one ambulance was carrying

a 70-year-old woman with 81% lung involvement.

In the other ambulance was an 85-year-old man

with 88% lung involvement, and doctors picked up the

woman at around 11 a.m., after which they

drove her around in the ambulance simply because there was

nowhere to take her.

Hospitals would not admit her; there was nowhere

to place her, even though it was obvious that she

could no longer remain at home for

treatment, because she already had very

serious lung damage and clearly needed

hospitalization. Without it, the person

would simply die. So they kept driving around because there was

simply nowhere to transfer her, and eventually they

brought her to the regional Health Ministry, and then this

story first appeared in the regional

media, which began writing about it alongside

the live broadcast and so on, and then it

quickly broke through to the federal

level, because this was clearly not just some

isolated issue. It was obvious that this was not merely

a shortage of beds, but an outright

collapse of the healthcare system at

the level of an entire major city.

Let's watch the video. We have footage

with this woman's daughter.

We've been calling for an ambulance for three days already.

Finally, on the third day,

a CT scan showed 80% lung involvement.

Since 10 in the morning we've been sitting

in the ambulance, on oxygen tanks.

My mother is breathing with their help because she is suffocating.

No one will take us anywhere.

We've called every hotline

we could think of, but there has been no

result at all.

That's the situation. They tell us, 'Just wait.' But wait for what?

Whom are we supposed to wait for? It's unclear, and unclear why.

What are all these hotlines even for?

Why were they created? People sit there and

receive salaries just to

sympathize with people like me?

And what happens next?

I'm in complete shock. A city of over a million people, and so few

inpatient facilities—well, facilities for

sick people. It's just unbelievable.

On Sunday we were looking for medicine.

There were no antibiotics, no syringes—not even basic 5 ml syringes.

Only the large ones were left

on sale, and even those were hard to find.

Everything had apparently been cleared out.

And if you ask whether they have this or that, the answer is no.

There are no antiviral drugs either. It's

just a nightmare. And after this

action by the medics, when they brought

the coronavirus patients directly to the

Health Ministry building in Omsk,

beds were finally found for the patients, and they

were sent to Emergency Hospital

No. 2.

The governor of Omsk Region

commented on and responded to

the medics' action, saying that patients should not

be spending ten hours in ambulances,

and a deputy health minister was suspended from office.

The deputy minister of health

of Omsk Region was removed, and Dmitry Peskov

called the situation unacceptable.

So it turns out that only through such outrageous

incidents, through actions by medics,

through coverage in the media at

both the regional and federal levels,

is it possible to solve such serious problems

manually—that is, to find placement for

patients needing hospitalization for

coronavirus.

In other words, Peskov has to get involved, the governor

has to get involved, just to solve this

problem.

Clearly, what is happening

at the regional level is a nightmare

for healthcare, and how can one not

recall, of course, all those stories about Omsk

medicine—that Omsk hospitals were supposedly

no worse than German ones—when they refused

to hospitalize Alexei Navalny

and when he needed to be transferred for

treatment to the Charité clinic (in Berlin).

Back then, we were told that Omsk's

hospitals—this was the line pushed by state

propaganda and federal

TV channels—were no worse. But now

it is obvious to everyone what condition all of this

is in. And on the very day when this

ambulance incident happened, on October 27,

Vladimir Putin was holding

a meeting of the Council for Culture and the Arts,

and at that meeting he said that Russia

had done better—just imagine, this is a direct

quote—than other countries of the world

in mobilizing healthcare during the pandemic.

No one did it so effectively. Let's put

Putin's quote on screen: 'No one has so effectively

and quickly managed to mobilize the necessary

number of beds, and not only for

people who are seriously ill with COVID,

but also for patients with mild and

moderate cases. There is nothing like this anywhere in the world.

Look at what is happening in the United Kingdom:

people with mild cases there are not

admitted to hospitals at all.' I don't know

what country Putin was talking about when he spoke of

successful healthcare mobilization, because when I

tell you the news now coming from the regions,

it just keeps piling up one after another.

You can only clutch your head when you watch

these videos that have been appearing not for the first time

from overcrowded morgues, where

people in the videos are already saying that...

we go to the authorities and tell Putin that

they mobilized a fine son, but look

at what is happening in the United Kingdom, and to give

him a prize, and let’s see, Vladimir Putin, what

is happening in Omsk, what is happening in

Kurgan, what is happening in Novosibirsk, and

other regions of Russia. Don’t give him any

let him look at the United Kingdom, and you won’t be

able to claim across the whole country that we

are doing just fine with helping people who

have mild and moderate forms there

of coronavirus. Things are not normal even with

severe cases—it’s not normal. There was also news

that around 30—there were many reports

about coronavirus there over the past week—that

around 30 percent of students

from Orenburg State Medical

University who went out for clinical practice

in hospitals contracted coronavirus, according to a report by

Echo of Moscow in Orenburg.

This is a very sad situation. We at

Navalny Live did a major

report with video and audio comments

from students who in Moscow and

the Moscow region were sent for practical training. They

said: we are afraid to go out for

practice because we are afraid that we

will not be provided with personal protective equipment. We

are being sent out, and they lie to us that we will be

working only with patients whose

cases are not confirmed, who only have

pneumonia. And if we do this, we

will be doing it for free. Why should we

have to risk our health and our

lives?

No one explains anything to us properly.

They are simply driving us to this

practice like cattle and telling us: work.

Don’t ask unnecessary questions. What

money? This practice is mandatory; you

can’t skip it. It is clear that

students do not want to shirk it, and they

are ready to complete the mandatory practice,

but to do it under such conditions is simply

inhumane. This really is

using students as cannon fodder,

sending them to hospitals with

coronavirus patients without giving them any protection,

and then they get sick themselves.

Our attitude toward human life is such

that you can send students there in such a way

that 30 percent of them later

of the students from Orenburg

State University fall ill.

A third of them. What must have

happened there? How must these students have

been treated for such data to

appear afterward?

This is simply an outrageous case. There

aren’t enough people, obviously. As I said, there is a shortage of

medical oxygen, and it is clear that

there are now not even enough vehicles with which

to take medical workers to patients

with coronavirus so they can examine

them—people who are sick, whose

diagnosis has not yet been confirmed,

but who have symptoms of

coronavirus. So this week

there was already news from Kaluga, another

region of Russia, saying that

one of the hospitals there posted on its website

a request for volunteers to help transport

doctors to patients,

because due to the epidemic and the enormous

number of calls, its own transport

is simply not enough. Then later,

the regional minister stated

openly that, you know, the hospital

had simply overreacted,

that volunteers are of course wonderful, but vehicles

still have to be disinfected and

special measures must be taken.

That announcement—well, that announcement—

they simply got carried away, that was the idea

the minister expressed. Although it is obvious that this was not

doctors overreacting at all; it was simply

another cry for help.

Because medical workers see that to fulfill their

professional duty, they want to help people

who are falling ill, but

you can’t just leave them at home and

without medical care—it cannot and

must not be done. It is also unknown what kind of

lung damage they have,

it is unknown in what condition they are, in what

circumstances, and besides, blood oxygen saturation

needs to be measured there, and other

indicators checked. They cannot

simply leave a patient without

care. If they are called, they must come to

that call, but there are simply not enough vehicles.

And it is the task of the government of this

region—the Kaluga Region—to provide doctors with everything

they need. Clearly, they are not coping.

So they simply put out a cry for help and

said: please help with cars, and

people responded.

Then there were reports that people

were responding, and they themselves were appealing

with requests for help. It was also reported

openly by medical workers that staff had organized

a volunteer hotline at the hospital,

and that several people had already been enlisted there

to drive doctors around. These reports from

Russia’s regions are coming in very large numbers, and

we saw that there were critically many of them this

week, so much so that guidance from the Russian Health Ministry appeared

for doctors and medical organizations in the Russian Federation

and medical institutions

telling them to stop commenting

and making any statements without

prior coordination with

the press office about the situation with

coronavirus—in other words, not to provide information.

Put bluntly, they wanted to silence medical workers

who are saying that we do not have enough

medical oxygen, and there are not enough vehicles

to go out on house calls to

Patients there... it’s getting out of hand, and there isn’t...

For coronavirus patients, there isn’t enough... and to me, hand in hand...

Yes, there is a shortage of personal protective

equipment. Our country is short of everything.

Meanwhile, our authorities and Vladimir Putin

keep reporting that everything is wonderful here,

and that the healthcare system has been mobilized perfectly. That is why

this letter appeared, and it was

obtained by the editors of Meduza (an independent Russian news outlet). Meduza, first of all,

published it, and its authenticity

was confirmed by the Health Ministry, and they said there

that, verbally, it had been stated that any comments must be coordinated

and any public statements must be cleared with

the Health Ministry’s press office by email

or by phone.

Yes, of course, this caused an uproar on social media because

well, as I said, there is really no other way

to interpret this letter except as an attempt to silence medical workers.

This letter...

It simply cannot be understood any other way. We have seen

an insane number of utterly absurd

paternalistic statements from

Myasnikov and from Malysheva,

who say that the coronavirus is practically a miracle,

something wonderful, and Myasnikov said that

coronavirus is no more dangerous than the flu.

And for some reason, there were no clarifications

from the Health Ministry saying that such absurd

and dangerous statements should not be made publicly in the media,

on Instagram, and spread by

doctors who are constantly

appearing on Russian television.

There was none of that then. But when doctors simply

cry out for help and say that there is a shortage

of this and that in hospitals, that we

want to treat people but simply do not have everything

that should be provided by

the state—then this

letter appeared. And Peskov said, you know, this is

meant to prevent some kind of absurdity.

I quote: it is a call to ensure that there is no

such absurdity, concluded

presidential press secretary Dmitry

Peskov. Supposedly, no one had forbidden

doctors from speaking out

about the coronavirus.

They just have to coordinate their comments with the media...

But they are afraid that the situation

will get out of control. But what they should be afraid of

is not that doctors

might say some extra piece of information—that is,

that in some region someone will again write that

they are running out of space and soon won’t

know where to put coronavirus patients.

They should understand that the situation

has already gone out of control, from the moment the situation

arose at all. And you can silence

people

as much as you like, but the information will get through anyway.

As I keep saying, everyone

Yes, it seems to me that viewers of our channel

have acquaintances in their own circles

who have been sick and have dealt with the

Russian healthcare system, and they understand

what a terrible, deplorable state

it is in right now. You can’t hide that; you can’t keep a cat in the bag.

It’s impossible. So instead of

forbidding doctors to speak out,

make it so that they do not need to

speak out—so that they can simply

provide proper medical care

to people who fall ill. At the same time,

statements are appearing

from Andreeva, who says

that on

Instagram she said that in fact

nothing all that serious

has happened. One second, I’ll find that exact

quote.

TV host

from Channel One (Russia’s main state TV channel)—I think many people know

Yekaterina Andreeva. Even those who do not

watch television know that she is one of the

main faces

of Putin’s propaganda television.

She likes to present the news

on Channel One, and she has made many

controversial statements. This time she

wrote on Instagram that deaths from

coronavirus are very low, that she sits

in the stalls at the theater without a mask, and that

she wants to think about those nightmare-inducing people

who are instilling fear about the terrible danger

of coronavirus. Just an astonishing

statement—astonishing indeed: very low

mortality from coronavirus. Shall I show you

the chart?

I have already said twice on this broadcast that the second

wave is here, incidence is rising, and the first peak

has not really subsided—it is not visible, and it is not

expected to. Meanwhile, Andreeva publicly

tries to assure everyone that there is nothing terribly

frightening about it.

At the same time, people in Moscow are being fined

for not wearing masks. Some acquaintances of mine

were not allowed into the metro because they did not have

gloves—they had not had time to put them on yet.

They were trying to do it while already wearing masks, on the move,

right there on the spot.

They were putting on gloves while with a small child,

trying to get to school in the morning, but they were not

let in. They were told: no, gloves are mandatory.

Without gloves, you will not be allowed into the metro. At the same time,

Andreeva apparently believes she can

publicly declare that the danger of coronavirus is

being exaggerated.

In Moscow theaters—the very same theaters where

Andreeva goes and sits in the stalls without a

mask—other people would be fined for that. And there have even been

raids to identify pensioners over 65.

Viral videos have also appeared online

showing how people in their sixties and older

are stopped, checked in theaters, and

forced to put on masks. And that is probably

the right thing—yes, all these precautionary

measures. I follow them too.

I wear a mask, and on public

transport, when I ride, I put on gloves.

When I go somewhere familiar...

I try not to take my mask off unnecessarily or do anything like that.

It's right to be careful, but some people think they have the

right there—they believe they have the right

to make such statements publicly, while

at the same time it's quite astonishing when she

talks about how people are being deceived. This is

someone who works on Russian

television, and is, well,

of course, not just anyone,

but one of the faces of state

propaganda, telling us, you know,

that it turns out she doesn't like it when people

are deceived so crudely. That's what we're hearing

from a Channel One host (Russia's main state TV channel).

And doesn't Ekaterina Andreeva want to tell us

about all the times our Russian

state has deceived the people?

I don't think there would be enough airtime

on Channel One to list all those

cases. But never mind this Ekaterina

Andreeva—I would like to move on now to

Alexei Navalny. We agreed with him

that he would join us live at 20:30.

And we are taking this topic very seriously.

I think that, unfortunately, it will stay with

us for a long time. We will keep reporting on what

is happening with coronavirus infection rates,

with medical care

for people who have suffered and are suffering from

this disease, and what is happening in

Russia's regions.

And please keep following this as well—

the news that appears, and then

the messages that appear on

social media.

The independent trade union of

medical workers, the Doctors' Alliance,

says the situation is very frightening. Take care of yourselves,

take care of your loved ones.

Try, whenever possible, to keep

social distance. If you cannot

stay at home, if you cannot

work remotely, still try

to protect yourselves and, whenever possible, more often

...

wear a mask and so on—take care of yourselves.

We understand that despite all

the statements by Vladimir Putin and Dmitry

Peskov, and by Ekaterina Andreeva as well,

the situation is not under the control of

the Russian authorities. The situation is quite

frightening, and it is unclear when it will improve

for the better—when, at best,

the infection rate will begin to decline. I would like

to bring our Alexei Navalny on air.

But before that, I'll show you—I was just talking

about the regions—this week there was a video released

video.

I have a report about Karelia—about what kind of

medical care there is in this Russian region, and how

people there are not living, but literally just surviving.

Before bringing Navalny on air, let's

watch a short excerpt from my

video that came out this week on

Navalny LIVE. The full video is available on

our channel; those who haven't seen it yet

can watch it after our broadcast.

You only have to drive beyond the limits of major

cities like Moscow, St. Petersburg,

or Kazan, and it feels as if you find yourself in the middle of

a set built for a war film

or a disaster movie.

You can vividly imagine a scene from such a film:

the hero looks around in fear at the city

he has accidentally found himself in.

He sees ruined houses, destroyed

roads, empty factories; he sees stray dogs

hunting children in the streets. He walks

down the road and enters a crumbling

building, goes up the stairwell with

charred walls, opens a door and

steps into a wrecked, dilapidated apartment.

He goes into the bathroom, turns on the tap, and

dirty water comes out.

The hero, frightened, sees people behind him

and asks them what happened here, what kind of

catastrophe took place.

And they answer him: yes, the catastrophe is called

United Russia (the ruling political party).

Well, we had to find some way to bring you

on air, Alexei, so we needed

a short video insert in that format.

I didn't want to show footage from the morgue before

bringing you on, so I chose something else.

I didn't want to make it too grim with more stories from the regions either.

So thank you very much for joining

our broadcast. I think I can speak for the general opinion

of our channel's viewers when I say that they

have all really missed your

comments and your sharp remarks.

In general, what do you think about what

is happening in Russia? Today I will

be asking you my questions, although

of course I'm not a journalist. And the first question

for you, of course, Alexei, on behalf of all

the viewers, is about your health: how is

your rehabilitation after being poisoned with a chemical

weapon going, how are you feeling, and of course

when do you plan to return to Russia?

Hello, Lyubov Eduardovna, hello to all

the viewers. I'm terribly glad to be back on air.

Though it does feel a little strange, to be honest,

to be in this role, as

a guest on the program. Here is Lyuba

who has usurped—look at her—she's sitting in my

seat.

She's not sitting there badly, Alexei.

To the many other theories, we should add

that it was you, Sobol, who poisoned me in order

to take over my show. In fact,

thank you very much, and Vladimir as well,

and everyone who has been hosting and working on the broadcasts,

keeping this program going. As for my health,

...

and my return—health-wise, of course, I already feel

much better. Some things have already recovered,

while some things still haven't, but

I’m sure that’s why I work so much.

I’m doing everything I can to return to

as quickly as possible, but the doctors aren’t giving any

prognoses. Honestly, to be completely

frank, that’s because no one has any

experience observing people who have been poisoned,

and no one really knows anything. But my task

is to recover as quickly as possible and

return to Russia right away, but also

to recover properly at the same time, because I

have to come back in a condition where, if

they poison me a second time, there will at least

be some chance. Because right now,

I probably wouldn’t make it. But of course,

wait for me — I miss you very much and want to come back.

Alexei, I saw your Instagram

comment on what was essentially the only

public statement made by

Vladimir Putin about your poisoning.

I’d like to ask what you think about it in general,

when Putin, just now,

was commenting and saying that

Germany isn’t providing certain data, and that

therefore they can’t open a criminal

case. How do you view all this?

How can I comment on it? I can

comment on it in the usual way: Putin is lying.

He never really says anything else

in situations like this. Well, I

didn’t expect

anything different. I still say that I do not

doubt that this was

done on his direct order, on his direct instruction.

But they failed. This was just another

not very successful operation that they

carried out. There have been several

such not very successful operations in different areas.

Of course, there were probably some successful

operations too — we just may not know about them, in terms of

poisonings. And what needs to be said is that they can no longer

come out and say, “Well yes, of course,

we overdid it, we shouldn’t have

poisoned him.” But Putin acts

in an absolutely traditional way: together with his

administration, together with the media under his control,

and bought-and-paid-for journalists, he throws out

a million versions — like, for example,

on the first day, on August 20, and then later

there were all these stories about

how I’d drunk too much, or taken something myself,

and all the rest — you’re already familiar with it. In other words, they

put out

a huge number of versions

completely brazenly, so that

people generally get the impression that

something is fishy here, there are different versions,

we need to sort it out.

But the truth is that there is

a decision by the organization

for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

Russia is a member of this organization.

For example, I do not have the report

because I’m just a private individual.

I have no right to receive it. It contains

classified information — the formula for Novichok

is in there. I don’t have it, and everything I know I get

from the media.

But Russia, oddly enough, as a member state, has

all the medical data, all

the evidence — absolutely everything. Not to

mention that it’s ridiculous when

they say, for example, that

they need my blood — there was plenty of my blood in Omsk.

My documents, my medical records from

Omsk, are fully at the disposal of

the Russian authorities. I don’t have them — they do.

So they are doing what they always do:

they lie in order to create a certain

ambiguity, simply to

deflect suspicion from themselves. That’s all.

A common question people asked me

when you yourself were unable to give

comments — and one that people are still

asking in the comments under our

broadcast on Navalny Live — is: why did

the poisoning happen now, in your

view?

Well, to answer that question precisely,

you’d have to get inside the head —

you’d have to get into the bunker, and in the bunker get into

Putin’s head.

Who knows what is going on there? I only have

my personal hypothesis. That

hypothesis is connected with the fact that they

can see United Russia’s ratings are going down,

they can see the country’s economy is declining,

not that it’s completely collapsing, but

real incomes have been falling for the seventh

year in a row, they failed to deal with the coronavirus,

and our Smart Voting strategy is working.

So over the course of

the last two years, they have done everything possible

to destroy us by various methods.

How many times have they raided our Navalny office, how many times

have they targeted you there at Navalny Live?

They seized equipment three or four times,

I can’t even count right now — a lot.

They took everything away — sound equipment, lights,

everything under the sun. In other words, they tried

to detain us, arrest us, open

criminal cases, intimidate us, take away all

our equipment.

They carried out simultaneous raids and searches

in, I think, 200 different locations,

in apartments, and froze

accounts, trying to stop our

organization by these methods. But then,

when they saw that it had, first of all,

become even stronger, and second, that we had started

working on Smart Voting and it

was working — of course, on the eve of the elections

to the State Duma (the lower house of Russia’s parliament),

they were afraid something might happen. Plus,

Khabarovsk happened, plus

Belarus happened.

That’s what you’d call panic.

They panicked and apparently decided

to resort to some kind of

Well, it was kind of on the agenda there,

right, right, all of this had always been an item

on the agenda, but they were carrying out some

other, milder measures, or so they thought, but

then they got scared and decided, let's

go all the way. You talk about it so lightly now,

but I'm alive, after all,

I'm here telling the story. But I heard that I was supposed

to speak in a tragic tone: 'My God, can you

imagine, those scoundrels...' But everyone already

knows they're scoundrels, that they're killers,

but how long can you sit there with a tragic

expression? I was actually quite stunned when

I started to understand what was happening; everything looked

very strange. And when Yulia told me

the whole story, everything that had happened from beginning

to end, I sort of... well, let's put it this way,

I sat there thinking about all of it, but

life goes on. I'd like to ask

about sanctions, about Europe, because

it's obvious that the poisoning took place on the

territory of Russia, that you are a citizen of the Russian

Federation, and that a criminal case should

be opened in Russia. I've said this

repeatedly on our broadcast, that already

twice over, the deadline has expired,

the maximum period for carrying out

the preliminary check before opening a criminal case, which

they are avoiding opening. But people still ask about

sanctions anyway,

because in Europe there was a lot of talk about

sanctions, and here in Russia there was also a lot

of talk about sanctions, a great deal.

Zakharova, Lavrov, and

Volodin and Peskov—just about everyone spoke out—and

they said they were worried, and now the EU has imposed sanctions

against six people, so it seems the question is

whether the sanctions issue is settled or not. What do you

generally think about this level of sanctions,

and about Europe's reaction overall?

And I hope that Russia... First of all, I should

say that I don't have any kind of

exclusive or secret information. No one

consulted me about

whether sanctions should or shouldn't be imposed.

The sanctions that have been imposed now are not connected

to me.

They are connected to the fact that Russia is clearly in

violation of treaties that it itself

signed, and is developing chemical weapons—not

just possessing them, but running an active

chemical weapons development program.

Despite the fact that Russia, as a major

state, is obviously interested in there being

no chemical weapons at all, and

that is why sanctions are being applied in connection with this.

Even if they hadn't poisoned me, they still would have been

imposed.

But we need to understand that foreign countries

won't save us. In Europe, they simply look with frustration

at what is happening in Russia, but in terms

of what they would like, they would like this to be

a normal country, one from which

200,000 people do not leave every year.

You have to understand: 200,000 people—

that's a huge city—leave

Russia every year to settle somewhere in Europe

or the United States.

Some kind of madness is constantly happening,

some endless headache, and German,

French, and all sorts of other politicians

would really prefer to forget altogether about

the existence of Russia as a country that

brings problems, and instead focus on their own

local elections

and issues, and so on. So placing too much

hope in them solving

our problems or punishing

our officials by immediately imposing

sanctions—well, of course what is happening infuriates them.

They really, really do not like chemical

weapons, they really do not like

the practice of mysterious killings at all,

killings that, of course, will

continue to develop—there is no doubt

about that. And they do not like countries led

by leaders who stay in power for 20 years; all of this they very much

dislike because it

creates a certain instability. But

to expect that they will really, truly

bend over backwards—sorry for the expression—

in order to somehow help

us or defeat our villains—no, that's not something

we should count on. So I am completely calm about

all of this. But Europe's reaction

was

quite categorical, and in diplomatic

language, we can see that they

said what could be said in the strongest

possible terms. Thanks to them for that. But

we must solve all our problems ourselves,

solve our problems ourselves. And about defeating

the villains, my next question is about

the State Duma elections, because it is known

that candidates have already announced that they

will run for the State Duma.

Among them, I announced that I am

launching a website and published my

major political platform with

specific proposals that could

be implemented in our country's parliament as soon as tomorrow.

country.

Right now, together closely with volunteers, I am

preparing to run a truly large-scale

active political campaign. I would like

to ask about your plans—what do you think

about the State Duma elections, and what are your plans

for the coming year specifically in political

terms?

Well, what can I say—vote for

Lyubov Sobol, vote for other

independent candidates.

I think the elections are extremely, I believe, very

important, and the most important task for each of us

is to demand and secure access for

independent candidates, because the elections

to the State Duma

will primarily not be about...

they’ll count them, although we still have to fight for that, and

it’s not even about Smart Voting, but about whether

we can make sure that Lyubov Sobol

and Ilya Yashin, along with many candidates across the

country—Yevgeny Roizman has said that

he will run in the elections—are actually allowed to run.

Then we have to elect them

and monitor the results so that their

victory isn’t stolen. That’s very important, because

no matter what anyone says about how

the State Duma (the lower house of Russia’s parliament) decides nothing, and so on—this is

all nonsense. Probably the last time

the Duma was really elected was in 1999,

when the Duma was elected

and until 2003 there was at least

some small number of

deputies who could say things

relatively freely. Since 2003, with

the exception of a few very rare

individuals—someone like Dima Gudkov, who was there for a time—

and a few other deputies

who, well, hadn’t sold out yet at that

point, in 2003–2007—but overall it was

an absolutely controlled little

club. And we can see from those

regional parliaments where, with the help of

voting, we elected several

good deputies: they don’t have

a majority, but they changed those

regional parliaments beyond

recognition. In that sense, I’m sure

that electing people like you and other

candidates to the State Duma would

of course dramatically change

the country’s political landscape. So this is

the most important task: to secure access for

candidates, elect them, and then defend

their victory. At the very least, there would be

the kind of discussion that is now taking place in the

Moscow City Duma. United Russia members

are, of course, actively trying to shut

everyone up, and there are criminal cases and

they convicted Oleg Sheremetyev, and so on. But

we can see that the Moscow

City Duma after the elections and Smart

Voting last year is not the same

Moscow City Duma that it was in the

previous convocation. You absolutely cannot

compare them at all. Sorry for interrupting.

You really can’t compare them. But

that same Sheremetyev—this whole

situation that actively developed around him, when

he was recently convicted—

it all happened while I was in a coma.

But they’re taking revenge for his speeches. They

stripped him of his mandate because

Sheremetyev was the person who

went to the podium and said that

the chair of the Moscow City

Court, Yegorova, is a criminal—she

is a criminal. And the fact that someone appeared in the Duma

who dared to say that

simply made all the

United Russia members faint, and that’s why they

threw him out and took revenge. But Stupin, Yengalycheva,

Simonov, and many, many others

are wonderful, outstanding deputies, and

the Moscow City Duma—yes, back then it was

nothing like as good as it is

now. Yes, United Russia still runs the show there, but

Moscow Mayor Sobyanin is afraid

to go there

because there are several people there

who actively oppose him and

tell him the truth to his face. And also,

Sheremetyev’s speeches about Shaposhnikov were also very forceful.

After our investigation into Shaposhnikov,

when he started asking questions

about his property—about the billions

he had listed there

in his declaration that he couldn’t explain,

or say by what legal means he had acquired them—and

he wasn’t afraid to publish it. He promised to do so but

never did publish his declaration. I wanted

to ask a question that also comes up often

now about Smart Voting,

which you just mentioned on our

broadcast—how exactly are we supposed to vote? For example,

Alexei Navalny—Zhirinovsky says

that because of your poisoning

the Anglo-Saxons are playing some kind of game,

Zhirinovsky says you should be

arrested,

put on a plane, taken to Russia, and that he himself

would come to the airport. So how are we

supposed to vote? A lot of people are asking this—people who

want to live in a beautiful future, even though

the laws don’t work in this country, and they want

to vote for honestly elected

deputies. They’re afraid to vote

for these people, and for people from

the parties they represent.

What would you say to that?

My answer is: who cares what they

say? We need to look at the bigger

picture. And the bigger picture is

that, of course,

the leadership of the parties is, to one degree or another,

under the Kremlin’s control.

Sometimes they are very tightly controlled by

the Kremlin. But the fact that Zhirinovsky

personally

is just being pulled by the strings and says

what the Kremlin wants him to say does not

prevent someone like Furgal from appearing in

Khabarovsk, and many other LDPR deputies

who serve in the regions are not at all

so tightly controlled.

Our task

is demonopolization. Our task is to destroy

United Russia’s monopoly.

Right now the Kremlin summons all these

guys—Zyuganov, Zhirinovsky, all the

others—and tells them: right,

boys, we’re giving you 15 seats, giving you

20 seats, and your job—we guarantee those

seats—is to make sure that Navalny and everyone

else, using Smart Voting,

this whole soft approach of ours

didn't turn into some little insiders' get-together and didn't offend our United

Russia party, because right now

in this way, the leaders of the so-called

systemic parties are not working for United

Russia. They don't want to do that, but they are

too weak and too cowardly

to step forward and take

the front line. So we have to

take that place, and regardless of what they

say—well, let him talk. He's saying it

so that one of us might simply

snap and say, well, if they're such idiots,

I won't vote at all, I won't go to the

election.

Or I'll vote for some nice

people who have no chance of winning.

No, that's not how we should think. We shouldn't think about

Zyuganov; we should think about the broader mission.

We need to think in stages. So here they are,

the Communist deputies—are they bad?

They're excellent, and there have never been

such good deputies as the ones now

in the Moscow City Duma

There in Tomsk, they elected deputies who are not

from United Russia, and there is also something very good in

Novosibirsk.

And in that sense, we just need to be

smarter and understand that this is a political

game. And of course, the closer it gets to the election,

the more stupid, foolish

things they will force the Communists,

the LDPR, and everyone else to do. This is done

deliberately so that we end up having this kind of

discussion. But we just have to be smarter

and understand that it doesn't matter what

Zyuganov says. Our task is to fight him on

United Russia's turf. You mentioned

Furgal, and in that connection I wanted to ask

you, of course, about Khabarovsk.

In Khabarovsk Krai, the

protests have been going on for more than 100 days—a

wonderful, amazing, almost unimaginable

Khabarovsk anomaly. It continues, and we

continue to cover it on the air at

Navalny Live, expressing support for all the people

who take to the streets and demand

justice, a fair trial, and

the defense of their rights. And about the peaceful protest

in Belarus, of course.

I think you are following what

is happening in that country. Naturally,

as we can see—what do you

think about it? And it seems to me that you still haven't

commented on this story about

the intercepted conversation involving Lukashenko and his stories

about how

there was a CIA agent involved and all of that—how this all fits

into that whole story about the

poisoning.

Khabarovsk and Belarus—what do you think? It was

one of the pleasant moments in the hospital

when I had already started to understand, had already realized

how much time I had spent in a coma and, well,

generally unconscious. Naturally, I started by

asking about Khabarovsk, and yes, we

said, well, Khabarovsk is still going strong

That was genuinely a really great moment

because somehow it seemed to me that

so much time had passed, like a whole life

had gone by, and yet over there it was still

continuing. I am certainly very glad that

this is happening. I am proud of our headquarters team

who are working there—really, huge respect

to all the people of Khabarovsk. The people who

say—and I hear this very often now—

even sympathetic people

say, well, this is a useless

protest, they keep marching and marching.

We love them, we support them, but it's useless. First of all,

it is absolutely not useless. Second,

it is far from over, because

the protest has already changed the overall

political situation. There will be elections, including

in Khabarovsk Krai and in the Far

East in general. I hope that what

is happening in Khabarovsk will lead to

United Russia, Putin's party,

which already traditionally gets few votes

in the Far East, getting not just a little

but far, far fewer. And in

Khabarovsk Krai specifically, it will simply be

crushed. There will be a gubernatorial election, and

it will be very important to reject any

pro-Putin candidate. In that

sense, despite the fact that the people

who are taking to the streets still have not

achieved the fulfillment of their demands—

the return of Furgal and direct elections

for a new governor.

Nevertheless, their political contribution to

what is happening in Russia right now is

enormous.

Just ordinary residents of Khabarovsk, living

what might seem like the middle of nowhere, far from

Moscow—after all, all politics was supposedly

thought to happen in Moscow—

and yet these people managed to take over the entire

political agenda of the country. And in that

sense, they are absolutely remarkable, and we need

to keep going, to achieve our goals.

The Kremlin is terribly afraid of this. They are very

deeply worried about what is happening in

Khabarovsk, and they do everything they can to pretend that

they are not interested, that they don't notice. Well,

ha-ha-ha, people are coming out, and they are waiting until

the cold sets in and people leave

the streets. But I don't think they will. And

most importantly, the situation will never

return

to the point where it was a few months

ago.

As for Belarus, well, this is altogether

a miracle—a great Belarusian miracle—that

is happening right now. So far, this miracle has

not yet led to regime change, to the fall

of Lukashenko's regime, but already now it is, in

any case, a miracle. I literally just before

Before going on air, Navalny LIVE gave a long

interview to the channel Nikto, which is also a kind of

small information miracle, so you

can watch it on their channel tomorrow. But

I believe that Belarusians will achieve what they want.

I know for certain that Lukashenko's regime

which he spent 28 years building,

was one of the most vicious—how should I put it—

what word can I use that would still be

fit for broadcast, but also reflect my, my

emotional attitude toward all of this?

Such an utterly uncivilized, utterly

regime on the territory of the former Soviet

Union. There are a couple of regimes that are worse, but

Lukashenko's is certainly one of the most disgusting.

Without a doubt, what he is doing now—he has

declared war on his own people and on entire

generations of his people. What Lukashenko is doing

—

even from a formal legal point of view,

is called terror. Because what is

terror? It is extrajudicial executions and

extrajudicial arrests, it is torture. And what

Lukashenko is doing is genuine

state terror. And for 28 years he

built a system in which it seemed

that this terror could be carried out

with impunity and everyone would stay silent.

But they are not staying silent—they have not been silent for two and a

half months already. And yes, for some time

he may still be able to hold on to

power, and may probably resort to

some reckless, insane actions.

And for some period he may still

remain in place, but overall it has become absolutely

clear that his regime is doomed. And

the only thing he needs to do—I was

literally reading before going on air that some kind of

All-Belarusian

assembly is being held again—

but I hope that there he will do what he

must do: announce new elections, and

for himself ask only for security guarantees

and step down into retirement. Thank you very much for your answer to

the question, Alexei. Is that all, then?

Are you already going to throw me out, Andrei?

Our live link with you could have gone on much longer, and

just for the record, I wanted to say that

I would have liked to talk even more—I especially enjoy it.

Come to this table, sit down,

go on air, and

talk for five or six hours, however long

it takes. By the way, I have set myself

a note in my little black notebook: while you were away,

Abel set a record—one of the broadcasts lasted,

I think, about four hours straight. So

you will definitely have to

beat that.

I just wanted to ask, in closing, what

you would like to say to the viewers of the channel?

Well, I would like to say a big

thank you for watching, thank you very much for

your support. I am, well, I am very glad, I won't hide it,

that once again

I have the opportunity to be on air—now

via live link, and later, I hope,

from the studio as well. But even if

back then, around August 20, events

had developed according to a bad

negative scenario, nothing would have changed.

We have a big team—on LIVE,

at FBK (the Anti-Corruption Foundation), and across the whole country. Our

system is simply a huge number of people,

supporters, all of you who support these

broadcasts. You are part of something enormous,

big and wonderful. I am incredibly glad that

I, too, am

a small part of this great

whole. Very soon I will come back

and join the friendly ranks. Just wait a little longer.

Thank you very much. We will all now

be waiting for that impatiently, of course.

Thank you very much, Alexei, for joining our broadcast.

Wishing you good health, of course, and a speedy

recovery. Well then, we continue

our broadcast. A lot of topics have piled up,

and we want to talk about all of them, at least

briefly. And I cannot pass over the topic

of Siluanov's remarks about pensions. He

said he is against

indexing pensions for working

pensioners and called that fair.

Let's watch a video of Siluanov's

speech.

As for pensions—well, regarding pensions

for working pensioners, colleagues, we

discussed this during the meetings with the factions

that took place yesterday and a little earlier.

Our position is as follows:

a pension is compensation for lost

earnings. And if a pensioner who

receives a pension is also working, then

they have not lost their earnings. Perhaps it

is small in size, but overall they

receive both wages and a pension. And we see

that wages in recent years, and

in the forecasts as well, are growing—and growing on

average faster than inflation. Therefore,

the issue here is probably not even money,

but rather some notion

of, how should I put it, fairness: when someone receives

both a salary and a pension, and then we say, let's

also—and you say, let's also

index the pension—perhaps that is not

entirely, how should I put it, fair. Because

after retirement, a person

who today receives both a pension and

a salary will later receive

a higher pension taking into account the increases

that were

adopted during the period of their work.

Therefore, in our view, in our view,

it is important to focus on

supporting those pensioners who do not

work, and that is exactly what is reflected in the budget.

Specifically, increased indexation above the level

of inflation is included in our budget.

It seems to me more fair to help those

Those who are in need, those who are not working, exactly.

These citizens need it, they really do.

They need state support. Thank you, well then.

What a scoundrel—I simply have no other words.

to describe Siluanov (Anton Siluanov, Russia’s finance minister), who

is saying these things about fairness.

Why would they pay out just

tiny, minimal supplements—mere kopecks?

to pensioners who are forced, even in retirement,

to keep working—not because, unlike some minister,

they simply feel like working, but because they need

something to eat and some way to buy themselves

clothes. At the start of our broadcast, I cited statistical data

showing that more than half

of pensioners there can afford

to buy nothing beyond clothing

and food, and many of them cannot afford anything besides

food at all.

They pay for housing and utilities,

and then whatever money they have goes to food—that’s it.

The money runs out, and that is why they

are forced to take odd jobs and keep working somehow.

Being a pensioner is hard in general. Both my father and

my mother are pensioners, and I know perfectly well

from my family’s experience

that it is hard even for highly qualified

specialists to find work in old age.

Everyone understands that you may have been an engineer

but once you are over 60, no one will hire you

for that position anymore, so you have to look

for some other kind of work.

People are forced into it: some work as cashiers,

some take side jobs, some go to work as cleaners,

some sit there working as concierges,

and so on, trying somehow

to get by, because there is simply no money.

Those 12,000 to 14,000 rubles a month (about $130–$150) are simply not enough

just to survive. In our country, prices

keep rising constantly, and thanks to

Siluanov’s inept actions, prices, prices

keep going up, while pensions are not really

indexed properly and clearly are not increasing much.

They clearly are not keeping up with the pace of price growth

even for basic groceries. And Siluanov says

that yes, it is fair not to pay

working pensioners.

So what kind of fairness are we even talking about?

Well, first of all, let us note

an important point: first,

Siluanov is, of course, knowingly lying and deliberately

distorting the facts, and in general

misusing terms and making false claims, because

he says that pensions are compensation for

lost earnings.

But one must understand that a pension is

something earned through years of work,

a lifelong payment,

and of course it should be paid according to certain

rules, which the state has no

moral or any other right

to change at will, as it sees fit.

It cannot say: now we will set one set of rules,

then another, and then confiscate

your pension savings altogether, and then

tomorrow raise the retirement age

by a few more years. Is that acceptable? No.

These are in fact the funds we paid in

while we were working, in the form of, roughly speaking,

taxes and contributions—we set aside part

of that money so that later, with that money,

we could live in old age. Essentially, it is our money.

It is not Siluanov’s money.

And when he says that it is fair not

to pay it, we must also understand, secondly,

that this is a man who lectures us

about fairness, about how

they will not pay 800 rubles (about $9) to

working pensioners—a man with enormous wealth

that cannot be explained

by his official income. This is a man

who ought to be the subject

of a criminal corruption case,

for bribery and abuse

of office. Criminal cases should be opened

against him,

because in 2016 he was officially receiving

a government salary of

1.7 million rubles a month (about $18,000–$20,000 at recent exchange rates).

In 2019, according to official data, he

received 28 million rubles a year (about $300,000), and

even now, I think, everyone at first

hearing about Siluanov—and all working and

non-working pensioners alike—must have

clutched their heads and said: 28 million

rubles? That is some insane amount of money

to earn in a year. But in Siluanov’s case, it is obvious

one can say, or at least assume, that

he lives beyond his means

and not on the basis of the large income

he officially reports in his declarations.

Because we, together with the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK, an organization founded by Alexei Navalny),

showed—and will now show you a clip from

that video—about a dacha on Rublyovka

that is under construction.

Taking into account the cost of the land and the future buildings,

this dacha on Rublyovka, while still under construction, can

be valued at 1.2 billion rubles (about $13 million).

Obviously, no such sums appear

in Siluanov’s declarations, yet he

lectures us about how 800 rubles

in extra payments to working pensioners—well, you know—

no, paying working pensioners

really is fair.

Let us recall the investigative video

released by the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK).

Let us first take a look at Siluanov.

It is already clear: there is the main house, with three

levels, and its area should be around

1,500 square meters, and behind it they are building

another structure twice as large

judging by the foundation. So far

it is not entirely clear what it is. It could

be a guest house, or perhaps a swimming pool—we will

find out very soon, because construction is in full swing and you can

clearly make out an excavator and workers

moving about on the roof.

Hello, self-employed workers—do not forget to register

and pay your taxes.

People worked at their factories and paid

these taxes, risking their own lives all their lives

and their health—many ruined their health

over years of hard labor there as well.

Not everyone works in an office wearing a tie like

Siluanov does. Many people worked

in very difficult industries; they

work their whole lives so they can retire

and then at least live out the rest of their lives decently,

yes, live their lives without having to think about

money, without having to look for means

just to survive. But they can’t do that

because pensions in the country

are simply tiny—you can’t live

decently on them, and they are forced to go

back to work. And then some talking head comes out there,

some clean-handed Siluanov, who from his dacha on

Rublyovka (an elite wealthy district near Moscow), worth 1 or 2 billion rubles,

and tells people, you know, we’re not going to

index anything for you too much—you’re already

living well enough, working pensioners.

It’s just that everything inside boils and burns when

you hear these statements from Siluanov, and he doesn’t even

feel ashamed, this scoundrel and bastard,

to say this live, to say it

publicly, on camera. It once again shows us

just how detached they are from

reality, how they stand there

on their little hill

and spit down on the people who pay

those contributions out of their own money

every day,

every month from their salaries, among other things,

in order to feed this Siluanov,

who gets his money at our expense.

To deprive people who work in Russia...

I’d like to move on to the next topic. We’ve

already been live for an hour, and of course we’ve

talked a bit about Navalny, about

Belarus as well. I also wanted to talk about

Belarus, because what’s happening there

is unfolding every day. Right now there,

a new strain is appearing, borders are

being closed, strikes are happening,

and the peaceful protest of the people continues—

people who live in Belarus and who want

to live in a normal country where people are not

beaten with batons, where they have the right

to vote, where they can cast their ballots in

elections and then an aging dictator

who has been in power for 26 years will not

falsify the vote and assign votes to himself,

proclaiming himself, in a secret

inauguration, president. People

continue to resist, and in Belarus

the deadline of the ultimatum expired on Sunday

that Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, on behalf of

the people of Belarus, presented to

Alexander Lukashenko. The demands were

that Lukashenko resign,

that violence against peaceful

protesters stop, and that political

prisoners be released. Lukashenko did not fulfill these conditions.

On Sunday, people came out en masse,

in huge crowds, into the streets with

a peaceful protest. Right now you can see on

your screens

a photograph from the march that took place

over the weekend in Belarus.

An enormous number of people—it’s hard

to estimate. There are different estimates: 100,000, 150,000,

200,000—but it’s clear that

it truly was a massive, huge action

of peaceful resistance

to a mad, bloodthirsty

dictator in a neighboring country. And

people began to be dispersed with stun

grenades. Literally—Lukashenko had previously

run around with an assault rifle, and now he’s gone mad

and has started using stun

grenades against peaceful protesters.

Let’s watch a short video

now.

Navalny was right when, during

our live broadcast, he said that this is

real terror.

You watch this and it seems like

what’s happening there—and it doesn’t just seem that way, yes,

there really are something like

military operations taking place, just terror against

a peacefully protesting population

whose only action is

to try to defend,

to defend their lawful rights and, I don’t know,

their ability to go out into the streets with

peaceful protest,

to vote in elections for Svetlana

Tikhanovskaya or for any other candidate

whom they consider

appropriate. Just stun grenades—people

say, what horror, what is this,

a shootout or something, something terrible and

unimaginable is happening in

the country, all because Lukashenko

believes he has the right to cling to

power to the very end. Lukashenko said that

it was his personal order to disperse

the protesters. He is apparently proud of this and

called the protest participants a

crowd pumped full of drugs. That was a quote.

Let’s put the quote—two quotes—on

the screen: “Someone at 7:00 came out with

their children into the street,” and “it is normal

when a crowd, drunk, drug-injected,

smoke-soaked and soaked in alcohol, hundreds of

people, rushed into these districts.” And the second quote:

“It was my order, in order to

protect people. They began breaking into

apartments, went back into those apartments,

and we had to drag these

drug addicts out of the apartments.” Well, everyone knows that when

people in Russia took to the streets

with peaceful protests, the authorities also liked

to say that these were marginal elements, people who

were obviously outsiders, people who

didn’t belong, some other kind of people, and

so on—and drug addicts.

That they were out there for State Department cookies (a sarcastic reference to a common Russian propaganda trope) and so on.

More nonsense, as we can see.

There, I don't even know how Lukashenko can try to cover this up.

It was a huge mass protest, obviously.

Lukashenko—when people are united like this,

when they come out with such a shared emotional impulse,

he has to somehow explain

to his security forces why they are supposed to

disperse these people, and he came up with the idea that

they're drug addicts, so let's

crack down on the drug addicts. Although it's obvious from

any video or photograph from the rallies

that took place over the last more than two

months in Belarus

that the people there are not drug addicts at all—they are the very

best of the nation, literally.

These are the country's finest people, the elite—

athletes, I don't know, people from

business, yes, IT specialists,

students, medical workers,

teachers, and so on and so forth.

These are truly the best, the most

wonderful people in the country, those who

can fully be called

the pride of Belarus. They came out in peaceful

protests. They are not drug addicts, not alcoholics,

not some burned-out or smoke-addled

youth, as Lukashenko apparently means.

That's what he seems to be referring to.

A horrific video that we are about to show

next on our broadcast.

When security forces burst into an apartment

where protesters were hiding.

Let's watch it, although I've seen it

and of course it's very hard to watch.

[applause]

[applause]

It's hard to watch how these scum, these inhuman people,

who hide their faces behind

caps and balaclavas, are so afraid—

using them for anonymity, essentially because

they understand that they are committing a real

crime, simply beating people and

terrorizing them like this.

Ordinary peaceful people who simply

wanted fair elections, who wanted nothing more

than for the law to be respected, who simply wanted

the rule of law in their own country.

They even hide in apartment buildings—so they went in there and

started unleashing this terror there against

peaceful, peaceful

protesters. And it's clear—when you watch this

video, it's obvious why people are taking to

the streets in huge crowds.

And they will keep coming out, too. They do not

want to live in a country where this

lawlessness is happening, where security forces burst in,

fully geared up, with batons and

balaclavas,

and think they can

act as if they own people's lives, as if they

can beat, rape, and

abuse women, as if they can

commit total lawlessness and

face no consequences for it. People do not want to live in

this country like this. They are tired of this terror.

They are tired of fear. They simply want

to live in a peaceful country, and they have every

right to do so. And it's clear that people

are resisting, that they are continuing

the strikes. And on Monday, Tikhanovskaya

announced a nationwide strike, and

workers and students, despite the

enormous pressure that was being

put on them,

and despite all the intimidation,

still tried, and of course this

strike was organized and carried out.

Let's watch a short video of how

workers at the Minsk Tractor Plant

gathered for the strike.

[applause]

There is also video from the household appliance factory

Atlant.

I think many people know it—

Russians certainly do, because they buy these appliances.

[applause]

What we see are not smoke-addled drug addicts,

not alcoholics, not just some random youth. We

see workers who would like to work

at their factory and receive

decent pay for their labor. But they understand

that under Lukashenko this will not happen, that under

Lukashenko there will be economic stagnation, the country

will keep falling apart, and they will remain completely

without rights, that they will never be able

to stand up not only for their political

rights, but for labor rights and other

basic human rights—the right to live at all without

fear in their own country. And they understand that

they need to strike; there is no

other option. They can help their country precisely

through a strike. These are not loafers,

not idlers—on the contrary, they are conscious

citizens of Belarus who want to achieve

change for the better. Let's watch.

You see, the same goes for the students, because there were

many of them involved in the strike too.

I won't list the entire

list of universities, higher education institutions, and colleges in

Belarus whose students

went on strike. Here is just a video

from the Belarusian State

University of Informatics and

Radioelectronics, where students are walking down

the corridor chanting slogans.

[applause]

After the student protests, Lukashenko

said that protesting students should be

expelled as well. Let's show the quote, if we have it,

on screen.

Anyone who went out, in violation of the law, to an

unauthorized rally forfeits

the right to be a student. Send some of them to

the army, and some out onto the street—let them walk

the streets—but they must be expelled. And the

same goes for the teachers. There are only a few of them, but

some are behaving disgustingly in the universities. Well,

Lukashenko is simply staging a real

repression and outright terror

although it is clear that the whole country has already taken to the streets

this is truly a nationwide popular protest

a protest by all kinds of people

entire generations, people of different ages and different

levels of income and different social

standing — these are working people,

white-collar workers, managers, and also

factory workers, students, and

pensioners — pensioners are also coming out to

their traditional, long-established

protest action, which has by now become a tradition

and now the whole country, yes, absolutely

literally the entire country is in an uproar and

is trying to drive out, well, as they themselves surely

put it, the "mustachioed cockroach"

who has simply seized

the position of Belarus’s self-proclaimed president

who has seized and usurped power and is not

going to give it up, is not going to

hold new fair elections, even though

that is exactly what the people who

are taking to the streets, and international

observers, are demanding: hold

fair, normal elections and let the country itself

— the country itself —

choose the president who will

lead the country going forward. I want to say

that sooner or later, of course, Lukashenko

will have to go, because it is obvious that

the whole country is up in arms, the whole country does not

want to see him as president. This was

already clear back in August, when on the eve of the

election huge crowds of people

came out to rallies, especially to

meetings with Tikhanovskaya, in unprecedented

gatherings of people that took place both

in villages and in cities across Belarus, not

just in Minsk

Yes, it was also clear on voting day, judging by

the precinct protocols collected only at polling stations where

officials refused to falsify the election

the data coming in showed that Tikhanovskaya

was winning in the first round. This is clear

now, when the whole country

people of different social standings,

ages, income levels, genders,

and, I don’t know, religions, are coming out and saying

that no, we do not want to go on living in fear and

under threat of reprisals; we want to fight for our

country, for our future, and we will do it

peacefully, without weapons, but we will literally stand to

the very end. And of course, I have only one

question in this connection for our Russian

authorities: why support Lukashenko?

Why are they supporting an aging

dictator who is obviously

not going to remain in power much longer?

It is hard to say whether it is a matter of one or two

weeks or months, but it is obvious that

the point has already been reached

where this toothpaste cannot be squeezed

back into the tube: Belarusians will never again

trust

Lukashenko. He will forever remain

there, sitting now in his

residences as an illegitimate president

Why are we supporting him? Why are

the Russian authorities officially

supporting Lukashenko’s regime? By doing so

we are only pushing the people of the neighboring

country away

pushing Belarusians away from us, destroying

the ties that exist between our

countries, and

this is the height of shortsightedness

the shortsighted policy that

Vladimir Putin is pursuing by issuing loans to

Lukashenko and supporting him. He was one of the

first, if not the very first, to congratulate him on his

victory in an election that was obviously not

a real victory — it was obviously falsified

I do not understand why he is doing this

It seems to me this is a very, very big mistake

by the Kremlin and Putin to support

Lukashenko, whom the people of Belarus do not

want to see as president. Let’s

move on to Russia’s regions. I see

we have already been on air for more than an hour, and at various levels of government

a great deal has piled up, and I cannot help but

mention Dagestan

We keep talking about Moscow, about Khabarovsk, about

Belarus — all of that is very important, about the federal

agenda — but in the regions too there is absolutely

plenty of news coming in, and

one of those seemingly amusing

stories came from Dagestan, though on the other

hand it is quite revealing, and

I want to talk about it on our

broadcast

The new acting

head of Dagestan, the same man who

previously served as the first

deputy head of the city district, Sergei Melnikov,

has decided to fight signs in

foreign languages

Quote: “If it’s some café, then it absolutely has to be called

San Francisco, Los Angeles, Havana — there are no other

letters except Latin ones. When all this

evil

when all this evil comes from there, and yet we

promote it? Let the name

correspond to the place in which

we live. Let it be Derbent Window,

Dagestani Dawn,” Melnikov said

at a meeting on development and

construction. After that, the New

Balance store located in the region

reported that their banners had been torn down, and

later on Instagram the store wrote

that the advertising had been removed on the instructions of

the administration, without informing us

in advance. And in connection with this, I would like

to say that according to RIA Rating, 34% of

working residents of Dagestan earn

less than 15,000 rubles a month (about $160) — by this

measure, Dagestan holds the unfortunate

first place among all regions of Russia

There is enormous corruption in this ranking.

Unemployment, coronavirus, and the state of affairs.

The state of healthcare can be called a problem in Dagestan.

It took a very long time.

And what did the head of the republic decide to fight?

With signs in foreign languages.

At the same time, he said that all this

filth comes from there, and apparently other letters didn't bother him.

It didn't offend him when all evil was said to come

from there. I would like former top

officials, as well as current ones,

including the acting head

of Dagestan, to explain how all evil

comes from the West.

Dmitry Peskov, whose daughter studied and

lived abroad, and whose family has property in France,

Vladimir Solovyov, who

has two villas on Lake Como in Italy,

and Shuvalov as well,

who has apartments in the United Kingdom and

a castle in Salzburg, and so on and so forth.

One could go on for a long time listing how our

officials move their money abroad,

how officials and propagandists who have enriched themselves

while holding foreign

citizenship, including British citizenship,

send their money and their children abroad,

while they themselves drain the lifeblood from our

country. Let him tell them that all evil

comes from there—not from the West, but from our own words and deeds.

The evil comes from Russian corrupt officials, and

fighting shop signs is, of course, I don't know,

funny and absurd, but let's pay

attention to the truly urgent

problems of our regions. In the first

part of our broadcast, I spent half an hour

listing the news

that was coming in just this

day about how our country is trying to cope

with the coronavirus pandemic, how people's incomes

are falling,

how workers, the unemployed, and pensioners

are seeing their incomes collapse, including young

families. And instead, what is being proposed

by the official, the head of the republic,

the top official in Dagestan—what does he propose?

To fight a New Balance store sign.

What nonsense. When you read news like this about

this, you think: seriously?

Are there really no other problems left?

There is, of course, a problem—but the problem lies

not with us, but with top corrupt officials, in that

besides dragging their

illegally earned fortunes abroad,

they also hide large assets inside Russia and

try at various levels

to stash them away somewhere on Rublyovka (an elite area outside Moscow) and

in other interesting places around our country, but

they do not want this

to be discovered, and of course they hide it.

That is why this week

data appeared showing that once again

property records in Rosreestr (Russia's state real estate registry) were closed off,

including data on Mishustin's real estate.

And now the leadership of the FSB (Russia's security service) and

the Defense Ministry as well—this was reported by Open Media.

And I would like to say that of course

Putin, Mishustin,

Medvedev, or anyone else can talk all they want about

fighting corruption, but we can see that in

reality there is no real anti-corruption effort in Russia.

There is not even a hint of it. No one is genuinely pursuing it; there is

no anti-corruption system at all.

Individual criminal cases look more like

score-settling within the elite and attempts to seize

businesses, to redivide spheres of influence and

resources. But in reality, the only thing

they do is hide—simply

hide data from Rosreestr because

they are afraid that the Anti-Corruption Foundation, the media,

journalists,

or other investigators will look into it

find it, uncover it, publish it, and the whole

country will learn just how deeply

our officials are mired in corruption. There was also

news about Mishustin, since we're

talking about him: Meduza

published an article saying that by chance

it discovered that in Moscow, QR codes

were introduced so that Moscow residents could

visit

nightclubs and bars,

and when a QR code was issued to one of

the people, he posted it on Instagram

Stories, and it was visible there that one of the

bars

for which that QR code had been issued

belonged to a company that the

Anti-Corruption Foundation had previously

investigated.

That company belongs to

Mishustin's sister and her husband.

Alexander Udodov. After that,

he sued Alexei Navalny after

our investigation was published. But the fact

remains a fact: the family

of Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin

does not merely live well—it clearly lives

far too well, which of course suggests

that corruption is behind it.

And they are also trying

to hide it, because Meduza wrote not only

that this bar belongs to a legal entity

whose owners are

Mishustin's sister and her husband, but they

then tried to hide that data when

this information reached the media. They

simply said that from now on QR codes

issued for visits to

bars would no longer show the company

or the name of the legal entity. In other words, they

are not only trying to scrub this information from Rosreestr,

they are trying to clean it up here as well,

in this very system that they themselves invented,

where this slip-up happened,

and they are even trying to clean that up. They are afraid,

afraid to show their wealth because

they understand that this wealth was amassed through corruption.

simply through corruption, and to explain

the origin of all these

billions. And we talked about how

Mishustin’s family has real estate worth 3

billion rubles (about $33 million), which cannot be explained by any

legal means of acquiring

real estate — it’s simply impossible. I’d also like

to talk as well

since we’ve started talking about corruption,

I’d also like to say something about

law enforcement agencies, because

about Vorontsov as well

and about the Police Ombudsman public page, I

spoke in a separate video on the channel

Navalny LIVE, about this criminal case

and the persecution of Vladimir

Vorontsov, who was the administrator of

the public page “Police Ombudsman”

who published information about

various violations of labor rights

of law enforcement officers

and who defended the rights of officers

in court when

they tried to sue their own

superiors, and who said that

the Interior Ministry leadership had completely rotted away

and was completely mired in corruption,

various abuses, and so on, and

that individual officers are trying

to resist this and defend their rights,

though they do not always succeed. He simply

published this information in the public page

Police Ombudsman; he defended their rights in

court, acting there as their legal

representative. And against Vorontsov

the Interior Ministry unleashed a real war — it simply

declared war on him. Fourteen

criminal cases were opened against him. It seems to me this is an absolute

record for Russia. The only possible

rival is probably only Alexei

Navalny, against whom they also very much

love to bring criminal cases. Of those 14 cases,

2 are under the article on extortion, 1 on

defamation, 3 on

distribution of pornography, and 8 on

insulting a government official

Vorontsov, of course, does not admit guilt. He

has said through his lawyers, and personally when he was still

not under all these restrictions, that

these cases

are absolutely fabricated, that they were

cooked up solely in order to silence

him, to frighten the other

police officers so that they would be afraid and not

speak out. Yes, there is no doubt that Vorontsov

for example, on the Police Ombudsman public page

published police officers’ opinions and generally

spoke out about things like

the protests that took place last

year in Moscow, when we, independent

candidates and Muscovites, defended our right

to have our own representatives in the elections

to the Moscow City Duma, and I

remember that on the public page there were

messages saying that indeed

beating peaceful protesters is

wrong, that the police should not be doing

that, that people were simply coming out

to defend their rights, doing so peacefully,

and therefore they should not be

beaten with batons, shoved into

police vans, and given days of arrest

— it was complete lawlessness.

So that was a kind of

community of police officers

of a new kind, you could say, and that is why

the leadership really did not like

the fact that someone there, without authorization,

was trying to express an opinion

that someone was trying to defend their rights, not

lumping everyone together. I also remember

messages circulating in the spring of this year

that

police officers were also not being given

personal protective equipment and were being forced

to buy it at their own expense.

And the salaries of rank-and-file

law enforcement officers are fairly

low, so doing that is not

always possible for them, and

in general, the full, well, I don’t know, this

full set of personal protective equipment

should be provided to them by the leadership

and purchased at the expense of

the employer. They wrote about this too. This

also greatly irritated the Interior Ministry when they wrote about

corruption among certain police officials

and police ranks — this also very much

annoyed the leadership, and so against

Vorontsov they unleashed a war.

Now this war has gone far beyond that;

it has expanded further, and now they have already

started pressuring and persecuting those

police officers who supported this

public page,

Police Ombudsman, which Vorontsov headed and

ran. By the way, an article came out on

Mediazona saying that in Moscow police officers are being dismissed

on suspicion of supporting the project

Police Ombudsman; that three of them — two

patrol sergeants and one detective

major — resigned voluntarily because

they were being pressured, and that one woman

who had transferred either 50 or 100

rubles (about $0.50–$1) to help someone — that is, she

was identified, and pressure began to be put on her. According

to the employee, she was scheduled for certification

and given only three days to prepare. She could not answer some

of the questions because

there had been far too little time to prepare, and

then she was fired.

At the same time, she was required to vacate

the service housing where she lives with her school-age daughter.

In other words, they began picking out

these, well, literally random people

who had transferred only, if not

a tiny amount, then 50 rubles (about $0.50), and you

had supported this public page and sent money there.

He was talking about money—what money, where would it even come from?

Support has long been given to Vorontsov there by police officers.

for legal assistance

to police officers who suffer from

lawlessness, often no less than other

people.

No, we’re going to fire you—that is,

these kinds of targeted reprisals against

law enforcement officers

in order to make an example of them, to

punish them, to say: no, you must

sit quietly and not

stand up for any of your rights. So

of course, I spoke about Vorontsov’s case

and released a video on our channel, and I will

keep talking about it, because I believe

that many police officers are in

the very same condition that

other citizens of our country are in.

They live in a state of near-total powerlessness, when they

cannot even protect their own labor

rights, yes—they may not receive their salaries,

or personal protective equipment.

When they try to turn to

their superiors with some kind of request,

they are ignored, and they end up having to

appeal to the administrator of some public page

on VKontakte (a Russian social network) just to somehow

move the situation off dead center. So we need

to fight not the consequences, but the causes, and

the cause is complete powerlessness and lawlessness

which, among other things, flourishes inside

the system

of the so-called law enforcement

agencies of our country. I often say that

both from lawlessness in our country

people of different genders suffer,

ages,

and different social standing.

In the previous broadcast, I gave

an example of how people suffer from

the injustice of the judicial system, and

in our country both ministers and ordinary people do.

People of different status. And so

police officers suffer too, and that is why

reform of law enforcement agencies and

reform of the judicial system in our country

are needed by literally everyone, because in our courts

in Russia, no one can defend

their rights—literally no one, whether

you are a police officer,

whether you are a minister close to Putin,

an opposition figure, or whoever you may be,

someone not connected to politics,

a businessman, or anyone else—no one can

protect their rights and achieve

justice. And justice must

exist for everyone; everyone must be equal

before the law.

One of the last things I want

to touch on is Volodin and teachers, because

I also can’t pass by this topic.

It also resonated quite strongly.

I recently read that the Speaker

of the State Duma, Volodin, called for order to be restored in

teachers’ salaries. According to Volodin,

teachers often receive salaries of

15,000–17,000 rubles (about $160–$185), while the average in the region

comes to around 30,000 rubles (about $325). He also

spoke about the problem of salaries in

colleges and technical schools.

The extra payments for homeroom supervision

that exist in schools are absent in colleges and technical schools,

those bonuses are missing, and no one wants

to work there because salaries in schools

are higher. I would like to say that it is wonderful

that Volodin is following the messages that

appear on our social media,

because the issue that in technical schools and

colleges the bonuses that

school teachers receive for homeroom supervision

are absent there as well has been raised

actively by the Teachers’ Alliance over the course of

recent months. It is an independent

teachers’ union in Russia—follow them

on social media—and they have actively

raised this issue, saying that it is not

fair. And in April, among others, the Alliance was contacted by

teachers from technical

schools and colleges, and so now this

topic has already been picked up by Volodin, who is trying

to seize the initiative—and fine, let him

keep doing that, let him keep

doing something. But so far, beyond words, there have been no

real signs of progress from Volodin.

He made this statement, but before that Putin, for example, had said

in January 2019 that teachers’ salaries

should not fall below the regional average

for the economy. That was in January

2019, and now the Speaker of the State Duma, in

October 2020, is repeating roughly the same

thing. More than a year and a half has passed,

and the situation has not moved off dead center.

And then there were Vladimir Putin’s May Decrees

in 2012, which said that teachers

were supposed to receive, under those presidential decrees,

average regional salaries.

Where is the implementation of the May Decrees

from 2012? Eight years have already passed.

Vladimir Putin repeated this again in January 2019,

and nothing is happening. Why

isn’t Volodin addressing these questions to Putin?

Why isn’t he addressing them to the prime minister?

To the Minister of Education—why are

Putin’s orders not being carried out? Why

does he only make these statements

publicly, to seize the agenda, so to speak?

That is, let’s say, the position of the Teachers’ Alliance,

an independent union: instead of

actually making sure that teachers’ salaries

for teachers

are raised to a normal level so that they

can stop merely surviving and start living normally,

and afford to buy not only food

and clothing, but also durable

goods.

According to Rosstat (Russia’s federal statistics agency), 64 percent

of young families do not have enough money.

I talked about food and clothing at the beginning

of our broadcast.

Well, I’d like to say that the Speaker of the

State Duma (the lower house of Russia’s parliament) should really be asked about this.

For some reason, though, no one is asking Putin this question. In other words,

why is it that

our Russian economy is in such a deplorable state?

Why are the wages of working people so low?

Why are pensions what they are?

Why do teachers receive such low

salaries—15,000 to 17,000 rubles (about 15,000–17,000 RUB)? And you know, Volodin

knows about this. Why is nothing moving

off dead center? Where is any kind of result?

Putin has been in power for 20 years. In those 20 years,

a lot could have been done. They say

that to change a country

completely, to make truly substantial

serious changes in the economy and

in the political sphere, to carry out

judicial reform, all you need is two

electoral cycles.

That’s eight years. Putin has already been in power for 20 years.

But for some reason, Volodya (a familiar form of Vladimir) doesn’t ask Putin these questions.

He asks them of someone else, apparently.

Who exactly is he addressing all of this to, I wonder?

That’s a very good question. And at the same time, yes, I

think it’s worth reminding Volodin of his

own words—that it is not oil and

gas that are our advantage. As you can see,

oil and gas can fall in price. Our

advantage is Putin, and we must

protect him. That is a quote from Volodin, which

I will keep reminding people of every single time, and every

time it needs to be shown when Volodin

acts surprised about why salaries in our

country, including teachers’ salaries, are at such a low level.

Because maybe it’s time to stop

declaring that without Putin

there is no Russia, that it’s not oil and gas that are our

advantage but Putin—and instead start

doing something so that our

real advantage is people,

their well-being and their standard of living, and not something else.

I also can’t avoid mentioning the terrorist attack in France.

A horrific crime at the Notre-Dame Basilica in

Nice, where a man armed with a knife killed

three people.

According to media reports, one of the victims

was beheaded.

The mayor of Nice reported that the attack was carried out by a

radicalized Muslim. He shouted

“Allahu Akbar,” even when he was being given

medical assistance after his arrest. And now

world leaders are expressing condolences

to France and speaking out against terrorism.

And it’s not only officials making these statements—

not only world leaders, let’s say, but

ordinary people as well. Of course, I want

to say that this was a horrific terrorist attack, a horrific

crime

for which there can be absolutely no justification.

There can, of course, be no justification. I

am, of course, against any

and have always spoken out against the humiliation,

insulting, and persecution of people on

religious grounds. I myself am

Orthodox Christian, and I don’t like it when

people who do not believe try to impose their point of view on me.

I believe that I do not have the right

to impose my views on religion on anyone,

and I believe that no one has the right

to impose

their views on religion on me either. But again,

there can be no justification whatsoever

for terrorism, no justification whatsoever

for murdering people, beheading them,

for attacks, and for the nightmare that unfolded today.

There can be no justification for any of it.

No motives of any kind can justify it.

Since we’ve started talking about religion, I also

wanted to talk about the widely discussed

article by the outlet Proekt and its high-profile

investigation into the property holdings of Patriarch

Kirill and his relatives.

The investigation says that the Patriarch and

two of his cousins own

real estate in Moscow, the Moscow

region, and St. Petersburg, which can be

valued in total at 225 million

rubles, according to Proekt.

According to the report, the Patriarch himself owns

three apartments, including a 145-square-meter apartment

in the House on the Embankment in Moscow.

The media had previously written about this apartment.

At present, however, the owner’s details in the registry

are concealed, as are those for a 38-square-meter apartment in Moscow and an 80-

three-square-meter apartment in St. Petersburg.

One of the Patriarch’s cousins,

73-year-old Lidia Leonova, according to Proekt,

owns a 183-square-meter apartment

in Moscow, a 300-square-meter house in Odintsovo District

in the Moscow region, and a 121-square-meter

apartment in St. Petersburg.

The Patriarch’s second cousin, 63-year-old

Elena Khodanova, Proekt writes, owns

two apartments, one in Moscow and one in

St. Petersburg, as well as seven apartments, a house, and shares in

residential property.

The total estimated value is 225 million

rubles. And as someone who, as I said from the start,

is Orthodox Christian and wears a cross, many people

who communicate with me regularly

know that this really matters to me.

This is not some accidental issue for me.

I go to church, and of course this

news and this investigation by the outlet

Proekt probably upset and outraged me

not less, but more, than people

with atheist views, because

the Patriarch himself called on the clergy

to give up luxury cars,

to renounce luxury and live modestly, and

at the same time, according to this outlet,

according to media reports, he and his

relatives own property worth

an enormous amount of money. That is, of course,

the height of hypocrisy, and I couldn’t

not mention that either. In the film, I suppose, we...

We'll wrap up here.

I can answer a couple of questions, if...

if I read the ones you're submitting, I just...

No, there won't be questions right now—I can't...

read them myself at the moment, and the team also...

won't be able to get them to me quickly right now. So let me...

answer your questions during the next live stream.

I'll definitely start with them—we can even begin with those...

that you leave in the comments under...

the recording of our live stream.

I didn't spend much time answering these questions in this stream...

so I promise I'll address them next time.

So tune in to the live stream...

"Russia of the Future" next Thursday at 8:00 PM.

on the Navalny Live channel. See you then.

Thank you to everyone who watched our broadcast,

who will leave comments,

who supports our channel, who subscribed,

who became sponsors of our channel, who...

supports us

morally, informationally, financially—

in every possible way. As I traditionally say, we...

will definitely win—there is no doubt about it.

Have a good evening, everyone.

[music]