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Hi, this is Navalny. Well, exactly one week
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ago we published our major
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investigation, *He Is Not Dimon to You*, about the palaces
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yachts, vineyards, and other secret
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assets of Russian Prime Minister Dmitry
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Medvedev, and, it seems to me, we
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quite convincingly proved that this
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man is one of the biggest
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corrupt figures in Russia. In one week, our
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film was watched by more than 7 million people on
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YouTube and more than 2 million on Odnoklassniki (a Russian social network).
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Links to the investigation flooded
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pretty much all social media, and all the
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largest and most respected global media outlets—*The New
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York Times*, *The Guardian*, Bloomberg, and so on—
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published articles about our investigation.
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The biggest international TV channels covered
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it. Just look, for example, at *The Rachel
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Maddow Show*—it’s one of the most popular
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in the United States—and she did a full
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22-minute segment and went into considerable detail
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recounting all of our findings. And so
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at this point, of course, I ought to say that in
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the Russian media everything was completely filled
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with information about our exposé. But the truth
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is exactly the opposite.
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Zero information. Literally not
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a single word was said about Medvedev’s
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corruption on the main TV channels or
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the main radio stations. Among print
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media, only a tiny number of the most
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independent outlets managed to tell
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their readers about Medvedev’s secret
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property. The biggest newspapers, all those
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*Komsomolskaya Pravda*, *Argumenty i Fakty* (major Russian newspapers),
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didn’t say a single word at all.
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In other words, total silence. Well then, let’s
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look at the reaction of public officials.
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Maybe they said something, after all
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the country’s prime minister is being accused of corruption,
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the leader of the ruling party. In
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most other countries, actually, even
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a tenth of what we revealed
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would simply have led to the resignation of the entire
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government. For example, recently in
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South Korea, a similar case occurred.
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In much the same way, big business made
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donations—that is, bribes—to
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nonprofit foundations that were
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used by the country’s president. When everything
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came to light, local newspapers spent several
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weeks writing about nothing else. Then
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mass demonstrations began, with
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100,000 people and even more, after which
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the president was impeached and formally
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charged criminally, while
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the businessmen who had bribed her, including
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the head of Samsung, were arrested.
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So what about Russia?
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Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev himself—total
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silence. His immediate boss,
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Vladimir Putin—total silence.
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The Prosecutor General’s Office—total silence. The Investigative
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Committee—total silence. The judicial system—
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total silence. The Russian parliament—well,
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there are supposedly some people sitting there
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who call themselves the opposition, but no,
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still total silence. They are afraid
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even to say just a single word
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about it to this day, and a week has passed. We
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have only three official comments
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regarding our investigation, which
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millions of citizens have, after all,
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seen. The first is from the press secretary
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of Prime Minister Dmitry
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Medvedev. She refused to comment on the substance
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because I am an opposition politician
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and a convicted criminal. Second, the press secretary
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of Vladimir Putin, Dmitry Peskov, called
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our investigation the creative work
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of a well-known convicted citizen. That is,
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I’m the convicted citizen, and he also
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refused to discuss it on the merits.
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Though here I’m not surprised at all,
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because that mustachioed thief has plenty of
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good reasons not to like our foundation, from the
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investigations we did about him, about his
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watch worth 37 million rubles (about US$640,000 at the time) and his trips on a
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yacht costing 26 million rubles per week (about US$450,000 per week at the time).
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The only detailed comment came from
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the secretary general of the United
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Russia party, Sergei Neverov. As I understand it,
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he simply decided to stand up for the honor of the leader
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of his party and wrote an entire page
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of what was, frankly, absolute insane nonsense. At the same time,
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he did not say a single word
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about the substance. He even managed not
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to write the name Medvedev even once. Instead, in
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his post he called me Lyosha (a familiar form of Alexei), condemned
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me for not having served in the army,
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reminded everyone, of course, that I’m a criminal, and
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signed it—and this is the best part—as
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a full holder of the Miner’s Glory badge (a Soviet/Russian labor decoration).
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You really couldn’t make this up.
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And that’s it. That is the entire reaction
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of the state authorities of the Russian
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Federation to direct accusations of
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corruption against the leader of the ruling party and
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prime minister. The accusations are backed, well,
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by detailed evidence and even
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video footage of the high life. Several
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million people saw our
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investigation. I have no doubt that most
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of them have questions for
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Medvedev and Putin, along the lines of: Guys, explain
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at least something. But no explanations so
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far, and I am sure there won’t be any.
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Why? The first reason is, you know, they
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simply cannot argue with us, because
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everything in our investigation is true, from
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the first word to the last. Notice
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that they are not suing me,
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not calling me a slanderer, not
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trying to prove that these palaces
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belong not to Medvedev but to someone else,
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some oligarch, say. Because in that
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case they would have to engage with us on the substance,
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and in that argument we would once again prove that
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We are right, and Medvedev is indeed one of the biggest
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corrupt officials, buying palaces through
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charitable foundations. And the second reason
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Well, there you have it: they simply have nothing to say.
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To all these people, to everyone—well, once again,
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to the millions of Russian citizens who live
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below the poverty line, essentially in destitution, and
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they are terrified. The Russian authorities
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are terribly afraid that women like this,
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who have to pay 9,000 rubles a month for
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an apartment where the ceiling leaks, will find out about
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their palaces and yachts and start asking
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the obvious questions: 13,000 rubles ($140–$150) to live on—how?
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I'm alone, disabled, and I say this is
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mockery. That is exactly why there is such
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total censorship and a total blackout
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of our information across all the media. The people
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who have seized power in Russia—they
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ignore any accusations of corruption and
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rely on censorship, because
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the contrast between their standard of living and
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the standard of living of the rest of the population
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is becoming so stark that it
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cannot be ignored. Looking at this
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contrast, anyone can see that the main
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reason for their low standard of living is
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the theft committed by that very same government. Exactly.
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That is why the president of South Korea
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was impeached for corruption. There,
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the average salary is 145,000 rubles a month, while in
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Russia, where Medvedev gets away with
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crimes on a much larger scale,
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the average salary is five times lower—36,000
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rubles—and that is a direct connection. And since
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they—Putin, Medvedev, United Russia—have all
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together set themselves the task
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of silencing our investigation and
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ignoring it, our shared task
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is to spread information about it
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even more widely. Look, this video
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will be watched by 300,000 or 400,000 people, but
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those who will actually help spread it—well,
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maybe 50,000 people. The rest, of course,
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will get outraged, curse the people in
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the government, but they will do nothing.
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But this is exactly what needs to be done, my friends—by everyone,
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and by each of you. Especially since I am talking about
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such a relatively simple task as
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sharing links among friends
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and acquaintances. Do it to make life harder
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for those who steal our money
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and build palaces for themselves with it. And while we're at it,
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let's all together conduct an interesting
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experiment: how many people in Russia
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need to watch our investigation
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for Putin and Medvedev to finally
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answer to the citizens.
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Subscribe to our channel here
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they speak
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the truth.