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Hi, Ruslan Shaveddinov and Georgy Alburov are with you.
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This is practically an emergency broadcast.
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We’ve just gotten back
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from a meeting with deputy Metelsky, and we have
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a lot of fresh impressions and can hardly
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wait to tell you about them. But first,
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a bit of context.
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Deputy Metelsky has spent the last 18 years
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in the Moscow City Duma; he is the deputy chairman,
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meaning the second most important deputy. This summer, we
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released a huge investigation about him.
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We found that he has four
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hotels and a palace in Austria, a hectare of land
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in central Moscow,
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the Lefortovo residential complex, and a whole lot of
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other real estate and businesses registered in the names of
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his family, plus interesting details like
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the fact that 300 million rubles were transferred to his personal accounts
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in the form of fictitious loans—about 300 million rubles
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(roughly $4.7 million at the time). That’s the short version,
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in case you forgot or didn’t watch it. If you want
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to see it, the link to the investigation is in
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the description. So, 18 years as a deputy isn’t enough for Metelsky,
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and now he’s running for another
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five-year term in constituency No. 15, which includes the districts of
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Golyanovo, Severnoye Izmaylovo,
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and Metrogorodok. He’s running as an independent
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candidate and has already collected the signatures.
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Ha ha, he was allowed onto the ballot—what a surprise—and now he’s
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supposedly campaigning. But the campaign is
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naturally fake: supposedly, he’s holding meetings with
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Golyanovo residents.
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It’s almost impossible to find out
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when and where they’re happening, but we found out and snuck in. And
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what was going on there was just—I can’t even think of a censored word
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for it. See for yourselves how
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Metelsky campaigns. Here’s how the deputy
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began his speech:
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He really is capable of...
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And then there are those who, instead of...
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trying to whip up the crowd, to stir people up,
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to call for unrest and try
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to use Maidan-style tactics (a reference to Ukraine’s protest movement)
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that were imported to us from nearby countries,
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from our neighboring states, so to speak...
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...
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That is what happened in Ukraine, we saw it.
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And now we see how it happens—what they tried to do today
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they tried
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with the help of agitation
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to overturn the city authorities’ decision,
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they tried through unrest to force
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the city government to adopt certain
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decisions that were in no way based on
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the law or any understanding of the law.
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That’s clear. I hope that
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our opposition figures also understand this
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and will act within the law,
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within the legal framework.
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Now we can officially say:
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Metelsky is not only a thief, but also insane,
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a feeble-minded man,
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who speaks Russian very poorly. He can’t
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formulate a single
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sentence or one coherent thought.
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And this is a deputy running for
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the Moscow parliament. He’s not some random
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crazy priest, Cossack, or guest
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on Solovyov’s TV show (a well-known pro-Kremlin political talk show).
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He is supposed to represent the interests
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of Muscovites, the interests of the capital. And what is he offering
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these Muscovites? Unrest, troublemakers, Maidan
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tactics, an order from the U.S.
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Right after that brief excursion into
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Maidan tactics and unrest,
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Metelsky turned to us, to the Anti-Corruption Foundation,
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even though he still didn’t know
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we were in the room. No one had asked him
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anything yet—apparently he just had us on his mind.
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The comrade is clearly in a difficult situation.
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We know about all sorts of so-called investigations,
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custom-made exposés,
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and commissioned films.
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But at bottom, it’s all just commercial score-settling,
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nothing more. And today representatives
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of the so-called opposition will stir things up and then quietly run away,
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while people are left one-on-one with the situation.
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That’s exactly what happened in Ukraine.
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In Ukraine,
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just the same, people were left behind,
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left alone with their problems.
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That’s all. And after that came a slippery slope:
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the loss of territorial integrity, and ultimately
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the loss of statehood. Here’s another brilliant
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fragment: deputy Metelsky, who wants
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Muscovites’ votes, explains why he is
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innocent—because if he were guilty,
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they would have said so on
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television. Excuse me, promoting yourself for
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YouTube is all well and good, but haven’t you noticed
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why all of this is temporary? Because
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you didn’t find anything.
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Because it’s not our area
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of responsibility, and there’s no need to answer for anything there.
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Any appeal coming from there
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is ignored.
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And any evidence there is simply not
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seen. That’s why none of this appears on
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our TV screens. Why doesn’t it appear
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in the newspapers? Well, come on, you understand.
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You understand that we didn’t go there
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to laugh, but to ask questions about
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the origin of Metelsky’s multi-billion-ruble
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fortune, even though he is prohibited from
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engaging in business.
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Let’s see what came of it.
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Your mother is a 75-year-old pensioner.
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Please tell us, how does she own
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four—how does your mother own four
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hotels in Austria? How can a 75-year-old...
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That’s nonsense. In my childhood, I had...
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a living room.
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None of this is true. Why? Because I do not
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own any of it.
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When I came to the Moscow City Duma,
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I had been in business, and I had a business.
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And of course, when the law was passed
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stating that a deputy does not have the right
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I was running a business, and that business
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I naturally transferred to my mother.
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their own families, and I no longer have that kind of
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business.
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And what is it you can make so delicious out of it?
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It was going to be sold; I was supposed to hand it over to my uncle
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and so on. What was I supposed to do, then?
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Clean it?
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Also, a letter to my sensei,
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At 27, he is an adult, works on his own, and
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earns his own money. And the fact that today in our
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country it is not forbidden to take out loans is also
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fine. Comrades, on the ninth
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of September, I will defend my honor
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in court, dear comrades, so
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please produce the Excel document.
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So Andrei Nikolaevich will be condemning
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not as a representative. Believe me, I will make sure
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that, in general, Metelsky stands out.
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promised that on September 9 he would sue us.
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We are very much looking forward to it. But in essence, this is once again
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nothing: he owns nothing, he has nothing
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to his name; supposedly everything was earned by his 75-year-old mother.
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Moreover, the other people present at the meeting,
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people of approximately the same age,
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were not at all bothered by the existence of a billionaire pensioner.
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It did not bother them in the slightest. They shouted at us,
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interrupted us, grabbed our clothes, and would not let us
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say a single word. Any complaints to Metel-
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sky.
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I will ask you a question: is this important, or are you afraid?
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Show some respect here. You say the documents should go to
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court—then take them there.
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Here are the documents that are at our disposal.
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Well, anyone can take a look.
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We did not pull this out of nowhere—there is an arbitration court ruling
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which states that your mother took out
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a loan of 500 million rubles (about 5 million USD) and did not
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repay it. And for half an hour you were telling us
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about the West, about some kind of work, about
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some people who somehow stand for evolution,
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you changed your mind somewhere along the way, and now you are telling us
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about the West—how does that
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make sense?
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Please explain. I will begin with the fact that the deputies of
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United Russia (the ruling political party) — that is one thing. Secondly, you
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look: one, two—it is perfectly clear to any reasonable person
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what kind of people came here: they came to disrupt
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the meeting. No problem—our majority
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is clear. Fine, then let me answer.
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Now we will put this question to a vote.
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If everyone, so to speak, no longer wants to listen
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to this, then so be it.
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Comrades felt otherwise, but the fact that
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you got something from somewhere there, by some
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unclear means—fine, let us return to the court matter.
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From the prosecutor's office? Please, I am not afraid.
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Please, the subject is closed. Comrades, one
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thing can be said for certain: we are definitely very
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glad that we attended this meeting.
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It gave us the opportunity to show you,
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dear viewers,
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a United Russia member, so to speak, in his natural
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habitat: a completely incoherent
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stream of thoughts that make no sense,
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ornate passages about the Maidan (the Ukrainian protest movement) and external
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signals. This was an entirely closed-door meeting
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that, no matter how much one might have wanted to, could not have been attended by
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a single real local resident
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of Golyanovo—people simply would not have known about it. And
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even if someone had gotten in, they would have left with
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only one thought: under no circumstances whatsoever
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under any conditions
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should they ever vote for Metel-
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sky or for United Russia. And here is this kind of
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great campaign newspaper they were handing out.
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There is even a recipe here for Baltic-style
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cold beet soup—Metelsky's, or perhaps his mother's.
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And there are some other wonderful little features too.
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Smart Voting, Smart Voting.
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Shout it to every resident of Golyanovo, Izmailovo,
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and Metrogorodok.
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Smart Voting is truly the only
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chance you have to get rid of this
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crazy, incompetent,
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thieving deputy and billionaire.
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Here is the website—register there and
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vote for the person who has
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the best chance of defeating Metelkov.
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Fill out a very simple form,
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leave your email address, and we will send you
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the candidate's surname. On September 8, you will need to go
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to your polling station and vote.
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It is all simple, effective, and legal—no
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rabble-rousing, no alternative 'Ukrainian-style' scenario.
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But you should know—no pattern like that here.
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Let's do it again: Maidan, right, got carried away...
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the chosen nation, and Putin on c6.
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And this is the president, president, president—
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Putin. Yes, you almost guessed it—one registration form
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candidate 20.2—incorrect registration.