Text version
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Not only Khabarovsk Krai, but the whole
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country has been tormented by one question for the past two weeks:
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is Mikhail Degtyaryov really that
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stupid, or is he pretending? So, you have, uh,
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three
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opinions: Putin's opinion, the opinion
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of Zhirinovsky, and the opinion of the people of Khabarovsk. So which
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one matters most to you? Which of these opinions
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is the main one? And the opinions of all three of these
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parties
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do not differ on a single issue.
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They don't differ at all—pick any one.
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Name one, just at random, and I'll tell you
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they are absolutely identical.
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Honeysuckle.
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Do you have any ice cream?
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I'll go buy some ice cream now. Usually when I
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want to laugh at an official, I
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show a video with idiotic
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statements, but in Degtyaryov's case
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you can show any of his videos: he either
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spouts some nonsense or talks about the banya (traditional Russian bathhouse).
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Colleagues, journalists, what do you think about
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the bathhouse?
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How are we going to steam ourselves, and where, in a bathhouse in
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Khabarovsk?
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Who do you go to the bathhouse with? I go to the bathhouse with
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men, of course.
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Makes sense. And I will continue going to a Russian
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banya
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exclusively with men. However, I want
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to say with full responsibility: he
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is pretending. You know the type—
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stupid but cunning. That's Degtyaryov.
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He plays the fool, but in reality
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he rakes in money for helping
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United Russia members solve their problems, including
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by acting like a clown. Let me get straight to
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the point: what is the public
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image of the governor of Khabarovsk Krai,
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Degtyaryov? Zhirinovsky's servant, and even more so
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the Kremlin's servant. He says
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these funny stupid things, and he has nothing
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special. No, he's not rich: in his financial disclosure
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there's only a deputy's salary and a tiny
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income for his wife. Add up all his income over
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his years as a deputy and you won't see anything
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outstanding. His parents are ordinary too;
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until recently, both worked
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as doctors in Samara. They really worked there—we
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checked. In short, Misha is a simple guy
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from Samara, close to the people, he understands
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the problems of ordinary people. And now let's look at
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the real Mikhail Degtyaryov: together with
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Zhirinovsky, he does the job of acting as a fake opposition
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for money. In 2013,
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in the Moscow mayoral election, Degtyaryov takes part,
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spouts his ridiculous nonsense: 'The Russian soul
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demands
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weekly communication, weekly
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...' He does not criticize Sobyanin or Putin, but
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on the contrary, praises them. If he criticizes anyone,
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it's mostly only me. And in the end he gets
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his two and a half percent. And
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exactly a month later, our not-so-wealthy
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Degtyaryov suddenly has some hard cash in his pockets.
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His dad, a simple gynecologist from
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Samara, on October 9, 2013, bought a plot of land
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of 16 sotkas (about 1,600 square meters) two kilometers (about 1.2 miles) from the MKAD (Moscow Ring Road) and
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began active construction. According to the documents,
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the house is modest—266 square meters. A doctor from Samara
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couldn't afford even that. But when we
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went to see what they had built,
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we saw that the structure looks
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rather expensive—not only for a doctor, but even
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for a deputy. We fly up to the house
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registered in Degtyaryov's father's name and see
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a quite pleasant, well-kept plot. On the left
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there is a greenhouse, in the middle the main house, and near
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the fence a trampoline for Degtyaryov's children—he has
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four of them. We fly a little farther and see
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a small artificial pond. How nice it must be
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to plunge into it after a banya. The building where
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the inflatable pool stands is actually
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part of the main house. We fly farther still and
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see satellite dishes and four chimneys.
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No doubt: this is where
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the political magic of the LDPR happens. This is a bathhouse. On
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the other side of the building there is a parking area;
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it's very convenient to drive into it in the family
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Mercedes. The whole plot covers an area of
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1,600 square meters. But the most
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interesting thing is something else: according to the documents,
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the size of this
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building, with the parking area, bathhouse, and God knows what else,
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is only
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266 square meters. But we can see that
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the real area is somewhere around 1,000.
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The governor's thrifty family preferred
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to register this building with
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its area understated by a factor of four, and
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now they are saving very nicely on taxes.
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We estimate the construction of this country residence,
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which will remain as a souvenir of a very
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profitable participation in a vile election,
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at no less than 70 million rubles,
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and the market value of such a house here in
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this settlement is 100 million
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rubles. We checked specifically, and Degtyaryov's father
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and Degtyaryov's mother, during the time of
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the purchase and construction of the house, continued
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to work at a hospital in Samara.
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In Moscow
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[music]
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For a long time? How long?
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Yes, and nevertheless, somehow they
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came up with 70 million rubles to spare
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to build in the near
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Moscow suburbs. In the classic book it was:
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'Money in the morning, chairs in the evening.' But with
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Degtyaryov, it's participation in the election first, then the money.
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He pretended to be in opposition, but praised the authorities.
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Well done, son. Go to the cashier and collect
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your 70 million. Sergey Sobyanin spares nothing
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for his friend. They send us
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doctors—the Health Ministry and Sobyanin send them, we have to take them.
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They send equipment and funds, and
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that's because I asked him to.
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and we know perfectly well, our friend Sergei,
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how Sobyanin rigs elections in Moscow.
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Here, people are simply handed money
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in suitcases for pretending to be
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a “constructive opposition.” Quite recently,
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one of the party’s leaders, by the way,
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from the party Communists of Russia said right there
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on video that the party leadership had received
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— that is, ended up getting —
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20 million rubles (about $270,000) for putting forward
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its spoiler candidates in the last
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Moscow City Duma elections. I’ll give just one
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example: last year’s elections to the Moscow
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City Duma.
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Out of 32 candidates, 26 were what you’d call
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Sobyanin’s people. And into the party’s accounts, through
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third parties, the city administration funneled
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around 120 million rubles (about $1.6 million). If some
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pathetic Communists of Russia, whose job is
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to siphon off two percent from the CPRF (Communist Party of the Russian Federation),
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get that much, can you imagine
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how much they pay Zhirinovsky and Degtyaryov?
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So, Mikhail Vladimirovich made his money,
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built himself up, and then the money ran out, but
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he wanted more — more real estate. So what
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do you do?
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Well, there were new elections ahead in 2018,
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when Moscow’s mayor was being elected again, and our
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Degtyaryov once again played the opposition and
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kept praising both Sobyanin and Putin, and
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received an advance payment ahead of time.
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By a special order from the Department
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of Moscow City Property, he was allowed to buy
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at a symbolic price: the city sold him
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an apartment — an excellent apartment, almost 100
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square meters (about 1,075 sq ft) in Akademicheskaya. One like that costs
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25 million rubles (about $340,000). This apartment, the modest
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Degtyaryov immediately put in his mother’s name.
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This was done as urgently as possible
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so that the appearance and disappearance
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of the property would not show up in his disclosure forms.
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And that is exactly what happened, and official Degtyaryov
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can now look everyone straight in the eye
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and say: “What do I have? Nothing.”
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“I live in a service apartment, a house of
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1,000 square meters (about 10,764 sq ft) is in my father’s name, the new apartment is registered
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to my mother, and for myself I only bought a new
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Mercedes-Benz GLS 360 for 6 million rubles (about $81,000).”
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So, dear residents of Khabarovsk, and everyone
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else, when this trader in
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paid political participation
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tells you about paid
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protest participants, outsiders, and
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foreigners who supposedly came here for money
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and flocked to Khabarovsk,
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“Citizens, including citizens of foreign
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states, are currently being dealt with by
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law enforcement and state security agencies.”
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“All the networks of these people,”
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“who and how organized all of this,”
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“there are a great many out-of-towners there,”
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“there are several foreign citizens.”
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Please, just shut him down. If there is
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any out-of-town
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crook in Khabarovsk right now who came for
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money, it is the new governor, Degtyaryov.
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And now they’ve jailed for 8 days the driver
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of the “Furgal-mobile” (a vehicle associated with protests in support of Sergei Furgal, former governor of Khabarovsk Krai).
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[music]
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For what? What bad thing did he do? Unlike
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Degtyaryov, he did not take bribes,
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did not take part in paid-for elections,
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and was not caught engaging in illegal enrichment. But
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Degtyaryov was — yet he sits in an office
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under a portrait of Putin and accuses ordinary
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decent people of the fact that their
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rallies are illegal, unauthorized,
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not approved.
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As for this so-called unauthorized crowd, the latest
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polls show that the majority
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of Russian citizens support the Khabarovsk
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protests. That is very important.
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Khabarovsk, Komsomolsk-on-Amur, and everyone
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else — know that the whole country is with you.
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Do not give up. Putin and United Russia are waiting
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for you to leave the streets. Your demands
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are completely legitimate, and what the
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Kremlin is doing is lawlessness and the humiliation of an entire
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region.
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[applause]
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And to the rest of the country, I want
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to remind you that many of you will have your own
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Khabarovsk in September — regional elections
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in which we will either beat United Russia
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the way it was beaten in Khabarovsk Krai, or
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they will beat us. Smart Voting is
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the best strategy against pro-government candidates.
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Register right now.