Text version
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Hi, in this photo you can see a very
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popular politician.
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In fact, the most popular politician in his
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country. As recently as last month, Serzh
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Sargsyan
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was proudly saying that more than
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76 percent of Armenia’s citizens supported him. He easily
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won the election. He controlled everything from
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banks to football. He turned Armenia into
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one of the most corrupt countries
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in the world. Local oligarchs obeyed him,
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and he supported them in every way. The police,
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the army, the main media outlets—everything was on his side. But
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the day before yesterday, people took to the streets,
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and Serzh Sargsyan, with all his
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percentages, was forced to resign.
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Why? Two reasons. First, he deceived
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the people.
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He promised he would remain at the head of Armenia for only two
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presidential terms.
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When it was time to leave, he decided
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to stay in power. Doesn’t that remind you of anything?
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How do you feel about the possibility
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of extending presidential
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terms and the possibility of being elected to
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this office three or more times? I view
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that negatively. He changed
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the constitution: power shifted from the president to
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the prime minister, and he became that
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prime minister. So formally,
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everything was legal, but in reality
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it was cheating and deception. And second,
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the people—the citizens of Armenia—refused to consider
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themselves powerless. Sargsyan, of course,
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did and does have some real
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support from part of society, but he decided
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that everyone else who did not
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support him could be openly and publicly
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ignored. I’m the big man, I sit in my office, and you
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are nobody. I have oligarchs,
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and you’re paupers, and I’m going to ignore you.
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If I have the majority, that means you simply
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don’t count at all. You shouldn’t exist. You’re nothing.
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And so what should happen
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in a normal society happened: people
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peacefully took to the streets and said, excuse us,
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but we are just the same as you. Yes, as a result
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of election fraud and propaganda, you
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got elected and are holding onto power, but that
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does not mean that we—the people who do not
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support you at all—
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have ceased to be citizens. At first,
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the people in the streets were intimidated,
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then dispersed. But 10 days passed, and
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Sargsyan was forced to resign as a result of
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completely peaceful and lawful
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actions by the protesters.
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He will probably remain an influential
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politician, but he will never again be able
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to ignore the opposition and behave
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as if it does not exist. Why am I saying all this? Because
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if you look at the first month
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of President Putin’s new fifth term,
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he does have relatively broad
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support, but then, with the help of propaganda
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and falsification, he manufactured for himself the same
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76 percent. For the incumbent head of
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state,
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supposedly 56 million
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citizens voted—more than 76 percent of voters.
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This is the highest level of support in
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the history of our country. And he decided to rule
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as if those of us who did not vote for
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Putin simply do not exist here, as if we are deprived of
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civil rights and must always remain silent.
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The most noticeable event of this first
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month in power is the senseless, stupid, and
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harmful-to-everyone war on
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the internet. Putin decided to block
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the Telegram messenger because
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he demanded that its encryption keys be handed over to the FSB (Russia’s security service),
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so that they could read any of our
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correspondence. And Telegram refused. At the same time, neither
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Putin nor Roskomnadzor (Russia’s communications regulator) gives us
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a clear answer
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as to why they singled out Telegram
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in particular. There are other
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messengers with the same kind of encryption, and they
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do not hand over their keys to the FSB either. What’s more,
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no one is even asking them for those
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keys.
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But it is Telegram in particular that they are trying to crush.
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More than that, they are ready to inflict
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colossal damage
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on the internet as a whole, on all businesses, on all of us,
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just to carry out this very strange
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task.
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Roskomnadzor has already blocked around 20
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million addresses. In other words, they are shutting down entire
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chunks of the internet in order to hinder
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Telegram, while the messenger itself continues
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to work. But for a huge number of people,
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websites, apps, and services have gone down.
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There have even been disruptions in Google
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and YouTube and Instagram, and many people are simply
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losing money. Just imagine: you created
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some website and make your living from it, and
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then—bang—it gets shut down.
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Why? Because Roskomnadzor is smashing
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the internet with a sledgehammer
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to carry out Putin’s order, and you
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got caught under that sledgehammer. And then you
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say the obvious thing: listen, guys,
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you have no right to disconnect me.
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I have absolutely nothing to do with any of this.
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I’m losing money, so you
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should pay me compensation. Or
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you say: I pay for internet access, but I
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can’t get to the site I need. Someone should
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be held responsible for this. And this government tells you:
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who are you, exactly, to complain?
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Your job is to keep your mouth shut and
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pay taxes, because this very
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Roskomnadzor needs 80.5
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billion rubles a year (about $1.3 billion USD). Here, everything
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is run by Putin; his word is law. And if
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you, my dear friend, are worried about
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your internet, then they’ll send someone after you.
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there will be a change of the special internet
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representing your rights, and this
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ombudsman is an amazing person; he speaks on
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your behalf. Well, basically everything that
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Roskomnadzor (Russia’s federal media and communications regulator) is doing now, if it had done it three
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years ago
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Three years ago, everything would have been simpler then.
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They should have blocked everything, so you,
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on the other side of the screen, just stay quiet, pay up, and
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be happy. Somehow, all of this is strange.
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You have to admit, at least fifty
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three million voters did not vote for Putin,
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and somewhere, somehow, their voice
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should be heard saying that what is happening
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is nonsense. There are two obvious points of view here.
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The Putin-side view: Durov is a criminal, Telegram
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must be banned by any means necessary,
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and ideally taken away altogether, just as
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they already did with VKontakte (Russia’s largest social network). And then there is our
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point of view: he is a Russian citizen,
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he built an excellent international business,
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and Russia, frankly, has not had much to
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be especially proud of in terms of economic achievements
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lately.
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And here we have our billionaire, who made his money not
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from oil, not from gas, not from raw materials—an
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entire
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So let’s invite him here and help him.
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Let him build everything in Russia. After all, he is earning money for
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us. He will pay
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salaries here, and taxes here,
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and make us richer. Great. Thank you, Pasha (Pavel Durov’s nickname),
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keep working, come up with something else,
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hire more people. I am sure
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that in this discussion,
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when choosing between these two approaches,
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most Russian citizens would choose ours. And
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even if they would not, then we need to look for
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some kind of compromise between the 56 million who
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voted for Putin and
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the 53 million who did not
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vote for him, because we have the right
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to our own point of view, to our own deputies
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speaking on our behalf, and to our share
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of airtime on television channels,
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where right now there is simply none of that. It is absurd.
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So if you send messages from this
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smartphone, and at the same time use
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a Russian messenger app, then you do not need to worry
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that anyone other than our own
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domestic security services will have access
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to your correspondence. But they do not hear us,
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they do not care about us; they act
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as if the whole country belongs
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only to them, and we here have no rights
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at all. And it will continue like this until
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we remind them of our existence by taking to the
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streets. That is the only way, and no other, right now
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to force this government to think, even a little,
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about the fact that in Russia there are, in fact,
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other citizens too. For them, free information matters.
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For them, what matters is
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the development of the internet.
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They believe that high technology will earn us
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more than oil and gas ever will.
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As long as we stay home, we are giving a gift
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to Putin. We are encouraging Roskomnadzor, censorship,
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oligarchs, corrupt officials—everyone. Because every time
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after they do
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something vile or steal another
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billion, they look at us and think: well, will they
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put up with it? Will they finally take to the streets to express
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their dissatisfaction, or will they once again
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stay silent and find themselves twenty-two reasons
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to stay home again? On May 5, we are holding protests across the
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country for those who are not prepared
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to silently endure Putinist obscurantism,
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corruption, the destruction of the internet, and
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freedom of speech, and
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the everyday idiocy of officials.
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All of this makes our lives worse and
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poorer. If you stay home, then that means
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you are voting for Russia
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to become a more backward country with no
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future. If you come out, you are a real
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citizen and a patriot, and your children will
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be proud of you. In the description of this video
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there is a link to the protest groups in all
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cities.
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Find yours, join, and bring friends.
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On May 5, those who refuse
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to consider themselves voiceless and rightless
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creatures will come out.