Muscovites and St. Petersburg residents, if you are not second-class citizens, then...
Text version
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Muscovites and Petersburgers, here’s what
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I want to urge you to do. Those of you who
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are decent, normal people and don’t fall for
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TV propaganda have now officially been declared
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second-class people—and that is not
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an exaggeration.
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Boldly and brazenly, our rallies on May 5 at
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Pushkinskaya Square in Moscow and Palace Square in
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St. Petersburg
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have been banned. But look at the streets of the two
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capitals: just recently, on May 1, Poltavchenko
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(former governor of St. Petersburg), Sobyanin, United Russia, the entire officialdom,
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the whole nomenklatura (Soviet-style ruling elite) marched along those
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very city streets that are forbidden to us, and
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openly under the banner of United Russia.
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Even though among your acquaintances you won’t find
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a single person—even a Putin supporter—who would openly
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say they voted for them, because it’s embarrassing.
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Embarrassing, because it’s the party of crooks
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and thieves.
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Nevertheless, the official position of the Kremlin,
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Moscow City Hall, and Smolny (St. Petersburg’s city administration)
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is this: they are first-class citizens, and anything is allowed
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for them. The state exists for them, while we
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are second-rate—or even third-rate—even though there are
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definitely more of us.
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They bus in state employees to their
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rallies, while we come out voluntarily. And yet
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under no circumstances are we allowed
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to be on the central streets. We’ve read about this in
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books, in classical Russian
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literature: there was a front entrance for
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the masters, and a back staircase for
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the servants. And now they have prepared
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the same kind of life for us. Here’s what I want to say: do
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not dream of having fair courts
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if you are not even allowed to stand in the street.
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Do not dream of the right to run
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a normal business, or get an education, or have
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access to medicine, or freedom of speech.
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You cannot jump from the first grade of school
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straight to the final year of university. This is
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the basic right of people to peaceful assembly and
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to express dissatisfaction with the authorities. If
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that right is not upheld, then no other rights
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will
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ever be within our reach. No development is possible.
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There will be no technology. When the head of
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the state-owned Sberbank, German Gref,
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invited a world-famous speaker
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to a state forum and asked him
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why it is that in Russia nothing
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works out—technology does not develop, business
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does not move forward—the man answered quite directly:
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“Guys, you disperse people at rallies.
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How can anything develop under those conditions?”
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Can Russia compete? That is the question
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inside each of us,
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and we would be very interested
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to hear your point of view in answer
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to the question: can Russia compete?
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At present, Russia’s leaders
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are trying to carry out modernization, but unfortunately
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they are doing so in the tradition
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of their predecessors—the tsars and
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the Soviet leaders.
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They are trying to separate technology from
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the essence of political systems. They say
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they support Skolkovo, this
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ambitious and expensive clone of Silicon
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Valley
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near Moscow.
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But at the same time, I have to say this—
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forgive me—they ban demonstrations, they
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suppress political opponents and
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entrepreneurs who have accumulated
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enough power to challenge them.
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They bend the legal system
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to serve their own purposes. Any further success of ours
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can be built only on basic rights,
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first and foremost on the right to peaceful
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assembly, where people can be in the same
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places as the ruling party and
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criticize it. So come in Moscow
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to Pushkinskaya Square
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or any other point on Tverskaya Street, from
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Pushkinskaya to Manezhnaya; and in
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St. Petersburg, come to Palace
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Square.
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People keep asking what to do. Whatever
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you want—do that. Stand, or sing, or
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chant slogans,
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or walk around. In Armenia, they even grill shashlik (barbecue) during strikes
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while blocking roads.
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Well, maybe shashlik is a bit much for Moscow and
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St. Petersburg, but still,
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I don’t know—buy some ice cream, the weather is nice.
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The point of a rally is that by being
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there, you become to the greatest possible extent
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an honest, free person,
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a real citizen. Become
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a citizen on May 5.