In this video, Alexei Navalny and Georgy Alburov show the lavish palaces of Putin’s judo friends, the Rotenberg brothers, to the very people whose money paid for them—ordinary Russian truck drivers. Workers harmed by the introduction of the predatory Platon toll system personally assess the oligarchs’ enormous estates on Rublyovka (an elite residential area outside Moscow) and in Italy. The men’s sincere and emotional reaction perfectly conveys the atmosphere of the social protest that was then building across the country and vividly shows where citizens’ taxes are really going.
Text version
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Hi. Usually, we tell you about
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crooks and thieves and show you their
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property, but today we’re making things a bit more complicated, and
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we’ll tell you about crooks and thieves and
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show you how we show their
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property to the people these crooks and
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thieves have robbed. It sounds strange, but actually
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everything will be very clear and specific.
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Anyway, Georgy will explain everything to you now
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and show you, but he’d get in trouble for all this if
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you... this is just outrageous. Hi, everyone.
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This is Georgy Alburov, and today I’m going to tell you
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about the Rotenbergs. We talk about
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them all the time, but that’s not because we
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love them so much — it’s because they have become
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an example and a symbol of a family
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profiting off others.
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You thought there were two of them, three, maybe four?
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No — the Rotenbergs are a huge clan
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with their own servants, stables, and castles,
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just like in *Game of
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Thrones*. According to *Forbes*, in 2016
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they were the second-richest family clan
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in Russia. The elder, Arkady Rotenberg, was awarded — without
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any competition — the contract for the Kerch
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Bridge and the Power of Siberia gas pipeline. His
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younger brother Boris Rotenberg, a citizen
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of Finland, is a major businessman,
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co-owner of Mosenergo and the family’s SMP
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Bank. Boris Rotenberg has sons;
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they are Finnish citizens. One of them is Roman
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Borisovich Rotenberg. He is better known
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as a native of St. Petersburg — then still
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Leningrad — Mikhail Oliver Rotenberg. In
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2009, Putin personally granted him Russian
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citizenship. And now he is the first
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vice president
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of Russian hockey and also — you won’t believe it —
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a major businessman. But let’s get back to
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Arkady. He also has a son, Igor. Among
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his businesses is a company called
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RT-Invest Transport Systems. That is,
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if you don’t know, the very same Platon system
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— the levy that every
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literally every long-haul truck driver has been forced to pay. Drive
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a kilometer as a trucker? Be so kind as to cough up
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3 rubles to the Rotenbergs. From this
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system alone, Rotenberg’s company
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earns 10 billion rubles a year. In effect,
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it’s simply money being pumped out of the pockets
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of truck drivers into the pocket of one of
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Russia’s richest families. And do you know how
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the younger Rotenberg won the tender to
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run Platon? It must have been difficult for him,
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right? There must have been so many
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people eager to make billions of rubles.
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He must have had to work really hard to get it.
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Well, if that’s what you thought, then you know
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the Rotenbergs very poorly. There was no tender,
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of course — none at all. The government
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simply handed them the contract without
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competition, just like the contract for the Kerch Bridge,
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and just like the contract for the Power of Siberia pipeline, and
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many, many others. That’s the kind of
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family this is — they work without competition.
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And that’s not all, of course. I’ve
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only listed the basic set of
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Rotenbergs, but in fact there are far
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more of them — these are just the main and most
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well-known ones. And now for the visuals — we
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do like visuals, right? So let’s
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now take a look at what exactly the Rotenbergs
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spent the money on that they received from thousands of
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state contracts — that is, budget money, our
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money. Let’s enjoy some fresh drone footage.
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But we won’t be watching it alone. Watching
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together with us — and kindly agreeing to spend a considerable
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number of their nerve cells — are
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two truck drivers, Sergey Ai
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binder and Andrey Vedenin. It is them that
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the Rotenbergs are robbing in the literal sense of the word. At
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their expense, what we are showing you was built.
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[music]
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Latched onto the teat, so now you’ve got
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a country house worth 4 billion rubles, or 2 billion at least,
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plus
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the roads, plus the washing machine.
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Well, that’s it.
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Right, that was the missing piece — looks like they
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switched on Platon.
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Yeah, I used to swim in that little river there, around
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Rublyovka (an elite residential area near Moscow). I guess now I
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won’t be able to.
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Yeah, now you won’t.
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Their houses look like they’re from some kind of 10th century or
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something, like for tsars. Well, why would
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they need to economize?
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Designers are working on it, after all — what
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difference does it make? I think the inside must be good.
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From the outside, well, it looks beautiful. I wouldn’t
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say no to a country house like that.
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But where do the serfs live? I don’t get it. Yeah, I see
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something small over there somewhere, there in the corner —
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that’s where they live, got it.
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Versailles-like and striking, these palaces from a bird’s-eye
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view — all of this is worth billions
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of rubles. These properties are unique even
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for Rublyovka — they are the largest
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houses we have ever filmed.
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The area of each of them is 10,000
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square meters. Below is Arkady Rotenberg’s plot; it
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covers an area of 3 hectares. Above is Boris
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Rotenberg; his residence is located on a plot
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of more than 10 hectares. So far we have
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been showing the houses of the brothers
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Rotenberg — Boris and Arkady. You have
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seen them before in photographs, but now
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you’ve been able to see them in full. But that’s not all.
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We have one more estate for you. It is
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even bigger. Meet Igor
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Rotenberg’s residence in Italy, with vineyards,
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two tennis courts, and a church,
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with a total area of 200 hectares. At all these fruits of
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entrepreneurial talent, we are now
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going to keep looking together with our
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companions
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Sergey and Andrey. They are surely eager
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to take a look at the real estate of a man
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who is robbing them
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so
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Italy. Andryukh, become part of the system under
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suck up, maybe you'll
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get a little piece—100 rubles (about $1) right now
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[music]
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bleep that out right away
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yeah, well, the people who rob others just, uh
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who, well, rob—don't
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I'm not ashamed to say it—the police help them do it, which
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this is, well, definitely one of Putin's appointees
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uh
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who was given
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the task
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of milking the transport industry dry
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the truckers, and through them the entire population
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of the country
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yeah, that costs a fortune
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This
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is beautiful, with a highway nearby. Just think how many
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people
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they've fleeced—and you still think this is a benefit? Listen
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how many years have we
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been living like this? Since 2000, it's been 17 years for us. Well, I
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mean under Putin. I get it. I wouldn't
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turn down a country estate like that
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But even if I sold all my property
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down to my last pair of underwear—of course, as for me
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honestly, I don't feel envy. I only feel
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anger—anger that this is how everything happens
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in
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our country. It's lawlessness
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just anger over the fact
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that under the
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cover of the system, these people do whatever
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they want. The Rotenbergs' estate in Italy
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is staggering
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the land area here is 211 hectares (2.11 square kilometers / 0.81 square miles), which is
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more than 2 million square meters—about the size of Vatican City, or
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slightly larger than the entire Principality of Monaco. That's
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how the Rotenberg family lives, and as you
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understand yourselves, this is only a small
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part of their property. You're probably extremely
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surprised and don't understand at all where
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these Rotenbergs even came from, what kind of
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hereditary genes this
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family of nothing but billionaires possesses
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Did the elder Rotenbergs work in the mines to
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lay the foundation for such a successful family?
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The answer is simple—the secret
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of success lies not in the mines, but in these
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St. Petersburg buildings: the wrestling club
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of the Trud voluntary sports society
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and the Yavara-Neva judo club. It was here
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that the Rotenberg brothers and Vladimir Putin
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trained in judo together. If Putin had not
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become president, the graduates of the Institute
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of Physical Culture, the Rotenberg brothers,
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would probably have just continued building sports careers
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and become some kind of honored
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coaches. But no—once Vova (a familiar form of Vladimir) suddenly became
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president, it became possible
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to retrain from PE teachers
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into kings of state contracts and
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real builders of absolutely everything
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at the state's expense, of course. Well
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that's it. This is one of those families that
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constantly fleece us, taking advantage of
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the protection of their old friends
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I really want to make some kind of powerful
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conclusion out of all this, to
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end the video nicely, but
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there's not really much to say. And besides,
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there are people who can do it better than I can. I think if
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if
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Rotenberg came
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during the protest to talk with
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the truckers, he would've gotten his face smashed in and
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that would've been it. What else?
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With a kick, yeah. He's not just robbing you, well
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everyone. I mean truckers—I'm talking about myself
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all people. Wait, with the help of
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the truckers, he's robbing all people