The election has been announced. Our immediate plans
Text version
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Hi, this is Navalny. Late last night,
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the decision to schedule
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the election was published, which means that today
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is officially the first day of the election
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campaign. So congratulations. In that connection, I have
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a brief announcement about our plans
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for all of you, and also for the staff of
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Putin’s presidential administration,
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the Center for Combating Extremism, the police, the FSB (Federal Security Service), and everyone
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else
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who would like to disrupt the process of my
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nomination. In the coming days, I definitely do not
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plan to cross the street
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in the wrong place, drive a car
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while intoxicated,
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use obscene language in a public
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place, or even take part in rallies
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that you illegally call
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“unauthorized.” I will do nothing
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that would give you a pretext
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to detain me or lock me up again for 15
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days so that I cannot personally
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take part in the procedures for which
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my personal presence is required. I
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understand perfectly well that Putin is afraid of my
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participation in the election, sees it as a threat, and
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will try to stop me. And this is not
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a guess — Putin himself said so
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almost verbatim. I would like to turn to the subject of
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the past Moscow mayoral election.
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Here in my hands is an interview with Sergei
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Sobyanin in which he admitted that he
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consulted you about participation in
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that election.
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Alexei Navalny’s participation, and your reaction was
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positive. So if that really
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is true, if that is really how it was done, is it for the president
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to decide who gets to take part in an election and who does not?
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Why were such consultations held at all?
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For example, regarding
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Navalny — did he represent a threat
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to the authorities? If he represented a threat, then
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they let him into the election — we heard that.
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If he had represented a threat,
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they would not have let him into the election. And that is exactly
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what is happening now. We have been campaigning for a year.
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We have a network across the whole country. We have 190,000
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volunteers, support in every
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city and every village. We represent
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a threat in this election to this group of thieving
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and incompetent people. They are afraid of
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competition. Putin can compete
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only with fake candidates whom he
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has chosen himself. In the near future, you
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will see and hear a whole bunch of crooks
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who will call themselves lawyers and, with
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an air of expertise, explain why Alexei
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Navalny has no right to take part in
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the election. And here I have one request for you:
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please trust your own eyes and
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your own ability to understand the meaning of the words
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of the Russian language.
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Article 32 of the Constitution: the following do not have the right
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to be elected — those declared legally incapacitated, as well as
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those held in places of deprivation of liberty under
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a court sentence. This is the foundation of the country’s constitutional order.
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No additional law
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can contradict the Constitution, which
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is called the fundamental law
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of the state.
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Any claims that I do not have
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the right to take part in the election are lies,
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ordinary lies by Putin’s authorities,
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invented in order to eliminate
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a competitor in the election and remain in
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power not for 18 years, but for 24.
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So what am I going to do? Follow
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the law. The very next day when I
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can carry out the procedure for my
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nomination in the election is December 24, and under
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the law I will need a group of at least
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500 voters. If I
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hold a meeting of such a group, I must
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officially notify the election commission. This
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morning we did that. For greater
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assurance, we will hold such voter meetings
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in 20 cities across Russia: in Moscow,
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St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk, and
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Omsk, Krasnoyarsk, Perm, Nizhny
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Novgorod, Volgograd, Ufa, Izhevsk, Samara,
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Rostov-on-Don, Saratov, Tyumen, and
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Chelyabinsk, Vladivostok, Yaroslavl,
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Voronezh, and Irkutsk. And in every city
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the appropriate notice has already been filed.
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This is not a rally, and no application needs to be submitted for it.
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It is regulated by entirely different
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laws.
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This is a meeting of voters who must
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vote in support of the nomination
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of their candidate. In the description of this video
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there is a list of cities and the locations of the meetings.
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I would like to draw your attention to the fact that in
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Moscow, on December 24, there will also be a Day of
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Free Elections. But I am not the one who organized it.
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I note this separately for the benefit of
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our valiant police officers. It is
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being organized by official
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local municipal deputies, who
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voted and by majority decision
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invited everyone to come at 3:00 p.m. to
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Lermontovsky Square (a public square in Moscow), all those who
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support free, normal,
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competitive elections. It does not matter who your
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candidate is — Navalny or someone else.
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If you are in favor of competition among candidates,
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consider accepting this invitation
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from the local authorities. Overall, the plan does not change.
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I have a team.
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I have a platform. I have
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support. Many people have entrusted me
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to represent their interests in this election.
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Whether that support is large or small, there is
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only one way to find out: at the ballot box.
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Let us demand together that I be allowed onto
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the ballot.