Text version
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Attention: this is not a drill. We
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are shutting down the Anti-Corruption Foundation. No,
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you know how often stores put up
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huge signs saying “Liquidation Sale,” “Store
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Closing,” “Final Sale”?
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People fall for this advertising trick,
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rush to buy goods supposedly at a discount, but
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in reality, no one is actually closing. In
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our case, though, we really are
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forced to say that the nonprofit
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organization Anti-Corruption Foundation,
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which I founded 9 years ago, has come
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to an end, because it has simply been taken away from us.
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And I am recording this very important video
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so that they do not take it away from you as well, and
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for that, we will need your help. What
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is happening? Last summer, you and I
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decided to take on United Russia, Putin, and
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Sobyanin in Moscow. We nominated our own
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candidates, we launched Smart
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Voting to support
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opposition deputies, we carried out
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investigations into all the key Moscow
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United Russia figures and brought down
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their ratings. In response, the Kremlin and City Hall did not
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allow any independent candidates onto the ballot,
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understanding that they would win. In response, we
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called everyone into the streets. In response, the Kremlin
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jailed both the independent candidates and
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me, along with a whole lot of other people, and crushed the protests.
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And then we
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released even more investigations and
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said that Smart Voting would still
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work, so that as few
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United Russia members as possible would become deputies. And then we
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won.
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Only through falsifications,
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fraudulent electronic voting,
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was the government able to preserve its majority of
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deputies.
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And in the Moscow City Duma, nevertheless, there is now
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for the first time in history a very
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large group of genuine opposition figures
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who work in our interests. After
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that, Putin started stamping his feet and pounding the floor,
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shouting: shut it down, liquidate it. He
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got scared.
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Because if you and I, without money,
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without independent candidates, without access to
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the media,
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without administrative resources,
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and under conditions of fraud, almost beat him,
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then what will happen tomorrow? And so the order went out:
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liquidate FBK at any cost, and
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our regional headquarters as well. We went through
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several raids, hundreds of simultaneous
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searches across the country, and this happened
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several times in a row. And each time they
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seized everything from phones and laptops to
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cameras, lighting equipment, and even kettles. We
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were illegally designated as foreign agents,
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even though we had never received a single
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kopek of foreign money. Against us they
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fabricated criminal cases. The bank
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accounts of FBK and all the other legal entities were
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frozen.
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They froze the accounts of hundreds of employees
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and their family members.
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For example, they froze my accounts, the accounts of my
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father, mother, wife, and even my children. They
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sued us.
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The National Guard, the police, the prosecutor’s office, the state budget institution
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Automobile Roads,
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restaurants that our rallies had supposedly inconvenienced,
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and even
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the Moscow Metro. As a result, all independent
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deputies and FBK employees who had called
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people to the rallies
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ended up owing millions of rubles. This,
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by the way, is a tactic that Putin
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borrowed from Lukashenko in Belarus,
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where they have long fought
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rallies in exactly this way.
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Right now we are raising money to pay
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these fines, and with your help we will probably
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raise it. But there was one more separate
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episode that they assigned to
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Yevgeny Prigozhin, that very same
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“Putin’s chef,” a thief who has been
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working with Putin since the St. Petersburg days,
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and who has now been put in charge of contracts for the
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Ministry of Defense and for providing food to
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all Moscow schools and kindergartens.
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And the thing is that Prigozhin, trying
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to make more money, was supplying children with
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spoiled food, and in Moscow there were
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mass poisonings in schools and
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kindergartens.
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Of course, they tried to cover all this up, but then
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our colleague Lyubov
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Sobol took up the case. She brought together a group of parents
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of the affected children and began filing lawsuits and
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conducting an investigation in the interests of the
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victims.
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And in the end, she proved everything. Together with
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dozens of parents, she filed a
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class-action lawsuit against the company
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responsible for the poisonings and against the Moscow authorities
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that had signed the contracts for
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food services, and demanded recognition of these
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poisonings and the payment of compensation. And the court
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recognized the company’s guilt and even partially
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granted the financial claims of the
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parents of the affected children. But then
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something happened that could happen only
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in Putin’s courts: despite the fact that we
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proved the poisonings, despite the fact that
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Prigozhin paid compensation through the courts,
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he then sues me, Sobol, and FBK
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and claims that he poisoned no one, and
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demands from us the unimaginable sum of 88
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million rubles. And the judge, who has clear
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instructions to destroy FBK
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at any cost, bangs the gavel and says:
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yes, Prigozhin is right; yes, who cares that he paid
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compensation; who cares that the facts
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of poisoning by his food were recognized by other
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courts — you must pay him 88 million rubles.
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million rubles. The particular irony is that
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Prigozhin, after injuring hundreds of children,
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paid them compensation of about 300,000 rubles
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each, while we, for forcing him
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to pay,
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are supposed to pay Prigozhin 300 times
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more. And so in the end, here is this document:
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an enforceable writ of execution under which
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I owe 29 million rubles
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and Sobol owes 29 million rubles.
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FBK owes 29 million rubles along with me.
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There is nothing Sobol and I can do about it now. The amount
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is enormous; I don’t even see the point in trying to
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raise it. And obviously,
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until the end of Putin’s rule, we will have to
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live with our accounts frozen and
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bailiffs constantly seizing
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any of our property for the benefit of Putin’s
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chef. But now the question is: what do we do with
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FBK? There is already nothing left; everything
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was taken during previous searches, and now they will
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take the organization itself from us as well, and
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its bank account. Our name matters to us, but
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as I’ve said many times, FBK is not
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an office, not a piece of paper, and not media coverage.
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FBK is people. It is those who come
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here to fight corruption, and you
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who support it. We will move to
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another legal entity, and let
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Putin and Prigozhin choke on
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this FBK legal entity. But the greatest value
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we have is you, and we need to carry that with us. Why do we
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listen to no one, why no one gives us orders and
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cannot influence us? Because
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we are financially independent.
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We need neither oligarchs nor the state,
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nor foreign backers. Over the past year, 21,000
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467 people
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made donations to us. And most importantly, our
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greatest asset is the 7,607 people who
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are signed up for monthly payments—that is,
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they registered their cards on our
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website and are automatically charged 100
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rubles, some 500, some 1,000, and we know that
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no matter what happens, every month
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we are guaranteed to receive about 6
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million rubles, enough to cover office rent,
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internet, and at least part of
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our salaries. Now our bank account
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will be taken away, and those 7,607 subscriptions will disappear. We
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cannot transfer them automatically.
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The only thing that can be done here
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is for you, friends, to go to the link yourselves—
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it’s there in the description—and once again
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set up a recurring payment.
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Let it be small, but regular,
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so that we understand what budget
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we have available and can plan our
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work. Well, I got to this point and
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realized that it still came out sounding
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like a marketing trick: we promised
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liquidation, but then asked for money and
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said everything would stay as it is. In
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fact,
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whether it stays or not, and to what extent,
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is up to you. Ella Pamfilova believes that
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it really hurts us when she
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calls us political beggars.
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She talks about “political panhandlers” as if it should
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hit a nerve—but no, we are proud that
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we ask you for money and depend on you. But that also means
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we do not take a single kopek from the state budget,
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and our finances are transparent. So,
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dear Ella Alexandrovna,
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remember this yourself, and pass it on to Putin:
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we are asking again, and we hope that
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we will receive it. And we promise everyone that every
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kopek will be directed toward
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bringing closer the moment when you and your
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entire
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United Russia party and the whole Kremlin gang
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will be sitting in the dock.
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[inaudible fragment]
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[inaudible fragment]
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all of this.
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[inaudible fragment]
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And until that happens, we will also
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do our best to give you a hard time in the elections.
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Friends, support us, set up
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a recurring donation, take part in Smart Voting
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(a tactical voting initiative), sign up as election observers,
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and subscribe to our channel.
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This is where the truth is told.