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Well then, let's get to handing out the money. I know
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you've been waiting a long time for the announcement
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of the results of the contest I announced
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a few months ago on my birthday.
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Birthday.
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You had to create a YouTube channel and
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start posting videos there, or doing
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streams—whatever suited you best—but no
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less than twice a week. I really want
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our good old YouTube
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to push out that disgusting television of theirs,
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especially in the regions.
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So I said I would raise and then
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give away 1 million rubles (about US$16,000 at the time).
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to YouTube channels that would
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publish regularly and talk about
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the country's problems and their own regional
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specifics. That's incredibly important. When we
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have an independent YouTube channel
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in every major city, with at least 50,000
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subscribers, where people aren't afraid
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to tell the truth—not about Putin, the president of Russia,
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not about the governor, but about the mayor—then we'll be able
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to truly challenge Kremlin propaganda
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and the TV zombie box. I'm very glad that my
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contest attracted so many
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participants.
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518 channels from 53 regions of the country.
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Thank you all so much—you did great. The final round
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included 15 channels from 11
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regions, and now, to ensure a fair
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selection of the winners, we created
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a special jury that I myself didn't even
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join, so there would be no questions, and
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this jury specifically reviewed the channels
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of the contenders and scored them,
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which is how the lucky winners were determined.
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The jury included Robberto Panchvidze,
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founder of the MDK public page and agency;
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Ruslan Shaveddinov, host of the morning
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political show *Cactus*; Vasily Ishchuk,
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an expert in the video blogging sphere,
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founder of the digital agencies Players and
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Pixels; Lyubov Sobol, lawyer for the Anti-Corruption Foundation
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and one of the founders of the channel
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Navalny Live; and Alexander Plyushchev,
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a Russian journalist, blogger, radio and
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TV host. And by decision of our jury,
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the votes were distributed as follows:
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I am pleased to present to you
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the magnificent top ten.
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10th place: the channel Yad from Ufa, 29 points.
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Hello.
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Dear viewers, today I'll tell you about
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some events that took place...
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9th place: Abu-Saddam Shishani from Chechnya,
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32 points. A very brave young man
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who devoted 100 percent of his time
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to the problems of the North Caucasus.
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But in mid-July of this year, he was
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arrested, and so for now he is not releasing
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videos. We hope for his safe and
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speedy release. But for Kadyrov's Chechnya (referring to the Chechen Republic under Ramzan Kadyrov),
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this is absolutely unsurprising. What's more,
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in Chechnya, all businesses—large,
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medium, and small—pay tribute.
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7th and 8th place, with the same
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35 points: Vladimir
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Panfilov from the city of Oryol. Hello,
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dear viewers, this is the program *Summary*, and
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I am your host, Vladimir Panfilov. Vadim
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Potomsky, not Oryol, and Groza of Perm
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from Perm. The new governor of Perm Krai
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made the people of Perm chip in for another
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couple thousand...
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...and also...
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the Russian opposition—what are they doing for this?
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6th place: New Rush Word,
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Saratov, 36 points.
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Well, what can I say? Russian officials
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continue to delight the medical
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community around the world by confirming
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their commitment to the cause. 5th place: the channel *Real
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Journalism* from Moscow, with 36
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points.
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People often tell me, 'Sasha, you don't love
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your country—you dig up all this dirt
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and show it on TV.' But no,
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I'm not digging up dirt—I'm simply pointing out
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to those who can actually do something where we
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have problem areas. In 4th place:
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*Especially Dangerous Lawyer* from Rostov received
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39 points. This participant has a very interesting format:
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he is a real lawyer
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who finds violations in the work
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of law enforcement agencies, files lawsuits
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against local officials, and talks
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about all of it on his channel.
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[music]
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And now the top three winners, who will
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receive our cash prizes.
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3rd place: 42 points and 200,000 rubles (about US$3,200 at the time)
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go to the channel *Mari, Speak*
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from Nizhny Novgorod. She currently has 27,000
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subscribers—subscribe and let's make it
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much more. On this channel, serious topics
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are discussed with a large dose
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of irony, and sometimes they even sing.
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The so-called tsar...
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The metropolitans are the richest here, but everyone
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is still afraid of only the transvestite.
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2nd place: 43 points and 300,000 rubles (about US$4,800 at the time)
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go to Arslan N. from the city of
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Chelyabinsk.
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Literally a week before the announcement
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of the contest results, the guy went through
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a pretty sad story: his phone was stolen
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with the passwords to his accounts, after which
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his channel with 30,000
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subscribers was immediately deleted. But Arslan
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isn't giving up and started a new channel, where he already has
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more than 8,000 subscribers.
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Subscribe to Arslan. Hello, dear
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Russians, my name is Ruslan, and I've already started recording this video 20 times
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because
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I have to begin it with the phrase that
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I no longer have a YouTube channel and
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no VKontakte page either, because
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Someone deleted them today, and our
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winner, with 45 points, and 500,000
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rubles, are going to the city of Saratov.
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That’s where the channel is based.
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Interjections of Politics already has 57
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thousand subscribers, and it should be much
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more—they really are very cool.
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I hope our award and our support
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will inspire the guys, and they’ll become even better.
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And this is what real urban
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problems look like. This is Saratov—they built
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an embankment, a fire truck drove over it,
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and this is what happened. Congratulations
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to the winners and all the participants.
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[music]
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I really, really want everyone who
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has even the slightest idea about how
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to launch a channel with videos and livestreams
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where you can speak the truth without any censorship
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to definitely do it, guys.
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A YouTube channel is simple, and it’s
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effective.
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If you work hard and put in your
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effort, it will pay off for you. But look:
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already now, our three winners really have
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a bigger audience reach
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than any media outlet in their city, no matter who
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says otherwise. Sure, it’s just a YouTube
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channel, but even so, they are influential, they are
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powerful, and this is the fourth estate.
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Become that same kind of fourth estate.
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And we, as viewers, will try to
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help you together. As I said, this
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million for the winner—I’ll try
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to raise it from everyone. It’s our collective
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encouragement for those who are trying. If you
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support my idea of our kind
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YouTube standing against Putin’s malicious
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television, then here is the Yandex
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Wallet number—send a few of your
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rubles toward this needed million. In
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the video description, this number is there too, and
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most importantly, the description contains links to all
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the channels that won top places in our
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contest. Subscribe to them—they
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tell the truth.