The Inauguration of the Non-Tsar, Cossacks, and Dimon as Prime Minister Again

[music]

Hello everyone, it's 20:18, and Alexei is in the studio.

Navalny, or the opposition-minded

gentleman, as Natalia called me.

Poklonskaya was very sweet about it — she took offense at

a photograph that I posted — or rather, not at

the photograph itself. I'll show it to you, and also

the caption I wrote for the photograph.

She was expecting Nicholas II, but all she got was

Vladimir Putin. That caption offended her, it

was the caption, and she said that this

opposition gentleman mentioned in vain

Emperor Nicholas II, who has been canonized

as a saint and is revered throughout the

Orthodox world. Well, that's simply

not true. I do not revere Nicholas II at all,

not in the slightest, although of course

I probably do belong to the Orthodox world.

Natalia Poklonskaya will have to take into account

that there are people in Russia who do not

revere

either Nicholas II or, for that matter,

Vladimir Putin, our new tsar.

The one we all protested against

on the fifth. Well done,

everyone. I wrote on the cups: everyone

did great, truly everyone did great, and I'm proud

of everyone who came out on the fifth. It was very

cool, it was wonderful. I may be tried

over it, but I do not regret for a

second that

I took part in that action. It wasn't that hard

for me — it was easy for me to

take part in it. True, I had to go through

a whole comic operation involving how I

ran from the police the day before, who were

watching me very closely. In recent

days, about twenty people were tailing me,

really — just like in the movies, all kinds of

surveillance.

Ketchup, a safe apartment —

and then I ended up at the rally. My time at the rally

lasted ten or fifteen minutes,

which, all in all,

was more than at the previous rally, and I'm glad

I was there. I'm glad I was among those

people who came out at that moment and

said: he is no tsar over me. Because what

the political struggle consists of now, guys,

is not half the country against

the other half, Russians against Russians, nor is it

30 percent democrats against

70 percent of these Putinists or non-

democrats. No, that's not how it is at all. Political

struggle is never

a confrontation between some kind of

main forces in society, as if the people had split into

two parts and one opposes the other. No.

There is

a tiny percentage of true Putinists,

the genuine ones, who make money from it,

who receive direct

benefit. They seized power, and through

control of the police, the judicial

system, and the media, they stupefy all

the rest of the population. And then there is us, a fairly

large group of people to whom all this

is unacceptable. And the task of the Putinists

is what?

To tell the people: guys, look,

everything is wonderful, everyone is happy with what's

happening, everyone is greeting the new tsar.

There is only one group

— not dissatisfied people, but those who are slightly

out of tune.

That's the parliament of Chechnya. They are unhappy

with the fact that everyone is merely greeting the tsar — they

want to lick his boots. They have now introduced

a bill saying: let's

allow Putin — not the president, but Putin —

to serve three consecutive terms. That is the only

kind of dissatisfaction. That is the message broadcast by

the authorities. We are broadcasting a completely

different message: we come out and say to the authorities,

to society, and to ourselves: no, this will not do.

This will not do, this will never stand, and we

will never agree to it. In Russia there are

enough people who

refuse to recognize this monarchy, who

refuse to kiss the boots of this

government. In Russia there are enough

people who will never tolerate

this rule of thieves. And in 60 cities our

action took place, yes.

And in fact, for the first time

in all of modern Russian history, we

saw the authorities use violence on

such a scale. I mean,

what happened in Moscow and in

St. Petersburg was a partially forceful

dispersal that probably even in

scale exceeded what happened on May 6, 2012.

And of course there was that whole story

with those Cossacks (members of a traditional paramilitary-style community), which I will talk about separately

in a moment. But one way or another, we

fulfilled our main task. As a citizen,

as a citizen,

I said this on the previous program:

what I wanted from myself, from myself personally, was simply

this: let me do it. I came, I went out, and

I saw around me a huge number of

other people who had also simply

come there to stand for a while so that

they would not feel ashamed before their own conscience.

So once again, huge respect to

all of you.

You are the country's only hope — those who

came out. Because many people do support you,

many people support us,

but for various reasons they are afraid,

they are apprehensive, or something else. And in fact,

that is exactly what everything this

government does is aimed at. It wants those who

might potentially come out to think: well, no,

I could be detained. And then to think: well,

no, I could be fined. And now they are

saying: let's make them

even more afraid, so they think: no.

Some Cossacks could beat me up there.

They could come and beat me up, and that’s how they

intimidate people. Unfortunately, there is a certain

number of people who do get scared,

who are afraid, think about their circumstances, and look for all sorts of

excuses.

They say:

“What about me? I’ve got my grandmother,

or I might have to go to an anniversary celebration, or

a barbecue, or maybe the dill hasn’t

been planted yet. Of course, I’m with them in spirit,”

“I really want to, damn it, but the potatoes,”

“need to be planted at the dacha (country house).” So they look for some

pretext. That doesn’t necessarily mean

they’re bad people or outright cowards, but let’s say

they’re simply not brave enough

to invest some part of themselves in

defending their own country. Those who

came out and were ready to do that are the best

people in Russia—I say that without any irony—and

no Cossacks are going to scare them, of course. I

should say a couple of words about this,

about this strange business, because, well,

to be honest, it made an impression on me,

because at first

I didn’t even notice it. I got to Pushkinskaya Square

from the side of the Pushkin monument.

I arrived there by taxi,

rather discreetly, from the other side,

walked up from the side street, and didn’t see any

trouble at all. Then suddenly—look—people are running,

men are swinging those nagaikas (Cossack whips),

shouting something—it was a real brawl,

and I immediately had a complete

flashback to what happened to us in Anapa

when we were there in May

just on a trip, basically.

At the same time, we held a strategic

session of the Anti-Corruption Foundation

in some rather remarkable interiors

in Krasnodar Krai, and in Anapa there was

a very similar situation: a huge

number of half-drunk

men, unshaven and clearly long unwashed, and they were there

shouting,

all kinds of things, right in front of

the police, in the main square by the airport,

and they attacked us there too.

And naturally, to this day there is neither

a criminal case nor anything else. What you’re

seeing now in the video loop

we analyzed frame by frame, truly

in real time, and by now there will be

13 crime reports filed regarding the actions of

police officers and these so-called

Cossacks. We understand perfectly well

that the authorities themselves brought them there, and they

will not punish them. But for us it is important

to understand and document all of this, because

sooner or later, sooner or later,

every one of these people will most definitely

be punished. They are relatively young,

so they’ll live to see it. We’ll abolish all statutes

of limitations and lock them all up—it doesn’t matter

how old they are—those who

were directly involved there, and most

importantly, those who directed them. There is already a lot of footage now;

we have footage showing how

they were gathered in advance at Mayakovskaya Square,

briefed there, and at Pushkinskaya Square

they were also assembled and instructed in advance.

There are officials from

the Moscow city government responsible for this, there are police officers

who covered for them, and of course there are

people in the Kremlin who decided all of this.

We will identify all of these people, and for that

we are now beginning the initial work. Sooner

or later, everyone will be identified, and everyone

will cry

bitter tears before the judge, saying,

“Guys, forgive us, we were deceived,” or “we were

forced,” or “we were bribed.” But we all must

simply never forget this.

As for

this—I can see there is an ongoing

discussion: are they Cossacks or not? And in

Krasnodar Krai, by the way, real Cossacks regularly

take part in our events, and Cossacks

come to our campaign office. So don’t

tell me that all these people are

tarred with the same brush. These are quite different

communities, in essence. These louts

who showed up in Moscow—what are they, really?

Come on, this is basically a private security

company—the so-called all-Russian movement

of crooks that calls itself Cossacks.

And in every city in the country we simply see

some kind of

antisocial elements—men

who weren’t even accepted into the police,

so they sign up for these so-called Cossacks.

There is always some chief crook there, and

in this particular case it’s some

former FSB general who simply

wanted to make money, plain and simple.

That’s all.

He created a private security company

in order to get contracts. It was easier for him

that way

to get state-funded contracts, budget money.

Naturally, all of this is dressed up in

patriotic packaging: “we will revive

the Cossacks,” and so on. They recruited a bunch of louts,

gave them sheepskin hats,

and went off to demand budget money from

the Moscow city government and the Russian government.

And they got that budget money. They

got a contract from Moscow to guard the courts,

they got money from the Ministry

of Culture, they got money from the Moscow city

government for organizing

some kind of training camps, and all the rest of it.

And I can say, by the way,

as someone who, well,

spent most of the fifth with

the police—after I was detained

and then sat at the police station for probably ten hours,

I can say that the police officers there did not

They don’t really like this whole thing very much.

Of course, they defend it, but they understand that this is

a police function: to protect people from these

vagrants and hooligans—but

they don’t really like it, because

it amounts to a kind of erosion of the monopoly on

violence. A police officer says: well, sure, I

can hit someone over the head with a baton,

but there’s another side

to this pleasant fact that the state

has allowed me to hit someone with a baton

over the head: I could, for example, be jailed, or

if you file a complaint, I have to write a report,

and anyway, if I detain you, I

have to fill out paperwork, I have to

do something.

My boss can reprimand me, I have

irregular hours, and right now I’m

stuck here until they tell us

we’re dismissed—the entire 2nd Operational Regiment

has to sit in buses and wait. And

these guys—what, they couldn’t get into the police? They’re just

some louts, vagrants, but they’ve got

whips—unbelievable. They can also beat

everyone left and right and bear no

responsibility. So those who say

that this whole

idea of these people attacking others

is somehow supported by the entire government, or

even by a large part of this kind of pro-

Putin public—that’s simply not true. But

Maksim Shevchenko

—well, our path downward, the path downward—just

right before the program, in the last election

he did support the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, but he is undoubtedly

someone who consistently

supports our authorities. And today he

made a real statement: he resigned

from the Human Rights Council as a sign

of protest against the fact that there has been no

investigation into what happened on May 5 in

Moscow. And I can see that even many

government representatives have reacted

very nervously to this, because

this is the kind of thing where the authorities

start hiring not even formal

groups, but just semi-drunk people

and licensing them to use violence,

saying: yes, you may beat certain people.

Well then tomorrow they may do all sorts of things—we

understand that their

motives are mostly not ideological at all; they

just want to make money. They’d rather

loot a liquor store much more

than break up some

demonstration. That’s roughly what this whole story is about.

And in conditions where our

state is deformed, broken—where somewhere

some crooked former FSB general

commands some kind of force units,

and here there are police, and there

an active FSB general, and here some

other security structures—but in the end

this will lead to

the emergence of—not exactly

small armies, but in a crisis

situation it’s obvious whom these

so-called Cossacks will work for:

whoever gives them more money,

whoever brings a suitcase of cash to this

former FSB man who organized them—

that’s who they’ll work for, always. More than that,

in my view, all it takes is for the former

one to get a suitcase of cash and tell his

ragtag men in fur hats: go break up that

demonstration over there. And then some

mid-level boss gets offered

more money, and they go break up

that other demonstration. That’s exactly how this works.

We have seen this repeatedly

in our country’s history, and

specifically, including with this very

notorious Cossack movement. So

we should treat this as something unpleasant.

Of course, we need to approach it

philosophically and understand that the authorities

have nothing else

they can do to strengthen themselves

except disperse us. Well, okay.

The Chechen parliament introduced some

bill—that may please them, of course, but

it does nothing directly to strengthen their power.

What they need is to suppress

everyone who is against them, everyone who says

anything against them. So of course, throughout

Putin’s next six years, they will

keep doing this with one degree or another of

aggressiveness. Yes, of course. Our task

is simply not to be afraid, simply not to be afraid.

There is no other recipe here,

no other method or anything else. We need

to work to ensure that more and more

people come out to these rallies. Alex RM

asks me: “Alexei, good evening, what

do you think about holding a protest during

the World Cup? Formally, during

the World Cup, to hold a protest

you need permission from the FSB. There is no

ban as such, but they passed a

law that is absolutely unconstitutional,

in my view, under which you must

obtain additional permission from the FSB.

For us, that makes no difference at all.

They don’t give us any permits anyway,

so if there is a reason, I see

no problem with holding protests during

the World Cup. After all, we are not

holding protests in order to

interfere with the World Cup—that would be

unacceptable. But if it is a protest for our rights,

then why not? A huge, huge

thank you, of course, to everyone—

the campaign staff, all our volunteers, our

coordinators—they organized all of this

in 60 cities. Despite all the pressure, we

had several people arrested before

the rallies, and now two more people have been arrested there,

and seven people are awaiting trial as of yesterday.

literally, the coordinator of our headquarters in Ufa

and yesterday, on the 9th, Lilia Chanysheva

the young woman was arrested for 30 days, but what happened in

Ufa

but everyone did great, once again, it was amazing

successful, and the marches too—so now they want

to take revenge

they want to show that they need to somehow

crack down on

just like they did with Katya, and that’s why Chanysheva was hit with

30 days—our coordinator there

Fyodor Telin was jailed too; they gave him

twenty-five days. In Chelyabinsk, a person

got 25 days. Right now, ahead of us are

Tyumen, a court hearing in Perm—there will be a trial there as well

it’s clear: they’re afraid. They have identified

us as the only real troublemakers

disturbing the peace. Look, the elections were held recently

where are the presidential candidates now, and what

everything’s supposedly fine—but what about Grudinin, the candidate from

the people? What action is he organizing? Where is

Grigory Yavlinsky? What actions has he

called for, I mean

in preparation for the inauguration? But after all, he

said, "I do not recognize these elections"

you would think there would be some kind of

public activity—authorized or

unauthorized—something. One percent voted for you,

so somehow

work with that one percent. Nobody

is doing anything, nobody is doing anything

that’s why they are pressuring us as

the only truly existing

political structure. But I am sure that in

our movement, all our people are good, honest, brave, and

unbending. That’s why I believe in our organization

I am confident, I am confident that despite this

latest wave of pressure, all our people will

hold firm; our network across the country will stand

help us, join us, and

together we will fight back. It’s very

funny—I saw their comments, all those

pro-Putin people explaining to themselves

why, on May 5, people came out across the country

but they were hoping for some kind of failure

because they live in a world where they believe they have already

scared everyone

and that no one would come to an unauthorized protest

right? In their minds, they have a button: declare a protest

unauthorized, and we will all immediately

get scared and stay away. And they believed that, and

then after May 5 they were baffled

discussing why people came out after all

on May 5. My prize for the best

explanation goes to one of my

favorite organizations—in principle, they

would always win prizes: the Putin Squads

who came out with an official

explanation of why people were going to the

protests on the fifth, and they said that

Navalny was handing out food

rations

from his warehouse in Mytishchi. Let’s

watch 1 minute and 22 seconds of pure

delight

of this story about the rations. Come on—here it is, Boykov

for Navalny’s young supporters

Mytishchi

according to our information, the headquarters of this whole thing

is located there, and that is exactly where

the food packages are assembled. What do they include?

[music]

why, this notorious and widely known

there’s even something about a truckload of oil

sunflower oil

yes, by the way, someone called about that too

[music]

Here’s what I want to say, dear

Putin Squads: if I were handing out, in exchange for

taking part in protests,

tea bags, packaged

buckwheat, rice, and canned meat

you, the Putin Squads, would be running to my rallies

in the front rows, because people who

sign up for organizations like that

would sell their own

mother for free food

because if I were handing out some kind of

food packages, all the inhabitants of

these pro-Putin dens—it would be worse than

all the Cossacks (paramilitary-style pro-government groups). Some

normal people came out on the 5th to Pushkinskaya Square

and then suddenly a rumor spread that

Navalny was giving away free food, and crowds of

these pro-Putin people would come running, sweeping everything

out of their way, trampling people

in search of free rice and buckwheat

so no, we are not handing it out—not

only because we do not have the money for it

and no desire to do it, but also

because we do not want to see you at

our rallies. And I am getting a lot of

questions about—I see there was a comment

saying, "Damn it, you’re cutting corners on us—where

is the 700 grams of buckwheat?" asks Kamenkov

Yura. Well, Yura, you didn’t get any

buckwheat. A lot of people are asking me about

the new bill that

United Russia introduced today on

liability for involving

minors in

rallies. They once again saw that

quite a lot of young people—students and

schoolchildren—are coming, and once again they

got worked up and

started trying to fight it. You remember

a year ago, after March 26, they began

going through all the schools, universities, vocational colleges

and so on, telling everyone how good Putin is

and how bad Navalny is. Now they are

trying to introduce administrative

liability for this as well. It seems to me that

the best thing said on this subject

was by Yevgeny Roizman, the mayor

of Yekaterinburg, who commented on the whole

situation and said: well then, let’s

ban everything altogether, and let

schoolchildren then, in principle, should

to accept themselves as slaves by default. As for me,

I feel more or less the same way about all of this.

When I was detained, there was also

a young guy detained along with me.

They detained us, dragged us onto a bus, and then when

we had already arrived at the police station,

I found out he was 15 years old. From his appearance, I would have

said he was about 22 — he looked completely grown-up.

He was 15, and they let him go there without

drawing up a report; his parents came to pick him up.

I talked to him, and he

was already like me. At 15, I wasn’t like that.

Not the same as I am now, of course — maybe I was more foolish — but

I was interested in politics, and I thought about

my future. It’s just that when I was

15, Russia’s prospects

looked completely different from how they do for those who are

15, 16, 17, or 18 now. So once again,

I can say absolutely clearly that

first, I am unquestionably proud that

young people come to our rallies.

I am unquestionably proud that I am

one of those politicians whom

young people listen to, and whose rallies

they come out to. I absolutely

believe that what distinguishes a smart person from

a foolish one, first and foremost, is that they

take an interest in politics, in

how they are going to live, how

their future will be built, what prospects

they have in this country. After all,

they understand very well that no matter how

well they study, no matter how hard they

try,

they have no prospects for a normal life

in a country called the Russian Federation

under this government, because their

salary — just their salary, leaving politics aside —

will by default be three times

lower than in any European country.

Because damn Putin, for example, has strangled

all these industries, and there are no real

prospects here.

Nothing is developing here because

they have crushed small business, because

there is no real production here. And if

a person at 15, 16, 17,

or 18 understands this, understands that

for the sake of their own future, they need

to go to a protest now, then that is a wonderful

person. I applaud them and say: well, you’re

smart. You’re going to a protest because you

can connect two dots, connect A and B.

That means you’re smarter than any of your

classmates; you’re smarter than some stupid

teacher — sorry, but there are teachers like that.

The entire internet is full of videos of them

saying: don’t go.

How can you oppose the authorities?

You’re not supposed to speak out against the authorities.

You must accept everything, you must

bow to them, you must agree with them completely. You’re

small.

You must be a slave. When you get older,

you’ll be an older slave, and then you’ll become

an adult, good, fully-fledged slave

who will slave away for this

state, paying unimaginable

Russian taxes, and they’ll tell you:

you’re paying far too little. Then you retire,

and become an impoverished slave. If there are

people who, at a young age, say:

no, I already don’t want to be any kind of

slave. I want to be a normal human being, and

I don’t understand why, in modern Russia,

we should have to live in poverty — that is

a wonderful person, and I am proud that

schoolchildren and students are coming out.

I see that in fact, in large numbers, it’s not just

students coming out — not just some kind of

spoiled rich kids, owners of

iPhones, or students from the best schools and

the best universities. Kids from

technical colleges are coming, kids from

vocational schools are coming too, because it’s the same

for them — they really understand it. For

me, this is a breakthrough: that we were able

to explain these things — or rather, no,

that’s not quite right, not that I managed to explain them. I’m not

inclined to think that it means I’m somehow so

smart and opened young people’s eyes. No, apparently

some kind of generational shift has happened

in which schoolchildren, students, young people

in general have simply become better at understanding this. I

probably didn’t understand it at their age, or

understood less. But now they, regardless

of what university they attend, regardless of whether

their parents are rich or poor, understand

these things better — they’ve felt them more deeply.

And it’s really great that they have felt that.

So it seems to me that any attempts by

United Russia (the ruling political party) to try to

crush

this sense of freedom and dignity inside

a young person will come to nothing. We’ll

see, of course.

To do this, the state will

lie twice as much, deceive you twice as much,

there will be twice as much brainwashing every day.

But will they be able to strip away the sense of

dignity from these people who are now

coming out to protest? I don’t think so. Well,

we’ll see how it goes. At the very least,

I will do everything I can to fight, on the other side,

against this brainwashing.

We finished the rally on the fifth. Send me

your questions on Twitter, and I’ll

keep responding on this topic throughout 2018.

Here’s a question from toupper

harley: Good evening, Alexei, what do you think

Russia will look like at the end of Putin’s new term?

Dear toupper harley, the inauguration

that has just taken place already perfectly shows

what kind of

joyless country Russia will be by the end

of Putin’s new term, because

the inauguration itself was bleak, joyless, and

made it clear that there would be no meaningful change.

This was a very significant event.

Very important and very symbolic.

For me, this event was simply

filled with explanations,

clarifications about what will happen next, how

the country will function—there, quite literally,

every second, every

minute, something was happening that

was telling us how everything would be arranged

going forward. But look at how it all began.

Putin arrived in a car from the Cortege series.

It’s a special kind of car that

everyone looked at and thought, oh, some kind of

Rolls-Royce. But this isn’t just

some Rolls-Royce-style thing.

It’s 12 billion rubles (about $190 million at the time) that were

allocated to a special program

to create a presidential limousine.

A limousine, understand? In Russia, where people

raise money for medicine through

charity foundations, where children’s operations

are financed through

charity foundations, they allocated 12

billion rubles (about $190 million) to build this thing,

and this vehicle during

the inauguration, as we later found out,

drove only 200 or 300 meters (about 220–330 yards) because

because

they were afraid to let it go

all the way from Novo-Ogaryovo to the Kremlin

because apparently they were afraid it wouldn’t make it.

So that’s how it is—business as usual, they spent 12

billion rubles.

This supercar can’t even drive 200

meters, meaning for most of the trip

Putin rode in his Mercedes Pullman,

and the last few hundred meters

he rode in this thing.

Well, just to somehow, at least a little, explain

where those 12 billion rubles went.

And of course, for those who watch

television, to pull the wool over their eyes—oh,

look, he arrived in a domestically made

car. No, he did not arrive in a

domestic car—he arrived on

12 billion stolen rubles, and that is

once again a perfect symbol of what

is to come. People were asking what would happen during

this term, during this Putin

presidential term. Russia, unfortunately,

will continue throwing away our

enormous sums on meaningless,

stupid projects like this Cortege. We

will spend tens of billions of rubles

on all sorts of, excuse my language, crap that will

lead to nothing except that it can

be shown on television as

some kind of propaganda effect.

We’ve seen Rogozin-style

robots, these Skolkovo (Russia’s state-backed tech hub) things,

that dachshund they dunked underwater—you remember.

That’s the kind of thing they’ll keep doing.

Huge amounts of money will be thrown away, and

that money will give us absolutely

nothing. The next thing is also very,

very symbolic. Now I’m going to show you 31

seconds from Putin’s inaugural speech.

It outraged many people, but when I

watched it, I thought: my God, how he

decided to send such a truthful signal about

what this would mean.

These 31 seconds are the single most important quote.

Putin, in his inaugural speech: “We need

breakthroughs

in all spheres of life. I am deeply convinced

that such a leap

can be ensured only by a free

society that embraces everything new

and everything advanced,

and rejects injustice, stagnation,

reactionary backwardness,

and bureaucratic deadness—all that

binds people, prevents them from fully

unfolding, from realizing themselves and their talents,”

“and therefore limits the country’s drive

toward the future.” This man

just recently, with budget money—well, two

days ago, with budget money—deployed

the very symbol of backwardness

and reactionary conservatism. He simply opened

a history textbook and looked at what, over

the last hundred years, in the historical

memory of anyone who has read that

history textbook, is a symbol of

reactionary repression. Ah yes—drunken,

unshaven men with beards and

whips dispersing students in the cities.

That is the symbol of backward, reactionary repression.

And after that, he and his speechwriters

included in the speech this part about how only

a free society can achieve

breakthroughs, and we must not follow the path of

reactionary backwardness. Everyone said,

my God, what a liar, what a hypocrite. And I said:

thank you.

It’s clear to us—we understood the signal.

The hint could not have been clearer.

It is clear to us that Putin said that in the

course of the

next six years, of course, there will be

no breakthrough at all, because a breakthrough,

as Putin himself understands—he said it—is

connected with freedom.

A breakthrough is connected with something new, but nothing

new will happen, because I rely on

reactionary backwardness.

And there simply won’t be one, exactly like that. Besides,

I will continue lying in every word and

being hypocritical in every sentence—that is what

that part of the inaugural speech symbolized.

It’s very clear: over the next six

years they will lie twice as much, be seven

times more brazen, and today they will do

one thing, and tomorrow they will do the complete

opposite. That was a very important

part of the inauguration. But what came next?

One of the most widely quoted

promises the next day was

Putin has signed new May decrees.

He said that Russia would enter the top five

largest economies in the world, and everyone was like, well,

the small remaining share of independent media

in Russia, and people who still have at least

a little memory, said:

Good grief, what on earth is this?

Over the past 11 years, he has said this six times

literally, literally in almost every

major speech of his,

in inauguration speeches,

before parliament, before the Federal

Assembly, at every kind of gathering where

he gathered his entourage and, in

large numbers, had them brought in

to appear on live broadcast. He says that

in the near future, over the coming years,

Russia will make it into the top five

economies in the world. It won’t. It hasn’t over

these 11 years while he has been promising it, and it

won’t, of course. And, well, do you really think

that Putin is so far gone that he forgot

that he has promised this many times? But

after all, he does read what they give him so that he

whatever kind of mental disconnect he may have, or

then there’s the popular version that there are doubles, not just one.

However many there may be,

each of those doubles has already, several

times, promised that Russia would enter the top five

largest economies, so each of

them must at some meeting

have said, well, how can we possibly

keep promising this? People will laugh at us. But

that wasn’t the signal they were supposed to get. The proper signal was

to explain that over the next

six years we will be fed promises that are knowingly

impossible to fulfill. And the economy—

the economy of the state of California is larger than

Russia’s economy. Naturally, there can be no

entry into the top five largest economies

in the world without new technologies,

without development. None of that exists. See

the previous point about backward, archaic conservatism

.

What exactly will get us into the top five largest

economies? I mean, we have to overtake

someone to get into the top five. Someone is

currently in fifth place, someone in sixth,

and we’re somewhere around seventh or eighth. We

have to push someone out to get into the top five.

And by means of what, exactly? Please tell me—by

selling

Cossack whips, sheepskin hats, or

chrome leather boots? No, those are not the

drivers of economic growth that

could get you there. So this too

was an important part of the inauguration:

it explained that nothing is going to happen here.

There will just be more nice promises.

And of course, the thing that finished everyone off, especially

United Russia members, though I had no doubt that

Medvedev would be reappointed—I got

enormous pleasure from it.

I mean, I just completely relaxed and enjoyed it.

I specifically went on Twitter and read

the accounts of all those Putin supporters, what

they were writing about Medvedev’s appointment. There was

howling: “Vladimir Vladimirovich, how could

you? We had such hopes for you. You’re so

cool, so strong, and you break up rallies,

too,”

“and you’re ready to start a war, and in Syria too,”

“and you fight all these enemies,”

“so how could you appoint that Medvedev again?”

Well, he did appoint him.

He appointed him, dear Putin fans, and

that perfectly shows that the next six

years will be just as useless and

drained out of our lives. And if they sit it out

to the end, compared with the previous term it will

be even worse.

Just look at the composition of the government.

Golikova was put back in charge of healthcare.

Golokova was returned to healthcare, and

she had previously been removed because the whole country

called her, if you remember,

“Madam Arbidol,” because during her time

when she oversaw healthcare,

she lobbied for her family’s interests.

There were practically inspections of pharmacies

to see whether they stocked Arbidol, which is not

actually a real medicine. It was simply that

businessmen close to her were pushing it and

producing it in enormous

quantities, and it was purchased with budget money.

Good Lord, there isn’t a clean spot on her record.

.

We did an investigation into Golikova and

her husband, Khristenko, who, by the way, is also a former

deputy prime minister. Just look at

Golikova’s house in Pestovo,

by the Pestovo Reservoir, next to a golf

course. With what money was all this bought?

They have both been officials their whole lives. And her home is in

Ostrov Fantaziy, an elite

part of Moscow. You can see there that one

of these properties—there’s no way

a single building in this super-elite part

of northwest Moscow

could belong to Golikova legitimately. We did a special

breakdown; we calculated what their

official income was.

It’s fairly large, though it’s unclear where it comes from,

but even that official income

doesn’t come close to matching how much they

spend. Where does all this come from? And this is the person

they are dragging back into healthcare, supposedly to help

those very people who stand there

counting their money, elderly women standing in pharmacies

trying to buy some medicine, who

stand in these enormous lines, who

if, God forbid, they are diagnosed with

some kind of cancer,

know that getting treatment for free

usually won’t work out for you in most

cases. In most cases, of course,

it may be free there in Moscow, in a wealthy

city, it may be free there, in

in the region, never — I mean, for free, yes.

I mean, you could just end up dying very

quickly. Everyone knows that, and this man

will be put in charge of healthcare.

Oh God, by now even everyone — even Vladimir

Solovyov

was cursing Mutko out, I remember, shouting there

about when he would finally resign.

They appointed him, and it was, of course, an astonishing кадровый choice.

When Medvedev says that we

are going to appoint Mutko — there’s this little

thought — and United Russia members laugh because

what other reaction could there be? Maybe

they didn’t believe it for a few seconds. Let’s

watch it. It’s 40 seconds, but

57 seconds, but it’s wonderful, I think.

There is another interesting idea that

exists: taking into account experience and taking into account

personal characteristics, while at the same

time bearing in mind that we try

never to bend under external

circumstances.

There is a proposal to appoint

Vitaly Mutko as deputy prime minister so that

he can deal with construction issues

as well as regional policy.

He is an experienced man; let me remind you, he worked in

the region, in St. Petersburg.

For them, it sounds like a joke.

He’s just like that — he says it all so slowly,

speaks as if he’s actually

telling a joke, building it up,

building it up, and then suddenly — bang — the punchline:

“in the field of construction,” and then, still, ha-ha

ha — Mutko in construction.

This is the government of a country where

145 million people live, and he says that

we’ve now taken the most pointless

idiot

you could possibly imagine,

who failed at everything, who disgraced

our country before the whole world with these

“toppings” (a mocking reference to the doping scandal), who just talks

complete nonsense — and we’re appointing him to

construction on somebody’s say-so. Let’s

remember how he was one of the

overseers of the construction of Zenit Stadium

Great choice. Of course they

burst out laughing, because, well, what

other reaction could there be? But this is the government.

He’ll have a black Mercedes with a flashing beacon, he’ll

hold meetings on this

construction, and among other things he’ll

be handing out billions, and in the course of this

construction he’ll wreck and botch

everything, of course. Thanks to Mutko, Russia will, among other things,

become even stronger.

And fall even further behind the top five largest

economies in the world. Meanwhile, by the way, while we

were watching this amusing footage, I was

written to and corrected: “You’re mistaken,”

“Alexei, Russia has long since stopped competing

with the state of California in terms of the size

of its economy — only with the state of New York.”

They’re not competing with a city yet, but with

the state of New York.

So thanks to Mutko, we will all become

a little poorer, and many will become even

more destitute.

They laugh and discuss it there, but anyway,

an important part — the symbolic part

of the inauguration — showed what kind of

government this will be: a government of failure and

theft. Theft is the key word, you

think?

But they’re not appointing Mutko just for laughs.

Why is Mutko such an unsinkable guy?

He was sports minister, and he totally

failed. I mean, what happened with the Olympics?

How they dragged us through the mud there, rubbed our faces in it

— all the sports officials — but it was

just some kind of utter disgrace, with all this

doping and everything else. They’ve already acknowledged

a significant part of it officially,

officially acknowledged it.

And yet after that he became deputy prime minister. This

one photograph explains everything. Let’s

please take a look at the photograph

with Comrade Mutko.

Where does his career come from? He’s from

the St. Petersburg mayor’s office, and if there’s a photo with

Sobchak (Anatoly Sobchak, former mayor of St. Petersburg), show that one too — even if it’s not in color,

from who-knows-what year. Mutko is

unsinkable because they were stealing

together with Putin

back in the St. Petersburg mayor’s office, skimming money.

They sat like this, facing

each other, pulling out this envelope full of money,

stuffing it here and there — they were super

trusted people.

Putin trusts Mutko like almost no one else.

They’ve been stealing money

together for 40 years. I’m 40 — 40, that

would make it 1976. I’m 40 years old — well, over the

last 25 years, they could have a coat of arms

for Putin and Mutko together, with the caption: “25 years

of stealing money together.” That’s probably a super

way to describe a person — nothing would offend

this gang of St. Petersburg officials more.

After all, they’re mostly people who came out of this

St. Petersburg mayor’s office — they’re just

bandits and crooks. Why are they all so tightly

bound together? Well, because they were

carving up money back when Putin was arranging

the sale of precious

metals in the early 1990s — you know, that famous case.

It all comes from there. They were all there together

running their little schemes, and they’re still

running them now. How could he possibly give up Mutko? How

could he give up that very

Vitalik who used to bring him things and say,

“Vova, here’s your share.” They were dividing it all up into

their pockets even back then. They’re doing

the same thing now, and they’ll keep doing the same

thing. So this is a great symbolic

thing that showed us just how grandly and

powerfully they will steal

during Putin’s new presidential term.

Therefore,

it seemed to me that the inauguration, in

that sense, went very, very successfully

because it showed us how everything will be. I

hope—I could probably spend another half hour

answering that question, but it seems to me

the cards I’ve been dealt are giving me both

questions from LR. I’m being asked: what do you

think about the New Greatness case

—an FSB provocation, where they jailed very

young people? I’ve been following this case,

of course. I believe today they extended

the detention terms for the older girl there.

The situation really is, how should I put it,

outrageous, but as of today it is typical.

The Center for Countering Extremism

—that is, a legally existing

organized criminal group in Russia—

whose purpose is supposedly to report that it

is catching some kind of extremists, but in reality

they themselves organized some people online.

There were several meetings where

it wasn’t just a recruited person, but an actual

undercover employee from the Center, and

from the case materials it is clear that he himself

suggested: let’s create this kind of

organization. He proposed that they adopt

a charter and everything else. And when they were like, well,

all right, fine—heard the proposal and resolved to adopt

the charter,

he ran off, filed a report, and everyone

was arrested. They said,

they created an extremist group, they have

a charter, look—they even held a meeting there.

And all of this was organized by the police themselves,

that is, it was purely a provocation in order to

simply imprison random, absolutely innocent

people. But this is how they will operate.

In the city of Sochi,

there was also an astonishing

incident today that shows what

things will look like in the future.

Those of you who follow our

work probably know that in our investigations

department we have the amazing Georgy

Alburov, a wonderful person, and

while he doesn’t work for us full-time, he is our regular

consultant. And Vladimir Dolnikov, a volunteer activist

who is now very actively

involved in the whole situation with

Telegram, also serves as a consultant on the site,

one of the, well, leaders of the movement for a free

internet in Russia. They were in

Sochi today on various matters and were sitting in a café

when at some point

some men approached them—six people—pulled out

pistols and said—broad daylight, really,

in a café on the embankment, people come up

to civilians, pull out weapons, and say:

you must leave immediately, or we’ll

take you to the mountains and kill you. Alburov was supposed

to send a short video—1 minute 20 seconds.

I haven’t seen it myself yet; I’ll watch it

with you now, and he’ll tell us what happened.

Let’s watch. Georgy, can you

We, together with Dolnikov, are in the city of

Sochi.

Today we were having lunch in one

of Sochi’s cafés when

about six to eight

very solid, muscular guys approached us.

They weren’t Caucasian; they were more like

the type you’d associate with some kind of special forces.

Well, we’re here on work-related

business, and it’s obvious they were tracking us.

We must have been flagged

when buying tickets through various systems

that monitor ticket purchases and

through cell tower data, and somehow

they found us in this exact

specific place. They put pressure on us,

trying to force us to leave Sochi.

They said that if we didn’t leave, they would

take us to the mountains. They displayed weapons

that they had specifically brought for this.

They threatened to beat us and generally

put every kind of pressure on us, threatening

violent retaliation.

If we did not leave—which is why we filed

a complaint against them.

It states everything as it happened,

what took place. They did not want to accept it

at first. They said we had to go to another

district to file it. Then they said,

why are you even filing this? No one will

be found. Then they said that if they were found,

those people would say that it was we who

attacked them, and then we’d be jailed. So we

spent quite a long time persuading the police officers,

and in the end we did manage to file

the complaint. So now we’ll wait

for a response and hope for Russian

justice—that these people who, in broad

daylight, threaten people on the streets of Sochi with

weapons—will be found.

It’s May, Sochi is in resort season, there is a huge

police presence, and it is supposed to be

one of the safest

cities in Russia at this time. But we

understand that this is Krasnodar Krai (a region in southern Russia), we

understand there are certain local peculiarities,

but still—for six men simply to come up in broad

daylight with pistols, six

people, and take away their phones—

though of course when

some people come up, pull out a pistol, and I

know Alburov,

he still had a phone and started filming all of it.

They took their phones and said things like, we’ll kill you,

not stab you—these were

some Russians, and indeed, judging by everything,

they were most likely the same police officers,

anti-extremism officers or FSB guys whom we

looked up in the database—aha, people have arrived

to Sochi, so that means they’re up to something,

that’s all.

Well, or something like that. This is a threat

to national security.

if they expose some kind of product

well then, look—raise the alarm

raise the red flags, launch a signal

flare rocket, the special FSB group

changes clothes in the armory

gets weapons and goes to protect these

these thieves need to be thrown out of Sochi immediately

and Sochi

these two troublemakers here

and off they go, not even embarrassed, with

pistols—and how can this even be happening?

could we ever have imagined that

this would happen so openly? I mean, in Chechnya

this has been going on for quite a while, and in

Dagestan something like this can happen, but in

Sochi

three years ago it would have been hard to

imagine

now it is happening, and again this is about

how they are going to protect themselves, well

and by the way, this is already a good

a good way to understand what

has become of Russia under today's rule

the "cursed '90s"—the "cursed '90s"—and you'll get

an idea of what the "cursed '90s" were like

it all comes down to roughly this:

some people in a café with pistols—that is

what is happening now, and we understand that

once these people were allowed

in civilian clothes to show someone

their weapons, well then in

a few hours, a few days, or

under some other circumstances they will

simply, excuse me, while drunk in some

similar café, be showing all this to ordinary tourists

because someone looked at them the wrong way

or said something wrong—that is exactly how it

works, and it cannot work any other way

but if you tell a police officer from above

to go and do something

that is criminal, illegal

that is, to go commit a crime

and some kind of

police boss told them to do it

that a crime can be committed here, then

next time I am guaranteed to be

covered for after another crime, because we

my boss and I are committing

crimes—one hand washes the other, that's how it

works. But credit to the people from Dolinka

for not just quietly leaving

with their things packed, but instead making the situation

public

they went and filed a report

with the police. I fully understand that this will lead nowhere

to nothing

but nevertheless it is an important

fact—it simply shows that we are not afraid

well, obviously, when someone is standing there with a pistol

you won't exactly charge at him, right? He might also

shoot you and then say that you attacked

him with a fork. But what matters is not bravado

whether you're afraid or not, but that at least you're ready

to make the situation public, because

from now on, the further this goes, the more for

any little thing like this, a mayor

a governor, anyone at all will be after

you, trying to bring

criminal charges against you even if there is no

politics involved. A lot of people sit there and think, well

okay, that's understandable—he's an obvious enemy

of the state, from the FBK (Anti-Corruption Foundation), so against him

they take such measures. But what does that have to do with me?

Sure, maybe I'm against the authorities too, but I'm an ordinary

person, or I'm unhappy about a broken road

but I'm not political, so nothing will happen to me

—it won't happen to me. Well, let's see. An interesting

situation happened in the city of

Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, in Sakhalin Region

there, a man was simply unhappy with the road

and recorded a video. Let's watch these 50

seconds: on Lenin Street—a new kind of mess

there it is

quite something. And well done, they even

came up with this—nailed it down so the boards wouldn't

be stolen

and that's how it is all along Lenin Street

thanks to our esteemed governor

every bit of this idiocy

must have been put together by complete idiots

a respectful request: please share this video

maybe our

esteemed Kozhemyako (the governor) will finally grow a conscience—I don't even

know what to call him anymore

what's happening here is just embarrassing

it shouldn't be like this. Here you are walking on a

sidewalk like this, right? And do you realize that you live in a

very rich country? On Sakhalin they extract

oil and gas there—the region is incredibly rich overall

in theory, the region ought to be. There are also

LNG facilities there

and oil companies there; a huge number of people work there

extracting

enormous amounts of money from the land you live on

and so you walk

with your own feet on the ground

under which there is a pile of money; from that

money people get rich here, yet you are walking along

a sidewalk like this, through the mud. So what can you

say about the mayor and governor? But that man

said it absolutely honestly—we censored it

so that you wouldn't hear all the

full honesty, though you can easily find on Twitter

the uncensored version of this video

so what did he say wrong? Absolutely

nothing—he said everything correctly. If in 2018

in a country that claims it wants to join

the world's top five economies, a sidewalk like this

exists and has to be patched with boards or

whatever it is lying there, then he has every

right to say so. What happened after

that?

Did the mayor, shamed by the public, immediately go

and pave everything? No. Did the governor immediately

go there personally and, with

the regional TV cameras rolling, himself

pour some gravel and say, 'We'll fix all this

right away, of course, because'

It's outrageous, outrageous what's going on—well, he did it.

He made it look as if he hadn't known about it, and...

as if he expected the governor to come and fix everything, so he filed

a complaint with the Investigative Committee (Russia's main federal investigative authority), and

the Investigative Committee launched an inquiry.

Because, you see, the crime wasn't that

someone had done such a terrible job—I'm already

starting to say it myself—you tell me I need to hold back,

the crime, supposedly, was that

a man was walking through the mud, got outraged, and recorded

it. Yes, he was swearing, but the way you have to swear when you can't

help swearing—when swearing is exactly what the situation calls for.

There are simply no other words

to discuss it. And that, apparently, was his crime: he

insulted that very governor,

Oleg Kozhemyako.

A United Russia party member—meaning, one of the bosses.

There he sits, with Putin's portrait hanging behind him—well, would you look at that.

Some [__] serfs, apparently, are unhappy

that they have to walk there on

planks laid over the mud. They're unhappy

that billions are being written off as road-repair spending,

while all they get is this...

Throw them in jail—wow. If they start

opening their mouths against us, that won't lead to anything good,

either. Look, it's a sign of the times.

Not that long ago, this would have been impossible.

Back then, Kozhemyako would have said something like,

'I don't know, go pay the guy some money

so he takes that video off the internet.'

Some PR people would have handled it. But now

it's different. Now this big red mug

is a symbol of power.

You sit there, you've got a party behind you,

you've basically got a license to steal, so you

have to crush everyone who's against it.

That's why people need to go to

rallies. Sorry that I turn every topic into

the same point—but how else? How else?

How else can you protest this except by

spreading it around? The man asked

for this video to be shared, and I honestly

shared it. And now I'm asking you

to share it too. I respond to requests like that.

If they hold a rally, I'll support

that rally, because there is simply no other way

to stand up against this outrage, just

impossible otherwise, because no

other methods work on them anymore. And

our task is simply to gather more and more

people. Let me answer

some questions from Twitter. Alexei,

what about registering the new party?

About party-building?

About expanding with deputies at different levels?

Hold on, you've jumped straight to expansion already.

We're supposed to have a congress on the 19th,

and I will be there—unless I get

locked up tomorrow. If they do

lock me up, then in any case

the congress will still go ahead, and we will continue

to demand registration of our party, although

I understand perfectly well that Putin has

absolutely no desire to register it.

Another question: won't all these arrests

interfere with the party congress?

We understand, and all our coordinators understand,

that they detain us,

they arrest us. That's why we're gathering

people who aren't easily scared,

people who are ready to work with us. As for the elections

in Moscow—what's your view? Someone asks me

something here that's garbled, but anyway,

it was addressed to Navalny—so, regarding

the Moscow mayoral election, I see one candidate

for mayor of Moscow: Yashin, who is actually

doing something and

running quite an active campaign.

He's meeting with volunteers; I was at that

meeting. Good for him, I support that. I see

other candidates who say

they want to take part, but they are doing

nothing, to my great

regret and disappointment. And I keep repeating

my position: as a voter, I demand

primaries.

I demand that everyone who wants to take part

in the Moscow mayoral election and wants

my support as a politician and my

support as an ordinary person—my vote—

must hold a preliminary

vote with debates, so that I can choose

the best one together with you and vote

for that person. That's all. Yashin, by the way,

is also demanding these primaries, but all

the others are not. Alexei, wouldn't you like

to meet with Pashinyan,

asks Aleksandr M.? Well, I would like

to meet with all interesting people,

certainly including Pashinyan, but I

think that, first of all, he has other things

to deal with, and second, any possible meeting

with me would simply be perceived by the Kremlin as—well, they

would go into hysterics. So Pashinyan,

being a sensible person, naturally

understands that one way or another his job

as the country's prime minister is

to build relations with Russia,

regardless of what kind of

government Russia has—you still have to

maintain relations with it. Meeting with me

would be of no use to him in that sense.

What time is tomorrow's show trial?

My show trial is tomorrow at 11—actually, two of them.

Two trials. Tomorrow they'll try me for

disobeying police officers, and they'll also try me

tomorrow for organizing

a rally. On the first charge I face 15 days in jail;

on the second, I face 30 days. Those

could be added together, so overall I could

get 45 days. But honestly, I don't really

understand the logic lately,

because they still haven't tried me yet

for the previous rally.

Usually in a situation like this, they immediately

arrest me, hold the hearing, and send me straight to a special detention center,

but this time they let me go.

I don't understand whether that's because...

to support this Kremlin talking point

Look, they're jailing everyone, but not Navalny

they're not jailing him, so that's why they're doing this

measure—whether it's ahead of

the European Court, I don't know, and it seems to me

it's pointless to speculate

none of this really matters much

naturally, Putin and this whole crowd

are disgusting—they do everything they can

to hold on to power, in order to

go on stealing and have the ability

to punish those who are unhappy with them. Our

task is to resist them

to unite people around us

to persuade people, to campaign. The most important thing is not

the main thing is to be honest people. On May 5, I

tried as best I could to be an honest person

if they put me on trial tomorrow, okay, that means

I'll be tried for trying, at that moment,

to be an honest person. If I could

turn back time to May 5, I

would do exactly the same thing, only I would try

to stay in that square a little longer

together with you. Once again, thank you very much

to everyone who came. See you next

Thursday. Bye

[music]