In this video, recorded on a phone in September 2019, Alexei Navalny speaks about an unprecedented wave of raids on campaign offices across the country — the Kremlin’s response to the success of “Smart Voting” in the Moscow City Duma elections. With his characteristic irony, Alexei explains why Vladimir Putin is “stamping his feet” and sending hundreds of security officers to seize equipment from volunteers instead of fighting real crime. Despite enormous pressure and attempts to shut down the ACF, this video became a powerful manifesto of resilience and a call to continue the fight against crooks and thieves.
Text version
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Hi everyone, this is the first time I’ve
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recorded a video for the channel just holding
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the phone in my hand, and that’s because I want
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to tell you something. I want
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to explain what the abbreviation
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V.P.O.R.A.S.N. stands for. Don’t know?
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Probably not. I’ll tell you. It
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stands for “Vladimir Putin
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got very upset and is stamping his feet.”
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That is exactly what we are seeing right now in 40
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one cities. Across the country, there are now
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around 100 searches taking place in all of our
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headquarters offices, in the places where
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coordinators live, where their
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relatives live, and even at doors—
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they’re confiscating things, intimidating people, and doing all
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the other things they love to do
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when Vladimir gets upset and
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starts stamping his feet. This time he
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got very, very upset because of Smart
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Voting, because his favorite creation,
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his baby—the United Russia party,
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was simply crushed in the city of
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Moscow and badly battered across the
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rest of the country. He got so upset he’s
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stamping his feet. It is completely obvious that an operation
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on this scale could only have been carried out
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personally by Putin while he was stamping
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his feet. Just imagine how much
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manpower was involved in this—hundreds,
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possibly even thousands of people across the
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country from different agencies: the Interior Ministry,
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the Investigative Committee, the National Guard (Rosgvardiya), the FSB.
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Apparently, they all simultaneously grabbed
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hammers and ran off to break down doors. And tell me,
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please, do you remember anything on this scale happening in our
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country
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as an operation against corruption, or against
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terrorists, or against drug traffickers? But
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against our headquarters—yes, absolutely.
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In that sense, what’s happening literally
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makes us look more dangerous than any drug cartel.
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Yes.
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And we understand perfectly well the reasons
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for Vladimir Putin’s hysteria. How is he
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supposed to puff himself up now? How is he
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going to prove that the majority is behind him?
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For example, in the previous elections in
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Moscow,
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there were seventeen United Russia candidates who got more than 50
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percent of the vote—seventeen
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people. And now do you know how many? Zero.
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The average percentage for United Russia candidates
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used to be 47, and they beat everyone. But
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now it’s 36. And do you know what the average percentage is for candidates running against United Russia?
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The average percentage for those against United
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Russia is 38. What I want to say in connection with
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everything that’s happening is that I’m not even going to spend much time
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talking about how this case is fabricated, and
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that it is obvious to everyone that it’s fabricated, because
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they simply went ahead and declared
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all donations
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that you send to the Anti-Corruption
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Foundation criminal money.
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What I want to say first and foremost is
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that we will not stop our work, we will not
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quit. Don’t worry. Really,
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for some period of time we will most likely have
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a fairly difficult stretch in our
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lives. But to be honest, there hasn’t been much of a good period
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to begin with. Still, we will not
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give up or stop, and we will keep fighting
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the crooks and thieves. Second, I want
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once again to thank everyone who
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took part in Smart Voting.
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It is thanks to you that Vladimir
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Putin is now so upset and
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stamping his feet so loudly for the whole country to hear. That
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is great. That in itself is already very
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satisfying. Third, of course I want to say words
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of support to all those guys who
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won’t see this video right now because their homes are being
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searched. Well done, stay strong.
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Fourth, I want once again to say
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a huge thank-you to everyone who has supported us,
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who supports us, and I hope will continue
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to support us, because right now we
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especially need your support—any kind,
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moral or financial. To put it plainly,
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we need support. We really need your help
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and support.
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Write something about us—I don’t know, just at least
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a kind, good word somewhere, or
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go below—
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there are links there—send us a donation. And finally,
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I want to address those people who
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sit in the Kremlin and arranged this whole
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clown show. My God, you are not just thieves,
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you are complete cowards as well.
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You have everything, you understand—newspapers, money,
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whatever you want—and we still beat you in the elections.
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We beat you, and all you can do to us in
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response is run around breaking down doors, taking away
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people’s phones and cameras. We beat you,
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and we will keep beating you.
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The whole country hates you. You are crooks and thieves.
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Subscribe to our channel. Here
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we tell the truth.