Hello, I'm back

Hi, this is Navalny, and I’m with you again.

After yet another arrest. Hi, Lyuba.

I’m back. First of all, thank you once again

to everyone who went to the rallies, to everyone who, in

one way or another, is taking part in our now

very large anti-corruption movement,

and of course, thank you to everyone who did not

stop their work while I was

taking it easy in the

jail cell.

A question that is often asked in such a

snide tone: so, are you satisfied,

Alexei, with what you’ve achieved over these

past few months, after organizing several

protest actions and ending up under

arrest twice? Medvedev is still

prime minister, and no one has taken away his palaces and vineyards.

But on the other hand, your

campaign headquarters have been hit by real

raids: they’re being blocked and searched,

and leaflets are being confiscated all over the country,

with total disregard for the law. I answer with a clear

conscience: of course I’m satisfied. I’m very

satisfied. I mean, of course I’m

very irritated — I’d even say enraged — by

the completely illegal seizure of leaflets and

newspapers. Of course I would like to see

Medvedev in the defendant’s dock right

now. And yes, I’m outraged that the authorities —

both in the Kremlin and in the regions — have already made

the main priority of their work

the fight against our anti-corruption

campaign and my presidential campaign.

But my friends, I look at this process

more broadly, and that’s why I’m full of optimism. Just

look for yourselves: just four months ago,

on March 2 of this year, we released

the investigation *He Is Not Dimon to You*,

where we described in detail the vast

corruption empire of Dmitry Medvedev

and his entourage. And from day one, the authorities — in

the persons of Putin, Medvedev himself, and all the rest —

said: this doesn’t bother us. We’ll make sure

that no one in the country hears about

this investigation,

and no new discussion about the scale of

corruption in Russia will arise. And you

smart guys will discuss it in your own

little internet ghetto of half a million

people. The standard scheme: total

censorship across all major media, television,

and so on and so forth. A third of Russian citizens already

know well about our investigation.

Half of them believe that the facts

presented in it are true. Forty-three percent of citizens

know that anti-corruption rallies

took place in Russia, and

58% sympathize with the protesters. And

the state-run VTsIOM (Russian Public Opinion Research Center) did not even

publish data on how citizens

viewed the police’s actions in breaking up

the anti-corruption protests. They simply said

that among respondents, they had caused

disagreement — and obviously kept quiet because

the actual figure was unpleasant for them. It is the protesters

against corruption whom the people support,

not those who stand in their way. In other words, together

with you, we did break through this wall

of censorship and lies that Putin has been building

through all 18 years of his rule. We managed to bring

our information and our ideas to millions

and receive their support and sympathy.

And we did it without television and with almost no money.

Again, without television,

without radio, without major newspapers, we managed over

four months to hold a total of 229 rallies

in 145 cities across Russia. In some places, only a few people

came out into the streets; in others, several

tens of thousands. But overall, in

the anti-corruption actions, hundreds of thousands of people

took part. And such a geographic

spread is happening for the first time in all of modern

Russian history. And this is despite the fact that

in a huge number of cases, the authorities

tried not to authorize these actions. And on March 26,

as you yourselves remember, almost all of them

were banned.

And we did all this together,

through a campaign of mass outreach,

relying on the internet, and above all, yes, on

YouTube. Thank you, YouTube. And remember,

at the very beginning many people treated this

campaign rather

ironically — like, these guys are just giving each other

likes, but they’ll never reach broad groups

of the population. And the idea of rallies in Russian cities

was also

laughed at at first, because, well,

there seemed to be an unwritten political law:

it is impossible to hold protest actions

simultaneously in 30 to 40 Russian cities. That had

never happened before, no one had ever

done it, and no one except the authorities themselves had

such an extensive organizational

structure to hold rallies at once in

dozens of places. Well, now we have such a

structure. You and I created it.

It works, and it really

changes public opinion. It influences

millions of people. That’s why they started running around like

scalded cats, and why the corrupt election commission

suddenly began declaring that I would not be allowed

to run in the election. That’s why they began shutting down

our headquarters, yes, and confiscating leaflets. They, they

understood faster than many of us just how

dangerous our joint action is for their thieving system.

That, guys,

is an important thought — please grasp it. We

still think: what are likes

and shares on the internet, nothing special. How can

we possibly compete with this huge

beast? But it has already figured out how painful it is

when a million people are poking it with sharp sticks all at once,

and it takes all of this

very seriously, understanding

how unstable its position is. The Kremlin,

more than anyone else, realizes that its power

rests only on lies and on

the inaction of good people, so I am very

pleased. Even though I understand

the difficulties will only keep growing, we

will undoubtedly win in the end. Well, now

of course they will try to scare us

Well, that is only logical. After all, we are

demanding that they return

the stolen billions. And they, naturally,

have not the slightest desire to

give them back to us, so they will try to frighten us even

more. But there is no need to be afraid. We can see that

public opinion is on our side.

People are taking in the information; the idea

of fighting corruption is supported. We simply

need to show everyone that yes, there is in

Russia a large anti-corruption

movement, and not just, you know, this one

hopeless dead end where everyone will always stay silent. What

should we do next? Work, my friends,

work. Because in this specific example

we have seen that even, well, modest efforts

lead to very good results. We

can get through to people despite

censorship and suppression. Can you imagine what

it would be like if we had our own TV channel

and

what it would be like if each of you invested

twice as much of your time in our common

work? Well, let us honestly ask ourselves:

how much time has each of us, on average,

invested personally in the

anti-corruption campaign so far?

You went to a rally twice—that is 2 hours. Well,

and at best, the most active among us

spent another hour of their time on

spreading information online.

That means 3 hours over 4 months, and we

are seeing results like this, such a painful

blow to the thieving system. And here it is very

important—pay attention to how much and how

carefully the Kremlin works. “I worked like

a galley slave from morning till night” — Putin and

Medvedev are working to protect their stolen

billions. They have worked with all the newspapers and

TV channels. For every

rally, in some places dozens and in others thousands

of police officers were deployed. After the first

wave of rallies, in almost every university

and every school they held special

lectures saying that people should not go to

rallies, that it is very harmful to attend

any protest actions. They churned out YouTube videos,

started working with young people,

set up a bloggers’ council in the State Duma (the lower house of Russia’s parliament), dragged oligarchs

out of dusty closets and

made them take part in all sorts of stunts to

draw attention, and so on and so

forth and so on. This is millions of person-

hours of work, because they are sitting there

thinking: aha, the people have stopped

being silent, the people have taken to the streets, and over our

villas in Italy, yachts in Sardinia, and

bank accounts in Switzerland there now hangs a

serious threat. We must defend ourselves. Well then,

and we, looking at all this, must very

clearly understand that here the winner will be the one who

works more, who invests

more effort, who says more words, who

clicks more likes, who stands longer

at rallies, who writes more

draft laws, the one who convinces a greater

number of people around them. And this is the very

main and good news for us:

our efforts really are paying off. For us,

without television, it is easier to lead people

than it is for them with television, because

we are telling the truth, because our

information about corruption and the poverty

that this corruption creates—it simply

matches what a person

sees around them in real life

every day. But we need to work: under

a lying stone, no water flows (a Russian proverb meaning nothing happens unless you act). They are putting pressure on

our headquarters—so let us even more actively

sign up as volunteers. They confiscated newspapers? Well,

there is a link in the video description to

a leaflet that can be printed on

a home printer. Since they dislike

the spread of information so much, then please

join the campaign right now. This

weekend, July 8–9, we are holding

a nationwide campaign volunteer day (subbotnik, a day of collective volunteer work), and

all the information is also in the description of

the video. Signatures—we need more signatures.

Sign in support of me right now

or persuade someone you know to sign.

The film *He Is Not Dimon to You*—it has been watched by

more than 25 million people. Great, but let us

remember that Russia has 145 million residents, and

71 million of them use the

internet every day. So there is still more

work to do: spread the information even more actively,

100 times more actively, and reach people

around you. Money—we need it, and your

donation is very important to us. And we

absolutely must come out for new

rallies, despite the fact that they will of course

try to ban them. Keep

your optimism. Remember that the truth is on

our side, and therefore victory is ours

inevitable. And as for difficulties, there will always

be some, but we will overcome them. That even

makes it more interesting. Subscribe to our channel

— here we tell

the truth. L