Kemerovo scared Putin. Yekaterinburg, everyone to the rally!

[music]

Hello everyone. It's 8:18 p.m. in Moscow, which means

that we're live in the Navalny LIVE studio. I'm Alexei

Navalny, or

the repeatedly almost-jailed, almost

candidate for almost-nowhere.

And if you're thinking right now, come on,

Alexei, you're just making that up

yourself — no, I'm not. I have

proof. That's what one TV host called me,

and he did it at the start of a talk show

about Kemerovo, which will be

the main topic of today's program. I have

seven seconds of confirmation — let's

watch it. "The repeatedly almost-

candidate for almost-nowhere." So you see, I

didn't make it up. Yes, Vladimir Solovyov, we

absolutely have to talk about Kemerovo.

The whole country needs to talk about

Kemerovo. The federal TV channels should

be talking about Kemerovo — but not the way

they are. It seems to me that a normal

discussion should be different, so today I'll try,

at least, to discuss this issue — this

horrific tragedy — in a substantive way. It has, of course,

shaken the entire country. In Russia, sadly,

unfortunately,

there are regularly terrorist attacks and disasters, but

it seems to me that society's reaction to

the Kemerovo tragedy has been unprecedented.

The reaction has been unprecedented even among

the completely non-politicized part of society,

and the authorities have behaved in an unprecedentedly

inhuman, piggish,

disgusting, and indecent way, and continue to

behave that way in this

situation. And that, too, has been noticed from below — by

what seem to me to be the least

politicized parts of our

society, by non-politicized people. That is

very interesting, very telling. And

this whole Kemerovo tragedy —

its aftermath, the context of the discussion — will, I think,

quite clearly have

a significant impact on Russian

politics, at least in the near

future.

The most important thing about what's happening now,

if we set aside for the moment

the details of the tragedy itself — which is

of course a horrifying, nightmarish thing —

and many condolences have already been expressed.

Today I spoke

with a man — a difficult conversation.

What can you say to a person

who lost 55

people in a fire? You talk to him

and just hearing his calm

voice throws you into a state of horror, because

every second you're thinking: my God, how is this

person surviving all of this?

How can he speak to you so calmly?

How is he even still living?

It's ужас. And of course I want once again

to say, as we begin this broadcast, that all of us

are with Kemerovo right now. But on this

program I would like to talk more about

the authorities, about those responsible,

about the causes, because there can be no

proper mourning without discussing

why the events happened

that are forcing us to mourn now. The main

sign of what is happening now

with the authorities is that suddenly they have started

defending Putin. That's very interesting,

because the head of state, in principle,

at a moment like this, should

step forward as a kind of father

of the nation. He should go there — and Putin

did go there. He should speak with people,

and he should comfort them, he should comfort

the whole country,

explain why this will never

happen again, what measures had been taken

before, what measures are being taken now. He

should punish those responsible. He should

act as the head of state. But

something astonishing is happening: we see

that the Russian bureaucracy

is comforting Putin. It is defending him,

apologizing to him, and trying

in every possible way to cuddle this poor,

offended little child close, as if

Putin were the one who had suffered. And you

have seen this many times — from

Aman Tuleyev (then governor of Kemerovo Region), and

the wonderful Mizulina, who were saying

things about Putin. But I have 32

seconds — actually 31 seconds —

and I think it's worth watching again.

He personally called me. Once again, thank you

very much. I ask his personal forgiveness for what

happened on our territory. I would like

to express words of condolence and

support to our leader,

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. I have never

publicly declared that I am a member of his

team, I have not shouted it in the squares,

but today I want to say it: I am a member

of his team, the team of the Russian people,

which is with him, because for him this is

a stab in the back.

I wanted to leave it at that, because, well,

yes, that's already quite enough filth.

But literally half an hour before going on air, I found

a quote — and video of the quote — from deputy Fokin,

a State Duma deputy from Kuzbass (the coal-mining region in Siberia), that is,

a deputy who represents these

people. And I'm glad that I found it

half an hour before airtime, and not

15 minutes before, because I simply wouldn't have been able

to hold back the epithets. Yes, I already

let it all out here at the Anti-Corruption Foundation

and said everything I think about

this man, who said what

you're about to hear — 41 seconds of his quote.

But the general idea is this: the children

died so that we would unite.

around Putin. 41 seconds. Today, those people

who failed to use the Skripal case to turn

the presidential election, who failed to stir up, as

they put it, in quotation marks, “the people” into

some kind of protest action, are now

using this tragic, this horrifying

situation. Kuzbass residents, today we are all

blinded, blinded, in fact

by grief. We do not hear; today we come out with

these protest-type things, but it seems to me

it is time for us to stop, take a breath, and breathe the air

of Kuzbass, and today say to ourselves: let us

support the president. These angels who

sacrificed their lives today—you

must understand that they should

consolidate us in this serious

political situation in which

the country finds itself. Do you understand? Children burned to death, and he

says: these angels who sacrificed

their lives, they should

consolidate us around the president. Better

to get this sofa (likely a garbled transcript; possibly “deputy from this region”) out of the region—how will he look people in the

eye? He will still be

coming there and speaking with these

people. How, how? I simply cannot

imagine what must be inside

these people for them to have so little

conscience. This caricature that

is now on the screen—I specifically checked

various tweet rankings—it is the most

popular caricature, the most popular

image that was released in connection with

the discussion of the Kemerovo tragedy. It

describes the situation perfectly, absolutely perfectly.

You see, the authorities began defending this

little boy, who, it turns out, is the one who

needs to be protected in this situation. Why?

That is very interesting, and the artist of this

picture

image captured the situation quite clearly.

And the officials themselves—Mizulina and Solovyov

and Tuleyev, this Fokin—they very clearly

with some kind of their own

bureaucratic instinct sensed what

needs to be done for Putin right now, what

he needs. He needs protection.

That is really so, because what

happened in Kemerovo after the tragedy—

Kemerovo scared Putin to death,

Vladimir Vladimirovich.

The residents of Kemerovo who came out to

the square frightened this entire ხელისუფლება (likely intended: “authority/government”)

terribly, because they realized: well,

how can this be? In this city where just

82 percent had just voted for Putin

a week ago, 82 percent voted,

and now they are forced to hide from these

people, despite their supposed nationwide support,

simply from people—not necessarily from the victims’

relatives, from the victims of the terror attack—from the terror attack,

sorry, not a terror attack, of this fire—from

the people of Kemerovo.

They are forced to hide from everyone, and it seems to me

that, well, if we are not considering

the footage

directly from the scene of the tragedy,

then the very main, the most

revealing few seconds about what

is happening in Kemerovo right now

is how Putin laid flowers. Let us

look at these

53 seconds. It is very instructive, actually,

how it happened. It was not the most

popular video, but here you can see on

an absolutely empty, completely, totally

cleared of people square, there arrives

Putin’s motorcade. He arrives to lay

flowers at the spontaneous memorial

as a head of state should do.

Presumably, he should do it with

the relatives; presumably, he should

try to comfort people, insofar as

that is possible in this situation.

At the very least, presumably, he should

demonstrate that he is with the people, that he is

part of the people. And what we see is a completely

total clearing-out; surrounded by security, on

an empty square, Putin goes to lay down

his bouquet.

He is afraid of the people of Kemerovo, he is afraid of people, he

is afraid of his own people, despite the fact that

on paper it says that 82 percent of people voted

for him. It seems to me that this

is very important in this situation. All this, all this

very nervous reaction from the authorities, these

hysterics that propagandists are now

throwing in social media and on television,

it is precisely about this, because they

got scared.

Putin got scared, and they understand that any

context of discussing, in fact,

the Kemerovo problem, any questions from people

about what happened there, why it

happened, how to make sure it does not

happen again in the future—these things are

not in their interest; it is terrifying, and impossible, to answer them.

That is exactly why neither Putin nor

Tuleyev came out to the rally. But that too would have been a completely

completely

proper, logical thing to do.

No one would have torn them apart there, but

they were afraid, afraid to go there,

afraid to answer the questions of these

people, because this is the real

people—not some figure on a ballot where

it says 82 percent, but real people

to whom they have nothing to say except

“you are exploiting this for publicity.” Again,

turn on any talk show right now, any

talk show, and there all the officials and journalists

all say: “You are exploiting this for publicity.”

They condemn those who are seeking publicity, they condemn

the pranksters, and nothing more—not a single

word beyond that. But there, at the rally, that

could not be said. And of course, you have

also seen these 44 seconds many times over,

but it seems to me—no, not “it seems”—they

I am absolutely certain that they will be in

They will be in all those histories of Russia,

in all the encyclopedias about Russia in the 2010s,

and in the textbooks. All of this will be there: the dialogue between

Vice Governor Tsoev and that very

Igor — the man who, after 44 seconds of watching,

you can tell that meeting this man

is terrifying, that it would be hard for anyone to face him,

because, as I already said, well, what

words can you possibly say to him in this

monstrous grief?

But you are the head of state, you are the one,

the head of the region,

who is supposed to go there and speak to them.

It is frightening. And this fear in the current

authorities is simply overcompensated for by that

aggression that we are seeing now

and will continue to see. I forgot to tell you,

guys, at the beginning, that all the money

that we are raising today during the program,

we — we are collecting donations, the details are in the description,

there is a link, you can send money there. We are collecting it for

the victims in Kemerovo.

I have read many different posts

about who is collecting money now. Right now it is being collected by

the Kemerovo regional government, the Kemerovo

Red Cross, and a local civic organization. We trust none

of the three at all. We can

guarantee with complete certainty that all

the money that we raise during

this program — our coordinator will go

and find out who is currently most

in need of money, and to one specific

relative of the victims we will go and

hand over this money. On the next

program I will simply show you the receipt. So

everything you donate right now,

all of it will go to the victims of

this horrific tragedy in Kemerovo.

One of the most important examples of why

they are so nervous right now

is what happened with the national day of mourning.

Putin is furious over Kemerovo because

the situation with Kemerovo forced him,

he was made to do it — in fact, you and I

made him declare a national day

of mourning. You remember how it was at

the very beginning: in Russia there is

some strange and incomprehensible but

generally accepted unofficial rule that

a national day of mourning is declared only

when there are more than 100 dead. And things

were proceeding in a fairly standard way:

a regional — it was announced,

a regional day of mourning in Kemerovo,

which meant that a federal day of mourning

would no longer be declared. Usually that does not

happen: if there is a national day of mourning,

a regional one is not declared. But

the country was shaken, and everyone said, well,

what difference does it make how many people died there?

Whether it was more than a hundred, whether it was

fewer than a hundred — we were effectively watching

these horrific, nightmarish deaths online.

The particular horror of the Kemerovo tragedy

also lay in the fact that the people were still

alive, they were writing, and it is impossible to read

posts by a 13-year-old girl who writes

that, well, goodbye everyone, I

love you all very much. It is absolutely impossible

to read all of that and not imagine your own

child. So of course everyone

said: what the hell, it does not matter that there were

fewer than a hundred — we demand a national day of mourning.

Model Natalia Vodianova wrote a post

on Facebook, and it got something like

tens of thousands of likes: “I demand

a national day of mourning.”

I wrote about it, the whole country wrote about it,

but the Kremlin did not want to; they stayed silent even though

it was already clear how many victims there were.

Well, they are used to not

giving in to pressure from the crowd, not

giving in to the influence of social media,

so they simply did not do it, that was all. And then

a very interesting thing began to happen:

the regions.

Some regions began declaring days of mourning.

It was declared in Ingushetia (a republic in Russia’s North Caucasus), it

was declared in Primorsky Krai (a region in Russia’s Far East).

Mayor Roizman, the mayor of Yekaterinburg,

— by the way, we will also talk about the situation with

the mayoral election in Yekaterinburg —

went ahead and declared mourning, and it was

an absolutely astonishing situation, because

as soon as he did, the prosecutor’s office came to him

and launched an inquiry into

abuse of official powers.

Imagine that — some mayor just goes and declares

mourning. You do not have the right to declare mourning. And

while they were conducting that inquiry of theirs,

a national day of mourning was finally declared. It was

completely — if one can say such a thing

— absurdly comic, in a grim way. The situation in

Ryazan Oblast and in Novosibirsk was like this:

in Ryazan Oblast, mourning was first

declared, and then it was canceled,

because the federal authorities

said, “What mourning? We are not

allowing you to declare mourning.” In

Novosibirsk, mourning was first declared,

then canceled, and then declared again.

That is, it really was this kind of

movement across the whole country, when thousands,

tens and hundreds of thousands of people demanded

the declaration of a national day of mourning.

The regions were declaring mourning, while the federal

authorities remained silent.

They were forced to do it; they declared

a national day of mourning — fine, though

belatedly — but they, well, as it were, harbored

resentment. Against whom? Against us, against

the people who forced them to do it.

Because Putin has this rule:

“I do not act under pressure.” In fact,

translated into plain human language, that

means, “I do not care about people.” But they

call it “I do not give in to pressure.” Therefore,

for example, they will not remove the governor now.

Tuleyev

because of this same idiotic

mourning, because of this same idiotic

situation, but the fact that mourning was declared

they were forced to declare national mourning

it was truly such a pain

your achievements, although, well, why

should we call this an achievement

the authorities should have done it themselves, and

Putin was offended, Putin was upset, Putin is

furious, and that is why all these Tuleyevs, all these

these Mizulinas, all these deputies, Fokinas, are saying

let's leave Putin alone, let's feel sorry for him

because in this situation we are just so

strongly

supposed to love him, we so strongly

must protect him, we must embrace him, and

this is happening in part because, well,

I know that later this part will be cut out and

they will start showing it here and saying

that Navalny is grandstanding on corpses, and so on

furthermore, I certainly believe that, of course,

specific guilty individuals will be found

the people who locked the doors, the people who

signed something, the people who there

did certain technical things

because of which this monstrous

fire happened, but the main thing is why the authorities

now feel that we need to sympathize with Putin

because Putin is, of course,

directly responsible for the fact that

this tragedy happened, because in order

for there not to be fires

for people not to die in these fires, there needs to be

a fire prevention and response system; this man

has been in power for 18 years, and there is no system

at all, and this can be confirmed with

figures; there is evidence for this, all kinds of

evidence you could want, but you have probably seen

my video, but nevertheless I

will repeat the main figures: Russia

is at the level of African countries in terms of deaths in fires

at the level of African countries, except that even

many African countries are ahead of us, and

try putting this

image on full screen so that we can really see

what a monstrous catastrophe this is in terms of

people dying in fires; let's look at another

image, this is data from the

International Fire Association

look at how many people die; for 18 years

the specific head of state has been responsible for

his government, responsible for the fact that

there were, well, those very

fire safety measures—there is nothing

10,000 people a year, guys, that

means, as for the question of Kemerovo

they say fewer than a hundred died, considering

that 9,000 people a year, almost

10,000 people a year, die in fires

since the Kemerovo tragedy, in fires

another 150 people have burned to death, can you imagine

that this is happening? It is simply a catastrophe

a catastrophe. Meanwhile, the budget of EMERCOM (Russia's Ministry of Emergency Situations), if we

look at it—let's look at the EMERCOM budget

170 billion rubles

the federal targeted program

for countering emergency situations

and fires—this year, I see, 180

billion rubles, a large amount

of money. Go right now, if you want, while

you are watching the program and listening to me

go to the website of the Federal

Treasury of Russia and you will see that in

2017, for all types of fire prevention

work and fire protection systems

164 billion

rubles were allocated

220,000 people work in the system, and

what is there? Well, there is nothing there, a complete and

absolute catastrophe. Let's listen

simply to people who are telling us

that the building is burning, people are jumping out of

windows, and residents of neighboring buildings are dragging out carpets

in order to try to catch these

horrible—within 30 seconds, men ran up, took this

rug and stretched it out

someone was jumping often, Elena

they were all jumping, Yulia says, and in the crowd he

about twenty people—he jumped, basically

he knocked out two of our teeth

and split it open

[music]

[music]

let's listen to Igor Vostrikov

who describes how

the firefighting unfolded, that the local EMERCOM unit

arrived after 40 seconds

but they only started putting out the roof after an hour and a half

it was literally 38 seconds

there are also more questions about how

the fire was extinguished, how quickly

the rescuers got there

how quickly they began putting out the roof

they started extinguishing it, as far as I know,

after an hour and a half, while the firefighters themselves

got there—well, the truck arrived after 40 minutes, not

and helicopter crews were not deployed

who was making those decisions about the fire there

I arrived by ten o'clock, it was blazing so much

and they were already fighting it with two little streams of water

we collected 55,000 rubles in order

to transfer it to the victims in Kemerovo

which is 10 times more than Aman

Tuleyev transferred; he said he was donating his

daily earnings to the support fund

for the victims. So you see, for 18 years Putin

has been in power, for 18 years he has run

the government, which is supposed to take

some measures on fire safety

and rescue during

fires. For 18 years we have allocated enormous

amounts of money, we maintain 220,000 people in

a major city, a regional capital, there is a fire

in a shopping mall

at a top-category facility, and

the firefighters arrive and they do not have a tarpaulin, and

people run up and hold some kind of

Towels, carpets, and blankets—how can this

be happening?

Where are the helicopters? And besides, Kemerovo Region

(in Siberia) — you have to understand that if

there is anywhere in the country a truly powerful

rescue service, it should be in Kemerovo Region

(in Siberia).

Industrial disasters happen there regularly;

there are regular

mine accidents.

It is exactly the kind of region that should have

the best rescue service in Russia—simply

the very best. And what did we see? How it all

worked out. So who is responsible for this?

Who is responsible? Here we are—

some unfortunate firefighter who will end up

being jailed. Well yes, unfortunate—if he is

guilty, then let him be jailed. But they will lock up

some scapegoats, and now they have

jailed the director of this shopping

center—rightly so—and some

security guard was also detained—rightly so. But

where are all the people who

signed off on these papers, who

allowed this shopping center to operate,

who botched the evacuation? Where are they all?

Who is responsible for all this? Of course, if

Putin had come to power yesterday,

the day before yesterday, or four years ago,

then he could say, “It’s all the cursed

1990s.” But he has been in power for 18 years

already. Of course he bears direct

responsibility for this complete,

utter, monstrous collapse, because

because

it was his system that led to this. His

police and the Interior Ministry

were supposed, among other things, to approve

the evacuation plans. I specifically looked into it:

there are special

classifications for places where large numbers of

people gather, and according to those classifications,

the Zimnyaya Vishnya shopping mall

falls into the first category—the very highest

priority one—where drills must be conducted

and evacuation plans coordinated

with the Interior Ministry and EMERCOM (Russia’s emergency services),

the National Guard, the FSB—all of Putin’s favorite

agencies. So how did it turn out like this?

You remember that Russia has gone through

and is still going through a wave of these

false bomb threats. But every false

bomb threat still means a real

evacuation. And Zimnyaya Vishnya was

evacuated two or three times, and it seemed to all of us

that this evacuation plan

must surely have been practiced

to the point of routine. If the place had been evacuated several times in

recent times—after all, you

see the news about these evacuations—

then it should work. But no: it

doesn’t work at all. They had no helicopters,

and they were fighting this enormous fire

with two fire engines, as Vostrikov told us.

And at the very height of

the fire,

they were using plain water. They did not have

rescuers who could run

inside. And now it is emerging—though the information probably still needs

additional

verification—that people themselves

barricaded themselves inside that

movie theater and stuffed

rags under the doors because they were waiting

for rescuers. They were waiting for rescuers. Where were

those rescuers? That is how the system works.

Yes, there are heroic firefighters. After my

video, I received quite a lot of emails

saying, “Alexei, we support you, from

EMERCOM, but this is how bad things have become for us,”

from ordinary, decent workers,

firefighters and rescuers. Yes, yes,

there are heroic people who, at risk

to their own lives, run in there and save people.

But the system as a whole—the system does not work.

And I am more than sure that every one of

you has a fire story. I am more than

sure that if you told your computer right now

a story about a fire,

it would be something like this: “I had a story—

my dacha (country house) burned down,” or “my neighbor’s dacha burned down,”

“the firefighters arrived 40 minutes later,” and

“their truck had no water, and then they spent

another hour and a half looking for water. By that time

everything had burned down.” That is a standard Russian

fire story. In other words, the fire-fighting system

does not work at all. This

is confirmed by statistics, and of course,

of course now Putin, Solovyov, and all

those people in government are talking

only about the Ukrainian prankster, because

they cannot say anything else.

How could they squeak out anything

at all?

Because the natural question arises:

guys, look at the statistics—our EMERCOM

is a failure, worse than everyone else’s. What can

they say to that? So for them this

Ukrainian prankster is, of course, a rare

[__], just a real bastard,

but he has basically become their best friend, and they

might as well give him a medal now, or put him on the payroll,

because it is simply such a

colossal gift: now they do not have to talk about anything

else and can endlessly

chew over this one thing: he called

300 people and spread information. Yes, he is

a terrible scoundrel and creep; he spread

information and misled many people

for three days.

But besides that, there is also a substantive

question. Yes, we are glad—

well, “glad” is not the right word—

you cannot call it wonderful, but

it is good that not 300 people died, but

a much smaller number. But

the substantive question is not about

the prankster.

the Ukrainian, against whom a criminal case has already been opened

a criminal case

Well done, you opened one—now please, let's go ahead and

open cases against the participants

please, let's open cases against

the National Guard and the FSB—let's open

criminal cases against the police officers

who were supposed to carry out the evacuation, but

they failed completely. Let's

dismiss those who botched the entire

operation

No, the only thing being discussed is the prankster. By the way,

I've long been convinced that these

supposedly crazy people in Ukraine

who do all these

stupid things, like blocking an embassy

or something else, and give material for

discussion on Russian talk shows—they

are probably on the Kremlin's payroll

because they do this absurd stuff, and

the people in the Presidential Administration sit there

practically worshipping them, shouting hallelujah

thank God there's some prankster there, and

today I was simply curious who

when talking about Ukraine, would be the first to say

that behind all of this

stands the CIA

And of course it was the chairman

of the State Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin

He said today that, of course, these

information dumps are backed by

the CIA, because, you see, the CIA is sitting

inside the Ukrainian special services, and the Ukrainian

special services

set pranksters on us, and the pranksters

spread some terrible

information—and that's the entire context

of the discussion. What fire safety? What

money? What failures in the response?

None of that exists. And do you know why?

This information was spreading, but I

am sure that among those watching this

broadcast, quite a few were there when it was burning,

when the fire happened, when the whole country was going

out of its mind

reading those text messages. We were watching

a livestream

a very strange one. On that stream there was

just a radio set, and the camera was filming that

radio, the audio was coming through, and over the radio

they were saying the fire was still raging, while on the news

they were saying the fire had been contained. And people in

Kemerovo were standing there, surrounding that

shopping mall that was ablaze, and it

was only fully extinguished the next morning, and on

the news on their phones they saw

"fire contained." I mean, just

put yourself in those people's place: you're

standing there, seeing the fire, seeing

huge numbers of relatives, and they

are hysterical; you can see that the

firefighters cannot cope with it, they

can't do anything, and it's nowhere near

contained. And you can watch that

stream and understand from the Emergency Ministry communications that

everything is still in full swing, and then you see

the headline: "contained." So you think,

why are they lying? If they're lying this

blatantly, there must be some reason. And

naturally, your first thought would be,

well, they probably want to hide the number

of victims. Since they're lying so obviously while we are

standing in front of the fire and they say that there

already

is no fire anymore, or that everything is under control and

the firefighters can handle it

then they must be hiding something, and what they're

hiding is the number of victims. That

would be the natural first thought. And that's why

those people whom, of course, the prankster

that scumbag

targeted—but the people who were spreading

some of that information on social media—it is hard

to say they had malicious intent. They

understand that the authorities are constantly lying. We

have examples of that

Remember Beslan (the 2004 school hostage tragedy in North Ossetia)—when that happened,

when the tragedy in Beslan happened, remember

what the first reports said about the number, about the

number of hostages there—354

people. First we were told 100, then

then 354, then the number kept rising, and later

after some time we learned there had been

more than a thousand. This is our history, this is

the history of our country. They lied about Kursk (the 2000 submarine disaster),

saying they had established contact and could

save them, could rescue them on their own. And

remember Nord-Ost (the 2002 Moscow theater hostage crisis), when they already knew perfectly well

that hundreds of people had died, and out came

Vasilyev, now the head of Dagestan,

and said—I remember it very well, I was watching it on

television—he said, yes, unfortunately

six people died in the tragedy

even though he knew it was far more. But for them it's a PR

strategy: you have to release it little by little so that

people won't all be shocked at once. You need

to say 60, then say unfortunately

the number of victims is rising

then say something else, and only then

give the real figure. That's how it was here too

If people know about this endless

lying, about the practice

of the authorities lying during tragedies, then of course

when they see someone sending around some

information—300 dead, this is from a local

ambulance doctor

some relatives, some kind of

information about children from an orphanage, and

so on—just a flood of information. The authorities

instead of providing

proper information, Tuleyev

announces that he didn't go there

because his motorcade would get in the way. A motorcade

comes with the office, of course

so naturally any person would try

to spread at least

some information—any information at all—and go

and sort it out, whether it's reliable or not

or the unreliable information put out by the authorities

is obviously unreliable, because they lie about

the location; they lie that everything there

has been put out, that the fire is under control

so apparently what needs to be spread

is different information, and now in these few

videos by bloggers

some people—an actor, I’m looking at it now

are going after actor Kozlovsky for the fact that he

somewhere, I don’t know, on Instagram—I haven’t even

seen it myself—he wrote that more than

100 people had died. Well, then Kozlovsky

can delete it, no problem; at least he

didn’t do it out of malice. But you

why are you so brazenly going after Kozlovsky?

Take him—he’s a private individual.

But you are officials receiving salaries; you

lied, and because of that all this

information spread

So, I’m simply interested in this:

will this whole discussion about

the prank caller and the spread of true

and false rumors at least a little

well, in the federal context at least

ever turn even slightly toward who

is actually to blame and what kind of

conclusions should be drawn? Apparently not, because

it would be a very unpleasant discussion for Mr.

Putin: why he failed

why he failed this

all of this. Here, someone asks: is it worth

thinking about why people believed this nonsense?

Because they lie—yes, that’s exactly it.

They don’t say a single word

of truth, they really don’t say a single

true word—not about the attack, not about anything,

when we all know that they

are covering for themselves. But again, look

at the people who were held responsible

for the sinking of the *Bulgaria* riverboat and for the fire

at the Lame Horse nightclub in Perm

some people got short prison terms

and they were scapegoats

they were scapegoats; the people responsible for

the system did not bear even political

responsibility—not a single major one in a long time

Andrei Ivanov writes correctly: during the period of

“stability,” there were many tragedies—Lame Horse,

the *Bulgaria*, Lokomotiv

—and in every case the ones found guilty were

scapegoats. Of course, we have never once

seen a major resignation. But now

really, the Russian government ought to

Putin—Putin should hold

an emergency government meeting there; he

should address the nation and say: listen, everyone,

this entire fire safety system that

we built—it didn’t, it didn’t work. We

set it up over many years, and it does not work.

We have more people dying in fires than

almost anywhere else; we have an unimaginable

number of fires; we are worse than Africa in this. We must

completely rebuild all of it. We acknowledge

our mistakes. But they will rebuild nothing; they

will not admit their mistakes, and people will

continue

to die in fires, because that is how their

system is built. It is a gigantic

system of extortion, and part of the money

collected by corrupt officials in the Emergency Situations Ministry (EMERCOM)

inside EMERCOM, inside the fire service

is swept up across the whole country on a huge scale—it’s

billions, not

millions, of dollars. And it doesn’t stay only with them;

it goes, goes, goes up this

pyramid, and a lot of people make money

from it—and make very good money. They have not the slightest

desire to sacrifice their

income. Someone writes to Alexei: meanwhile, at the Ivanovo

EMERCOM institute they are opening a department of theology

—as of January 2017. I saw a great

post about it; I didn’t include it in the program

before, but now it is apparently Lent (the Orthodox fasting period), and I

am a believer myself, so perhaps this is not the right occasion

to troll them further. But EMERCOM really

is just incredibly obsessed

with endless blessings, prayer services,

and religious ceremonies. And now they’ve opened a theology department.

Theology in itself is a perfectly

normal thing—fine, open it if you want. But

why in EMERCOM? Who needs that there? Why

is it needed? They should be dealing with fire

protection, and they are not doing that

Alexei, hello. I’m writing to you from Kemerovo

On Tuesday there was a rally. Can you tell me

whether it really helped? Another one is being planned for Saturday

to be held again

What should be done if the rally doesn’t help? Well,

look, first of all—help with what exactly? I

spoke with one of you and asked him a simple

question: what needs to be done right now, what

needs to be said in order to somehow

help the relatives

I mean, to do something for them. He

said that right now there is one problem:

we were promised that the DNA results would be ready

in three days, but now they have announced that instead of

three days, the DNA results will take three weeks. We want

to bury our people, our relatives

so that there is at least somewhere to stand and say

a few words. That is what they need more than

anything else. But that is unlikely to be solved

by means of a rally. In general, the system

of corruption, the fire safety system across

the country, probably also cannot be fixed by means

of rallies in Kemerovo alone

But here it is extremely important simply

to talk about it. Rallies need to be held

all across the country, and likewise the same

kind of rallies about corruption. It’s not that I’ve

become fixated or gone crazy over the topic of corruption, but

the truth is, wherever you look, whatever

problem you touch, you always find

corruption popping up. EMERCOM does nothing else

except collect money from

property owners. They have neither the money nor

the desire nor the time to deal with

fire safety. Therefore, it is necessary

In general, we need to fight for a change in the political

system, and to fight against this government, and

in that sense it was also very interesting

there was that rally in Moscow which

was announced by journalists and by Detka Surganova

and Moscow City Hall said that

I supported it, let us note, although my

support no longer meant anything there

and a whole lot of people immediately signed up

Moscow City Hall organized its own special rally

on Manezhnaya Square in order to

well, as they said, to show that Moscow had its own

and thus split the turnout and accuse

the participants of the rally on Pushkin Square of

having somehow come with political

slogans. But in fact we should be making political

demands. Well, I was at that rally, I saw

that some people were chanting and some were not; I did not

chant myself. In that atmosphere it feels awkward, as if you

are standing there thinking about the dead, with candles burning

it just feels, well, awkward for you

to chant, but in essence to proclaim

political slogans is necessary, and that alone

matters, because right now this is a political

problem

Corrupt officials killed these children, these

people; they must be fought accordingly

accordingly. And these so-called pledges, these

non-disclosure agreements about information

in fact, at first

Mr. Menyailo, the presidential envoy to the Siberian

Federal District, said there were no such pledges

of non-disclosure, and then it turned out there were

after all. Then the investigator stated that

this was required to protect the victims, as

the criminal procedure code supposedly demands. Well, that is a lie too

as well. And just imagine yourself, God forbid,

in the place of one of those relatives: you come

for identification, and they tell you to sign a pledge

— what are your first thoughts? Well, then it means

something is going on there in that

morgue

that they do not want me telling everyone about

it; so there must probably be hundreds and

hundreds of bodies lying there. Naturally, that person

comes out and says: they asked me

to sign a pledge because they are hiding

something. What do people think? I think it is obvious

they think a huge number of bodies are being hidden

Tell me, I cannot see from here

how much money has been collected so far?

Two hundred seventeen thousand rubles (about 217,000 rubles) have been

collected. All the money we collect today

will go to those affected in Kemerovo

For those who did not watch the program from the beginning,

we will not donate through any Kemerovo

administration, nor through the Red Cross. Our

coordinator will go to the victims

and find out who is in the most difficult

financial situation

and we will simply hand the money over directly. I will

show you the receipt on the next broadcast. This is

the best way

it seems to me to help in this situation. I

saw quite a lot being written about how

people argued with me, objected to me,

saying, well,

you are criticizing Russia's EMERCOM (the Ministry of Emergency Situations), criticizing everyone

— but look at the statistics

and these things happen in other countries too

— fires happen everywhere. That is absolutely true

Of course, terrible tragedies, terrible fires

do happen in many countries. Nightclubs

are often mentioned; it is often

a basement venue, quite often, sometimes

just as in Russia: a basement

space, fireworks, only one exit,

drunk people — such things do happen. But I saw on

the Republic website a truly

remarkable set of statistics showing

that if

we look at global experience, then

fires specifically in shopping malls — in the U.S.

the last one in a shopping mall was

in 1903; in Europe, in 1967; in Japan,

in 1973. In other words, the problem of fires

in precisely these places, these highest-risk

facilities, has been solved in developed countries

Only here they keep on and keep on

burning — shopping centers catch fire, and this happens only in

Russia. In all more or less

developed countries this is practically

ruled out. So once again we see

an objectively verifiable failure, simply

the failure of this system. But will anyone answer for it,

will anyone at all, or will we still be

told fairy tales about how

our EMERCOM management system is the very

best

the coolest of all. Thank you, Sergei Kuzhugetovich (Shoigu)

and so, in 2017, in shopping

centers and markets, there were 17 fires

seventeen. And considering how often

shopping centers look, especially in

the regions, this is always a major problem

because they are often converted factories, and

inside there is some kind of labyrinth. In that very

Winter Cherry mall, some people

you can see on video: they ran out of the auditorium

some ran to the right and survived, others

ran to the left and all died because

it was a dead end. They did not know where

to run. There was smoke there, no illuminated

signs — apparently there were none, or they

were not bright enough. The fire

alarm — much has already been said about it

a lot has been said. A complete failure of the entire

system. Just conduct, I do not know,

a simple experiment, especially if you live in the regions

— go to a theater

you will see an Exit sign; try to get

outside

I strongly doubt it, strongly doubt it. Or you

go into your office center and you will see

an Exit sign there, an emergency exit

try to get outside — you will not. They

board them up in Russia, they seal them off in

Russia. That is a Russian tradition.

There is always some door with a sign on it saying

"Emergency Exit," and it is always

locked. But I am more than sure that you

yourself are sitting there right now saying, yes, honestly,

that is exactly how it works. It was always like that at school,

it was always like that at university,

it was always like that in kindergarten too. It is simply

a fact.

That is how things are set up in Russia. So who bears responsibility for this

thing? Or did it

just happen by itself? Or are we supposed to be told that

it is people's mentality, or that Ukrainians somehow

or some Ukrainian prankster, or the CIA, are to blame? Who is

responsible for this? You are responsible for everything. Those people

who have been in power for 18 years are responsible.

Excuse me, but specifically in Kemerovo

Region,

Mr. Tuleyev. Let us

take a look at the ranking of long-serving

governors. Aman Tuleyev—do you know

how long he has been in power? Twenty-eight years. Twenty-

eight years. I am 41.

He has been running things for most of my life,

as the leader of Kuzbass (the coal-mining region in Kemerovo). What do you think—

who else, if not him, can be held

responsible there? He has been sitting there

so long he has put down roots there,

he controls absolutely everything.

He draws 99 percent of the vote for himself; he is completely

mired in corruption, in corrupt

connections. His son, as far as I understand, heads

the federal highway administration for

Siberia, which is a very lucrative kind of post,

where he distributes—where

multi-billion-ruble contracts are handed out.

So this is that kind of family clan.

If someone has been sitting there for 30 years, then who is responsible?

Who bears responsibility for anything that happens in

Kemerovo—anything at all?

Tuleyev bears responsibility for it,

and Tuleyev should resign now

and be put on trial. But that is not

happening. Why? Well, as some

sources in the Kremlin say,

Putin does not like making decisions under

pressure. But what is pressure? It is

simply people's objective dissatisfaction.

Tuleyev is not coping.

Just look at him—they prop him up, and besides,

he is simply, in keeping with

the Russian tradition, supposed to cling

to this power until death and hold on to it

with teeth and claws. Not a single organ in his body

works anymore except this very

grasping reflex—to clutch at

money and power. And this is considered

normal. And who cares if people there

are unhappy? If they are unhappy,

that is what the National Guard is for. So, to wrap up

the Kemerovo topic—although I have other

topics to discuss—I think that

the most important thing now is not to let these

crooks on television and in the Kremlin

keep dragging us back endlessly to the subject of some

pranksters, spreaders of this and that,

and everything else. Yes, we have decided, we have all

agreed, we have established it.

The prankster is a scoundrel. The people who

deliberately spread information

are scoundrels and bastards.

And now let us discuss who is to blame in

this situation. And now let us discuss

the failure of the Emergency Situations Ministry system. And now let us

discuss why, since the fire at Winter Cherry

("Winter Cherry," the Kemerovo shopping mall),

huge numbers of people have still been dying in fires.

Why is it that 30, 33, 37 people every day,

every single day in Russia, die in fires?

The system does not work. Why do

firefighters arrive with neither water nor tarpaulins,

and some random people have to pull out

carpets? This is what we should be discussing, and we should not

allow them

the opportunity to shift our

attention to some nonsense.

Let me answer a question from Baranov.

Oleg asks: did the FSB demand that exits be kept

closed, and did the Emergency Situations Ministry demand that exits be closed too?

Both collect fines.

But now they will start backpedaling.

But this is the plain truth. There were many

different instructions published.

There is a man named Mikhail Svetov—you can

find his video on YouTube—where, using the example of an orphanage,

they go through it, and there is literally an instruction from the

FSB saying that all emergency exits must be

sealed and locked. What do you call that?

But that simply means that they are supposed to be

sealed and locked. There are not even words enough

to describe it: if there is

a fire, everything burns, and emergency exits

are required by building codes

so that people can run out of

the building. But in Russia, they are locked.

Daniil Podelin asks: what about

the rally in Volokolamsk? In Volokolamsk

we have video of what is happening

in Volokolamsk right now, because there

today instruments recorded emissions—

an increase in emissions of those damned

gases by 70 times.

The authorities admitted only a 12-fold increase, but even

that 12-fold increase they were forced to acknowledge

because all the instruments were off the charts. In fact,

it was much higher. And right now

another spontaneous protest is underway in Volokolamsk;

there are about 3,000 people there.

I think we have video. Let us take a look

at what is happening there.

I

[music]

How many?

Well, you see, these are thousands of people. Let me

remind you that the population of the city of

Volokolamsk is 20,000 people, and the entire

Volokolamsk district, which is huge, has 50,000

people. So this is a massive rally

with an enormous turnout.

an unauthorized protest at which

practically the entire population of Volokolamsk came out, and it is very

important what is happening there, because there

are, so to speak, two problems at once

Problem number one, once again, is that we

are seeing a demonstration that the authorities are not

even capable of dealing with

the environmental catastrophe that is now

unfolding across the entire Moscow region

because, as we, as we

heard

quite recently from Governor Vorobyov

that in Russia there do not even exist

the technologies that would make it possible to actively

carry out

degassing of these landfill sites. Let’s

watch these 20–21 seconds

Right now we are building landfill sites that

are going to be equipped with a degassing system

in their fifth year of operation, when

active rotting begins

decomposition, excuse the graphic detail

Only now have we mastered these

technologies; only now have we

brought in the Dutch and the Germans

those who have been thoroughly engaged in

landfill degassing in Europe for several decades

already

Only now have we finally

started dealing with it. My friend, where did you

fly in from, Mars? Were you just brought here?

Your party has been the ruling party since

2003, and the leader of your party, Mr.

Putin, has been in power since 1999. What are you even talking about?

And now he tells us: only now have we

started dealing with it. Are we supposed to embrace

him and say, “What a fine fellow you are, only now

you’ve started dealing with it”? But why did you

create the dump in the first place? Why didn’t you build

waste processing, which exists

in every country, instead of making a dump?

Without having degassing technology, it was

already obvious that if you build landfill sites

on a gigantic scale and you don’t have the technology, those

landfills will emit foul, poisonous gas

and you will poison everyone around them

Money—huge amounts of money. Look at

the investigations by the Anti-Corruption Foundation

that concern

and not only ours—the investigations

that deal with this filthy garbage business there

everyone is involved there: the Prosecutor General, Prosecutor General Chaika

the whole

Shoigu-Vorobyov Moscow regional

mafia—everyone is there, everyone is taking part, and

of course, in order to make

this enormous money, they simply

set up the most, well, the most

unsightly, utterly unmodernized

landfills and make enormous

profits from them. And now they are forced to deal with degassing

because otherwise, in Volokolamsk

people there will simply tear everything apart, and they do not want

to close the landfill in Volokolamsk

while claiming that, well, this is such a

long process, generally speaking, so they

keep feeding everyone promises that they will close it

but they do not want to give up that money

They don’t want to. Here are 41–43 seconds about

the fact that they are not planning to close the landfill

for 27... well, that is exactly

what was said today: it will be closed, and Yadrovo

is practically closed, the landfill site there

is undergoing reclamation procedures, but we cannot

all at once, on one fine day

in the morning, close every landfill, because that is not how

life works: we produce garbage, and

you produce garbage, and I produce garbage

and those who are today in Moscow and

the Moscow region do too. So this is a serious issue, and

to simply say, “Let’s close the landfills,”

is just irresponsible, and unfortunately we cannot

do that. We must very

carefully modernize this system. But

can it be modernized overnight?

In three, six, or eight months, this

cannot be done

We cannot just close them, you understand, we cannot

simply do that. But why is one part of this

the same old Vorobyov, who has been sitting there for many

years, saying: “But that would be

an irresponsible decision, to just go ahead and close

the Volokolamsk landfill.” And the fact that children there

are fainting at school—is that somehow

normal? Even if you approach this very cynically

and weigh the costs and

the additional public spending and people’s

healthcare expenses against this

filthy business of theirs, we will see that for the sake of

hundreds of millions of rubles, for the sake of billions

of rubles that these crooks will earn

tens of billions of rubles will be

spent on healthcare, will be

spent by these people. How can one even

calculate the value of these children’s health?

If your child faints at

school because some

new cloud drifted over from the landfill

what price would you put on that? I’m not saying

this is some kind of populism or simplistic nonsense

It can all be closed—simply go ahead and

close it, because children are fainting

All of this can be done, and right now we need to

start building waste-processing facilities

so that in five years

there will be some kind of systemic solution

But right now, at the very least, the landfill sites

that are poisoning entire towns, as is

happening in Volokolamsk, can of course

be closed. Of course they need to be closed. It is possible

to find a solution; I keep saying

the Moscow region is larger

than Belgium in area; a solution can certainly be found here

to the problem of landfill sites, absolutely

without question

It is interesting how the authorities are acting toward

the initiative group in

Volokolamsk, in relation to

that kind of political protest which

arises there in a fairly traditional way, but

quite cunningly, and unfortunately I just want

to say that many people, even among us,

fall for this nonsense. Last

Sunday there was some kind of rally there.

Various

pro-Kremlin media outlets posted a 40-

second video titled “Residents of Volokolamsk”

saying they don’t need Navalny or these

Let’s watch those 40 seconds.”

And this nonsense was spread around, and

many people, even perfectly reasonable ones, started

writing things like, “Well, if the residents

of Volokolamsk are saying they don’t need

any help, then to hell with it—let them deal

with their landfill themselves.” Guys, don’t fall for

it. This was set up specifically

for that purpose, in order to, in order to

simply divide all of us. The initiative group

told me how it

all happened: the Moscow Region authorities sent

about ten drunken drifters there,

well, not exactly homeless people, but declassed elements,

who showed up and said, “We’re from

Navalny, we came here with political

slogans—Navalny for president.” Well,

naturally, some local elderly women

said, “Kids, take your Navalny and get

out of here.” The police took away those half-drunk drifters,

they filmed this video, and

started spreading it around. Great. But in

Volokolamsk, of course, there are different kinds of people,

but they welcome any support.

They have a rally on April 1; support

them and come to the rally. I just, due

to long-planned commitments, won’t be able

to come on April 1, though I was indeed

invited to speak there, and

the initiative group there is absolutely

wonderful—these are people who need

our help, who need our

informational support, who need

coordination too. And it’s not just

Volokolamsk. Let’s just look at

a few shots of what’s happening

where was it—Kolomna, I think, VDO

in Kolomna, exactly right. There is

the Volovichi landfill—or Volovichi, I’m not sure—and

people blocked the road to that landfill.

Let’s watch 14 seconds of how

the authorities

responded to the people.

Very well.

It’s like in *Star Wars*: imperial stormtroopers

in helmets marching in to disperse these

poor people who blocked

the road because they simply want fresh

air. They didn’t even come asking for money.

They came because of their health,

because it’s impossible—the water

is poisoned, and we understand what

a dump is: it’s a giant landfill where

unsorted garbage is dumped. There’s gas,

poisonous gas, and there’s leachate from so-

called high-tech

processes—a highly toxic liquid

that seeps into groundwater,

which contaminates drinking

water sources.

This is literally poison.

You simply pour water from the tap and

realize that it is, basically,

poisoned. And when your child says,

“Mom, make me some tea,” you understand that you’re

giving them poisoned water to drink.

Or you have to go buy water

in bottles. Nobody is going to like that.

So when it comes to all these

protests, it is extremely important not to listen

to any crooks or provocateurs, not

to fall for all these various schemes like creating

conciliation commissions, or these

videos saying, “The residents said that

we don’t need political slogans.” Residents

understand perfectly well now that without

political slogans, nothing can be done

there anymore. We must express

solidarity with the residents of Volokolamsk,

the residents of Kolomna, the residents of Klin, and all

the others who have faced this

landfill problem, because soon it

will affect every major city.

The garbage mafia makes money everywhere. They

make money from waste incineration plants,

they make money from these dumps, and

that is why they do not want to engage in

waste recycling the way it is done

in all normal countries, because

waste recycling is a long process

that also, generally speaking, brings in money,

but it is much easier simply to take

a few hectares of land and send

truck after truck there.

One truck unloads garbage—10,000 rubles (about $100)—next

truck, next truck. There are

hundreds and hundreds of such trucks. Right now in

Volokolamsk itself,

under the restricted regime, 84

trucks a day are allowed in with garbage, but in fact

it’s actually many more, according to

local residents. So these are huge

amounts of money that practically come out of

thin air. It’s big business. This is a problem

for every major city. Let’s express

solidarity. Yekaterinburg:

On April 2, every decent

resident of Yekaterinburg—whether you like me or

don’t like me, whether you like Roizman (Yevgeny Roizman, former mayor of Yekaterinburg) or

don’t like Roizman, I don’t even know,

whether you like United Russia (the ruling political party) or not,

if you consider yourself

a person who has the right to a voice,

then on April 2 at 19:00, come to Defense Square.

Yekaterinburg is one of the last

major cities where direct

mayoral elections still remain. Now, on April 2,

there will be a rally, and on April 3 they may be abolished.

Yekaterinburg used to hold out because

people there were constantly protesting,

and now they have once again formed a fairly broad

coalition. It includes all the local celebrities,

who live in Yekaterinburg, as well as

representatives of United Russia, incidentally,

the Communists too—everyone under the sun, because

after all, Yekaterinburg is a very

special city. Until quite recently, it still had

a living political culture,

an opposition mayor elected by the people,

and, as I was just saying,

a mayor who was not afraid to declare mourning before

national mourning was officially declared

over the situation in Kemerovo. So this is all

very real politics, very proper

politics, and now absolutely everyone is uniting—

everyone who is ready to come out under a completely

normal, sensible slogan: we,

the people of Yekaterinburg,

believe that we are not fools, we are not stupid, and

we can elect a decent mayor for ourselves, and

the mayor we elect will

be accountable to us, and our mayor

whom

we elect will be far better than

some appointed lackey

of the governor. And for all of us, the rally in

Yekaterinburg and the struggle in

Yekaterinburg are very important, because, well, this

concerns the whole country. In every city,

an elected mayor is always better than

an appointed one. And right now this struggle

has moved to Yekaterinburg, so let’s

support it: April 2, Defenders’ Square,

7:00 p.m.—please come. One last

topic: I’ve gone a little over my

time again, but this is important, because

all of Russia has been subjected to searches.

Across Russia, people are being harassed piece by piece and not allowed to live,

and no business here will

develop, because that is exactly the situation.

That is what a report by

the human rights organization Agora says.

It released this report today, and it is devoted

to searches. This is a very close subject for us,

because just during our

election campaign, at campaign headquarters,

there were more than 150 searches over the last year.

Some of them can’t even really be described as searches—

it’s just that the police

come in and...

Agora prepared a report; it

analyzed all of this

and established quite clearly that in

Russia there is effectively no right to

the security of one’s home at all, and for

entrepreneurs there is, in principle, not even

the slightest guarantee of being able to conduct

business normally, because a police officer can always

come and take everything you have

in your office, and he will face no

problems. And in 98 percent of cases, the court

will grant permission. And every time

a criminal case is opened, the court first of all

authorizes a search, even though

a search, in theory, is supposed to be one

of the later stages of an investigation,

somewhere in the middle. Here, everything

starts with searches,

because it is intimidation. Over the

last 10 years, 2 million court

authorizations for searches

and inspections of residential premises in Russia

have been issued.

That’s 500 searches a day. And based on Agora’s materials,

we made a special short video

about this report. It’s two and a half

minutes long, but I really want you to

watch it,

understand it, and be horrified, because this is actually

the real answer to the question of why there

will be no economic growth: because

business cannot survive, nothing

can survive or develop here, because

the most basic, absolutely fundamental idea

of security—that in your own home or

office you can work normally—simply

does not exist in Russia.

So be sure to read Agora’s report.

And now, two minutes and thirty seconds.

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Well, you see—that’s how we live. I have to

give advice like: don’t keep

important things on your computer,

encryption is everything to us.

But really, this part of life in

modern Russia is what prevents us

from developing, because if someone

is thinking about starting some kind of

business, and then reads Agora’s report, and

at the end the recommendations say: please do not

keep anything valuable in the office, encrypt all

your information, and take these

security measures—but most likely the police will still come

and take everything away from you anyway—then

of course that person thinks: maybe I just won’t

go into business; I’ll leave, or do

something else. And that is why nothing

happens because of this government. There are a lot of

questions right now about the fact that

there was a press conference by one of the

victims in Kemerovo, namely

this man,

Igor Vostrikov, who was shown many times

and who probably became one

of the symbols of this terrible tragedy.

Five members of his family died. He said that we

have nothing in common with the Maidan supporters (a reference to the Ukrainian Maidan protest movement).

...with their cheeks, and they made it about Putin, and that’s not the point.

In Tula, I... don’t attach too much importance to it.

Don’t place too much weight on this—this person is experiencing immense...

grief, simply enormous grief, and...

naturally, he is very vulnerable in this...

situation, and honestly, he’s doing incredibly well just by...

saying anything at all right now, recording these...

videos for VKontakte (a Russian social network).

I’m sorry, I can only imagine the pressure he is under...

right now. When I...

called, we had the idea today of bringing him...

on live air.

But then—because that wasn’t a very good...

well, really, not a very good idea, because, I don’t know, he...

would be sobbing, I would be sobbing, and all of it would...

just be... it would all be very bad.

So we need to remember the most important...

key things: that this tragedy...

happened because of the authorities who have been in power...

for 18 years, and that these authorities must...

answer to us and make sure that this...

never happens again. That is the most...

important thing we must remember. But those...

people who are somehow trying...

to use the victims of this tragedy and their...

relatives in order to protect...

themselves—this was meant to be shown in that direction...

to protect themselves, to protect their right to steal...

...blamed it on the U.S., but let all of that remain on their...

conscience. Thank you to everyone who watched the program.

Together with you, we raised 364...

thousand rubles (about 364,000 rubles) and we will pass them on...

to the family in need affected by...

the horrific tragedy in Kemerovo. Thank you...

very much for watching the program. This was "Navalny Live".

See you next Thursday. Bye.

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