Grandpa has gone missing, and there are arrests everywhere

[music]

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

Navalny, or a candidate with a criminal

pathology, as my friend called me.

Ella Panfilova recently spoke about this.

round-table discussion, and

she was asked about it, and she said: what do you want?

We once had people with criminal

records, with unexpunged convictions,

who, if elected, would bring in

a whole team of thugs into power, along with

rather exotic relations with

law enforcement and the judicial

system.

And now, apparently, relations are no longer

so exotic between the president and

the judicial system—we'll talk a bit more about

that in a moment. Oh, Ella Panfilova.

First and most importantly: on Sunday, the Nemtsov March.

Come on February 25, this

Sunday, at 2:00 p.m., to Strastnoy

Boulevard. The gathering point for the Nemtsov March is there. It is very

important—come there in order to

honor Boris Nemtsov's memory, and also

to speak out against a murder that

has still not really been solved when it comes to

those who ordered it, and to

express your overall attitude toward this

government, which does such things—to

the elections, to everything. Come out, because

that matters, because you are citizens.

Come, it's very important. Well, as for the detentions—

not overnight, of course—I myself was detained, because

today is not just a day of detentions,

it's a whole week, a week

of strange detentions. I think they

will continue. Right now, in a special detention center,

Roman Rubanov from the Anti-Corruption

Foundation has been arrested.

Right now, Leonid Volkov is awaiting a decision about

his fate.

Not far from here, in our beloved

Simonovsky Court, where we are now. I live in the area

covered by that court, and the Anti-Corruption

Foundation is also located within the jurisdiction of

the Simonovsky Court, so over there

all the judges have already sent some of us

to jail, and I have no doubt that

Volkov will be arrested too. As for how

absurd his case is, it's simply

completely laughable. Here we even had

a kind of experiment: Volkov, on his

program in this studio, said that we had

a task. We understood they wanted to shut down

all the leaders of our

organization, so

before the January 28 rally, we came up with this:

they considered it unauthorized,

we considered it completely lawful. I even

sent out an official letter: Volkov was forbidden

from mentioning

the January 28 rally in interviews, on these broadcasts,

in tweets, retweets, in any form—and he

followed that flawlessly, so there could not

have been any grounds for complaints against him. But

they need to lock him up because

our strike scares these people,

and the election-monitoring program scares

them too. So today he was taken

literally off a plane as he was flying to Ufa

to work there, including

organizing election monitoring. He was taken to

the police, and it turned out that Volkov is now

going to be arrested because, while in

Yekaterinburg,

he was at an unauthorized rally there and

at that unauthorized protest

retweeted a tweet containing a video of my

detention. You can now see a fragment

of the report

on the administrative offense.

He retweeted a tweet with a video recording of my

detention, and

that is being treated as grounds—

sufficient grounds to pull a person

off a plane almost a month

after the rally, bring him to court, and

now apparently put him under arrest for

today. I also had a funny

situation: I had a toothache, and I understood that

I had some kind of court hearing coming up soon, and

the situation with my

January 28 detention had to be resolved.

I thought it would be a bad idea

to end up in a detention center with an aching

tooth, so I went to the dentist, and as if

I had a premonition—they pulled my

tooth, quite painfully. So there I was,

half my face numb from the anesthetic, unable to

think straight, lisping to him uselessly:

please write me a note saying

you pulled my tooth and that I need

to come back one more time, because he said

I absolutely had to come back again on

Monday.

Just in case they detained me too. He laughed, but he did write me the note. So I walk out, and

he gave me the certificate, and as I'm walking,

a whole group spills out of a minibus across from me—

a whole crowd,

seven men from the 2nd operational regiment. 'You are

detained.' They hustle me inside, and I

try to mumble, with my

tongue barely moving from the anesthetic,

'You have no right...' Some kind of silence follows.

They themselves don't know anything,

they put me on their bus and take me to

the Yakimanka police station, and I have no idea what

happened on the way, but by the time we arrive

at Yakimanka, the door opens,

someone comes out to meet me and says,

'We'll let him go.' Why all this was done with such

fanfare is unclear. They gave me various

documents there and said I had to return to

court, and that they would probably bring me to court

later. There is actually a very funny

explanation for this, and I absolutely

believe it—why Volkov will be jailed now,

while I will be jailed only on

next week, because I'm supposed to be

tried by the Tver District Court in Moscow

today, on February 20. In fact,

a couple of lawyers called

and said that for today, the twenty-

second, they're not even taking any cases

because they're drinking heavily there at the

Tver court, and they said they wouldn't take anyone

or even bring anyone to us,

and that's why they let me go

— apparently the judges at the Tver court will be drinking

tomorrow or later, so Volkov

will be convicted today. I absolutely believe

this version, because that's how the whole system works.

On the one hand, there's the vertical of power

with orders and so on, and on the other hand,

those bastards are getting drunk, and so, excuse me,

deal with your Navalny yourselves, fit him

into another slot. So everything will happen

next week. And this is happening not only in

Moscow — in Tambov,

Arkhangelsk, Cheboksary, people have been detained

there too. Let me give you a bit of

statistics: over the entire course of the campaign,

our people have served a total of 2,443 days under arrest

altogether, and 13 million rubles in fines

have been imposed, along with 3,343 hours of compulsory

labor. And now I will actually

show you

a chart that will perfectly answer

the question: besides the voter strike,

why are they, of course,

afraid of it, why does it infuriate them, why are they

so aggravated right now, why have they now

started grabbing people? Here you see a list

of federal subjects (regions of Russia)

where turnout was over 70 percent

— no, actually, they are ranked by

population. In other words, these are the most important

federal subjects, and voter turnout in them

— look, the first column is falsified

everywhere. Of course, nobody believes that

turnout in Bashkiria (Bashkortostan) was 80 percent, or that in Tatarstan

it was 83 percent. It's obvious that all of this is

fake. And what are the authorities afraid of now?

We've announced an observer campaign, and in

these specific regions, we don't even need

to lower turnout — we don't even need

to shout "voter strike" there.

We do shout it, of course, we are doing that and

reducing turnout, but in order to bring it down

simply by 20 percent,

all we have to do is place observers. Because

it's obvious, excuse me, that in Tatarstan

there was no 83 percent. It was

40, maybe 55 — fine, let's say 60 at most. So if

our observers are standing at

polling stations, if you take part in

this campaign — there's a link in the description to this video,

go there and sign up

as an observer right now — then turnout will

drop by at least

20 to 30 percent in these regions. That's what they are terribly

afraid of. They will have two alternatives: either

they effectively show that it was always

falsified,

that turnout simply collapsed in Tatarstan,

Bashkortostan, Krasnodar Krai,

and Kemerovo Oblast,

because who believes in 79 percent in Kirov

Oblast? Of course there was no such 72

percent. Or else

they will throw our observers out of

the polling stations, and that will cause a huge

scandal. That's why they are now trying

to paralyze our work. They detained

Volkov,

Rubanov, they're trying to paralyze our

finances, our headquarters, the whole structure, so that we

can't deploy observers, so that

you can't sign up on the website,

the system doesn't work because people have been

taken away, or there's no money to pay salaries, or

something else. But in general, we are

ready for this. We understand this kind of scenario.

We

know who we're dealing with. We understand that

this government cannot act

in any other way. So

sign up — we will organize this work anyway.

We understand that there will be some

absolutely colossal, colossal

attempts to throw obstacles in our way,

to jam the wheels of our campaign,

but nevertheless we will keep doing it.

Sign up. Now, I have

a few more topics, but you know that

humanitarian considerations are sometimes

more important than whatever current

agenda there is. And in Russia there is a problem:

people go missing. Very often they leave

home and simply disappear, and they have

many relatives, many friends,

and finding them is often completely impossible.

That's why it's extremely important to tell each other,

to share information and photographs,

Very often you see photos online,

photos saying that such-and-such a person has gone missing.

It's good when people share things like that, and I

would like to draw your attention

and ask you to take part in this kind of humanitarian action as well,

because an elderly man has gone missing,

a grandfather, and they can't find him.

No one can find him. He was last seen in public

ten days ago. He has, well,

many people who love him, and even more

people who say they love him.

In any case, he has many friends,

acquaintances,

relatives, former colleagues, and so on,

as well as business partners. He's quite

a prominent man, let's put it that way, within

his circle, and he has disappeared. And mind you,

no one can find him. Well, if for 10 days

you didn't show up at work, if for 10 days

you were nowhere to be seen, then probably

your colleagues and your circle would already have

raised the alarm. But this elderly man is

This elderly man worked in some kind of place like that.

Cruel people imagine that no one is looking for him.

He disappeared, so what did we do?

We made a special flyer, so please,

here are the distinguishing features of this elderly

man. He is 65 years old, and he responds to the name

"National Leader," so if

you can, if you're somewhere and start shouting,

"National Leader! National Leader!"

and someone turns around, it might be him.

He was last seen on February 12

at the Leaders of Russia forum.

He has a very clear sense of his place in the broader public

hierarchy: he follows the rustling of money.

Again, if it seems to you that you

have seen someone who looks like him, but you're not

sure, take out some banknotes and rustle them.

He will almost certainly come over, even reaching out

his hands to take that money from yours.

And of course, he has these kinds of

episodes. After all, even at 65 years old

that's not very old, but by Russian standards

it's already advanced age. He has started undressing often, very often.

He undresses.

He goes swimming somewhere, climbs into an ice hole,

gets on a horse, very often half-naked.

He seems to have some kind of fetish like that, and

of course, there is one more very important

distinguishing feature.

You can ask him absolutely anything. If you walk up to

him and ask, "Are you the National Leader?"

then right away he will start talking about Ukraine

or about Syria or about the U.S. national debt.

That often happens with him, so

please, guys, let's take a break from

the immediate news agenda. I had planned to deliver this

item without once

laughing.

And let's try—if you find him, don't bring him back.

But seriously, jokes aside,

this man is taking part in the presidential

election. There are 20 days left until the presidential election,

and where is he? What is he doing?

Where is he? I think they tell us

his rating is 86 percent, and in general

he is the head of state. He receives from us

a salary. We are a nuclear power,

a nuclear state—and where is he?

You simply cannot just disappear

for such a long time. But more than that, look:

he refused to take part in debates.

What a great presidential candidate: he didn't even come to

his own nomination event.

His own videos, his own

campaign ads, where he would stand

in front of the camera and say, "I am Vladimir

Putin, vote for me"—he refused

even to record his own ads. There will only be

some old

speeches of his, and now he has disappeared too.

Now that's a great election campaign.

Excellent. Well, maybe they are doing it on purpose

because they have this kind of

program for educating

the Russian people through respect—through

humiliation, through training, you understand.

As it is, these are not really elections at all,

and on top of that, to just

disappear and vanish somewhere so that you are nowhere to be found

on the eve of the election—well, that is of course

simply astonishing behavior. And it seems to me

that this is one more reason simply to say:

no, no, no—we will not take part

in this. What kind of elections, for heaven's sake?

A person who goes now to the

polling station and receives

a ballot is voting for the idea that this

is normal behavior: do nothing,

and then just disappear right before the election.

There are many different theories—about illness

and other things—but in such cases I always

stick to one

hypothesis. It seems to me, as life keeps

proving me right, that he regularly

disappears for a while. I don't think there is

anything especially terrible about it.

You know what?

He is simply into plastic surgery.

He just had some work done, and the bruises haven't gone away yet.

On March 1 he is supposed to appear at

the event with his address to the Federal Assembly

which they are holding not even in

the State Duma or the Kremlin, but in the Manege (the central Moscow exhibition hall), as I understand it.

There will be a huge crowd there,

trusted representatives, all sorts of celebrities,

all squealing with delight: "Vladimir

Vladimirovich, how we love you so much!" He will look

refreshed, like new, his skin

pulled tight as a drum. Everything will be fine.

For now, he is just recovering after the plastic

surgery and resting a little.

But there is an important point connected with his disappearance, by the way.

Do you remember how we had those

ideologues who liked to tell us:

"No Putin, no Russia; if there is Putin, there is

Russia." Well, for several days now in Russia

there has been no Putin at all—he has vanished.

He is absent from the public space.

No meetings, nothing

is happening where Putin would be present—and yet

we are living normally. We haven't died, the earth

has not crashed into the celestial axis, it has not fallen apart.

Russia, contrary to what they try to prove to us,

if this man is no longer there, we will only

be better off without him. And in order for him

to be gone, we need to fight him,

to take part in the voters' strike.

There are a lot of questions. All right, here's a question

from Twitter: "Andrei, did you watch

the interview with Serebrennikov? What do you think

about the words 'strength, brazenness, and boorishness'?"

I watched it. It is an excellent interview, I highly

recommend it to everyone.

In fact, I recommend watching all of them, all

the interviews. Yes, I watch them, they are great. But

strictly speaking, Serebrennikov's position

is not new at all; he has

quite often spoken out sharply on this.

The interview struck me as honest.

And the reaction to all of this has been telling.

From all these bootlickers and crooks who

are jumping on Serebrennikov, shouting,

"How can you do that? You live in Canada and

you make money, you earn money in

Russia—how can you criticize Mother Russia?"

But Serebryakov is not criticizing Mother Russia.

Serebryakov, excuse me, is not criticizing

Mother Russia. He loves her far

more than all those scoundrels who are now

coming after him. There have also been a lot of questions about

the blocking and everything else. Indeed,

for almost two weeks now we've been living with

blocked websites, but thank you very much.

Thank you.

We believe we accomplished the main goal of

distribution: our

investigation about Rybka was watched

by six million people thanks to you. You

shared it very actively, and so

basically, that very link

because of which they tried

to block my blog—we can already see that

hardly anyone visits it anymore. Mostly, everyone

is watching the investigation on YouTube, so we

are now going to close it and move all this

information to an external link. That is, it

won't disappear anywhere, and people will still

be able to find it. And we will demand that Roskomnadzor (Russia’s media and communications regulator)

unblock it. We believe this exercise

went quite successfully—that is, we

resisted this blocking, and about 60

percent of people were still able to access

our site without any special tools. In other words,

we gave Roskomnadzor a bit of a—what's a

polite way to put it?—well, we

fought them pretty successfully.

Once again, many thanks to everyone who

helped spread this information. But in any

case, guys, we understand perfectly well that

they will keep blocking websites, and in an ever more

lawless, outrageous

way. Removing the link alone

won't be enough, so

use tools to bypass blocking.

Learn how to use them.

As for turnout, you can see that our voters' strike

is underway, and in response they are making

simply extraordinary efforts.

They're going to extreme lengths, and now I'm curious myself

what kind of

non-turnout they may end up facing—quite a large one, apparently.

Because in my entire life I have never seen

anything like this. Because this is

just everywhere: workers are being forced

to hand over their passports, to sign up;

students, teachers, doctors, members

of election commissions are all

going door to door and

making lists of who will vote,

who won't vote, who plans

to go, who doesn't. And it's highly

likely that for those who don't plan to go, they

will stuff in votes. That is exactly why we will run

an observation program. And one of the

most remarkable campaigns

is happening in Perm right now: a project called

"Choose Cinema." Basically, everyone who

comes and votes will be given tickets

to the movies.

Free movie tickets—that is, outright

voter bribery, plain and simple.

A blatant violation. And on top of that, all of this

is being funded from the budget, of course—either

the city budget or the regional one. Our money

is being spent on this nonsense. We even thought,

well, this can't possibly be real.

But we checked, and now you can see it:

Perm State Pedagogical

University. The notices were posted in

several other places too: a construction

college, Stroganov College, Onyx College—

everywhere, all educational institutions in Perm

are plastered with this campaign: get a movie ticket.

The Russian Union of Journalists—now that's a rather

disgusting

organization—has launched

a campaign called

a contest, "Why I'm Going to Vote." In other words,

these people stayed completely silent and did nothing

throughout the entire past year, when

journalists were being attacked, when they were

being beaten, when media outlets were being blocked,

when censorship was being

introduced, obviously. But now the

Russian Union of Journalists is holding

a contest called "Why I'm Going to Vote." So

everywhere, in big ways and small, all across the country,

the whole place is flooded with it. Look in the metro:

these things are hanging there; in stores, these notices

are posted everywhere.

Go vote, go vote, go vote.

There, you can see it in the metro—they've put them up

in all sorts of places, and I

think that as March 18 gets closer,

everything will be completely covered with it.

But guys, that makes it all the more satisfying right now to

go to the link in the description,

print out a couple of flyers, and put them up

in your apartment building entrance,

in your school, in your university, and watch

how these people go crazy because

we are promoting the voters' strike.

Quite a lot of people may not know about it, but I

am sure they wouldn't be losing their minds like this

the way they are, if

our voters' strike had no

real impact. So please take part in it.

Please. I also wanted to show separately

a video that, well, in short, made me want

to show it to you. This is the city of Yekaterinburg,

and there is one particularly awful man there.

I wouldn't even show him now

and denounce him to the whole country, but it's Mikhail

Ivanovich Barashkov, dean of the Faculty of

Veterinary Medicine

at the Ural State Agrarian

At the university, he seems to be very

a good person, a good teacher.

Everyone praises him.

I was getting ready to tear into him here, but then I went online

and looked through various forums, and students

say what a good person he is. And let's

take a look at how this good person

campaigns, what he says to his students.

In connection with the fact that

the system—whether he wants it himself or whether he was

asked to make them go to the elections. After three

seconds: you're adults, by December 5...

I'll tear you apart.

Seriously. And most importantly, you need

to vote in the first half of the day. Here at our

place, among the teachers, I held a meeting.

There are just a few groups left.

They will vote and call me

so that I know no one is resisting—there's no cheating with

it, because everything is tracked together, because

that kind of vote is counted. You know what

the situation is, how politicized everything is. I'm not

telling you who to vote for. You are

adults. I'll say only one thing:

those who study on state-funded places also

receive stipends. You'll vote... I'm

just emphasizing this once again.

Decide for yourselves.

But in any case, you must

go to the elections. You won't be able to fool anyone,

because everything is counted. I'm not urging

you, says Mikhail Ivanovich, to vote for anyone in particular.

Wonderful, Mikhail Ivanovich.

Mikhail Ivanovich tells his students:

especially those on state-funded places, you know who gives you

all this. So here's an open

appeal to Mikhail Ivanovich:

why do you need all this?

You are a respected person, judging by the reviews, so

why are you humiliating yourself and your students?

Who gives this—Putin? Is he the one giving us these

state-funded places? Students study tuition-free because

their parents paid taxes here, because

they are citizens of Russia, because they

have every right to it, because they

passed their exams, and Putin has nothing to do with it.

Putin is cutting the number of state-funded places.

Putin is cutting your salary. You, Mikhail

Ivanovich, receive a low salary

because Putin does not allocate money for

education and healthcare. How can an

adult stand there and say,

say to his students, whom he

is supposed to teach something worthwhile,

say: but you are

on state-funded places, remember who gives you all this,

implying that Putin and United

Russia (the ruling political party)

are the ones giving you everything. Mother Perm land gives you all this.

You understand, they extract oil there, and

Uralkali mines potash fertilizers there,

all of this is sold abroad, we receive

money, and on that money the country exists.

It existed that way

without Putin.

It exists now under him, but he

gives us nothing. On the contrary, from that money he

steals, Mikhail Ivanovich. So I very much

hope that Mikhail Ivanovich Barashkov

hears me, and next time, speaking

before his students, says: well, yes, I

would, guys, still like

to apologize, because those of you who study on

state-funded places

got in because you have the right to be there,

not because Putin is your master, your

benevolent benefactor.

Well, yes, I suddenly

caught myself starting to shout

in the studio, but it really is a rather

unpleasant situation. It's just

disgusting, very disgusting to watch.

By the way, of course, this continues:

some kind of political science debate about whether

a boycott is good

or bad as a method of political

struggle. Well, of course it's not the best

method, but I would simply like to draw your

attention to the fact that right now there is modern

authoritarianism.

All the critics of a boycott describe

various strategies and argue with

strategies that were used

earlier, 10, 15, 20 years ago. But

note that now

authoritarian leaders like Putin,

like those in the CIS countries (the former Soviet republics), like those

all over the world today, have in fact

learned to use

the electoral system in such a way that

on the one hand, elections exist, but on the other

hand, they do not become an instrument of political struggle

at all. That is precisely why

boycotts are now happening.

In Azerbaijan, the opposition declared a boycott

of the elections. In Venezuela,

in Egypt, the opposition declared a boycott

of the elections. In Venezuela, the opposition announced

a boycott of the elections. In Malaysia, the same

thing. This is now happening all over the world, and it is one

of the most important political

trends: when crooks in power

do exactly what they did

here—announce elections, allow only

candidates who are completely under their control,

these puppets,

simply conduct these

puppets and try to convince

the public: go to these elections,

it doesn't matter, vote for someone,

vote against us, just come.

Naturally, all over the world there is emerging

a movement against this, and we are

part of such a movement, against these

slick operators who, even under new

conditions, when there is the internet, when

it is impossible to completely block the mass

media, still somehow manage nonetheless.

I have less control over the electoral system.

They turned elections into a mockery, and we

are not taking part in them. I am declaring a strike, and in that

sense

but what we are doing is a normal

Russian practice when it comes to elections. We

actually very much want to participate.

It is no accident that we are now in the process

of registering the Progress Party for the fifth

time.

Or the sixth, or even the seventh—I’ve already lost count of how many

times we have tried to register the party,

because we want to take part in

elections. We want it very badly, and we are fighting for

it, and we are still fighting for it now. On March 3,

there was supposed to be—and there will be—a congress

of the Progress Party.

Though now, as we can see, not of the Progress Party anymore,

because this is the story we ended up with.

It turned out absurdly: when our party was called

People’s Alliance,

we went through two rounds of registration, and we

were not registered. And then some

Kremlin crook and political operative, Bogdanov,

renamed one of his parties

People’s Alliance—he stole our name,

stole all our branding, right down to the logo, and we

had to come up with a new name. We

came up with Progress Party, and several times

we tried to register it, we are registering it now, and on March 3

there is supposed to be a congress. We have already printed things,

already spent money on all sorts of

nice backdrops, and today

the news comes in that this same

political operator Bogdanov has taken one of his parties and

once again renamed it the Progress Party.

But the most wonderful thing we saw was

the congress itself. Show the photo from that congress.

What you see here is not just

some strange creative gathering,

some kind of “long-forgotten stars” reunion

in a concert hall—this is what they call a congress

of the Progress Party. As you can see on the screen,

all of our symbols have been completely stolen,

the name has been stolen, and sitting on the presidium is

Vitaly Serukanov,

the “disillusioned Navalny volunteer.”

If you remember, back in the summer, this

petty crook, who really

worked with us for several years

as a volunteer—but honestly, we understood

that there was something off about him. I clearly

remember how I met him: he

came up to me at the train station when I was traveling to

Kirov. “Hello, Alexei, I head the

youth wing,”

“the youth wing of Prokhorov’s party.”

And I thought right then: there is something

wrong with this guy. A normal person cannot

be in Prokhorov’s party,

let alone in the youth wing

of Prokhorov’s party.

But nevertheless, there were no formal grounds

for any claims against him, and so he

was just an ordinary volunteer,

and then, right on the eve of

the rally

that was being organized by

Ilya Yashin—and you remember that it was a

rally that provoked such a

painful reaction from the authorities—he declared

that he had become disillusioned with Navalny,

and called on everyone not to go to

the rally. And for me, everything became completely

clear. On this program, I basically

said in plain terms

that I considered him a crook and a plant—what else is there to say?

And then it all came down on me—you all attacked me,

and many of you felt terribly sorry for him, saying,

“How can you do that, Navalny? Right away,

without any proof, you said that this

person was planted.” And now, boom,

it turns out I was right, and you all turned out—well, not

all of you, of course, but many of you turned out to be

wrong. Because

guys, you need to remember and understand one

main thing: if a person looks like

a Murzilka (a fake, clownish front figure), then that is exactly what he is.

You can become disillusioned with Navalny,

of course. Lots of people can.

They can lose interest, they may not

like it—but then what do you do?

You say, “I’m disappointed in Navalny,”

“Navalny is an idiot,” and usually you stop working, or

you even record a video statement: “I

am disappointed, Navalny is an idiot.”

But when you make a video statement saying,

“I’m disappointed in Navalny,” and then add,

“Don’t go to the rally,” then it is obvious that you are a stooge,

because you are acting in the interests

of the authorities. Then you are a Murzilka-type operative, and there are quite

a lot of them. And we endlessly have this

discussion about whether we should talk about it

or not. Well, the point is simply this:

I suggest that all of you be a little

more attentive, show a little more

intelligence, and be a little tougher toward

all people who do suspicious

things, instead of endlessly forgiving them.

But this is an unpleasant situation for us,

because on the 3rd we will

definitely hold a party congress with

some unclear name. We need to come up with

some kind of name, and at this point we

now have to keep it somehow

secret, because if we now

say what the party will be called—if I say here,

“Send me text messages with party name ideas,”

“Send me a great party name,”

and I announce it here, then tomorrow that same

Serukanov will hold another congress and

steal yet another name.

I don’t know, but maybe some part of it—let’s

call the party “Putin Is a Thief”; let him steal

that name if he likes. Irina Stolyarova

writes, Irina

says: “They won’t steal that name, and they’ll register it,”

and then they’ll have to take it to the streets. Though, by the way, they say...

A good name for the party is “Putin Is a Thief.”

I think quite a lot of people

would vote for such a party. Well,

one way or another, I just wanted once again

to explain, because there have been a lot of questions. We

will definitely hold this meeting, we will definitely

register our party, we

definitely want to take part in the elections. More than

that, I am absolutely convinced that this party is the

only one that will be able to clear

the five-percent threshold and win

elections in general, because we are ready for that.

We have an organizational structure. Apparently, I will not

be in this party, accordingly.

If they don’t detain me as well, they’ll probably arrest me,

so I won’t be able to be elected

chairman of this party. Probably one

of the reasons for this paperwork

that happened today is that they

took me to the police station.

They want to make sure that I do not

get to the party congress either, but that

doesn’t matter much. In the end, as for

another person—we’ll choose someone else, after all.

It doesn’t matter who holds the formal

position; what matters is that this is our party,

which will represent our interests.

But still,

we will, of course, run into difficulties when

registering it.

The sad part of our program is

the weekly polling ratings—well,

over the last two broadcasts

we recorded, for example—well, that is,

very little. Because when we came up with this

idea—that I would tell you every day

about polling—I assumed that

it would be interesting. I would talk about

how this person’s rating had gone up,

that person’s rating had gone down, how interesting

it all changes. We conduct polling, and it is very

honest, very good, but

let’s see whether anything is changing. So,

if the election were held this Sunday,

what results would we get? Let’s

look at the candidates’ ratings. First

slide.

As you can see, practically nothing

has changed. Putin’s rating—here we have

our first poll here, the January one,

the blue bar, compared with the red

bar, the latest one. So in January

Putin had 78 percent; now he has 82.

That’s not surprising, but overall, since we need

to raise the issue of the margin of error,

which is about 3 percent, essentially nothing

has changed. Zhirinovsky and Grudinin

were both at 8 percent at the beginning; now they are

both at 6 percent, but essentially we should

say that they have not changed.

Within the margin of error, Sobchak, Titov, and Yavlinsky are all

at 1 percent each, and they are listed in the order

Sobchak, Titov, Yavlinsky, but that

means nothing. They all have 1

percent; their ratings cannot even really be

measured within the margin of error. Well,

essentially, nothing new has

happened here. The Kremlin’s scheme is working:

the fake candidates have no

support at all. Let’s see whether

the negative ratings have changed. Unfortunately, no—and the negative

ratings haven’t changed either. It’s all the same

thing.

Sobchak is still the leader in the negative ratings.

It was 70, now it is 68.

Again, within the margin of error, we can

say that practically nothing

has changed. Zhirinovsky is in second place,

the same 24 percent negative rating.

Zhirinovsky’s negative rating is 21 percent; Gru-

Grudinin’s was 14, now 16. Again, we believe

that nothing has changed. There is no

movement at all—not in the ratings, not in the negative

ratings, not in anything at all.

And where could any movement come from,

when nothing is happening?

Let’s look at the third slide; there

it gets a little more interesting, there is at least some life

there, because the third slide shows

how Russian citizens—in a nationwide

survey—answered the question about which campaign materials

of which candidates they had come across

over the last two weeks. And here we do, after all, see

changes beyond

the statistical margin of error. Grudinin

is noticeable; people have noticed some kind of Grudinin

campaign.

Probably that famous woman in the ad

that the whole internet is laughing at,

and the comments that are being posted everywhere

saying, “I’ve never gone

to vote before, but this time I will—

Grudinin is the people’s candidate.” But billboards

have appeared in some places; some advertising is underway.

Besides that, this week direct TV advertising

has already been allowed, so people

are noticing Zhirinovsky—they have noticed him

quite significantly.

He was at 8 percent, now 16. Sobchak

was at 7 percent, now 13.

Yavlinsky was at 3 percent, now 7.

Still, of course, 67 percent of people—

that is, the overwhelming majority, most

people—do not see at all, point-blank,

any campaigning, any of these fake

candidates—let’s call them what they are. Well,

some changes have started, at least.

Apparently, this is simply connected with the fact that

television advertising has begun.

We can see the ads. Well, I can’t say that

they impressed me much, but one ad really impressed me.

It completely overshadowed all the other ads

by comparison.

And this ad is by a candidate whom I

would never even have been able

to suspect of such over-the-top

creativity.

Now I’m going to show you that ad.

and in exactly the same form it was

shown on this TV channel

because that’s how it works there:

candidates can buy advertising, and

sometimes at the beginning, sometimes at the end, often they

buy it — they have money, so they buy

a lot of it, and so if you have just one ad

the same one, they’ll just leave it there three times

in a row. So they showed it three times in a row,

this ad — the one that goes, “Let’s together...”

I watched it and was simply amazed by the sheer audacity

“What?

Like,

“What?

Titov? What about Titov?”

Apparently that was the expression on people’s faces

who were watching the channel at that moment:

“Wait, what is this even?

What is this supposed to be?” I mean, we can more or less

imagine some loafers sitting there

saying, “Well, that’s what you said, but listen,”

“you’re completely invisible. Let’s

make an ad that people will definitely

notice. It’ll be insane, it’ll

be idiotic.”

People will just start

slapping their foreheads, but they’ll notice it.

They’ll laugh at us, they’ll curse us,

even Navalny will notice us and make fun of us

and maybe even show it on his program.

Guys, it worked.

So yes, people noticed you, but

I just have one question: do you really

think this wins you votes?

I mean, sure, now viewers of my program

and viewers of that

channel probably know you more as some kind of drug addicts

or something, because this is, of course,

astonishing. It’s astonishing that these people

still seriously claim that they

have support, that they really

collected signatures,

that they’re not some Kremlin-made spoilers

brought in specifically so that

people would say, “What? Titov? Because

the reaction is obvious.”

A person looks at this like this,

stays silent for a while, and then says,

“You know what, I’d rather vote for Putin. What is this?”

Maybe Titov was going for some kind of suspense

in the ad, maybe something else, but

this is just infernal overkill.

Regular viewers ask, “What kind of brainwashing is this?

It’s creepy.” No, it’s not brainwashing.

They came up with an ad that everyone

would laugh at so people would remember it, and it’s supposedly

considered effective, because, you know, they

always say: people only speak ill of you

in an obituary. That old famous

saying. But

I don’t think it works. Valeria Bychkova asks:

“I don’t want to go to the election, but

my dean and my parents are pressuring me. How

do I deal with that pressure?”

Valeria, how exactly are they pressuring you?

Your parents are probably going overboard,

coming up to you and saying, “Valeria,

please, you absolutely have to go vote.”

And you say, “I’m not going.” “No, Valeria,

you must go vote.” And you say, “I’m not

going. Leave me alone.” What can they actually do to you?

What is your dean saying — that if you don’t vote,

he’ll call someone higher up?

You say, “Dear Pavel Pavlovich,

my leg hurts, I’m sick, I don’t want to.” Better yet,

I assure you, if you tell him directly:

“Dear Pavel Pavlovich, your pressure

on me is inappropriate. My political views are such

that I cannot take part in this election. I do not

recognize it. I am participating in the voters’ strike

and I support Navalny,”

your dean will back off immediately.

That’s exactly how it works.

They pressure the people who give in to pressure.

If you were sitting in prison and they were

beating you, or starving you, or

torturing you — that would be pressure that could force you.

But when they’re just, well,

simply saying, “Valeria, go

vote,” that’s not really pressure at all.

Because what’s actually going to happen?

On March 18, it will all be over, and everyone will forget

that they wanted something from you and that you

refused to go along with it.

People ask how I feel about my

surname being used to fight

snowdrifts.

It really is a rather

strange thing, but very funny. At first

I thought it was just some people

who came up with it just to

have a laugh at the authorities, and that they had

basically staged the whole thing:

wrote “Navalny” on a snowdrift and then

cleared it away themselves, claiming that because they

wrote “Navalny” on the snowdrift,

the janitors were ordered to remove it faster.

But after that there were many

experiments conducted, in Moscow and

in other regions too, and indeed,

if you spray-paint on a snowdrift

“Navalny,” they remove it.

There simply is no better example of the authorities’ idiocy.

There just isn’t. But I’m glad

that if I can help in the field of urban maintenance

at least in this way — though not only

in this way. We also have a wonderful

project, RosZhKH, so in fact

in the area of public utilities and urban upkeep

we’ve been making a fairly major

contribution for quite a long time. But what can I say? They’re

idiots. They don’t want to clear anything away, they

don’t want to remove the snow, but even more than that, they

don’t want people to encounter

the name Navalny anywhere. Let’s use that.

I’m writing for the second time, don’t

ignore me.

Come back here — and please, don’t be rude.

criticizes the fact that you were given 60 seconds

on the Print channel, saying, well, if

I were given 60 seconds, I would

have prepared something more precise so that

to fit into those 60 seconds, but I would

talk about specific cases of corruption

involving Putin. I would mention, for example,

his son-in-law, the youngest billionaire

in Russia. I would ask the viewers: do you believe

that Putin's son-in-law could have become the

youngest billionaire in Russia without

Putin's direct personal involvement

in this corruption? Do you think he is

corrupt? I think many people would

answer that question the way I want them to.

In other words, I would speak in concrete terms

— not just go on and on about

some beautiful Russia of the future,

but cite specific facts of corruption and

the theft committed by Medvedev and Putin and all these

people, and compare the money they

make with the salaries of ordinary people

whom they are robbing. Anna Fadeeva.

Alexei, she only wanted to be

an observer on 18.03, but I won't be

in the country—I didn't manage to read the rest.

But how else can I help besides that?

I'm already campaigning against the election. Money—

money... apparently, money.

I'm sending some. In any case, you should register.

We have lots of different kinds of

work there.

There is work standing at polling stations, there is

work doing logistics, there is work

reviewing video recordings, after all.

So if you won't be in the country, you

can still take part in this work. So

register, and we'll try to find

something for you. But

if we don't, then we don't. Abroad,

there will be some monitoring, and it

isn't all that significant. The fact that

help from abroad amounts to only 300

thousand people right now, but still

we will be doing it there, so you

should register. If there's work for you, great.

If not, then not. Next question: what should be done

about the huge number of election

posters—damage them? asks Chris

Matsuoka. If it's possible to damage them

without getting taken to the police for damaging

someone else's property—that is, if it's some kind of

notice hanging in your apartment building saying 'Come

to the election,' then feel free to take out a marker

and write 'Boycott the election' on it, or whatever

you want—alter it however you like.

It's your building entrance; they have no

right to hang anything there. The same goes for

an institute or university if it's hanging there. But you know

that right now, across all of Russia, we already

know that across the country

police officers are guarding posters of Putin.

A man with such colossal

support that at night, without a police crew

guarding them around the clock,

it's impossible to prevent those posters

from being pelted with paint, eggs, or

something else. So don't really take the risk

of trying to damage large posters

about the election or about Putin. But smaller-scale

campaign materials—sure, tear them down.

Alexei, will you have to pour it over the tires on

the Nemtsov memorial march? I still didn't

manage to read it—bring it back to me, please.

Please, who would you like to see

as mayor of Moscow? asks Alex RM. As for the march

in memory of Nemtsov, which will take place on

Sunday at 2:00 p.m., gathering

at Pushkinskaya Square—roughly speaking, I will definitely come.

If it's on Strastnoy Boulevard,

or on Pushkinskaya—if

I'm detained there and taken away so that I can't

be there, then so be it. But I will do everything possible

to be there, and I urge everyone

to do the same. Who would I like to see as mayor

of Moscow? I'd like to see someone

normal—someone we elect

in a fair election, and who will

clear the snow for us, among other things. So this is a very

serious subject, and a very sad, very

tragic one. You know that a terrorist attack took place

in Dagestan: a man ran up to a church

during

festivities, during the service,

and opened fire on several people. Five people were killed,

and four were injured.

The attacker was killed by return fire.

It is known that his name was Khalil Khalilov; he was

22 years old. While doing it, he kept shouting

'Allahu Akbar.'

So this is a classic case

of a terrorist attack, a terrorist attack carried out by a

deranged

Islamist, and that is exactly how it should be

treated. There is no need here to try

to hide something or to insist

on adding that this person—we

deny him the right to be called a Muslim

or anything like that.

Of course, no one is saying that all

Muslims in Dagestan support this man.

I am sure they are all absolutely shocked

by this crime, just as we are. But

the fact remains the fact:

this crime, this terrorist attack, was

committed on the grounds of radical Islamism.

And it is the task of Christianity and Islam and all

decent people—atheists, agnostics,

and Buddhists as well—to fight such people. But

why did I decide to talk about this on the program?

Why bring it up here? Because I do not

see any reaction—no reaction at all.

No serious reaction. First of all, they are still

afraid to say that this was a terrorist attack. It is being

covered extremely little in the mass

media, and we do not see an appropriate

proper reaction, not from

the Islamic communities—though they did express outrage.

Of course, you posted condolences, but

what we would have liked to see was more action, and most

importantly, action from the Russian Orthodox Church

because I noticed a very

interesting and very apt post by Protodeacon

Andrei Kuraev. Let me show you—he

writes, and he pointed out something important. Remember

when Pussy Riot danced in the church?

No one killed anyone, but the full force of the Russian

Orthodox Church came down on them.

They held all sorts of

special prayer services, issued open

letters, expressed outrage, made calls

to anathematize everyone, and for

many months this was a major topic

of public discussion. And now, against

believers who came to church simply because

they are believers,

a terrorist attack was carried out—they were shot dead.

One would like to see more reaction.

There should be some sense of proportion here.

If you whipped up that kind of hysteria

over the fact that someone there—what was it they said—

those girls, those young women,

had desecrated the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, then

now believers have been gunned down in a terrorist attack,

so why are you silent?

Let’s sound the alarm and say

that we need to do a better job

working with communities in Dagestan,

that we need to do something, and that the position of the ROC (Russian Orthodox Church) on

this matter is as follows: we consider this

a terrorist attack, and we will take these specific steps.

But no—nothing. They do nothing, they simply

stay silent. And the state stays silent too. They have

a rather dishonest position:

don’t talk about it, talk about it as little as possible,

because it will only bring problems.

Because if we say we are mourning

Muslims, or we are mourning Orthodox Christians,

someone might be offended. But I’m saying this:

what exactly is offensive about that?

For Muslims, this should be entirely normal. All of this

needs to be said out loud, because

Muslims themselves are not interested in

the fact that there are maniacs who call themselves

Muslims, running around shooting

and killing people. It is Muslims’ task to fight them,

and I think this is precisely in the

interests of Russia’s Muslim community:

to say, yes, this madman

committed a monstrous crime,

using religion as cover, motivated by religion.

He did it shouting ‘Allahu Akbar,’ so

let’s discuss this, let’s

condemn it.

And let’s do our best to make sure

such things do not happen. Silence

will lead absolutely nowhere.

The next sad topic: Dmitry Borisov

was sentenced to one year of imprisonment

for taking part in the March 26 rally. You

remember, this was the rally I called

against corruption after

the ‘He Is Not Dimon to You’ investigation, in response to

the authorities’ total lack of any reaction

to that investigation, to

the facts of corruption. We announced

rallies; naturally, the authorities banned them. They

detained a number of

people then, and he was detained too. And later, in

their usual disgusting style of

meanness and intimidation, they didn’t just pick

some random person—they decided that, as a

warning to others, they would jail Dmitry Borisov.

He became one such victim.

He is a brave man. He did not admit guilt

because there is no guilt to admit, and in this

case there was an enormous amount of simply

obvious inconsistency and fabrication.

He was accused of the fact that when

he was being dragged away, he somehow freed one leg

and kicked

a police officer in the helmet, and the policewoman

allegedly felt acute pain—though only two

months later did all this suddenly emerge,

right in time for the trial.

And

the video footage shows that nothing

of the sort happened. So all of this is lies,

deception, and fabrication, and Borisov is simply

a hostage—a randomly seized

person whose story they want to use

to intimidate all of us. But he is admirable,

as are all the others, in fact.

Those detained over the twenty-sixth are conducting themselves

with great courage, so I want to wish

him strength, and also his parents, his

close friends. This man is in prison for

all of us, and that is how we should

view it. But at the same time, we must clearly send

a signal to the authorities that this will not

scare us. Yes, we clearly understand that after

every rally now, people come out, and they

grab one or two people

and jail them. Yes, that possibility exists.

In fact, the probability of that is lower

than the chance of being hit by a car—which is no joke.

That does not, of course, make things any easier for Borisov,

or for his mother, his father, or his other

relatives. But nevertheless, we simply must not

allow ourselves to be intimidated by all this. We

must support these people, we must

be proud of them, and we will not let ourselves be

intimidated. Dmitry, stay strong. And all

the other guys who suffered because of the 26th,

you are the truest of

heroes. So, Ilya asks: ‘Alexei,

why not write an appeal to the leaders

of other countries, with an explanation and a request

As soon as I start reading your tweet, you

interrupt me—please let me finish—and

a request not to recognize the elections in the Russian Federation?’ Ilya,

Ilya,

what is your name? Fine—suppose Trump is sitting there, and into

his administration comes a letter from

Alexei Navalny,

setting out in that letter the reasoning and

a request not to recognize the elections in Russia and

to say thank you for something like that

at last you sent me a letter with

a justification

and a request — that changes everything, and therefore

I will forget about the problem of nuclear non-proliferation

about terrorism, about thousands

of other things that need to be dealt with alongside this

crook Putin — simply because he

controls a huge nuclear power, and

therefore, of course, one has to engage with him

no one is going to solve our problems for us, and

therefore it is pointless to appeal to

the leaders of Western countries; we must

engage with them, we must explain

there must be a normal dialogue with Europe

and with the United States, and of course those people are right who

travel to international conferences

and make the case for this — it is a very good

and useful activity

but to think that some leaders of other

countries will solve our problems — that is simply

ridiculous. Viktor Bondarenko: Alexei,

Grudinin proposed introducing in Russia

the death penalty for major

corrupt officials. What is your opinion on

this issue? Viktor, I am asked about this quite often

at rallies. I am

a principled opponent of the death penalty

and not because I love

major corrupt officials or some kind of

maniacs and so on — it is simply that our

judicial system

is such that, well, how can you possibly

allow

it to be entrusted with killing people? Even if we

set aside, in principle, the question of whether

anyone has the right to take a human life — do you

trust the judicial system, these very

judges who are now trying Volkov

and everyone else? But these are federal

judges — so they would also be able to hand down death sentences

You do not trust them. No, these

judges, together with the Investigative Committee

and everyone else, are now acting on orders

to jail people; just as they work on command now,

they would execute on command too

If you need to take away some ironclad

business from a person, you just pay money

to the Investigative Committee, the FSB (Federal Security Service) — they will hustle behind the scenes

the judge signs off, and suddenly you are declared a major corrupt official

and shot, hanged,

or given a lethal injection. No, I

believe that, in principle, one should not

believe that the state may take

a person's life. I believe

that life imprisonment is a more cruel

punishment than the death penalty

and in general I also believe that under the current

judicial system

it must never be introduced under any circumstances. Elena

Logo writes: Alexei, also, is it true that in

Krasnodar there is no snow? Rejoice over something else

You write quite often that what needs to be

removed — there have already been quite a lot of jokes on this

topic, like

I really do not want to shave my beard, so I will write on

my beard: Navalny, pride of... with a shaved one

Well, alas — I mean, somehow it

works

Georgy Raketa: Alexei, I study

and live in

another country. Does it make sense for me

to be an observer there? I registered on

the website but have not received any reply yet

You have not received one because we have very many

— tens of thousands of people

registering. Georgy, if you live abroad

in another country

in a large city and there is a polling station there

for voting, then you can go there

as an observer — that is the right thing to do

but I repeat, overall, sorry, abroad

only about 300,000 people vote

so that is roughly like one large town outside Moscow

therefore it is not a priority

for our work. If you live abroad

and are online anyway

focus on

spreading information, I do not know,

raising money — find 10 people

each of whom will donate 100

rubles (about €1) to the campaign; work on

spreading the message — focus on that

Drimmer: Am I right in understanding that if

I am 14 years old, I cannot be an observer?

What, then, can I do for the strike? If

you are 14 years old, you cannot be

an observer at a polling station, that is

we will not be able to give you an official paper

showing that you are indeed

an observer from a party

or candidate, but even in our

questionnaire we separately identify

minors and ask how old you are

You can still observe: if they do not let you into

the polling station, you can stand outside and watch

video recordings — that is, there is work for

those who are still underage, so

register; we will try. I am not sure

that we will find such work for everyone

but for many we will. In the case of

the strike, first and foremost

spread information, campaign

and encourage people to join the strike. Ust-Labinsk

that is the correct way to say it, Ust-Labinsk

my favorite sort of town, belonging

to Deripaska (Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska); from there they blocked

our blog and

the TV Rain channel (independent Russian TV channel). Many people actually

went to Ust-Labinsk and made

such

quite interesting reports about how

this town lives, a town that is effectively

supported by Deripaska, and everything

there is subordinate to Deripaska, and

the local residents say that, well, he does

help a little, although

Well, some kind of school, a playground, and so on.

This is a billionaire, and one who made his own fortune.

He made his billions from raw materials, from

the energy sector, from things that had been acquired there

beforehand—that is, he didn’t create anything, he simply

privatized something that had been Soviet-owned, and so

these investments in, that is, Labinsk, are

frankly speaking, nothing extraordinary, but

I really liked how the correspondent

from the TV Rain channel (an independent Russian outlet), Ilya Shepelin, went

there and spoke with representatives of the court.

These are the very people who carried out this

remarkable legal maneuver. Meanwhile, between

the time everything is officially logged by

timestamp, between the moment Deripaska submitted

his petition and the moment the court issued

the decision to block my blog and

block the video, only 24 minutes passed, and they

say, yes, yes, yes, that can happen, and they

even act offended. Let’s watch

a very short video, 28 seconds long. What exactly are

the representatives of the Ust-

Labinsk court so offended by?

The depressed little town of Ust-Labinsk.

The average salary here is such that it barely

covers utility bills. Everything

has changed for the worse; life has become

much harder.

A judge from a small district town threatened

to block YouTube and Instagram across

the whole territory of Russia, and they complied

for now, at least in our case.

And apparently negative reviews about us are somehow considered

appropriate to say on camera—they were called

Oleg Deripaska’s yard mutts.

They’re offended—“Oleg Deripaska’s yard mutts,”

that’s very insulting to them, and they

act surprised: some kind of negative

reviews of our court?

But all we did was simply, without even

notifying anyone, block

Navalny’s video, issue a whole bunch of

various rulings,

issue a decision to block information,

there, across 19 media outlets, and do all of that in 24

minutes. In that amount of time it’s impossible even

to type it all up, and yet somehow negative reviews

are coming our way.

And they call us Oleg Deripaska’s yard

mutts. Is it right to call them that?

Of course you are Oleg Deripaska’s yard

mutts. More than that, you are two disgusting

mutts of Oleg Deripaska—mangy

dirty mutts of Oleg Deripaska. You are not

judges or civil servants at all; you are his

pack of disgusting crooks. Dear

Labinsk court, I hope every

employee of the Ust-Labinsk court

watches this and learns that yes, I believe

you are Oleg Deripaska’s disgusting yard

mutts, and you disgrace

Russian justice, and justice

in general, the legal profession, if you will,

the educational institutions where you

studied—you disgrace the city of Ust-Labinsk,

you disgrace Krasnodar Krai (a region of Russia), you disgrace

the Russian Federation, you disgrace the Eastern

Hemisphere of the Earth, and you disgrace the entire

planet Earth, and, for that matter, the damn galaxy,

the Milky Way, in which you live, in which

we all live—you disgusting

yard mutts of Oleg Deripaska.

My time is up. Nothing makes me

less inclined to end on a note like that.

Alexander Kuznetsov writes: “A push-button

phone for the military for up to 115,000 rubles (about US$1,800 at the time).”

Why isn’t that a reason for an FBK (Anti-Corruption Foundation) investigation?

It was announced that military personnel in Syria

would be given some kind of—well, over there in Syria—

some kind of super-secret phones, and

naturally not simple push-button ones—wait, 115,000—and

the Ministry of “Crows” (a mocking play on “Ministry of Defense”).

And they explain such a crazy price by saying they’re

secret.

We’ll see what can be done, but I

suspect they classified everything there.

The phone is secret, so why it’s priced the way it is

will be secret, what kind of phone it is will be

secret, and what’s going on with this phone will be

secret too, and

in public procurement it will all be secret, there will be

secrecy everywhere. But I have not the slightest

doubt that out of the 115,000

that this phone costs, roughly 95,000

rubles were simply stolen and pocketed by someone.

Pavel Russia asks: “Alexei, how

would you comment on the Russian

government’s refusal to take part in

Elon Musk’s global satellite system?”

You know that Elon Musk announced

that he would create free global

internet.

Russia stayed silent, stayed silent, and then refused

to allocate frequencies to his satellites. Then

there were even statements going around that

Russia would deploy some kind of

group of jammers, supposedly almost on

the North Pole, in order to

jam Elon Musk’s free internet

so that you wouldn’t be able to use it. But

that hasn’t been officially confirmed yet.

So far, fortunately, Russia

has not yet said outright, “Musk,

we’re jamming your internet.” But looking at

how things work here, they’ll probably try

to do it. And how can I possibly

feel about that? It’s idiotic. Some people

are trying to make the world better. Maybe

they’re also trying to make money from it—probably

Elon Musk wants to create free

global internet, but somehow also

build a business around it and still earn money.

Maybe there will be global mobile

communications that he’ll profit from. In any

case, here is a person who wants

to do something good for us, while in our own

country, speaking the same language as us, there are

people who, for some reason, want to do us harm.

badly, and to stop this American guy

whom we've never even seen in person

to package a mortgage and make things good for us, I

naturally feel very negatively about this

this once again shows

the idiocy of their 'Beautiful Russia of the Future'

we ourselves, without Elon Musk, will create for ourselves

cool free internet, and in general

we will compete, and Russia will

declare that no, we will be the first to create

free internet for the whole planet

because we know how to launch satellites

because we are a developed

high-tech country, because we are

awesome and want to do good for all

humanity — that is our mission

take part in the voters' strike

go there right now and print out

the leaflet, and put it up wherever you can

sign up as election observers, especially in those

regions where turnout is above 70 percent. Thanks, everyone

thank you, bye

see you, maybe in some amount of time

depending on the decision of the Tverskoy District Court (in Moscow), well

or by next Thursday

[music]