Text version
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Hello, this is Navalny. Russia's threats.
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You constantly hear about them from propagandists,
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who endlessly tell us on television
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about enemies:
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NATO, America, Ukrainian fascists, and
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even European sausage. But the point is this:
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there is a much bigger threat.
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But on May 10, it became absolutely
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clear that the main threat to our country
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is senility — the senility that is steadily
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catching up with President Putin, who has been
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in power for 20 years. I'm not trying right now
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to insult Putin in any special way, but
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guys, this is a natural process that
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affects not only Putin, but
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any leader who has seized power
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for too long.
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In fact, Putin himself foresaw that
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he would lose his mind and sink into senility. "How do you
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feel about the possibility of increasing
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the presidential term, and about
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the possibility of being elected to this post three
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or more times?" "I view that negatively."
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On May 10, the whole country was forced
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to watch Putin play hockey, while
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they praised
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the great athletic achievements
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of the national leader. "The first goal in this
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game was scored by the president. The president
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opened the scoring in just the second minute of the match.
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Vladimir Putin has broken the seal on the
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opponent's net.
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[music]
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But the top scorer, as usual, is the president.
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Then the head of state is given several more chances
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to put a few more pucks into the
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opponent's net. Putin played hockey. Putin
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scored 10 goals.
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Putin said this, Putin held the stick, and
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just look at how deftly Putin skates,
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and look at how Putin shoots, and
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look how Putin's opponents have no
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chance. It's wonderful if the president
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plays sports, and it's even better if he simply
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promotes it — but come on, this is ridiculous.
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It's very good if he promotes
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a healthy lifestyle.
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But what you and I are seeing is precisely a manifestation
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of senility.
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It's like with Brezhnev (the longtime Soviet leader). Remember, he spent 18 years
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in power — fewer than Putin — and went senile
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over awards. First one Hero of the Soviet Union star,
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then a second. People shrug their shoulders.
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Then a third Hero star — people are already
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laughing, but Brezhnev liked shiny things
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on his uniform.
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Then a fourth Hero of the Soviet Union
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star, Hero of Socialist Labor, and laureate of the
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Lenin Prize for Literature.
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And all the toadies around him understood perfectly well
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what had to be done to keep the boss happy, so they kept bringing
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more and more awards. And then even the Order
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of Victory was handed to Brezhnev — even though, under the
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rules governing that decoration, awarding it to him was
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completely impossible. But for Putin, instead of
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orders and medals, it's hockey victories. He loves
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skating on the ice in the company of superstars,
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beating everyone, and scoring a record
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number of goals. Fine, if he likes it.
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After all, your loyal defender is always nearby,
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the opposing defenseman changes his mind at just the right moment
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about defending, and the goalie simply lifts his pad
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so your puck can fly into the net. In 2012,
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Putin first took the ice with
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the stars and scored two goals.
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It was the day of his inauguration, and from the stands
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he was admired by
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former leaders Berlusconi and Schröder.
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[applause]
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In 2014, already six goals.
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And by 2015, Vladimir
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Vladimirovich's skill had grown astonishingly: he
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played two games that year and scored
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seven and eight goals in them.
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He glides in and scores again.
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The president.
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After such overwhelming success, as
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often happens with athletes, there came
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a losing streak.
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In 2016, Putin was late to his own
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game, came out only in the second period, and
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scored only one goal. But never mind,
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his team still won by a score of
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9–5. In 2017, Putin got back into form and
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scored six goals — one more than
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his teammate, the "newcomer" Pavel
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Bure.
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In 2018, Putin had five goals, plus several
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friendly matches
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where, no matter what the score looked like, Putin's team
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still always won.
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Vladimir will...
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...my life already... and just now, 10 goals.
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But then they thought, well, that's somehow
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too much,
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and announced: no, Putin is modest,
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there was a mistake — it was only eight goals
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that he neatly put into the opponent's net.
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And the most important sign that all this
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has moved into the stage of
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state senility
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is that they are not even embarrassed to rearrange the federal
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TV schedule, and the commentators
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call the game as if the fate of at least
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the World Championship final were being decided.
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"With the puck — a shot!
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Vladimir Putin — and now he scores!
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Top shelf, no chance for the goalie!" Putin
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seriously believes that the whole country
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is squealing with delight as it watches on TV
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how nimble he is, how he scored 10 goals.
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Come on — the head of Turkmenistan is also convinced that
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the whole world is thrilled by the way he lifts
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a barbell in the gym. And by the way, he also plays
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hockey, and in his last game he scored 12 goals.
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And Chinese leader Mao Zedong decided
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at age 72 to astonish the Chinese: he
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had himself photographed in the water and announced that
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that he swam across the Yangtze River in 1 hour and 50
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minutes
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which means he was swimming at an
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average speed of 14 kilometers per hour. Just
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try not even swimming,
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but running on land for two hours at that
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speed, and you’ll immediately understand whether it’s true or
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not. But all of China, the entire Party, the whole
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government was congratulating dear
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Comrade Chairman.
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And now in Russia they’re congratulating dear
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Comrade, the great hockey player.
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He’s enjoying this circus on ice. Everyone,
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from the star sycophants to the viewers of
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the federal TV channels, has been made a participant in
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this circus. “Vladimir Vladimirovich is in
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top form, Vladimir Vladimirovich. From across the
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country people are writing to us about how amazed they are by your
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goal, Vladimir Vladimirovich.”
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“I may have played in the NHL, but I’ve never seen
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anyone get past a
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defenseman that brilliantly.”
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[music]
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“By the way, could you please sign this
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paper on the state contract for me? No, no,
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don’t read what’s inside. Let’s better discuss
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your seventh goal in today’s game.”
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“It’s my favorite one — what a gorgeous shot.”
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This whole senile circus will
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without a doubt only keep growing, because
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Putin is simply surviving, and Summa, like
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any ruler who has sat on the throne for too
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long. I want to point out that this entire
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Night Hockey League created by Putin
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League
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is a perfect illustration of his entire 20-year
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system of power — it’s just compressed down to the
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size of a hockey rink. The question is: who owns
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it?
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The Night Hockey League? The official answer
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on television is: there’s Putin, there are his friends,
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legendary hockey players, and simply his
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friends — they founded this league,
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this wonderful patriotic project.
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The real answer is different. We
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open the corporate registry and
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trace the entire ownership chain, and
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we find the classic model of Putin-era
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economics: a Russian company, a Cypriot
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offshore, another Cypriot offshore, and the ultimate
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owner is once again an offshore company in the British
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Virgin Islands: Fancy Development
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Limited. The next time you hear about
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the hobby of thousands of Russians in Sochi’s
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Bolshoy Ice Dome, where this
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game is held — no empty seats, people’s hockey,
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people flew in to do more sport —
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hagen
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it’s all very nice when you see lots of
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teams playing side by side, it’s very nice,
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and remember: even Putin’s main
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sporting brainchild
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they somehow managed to register to an offshore company in the
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Caribbean.
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The next question is: who pays for all
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this Putin entertainment? The television version
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is that, well,
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oligarchs are playing with us.
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“Do you know whom I’d especially like to
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thank? The sponsors. Of course, a big
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thank-you to them — people like Vladimir
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Potanin and those rich Pinocchios,”
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and they act as benefactors.
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But the reality is that
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in effect, the owners — and accordingly
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the main sponsor of this celebration —
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is actually the company Transneft,
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a 100% state-owned
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company headed by Putin’s friend from the
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Ryazan KGB (Soviet security service), the very patriotic
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Nikolai Tokarev. That Caribbean offshore company
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belongs to them, and from there it goes straight to
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the country’s budget. The Sochi games, where
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Putin scores the most
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goals,
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[applause]
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are
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paid for by the budget of Krasnodar Krai (a region in southern Russia).
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Here we see Dmitry Medvedev
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allocating 400
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million rubles to the Night Hockey League. The question is, if
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everyone skating there is a millionaire
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or billionaire, then why should we pay for
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it? Let private sponsors pay
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for it themselves. After all, they’re the ones who need it. They
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use Putin’s vanity and
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senility to fawn over him on
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the ice and beg for some
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pieces for themselves. But with private sponsors, there’s a very
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funny story. As I said, it’s the Putin
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system in miniature.
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In the entire history of the Night Hockey League,
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there have been only four major private
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sponsors: the Summa Group of the Maga-
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medov brothers, and the elder Magomedov was even
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the league’s chairman since last year.
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“Magomed Magomedov, president of the Night
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Hockey League, in an interview with journalists,
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constantly emphasized that even as a person
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from a non-hockey region, from Dagestan,
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with age he came to appreciate the speed and
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intelligence of this game.”
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Both of them are now in jail on charges of
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embezzlement and forming a criminal group.
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Bank Yugra.
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Longtime sponsor Bank Yugra
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has supported the Night Hockey League since
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its founding. In 2015, they established
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the NHC Champions Cup — Bank Yugra.
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The bank collapsed; the chairman, a hockey player,
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was arrested. The company Sibanthracite, oligarch
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Abrasov’s — a couple of weeks ago RBC wrote that
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the FSB (Russia’s security service) had opened a criminal case
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against his company. And the fourth sponsor is
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Norilsk Nickel, oligarch Potanin’s company,
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and he personally plays there. And in 2016
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Nornickel became a partner of the league.
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Every year the company
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allocates 50 million rubles (about 500,000 USD) for
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supporting the competition as part of Mikhail
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the only sponsor so far not under
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criminal prosecution
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they’ve decided to put me to work now on
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a public basis, so that I too can apparently
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bring some benefit to the development
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of amateur hockey in the country, but that is,
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the money for Putin’s hockey league
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comes a little from thieves, a little from
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bandits, a little from oligarchs, but mostly
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from you and me
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through the budget. And finally, why this
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Putinist hockey absurdity is not nearly as
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funny and harmless as it may seem
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Look at the core of Putin’s hockey players
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who are the main figures in this league
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They take part in every match in which
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Putin plays; they hug, kiss, and
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celebrate victories in front of the whole country
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A magnificent five and a goalie, literally
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Gennady Timchenko, Putin’s childhood friend
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one of the kings of state procurement, received
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contracts in 2017 worth 36
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billion rubles (about 360 million USD). Back in 1999
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he obtained
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Finnish citizenship and lived permanently in Geneva
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until he was hit by sanctions. Boris and Arkady
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Rotenberg grew up with Putin in the same
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courtyard and trained together in judo. The combined
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wealth of their families, according to Forbes,
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is almost 5 billion dollars, and all of it
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was earned exclusively through gas contracts
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We are talking about sums on such a scale that
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it is already impossible to calculate. In 2017
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the state handed these crooks
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1 trillion rubles (about 10 billion USD). At the time, that sum
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was shocking, but now it hardly seems to be
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because now they are planning
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to build just one road for a trillion
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And here, by the way, is one of the Rotenbergs
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that’s why he plays so powerfully
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on defense — earning back that trillion
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Next on the team we have two officials
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whose families already own half of
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the Moscow Region
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These are the region’s former governor, now
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Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, and the current
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governor, Andrei Vorobyov. Andrei
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Vorobyov is the son of Yuri
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Vorobyov, a close friend
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neighbor, and trusted associate of Shoigu. They
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have been together since the days of the CPSU (Communist Party of the Soviet Union)
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And look — their dachas (country houses) stand side by side
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And Alexei Dyumin, the goalie, started playing
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hockey with Putin back when he was his personal
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bodyguard
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and later, after the league was created, became
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governor of Tula Region
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So this is a small, tight-knit mafia
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symbiosis
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It’s like, you know, there’s a big fish, and around it
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little parasitic fish swim; here too there is
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a big boss sinking into senility
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and there are parasites: they praise him on the ice
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let in goals from him, and say, “How brilliantly
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you outplayed us, Vladimir Vladimirovich.”
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And in the locker room, the satisfied winner
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signs a state contract: this one gets 10
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billion, that one 20; here, approve a high-rise
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next to residential buildings; here
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a contract for the construction of military
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towns at three times the market price. There you go
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— played a little hockey
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