Text version
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Hi, this is Navalny. Lately,
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you've seen a bunch of funny, hilarious
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news stories about how the election
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campaign is going in Russia.
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But I have a picture for you of how
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a real election campaign is actually going, and here
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in real life.
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"What is this strange red chart?"
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you may ask me.
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Well, my friends, these are the approval tables
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for my campaign rallies, from which
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we can plainly see that we are no longer
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being granted approval for rallies at all.
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Every week, our campaign offices send out
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about 200 applications in different cities to
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obtain all the necessary permits and
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without any
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incidents, hold a normal
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human meeting. And at first, we did get those
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permits, because the Kremlin
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was sure that no one would
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show up. But then it turned out that more people came to meetings
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with me than to
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any rally held by United Russia over the entire
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history of that party, and so they
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first stopped approving
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rallies in the largest cities,
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the million-plus cities, and then in
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smaller cities too, quite a lot of people
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were coming to the meetings, so they stopped
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approving rallies in cities
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with populations over 500,000. But what
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could we do? We went to cities of 300,000 instead, and
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that worked quite successfully too. And after becoming convinced
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that in any city in Russia we have
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a frighteningly large number of supporters, the Kremlin gave
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the order to simply stop issuing
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permits altogether. Let's look again
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at the chart: it's all red, and these
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rare bits of orange are replies
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along the lines of, "We don't mind if you
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hold a rally, but please hold it
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on Monday at 10 a.m."
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Let me stress once again: this is absolutely
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illegal, because they cannot refuse
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permission for a rally. The authorities are required
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to offer an alternative venue, but in
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our case they just refuse, and that's it,
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sometimes without even giving a reason. Sometimes
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they say all the squares in the city are occupied
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by other events, but
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look, for example, in Tver
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they won't give us permission, explaining that there will be
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a large-scale city event called "Health Landing Force"
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("Desant Zdorovya").
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This is what that event looked like.
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In Novokuznetsk,
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you supposedly can't hold anything because
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the squares are occupied by a huge fair, but in
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practice, the huge fair looks like this.
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And it's the same in every city. And
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in that light, just appreciate the lies and
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hypocrisy of President Putin, who
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just this Monday publicly
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said that everything here is according to the law, and that
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it's only these opposition figures who
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provoke conflict themselves in order to attract
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attention. "Unfortunately, some
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groups of protesters, or the organizers of
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these events, deliberately
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create this situation themselves, I repeat, in order to
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draw attention." We have not the slightest
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doubt that all these refusals are
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the direct order of Vladimir Putin personally, who
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simply became afraid that our
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campaign has support in every city
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in the country, and that we have already created
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a regional political structure
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so strong that even under censorship
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we can вполне compete with him in
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elections. That is why we are suing
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President Putin and his administration
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over these obviously illegal
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actions. Yes, yes, of course, we know all
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about the Russian courts—don't explain them to me,
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of all people. But this is a matter of principle. It is important for us
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to show that we act according to
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the law, and they do not. But lawsuits aside, what
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are we going to do, Alexei? Well, what
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is there to do? We'll keep working. They won't give us permission for
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rallies, so invite
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me over. We'll hold meetings with
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voters on private property, if
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there are people locally who are brave enough
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to give us that opportunity.
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For example, in Tambov
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that's exactly what we did. The rally was held on
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private land. Stadiums will do for us,
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parking lots, vacant lots, workshops, markets, shopping
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centers, hangars, and warehouse spaces—
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really, any premises or areas
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that are in private
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ownership and whose owners are ready
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to cooperate with us. Here in Irkutsk
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we are holding a meeting on the grounds
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of a furniture center, and just look at this—what is it?
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Can you imagine it? A pig's head that
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was hung up
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apparently
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by the local authorities on the door of the furniture
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center when they found out I was speaking there.
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An excellent sign, I think—a sign
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of hospitality. It means that we won't just
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hold a meeting, we'll also be able
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to make excellent kholodets (a traditional meat aspic).
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So once again, if you have
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a venue that can hold
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more than a thousand people, invite me
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over. We are not going to stop our campaign
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in any case, because no one but us, together, will stand in
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the way of this gang of thieves.
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Subscribe to our channel.
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This is where the truth is told.