Text version
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In Russia, there is one madman
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of a governor—though there are plenty of them there in general.
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There are lots of crazies, but one of them is completely off his rocker. His name is
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Nikolai Merkushkin, and for a long time he was
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the governor of Mordovia (a republic in Russia), where he became notorious
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for "drawing" absurdly high results for United
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Russia—95% in every election. And now he has been moved to
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the Samara region so that he can produce the same kind of
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results there too. We at the FBK (Anti-Corruption Foundation) had
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never really paid attention to him, because
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our specialty is crooks, after all, not
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lunatics. But then he started talking so much that
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it became impossible not to notice. First, he
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declared that if residents did not give United Russia those 95%,
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then they themselves would be to blame for the fact
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that the authorities do nothing for them.
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Let's
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listen: "Do they have any right to ask anything of
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the authorities? And if we act like that, then you will definitely
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be sitting there scratching your head, trying to explain it in different ways
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if something needs
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to be done.
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"And for you
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97%—and you're making demands?"
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You just want to say:
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Are you on drugs or something? It's hard even to
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follow the train of thought here—it's schizophrenic nonsense. And
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this is a regional governor. After that,
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he said that I, Alexei Navalny,
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am Uncle Sam's nephew and want to set the Samara
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region on fire, and that the United States is
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destroying Russia through school
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textbooks, and so on and so forth. And
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at that point we finally thought: we need to check
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him and his business partners, his
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whole family, for property. Because it's like
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in that old joke: stupid as can be, but still making my 3 rubles
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a day. Back in the day, the Merkushkin clan
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turned all of Mordovia into its own
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private property, and now they are actively
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moving in on the Samara region as well. So
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if there is money, then there must be houses. Obviously
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not in the governor's own name, but in the names of
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relatives, front people, and friends. But
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they have to exist. And we were already preparing
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to send a team to Mordovia or
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Samara when it turned out that, you know, the Merkushkin clan
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is not investing its money in its home province at all
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and is settling down in
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a completely different place—on Rublyovka (an elite suburb west of Moscow). We found
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an entire little settlement belonging to the
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Merkushkin clan. Living there are his son, two
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of his son's business partners, and one of them is also
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a former deputy of the Mordovian city assembly and
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now the construction minister of the new
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Samara region. Just look at this
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beauty—you can tell right away a regional
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official lives here. We estimate the value of the construction minister's real estate
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at 360 million rubles (about US$5.5 million at the time).
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The plot of land and house belonging to Merkushkin's son are worth 264 million
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rubles (about US$4 million). The business partners settled for
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something more modest—their houses and land, according to the FBK, are worth
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121 million rubles (about US$1.9 million). As you can see, the entire
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Merkushkin clan built its country homes not in
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the settlement of Bolotnikovo near Saransk (the capital of Mordovia), and
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not in the village of Smyshlyaevka near Samara. They all
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go on about what great
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regional patriots they are, while in reality they pull
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money out of their home region and invest
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it in Rublyovka real estate. So what
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does this example prove? The same thing
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as all the other similar
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examples: it proves that all
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members of United Russia are crooks and thieves, and the
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more they shout that the West wants
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to destroy Russia, the more they themselves
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steal—and are simply trying to distract attention
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from that. So in the upcoming
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elections, vote against and campaign against
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United Russia. And also, please send
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this video to all your acquaintances in
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the Samara region and in Mordovia. Let
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the residents enjoy seeing how wonderfully
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the money stolen from their
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regions has been invested. That's all from me—thank you very much for
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your attention. Subscribe to our channel
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—this is where the truth is told.