Meeting with voters in Sokolniki

Hello. My name is Alexei Navalny, and I am

a candidate for mayor

of Moscow. I would like to tell you why I am

here, and then answer your questions

any questions at all, tricky or not,

loaded, direct, whatever you like. I am here

to persuade you to vote for

me, because I need your

support, I need your

work and your time.

I did not want to repeat what I say at all

these meetings. Many of you have probably

seen them in videos or attended

these meetings. First of all, I would like to say

that

every time I leave one of these meetings,

whether it was large or small, very

inspiring or, well, sometimes

not quite as emotionally strong,

after every meeting I come away and

understand that I was absolutely right to decide to run in

these

elections. I talk to people, to my

fellow citizens, to people just like me, and

I understand that these people need me. I must

run in this election, I must run in this election

for the sake of that man who, near the

Aeroport metro station,

brought me photographs of a filthy entrance hall, a dirty

and dilapidated entrance hall. When I asked

him, "Man, do you have another

story about your building being repaired?" he

said to me, "No, my story is about how

they repaired my entrance hall, but only on

paper." 1 million rubles were spent on his entrance hall

(about $11,000), and when he came and

said, "You know, 1 million rubles

were spent, but nothing happened," he

was told at the district administration, "What more do you want? Here is your

certificate of completed work. Calm down."

I am running for mayor of Moscow

for that man, so that his entrance hall will actually be

repaired, so that a certificate of completed

work and a fake piece of paper do not replace

what we are supposed to receive for our

money. I am running in this election because I

am needed by that woman who came up to me

in the Zhulebino district and told me her

story: her sister had fallen ill with

cancer. It is a terrible disease, a great

tragedy for any family. She goes to

her local clinic, to the district hospital, and

she cannot get a scan done. She

has to pay for the scan, and through tears

she listens to my words about how we spent

100 billion rubles on the modernization program for Moscow

healthcare (about $1.1 billion). She

weeps when she hears that Moscow, in terms of

the number of scanners, surpasses all

European capitals, because she still cannot

get this scan done. Because

that is how the modernization program for

Moscow healthcare was designed:

they were simply siphoning off money. They bought

huge amounts of equipment, but

none of us can quickly get either

a scan or an ultrasound, and I understand that I

am needed by this woman as the mayor of the city,

a mayor who will finally invest

in doctors, who will make sure that we

put an end to this insane kind of investment in

equipment that just stands there covered

with a towel, with no one able to

work on it. There will be many

We will send doctors abroad to study

so that, when they come back here, at least

within five years they will be treating our children, if

they cannot treat us now. I am needed by this

woman, and that is why I am running in this

election. I am running in this election for the sake of

the man who came up to me in the

Zyuzino district. He is 62 years old, he feels

great, he is in good health, and he

wanted to work as a janitor in his own

building. He went to the local office and said,

"I am ready to work for the official janitor's wage of

31,000 rubles" (about $340). He spent a year

trying to get that job, but he

got nowhere. In that same position

a migrant worker is still employed, one who

receives 18,000 rubles (about $200). I want to become a mayor

who will finally put an end to the chaos of

illegal migration in Moscow. I want

to become a mayor who will stop

the endless use of slave labor.

I want to become a mayor who will stop the importation

of hundreds of thousands and millions of people here

who are packed into basements, 20 people to a

building slated for demolition, simply because they

are willing to pay kickbacks.

Otherwise, in 10 years my children will face

this problem. We will be seeing footage like

that from a city in revolt,

like Paris. In 10 years, hundreds of thousands of people will be living here

who were born here

and grew up here. They will not leave for

Tajikistan or Uzbekistan, but they will have no

proper education, no decent

jobs, no prospects in

life. I want to solve this problem now

because in 10 years it will be

practically impossible to solve.

What we are saying is not empty promises

or abstractions. For a long time we have been

fed stories about how

yes, Navalny and people like

Navalny shout that everything is bad, that there is corruption

and so on. But what do they actually propose? We do

have something to propose.

A program of action.

I am pleased to announce that on

Monday we will publish not just

a program, but concrete

draft laws that will be submitted to the

Moscow City Duma. These

draft laws will be aimed at

specific positive changes. This is

a law on government transparency that

will finally make sure that all official acts

of the city of Moscow are published—no more

closed meetings of the Moscow city government.

Everything discussed at those meetings

of the Moscow city government—you have the right

to read all of it. I want to become mayor

who will finally make this happen. You will

see every document, every set of minutes.

You will know exactly who discussed

this or that construction

project. We are introducing a bill on

transparency in the housing and utilities system (ZhKH, public housing and коммунal services). There will be an audit of ZhKH,

and we will know with complete certainty

what we are paying for, how we are paying,

whom we are paying, and we will have the ability

to challenge any unlawful additions

to utility rates. The kind of madness we have now, when

they have stuffed everything imaginable into our rates, from

donations to United Russia (the ruling political party) to

the upkeep of departmental vacation resorts,

will be over. We are introducing

a bill on migration. We are proposing

disqualification for the use of illegal

labor

.

We will ban spending municipal money on foreign

labor, and we

will push at the federal level

for the introduction of a visa regime with the countries

of Central Asia and

the South Caucasus. I can see that the issue of migration

strikes a chord with you. We are introducing a bill under

which any construction project—any construction project

in Moscow—will be required

to publish all documents from the moment they are

filed. You look out the window and see that someone

is building something—you click

two buttons online and get the entire

documentation: project documents, pre-project

plans, drawings—everything. When I become mayor, all

construction documents, in general,

that exist in Moscow will be published

and made available

to residents. We are introducing a bill on the election

of justices of the peace.

Why are we constantly being told that

Muscovites are too stupid to elect

judges? I am not stupid. Are you

stupid? We are ready to do this. We are introducing

a bill under which justices of the peace

will be elected not by the City Duma as

they are now, and not effectively appointed

by the presidential administration, but chosen—

elected by the residents of Moscow. Because I

want to be

a mayor under whom the courts—

my team and I—will not become

cattle. We will choose our own judiciary

and we will have an honest judicial

system. I am running in this election because

I understand that there are Moscow-specific problems. But

there are also federal problems that

can only be solved from Moscow, and I want

to change power in Moscow, including for the sake of

Moscow itself. I am running for those

few people whom, in fact,

I have never seen in person, with whom I have never

spoken, whom I have seen

only in photographs, and once I saw

through an open door in a courtroom.

All those people imprisoned in the

Bolotnaya case (the prosecution of protesters after the 2012 Bolotnaya Square rally) must be released.

[applause]

There are millions of people who are no longer

prepared to put up with what is happening, with the fact that

we

have recall as a right, which for some reason

the Kremlin believes belongs to them, tied

to the idea that they can jail any

innocent person or release any

guilty one. When Moscow elects

a government that relies not on

election commissions or television, but on

Muscovites, they will release everyone they are holding

illegally, and we will make that happen.

[applause]

You know, I—and probably you as well—have found myself in

a very strange situation

for myself, quite strange and unusual. I have seen

many election

campaigns. This is completely unlike

any of them. In our election

campaign, in our election

campaign—what is going on again?

One second, excuse me, apparently I need

to address the Moscow police

simply through

the microphone. Testing, testing. Comrade

Lieutenant Colonel, may I ask you

to stop all this? I have

10,000 people here who will go

down Preobrazhensky Boulevard if you do not

calm down. That worked.

[applause]

They left. So, as I was saying, I found myself in a very

strange, confusing, and unexpected

election

campaign. There are no political consultants at all—

none. I do not see them. In every

election campaign there used to be some

people—good, bad, looking like

crooks or not—they called themselves

political consultants and came up with various tricks.

There is television advertising—do we have it

in every campaign? There are billboards—do we have them

in

every campaign? There are some kind of

paid planted articles—do we have them in every

campaign? There are complicated

relationships with the authorities, bargaining, and

all that sort of thing—do we have that

here? But in our election campaign

there are things I have never seen

before. In our election campaign

in our election campaign there are

hundreds of people at headquarters working

around the clock. In our election

campaign there are tens of thousands of people.

who transfer money to us

I would very much like you to believe in

the fact that in our election campaign

in order to serve you and your families

your

friends. Can we win this

campaign? How many in the first round? In order

to win in the first round, we need

half a million people. At this rally in

Moscow, there are half a million of our supporters

we need only one thing: to bring them to the polls

we must come, vote ourselves, and

bring our friends and acquaintances. Here

there are several thousand people standing here. In fact,

there are a million standing here. Everyone can

do simple things: talk to

friends, acquaintances, comrades, bring

them to the polls. They want to come vote

just remind them, and they will come and

vote. Then we will win in the first

round. Do you want a city with corruption?

Do you want a city with Rotenberg (a powerful Russian oligarch)? No, you do not.

Do you want a city with Timchenko (a powerful Russian oligarch)? No, you do not.

Do you want a city with him? No, you do not want a city with

Sobyanin (Moscow mayor). Don't tell me no—go to

the polls and

vote. Don't tell me no—bring your

acquaintances

There is a force that can do anything

it wants: we take these half a million people

who are in Moscow, we come to the polls

and we win. That is exactly what will happen on the eighth

we will win

[applause]