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Hello, this is Alexei Navalny.
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I spent the last 15 days under arrest.
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A lawful arrest, I reflected a lot, and now
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I want to tell you that I have decided to shut down the Anti-Corruption Foundation.
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I realized that all
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these past years I have been doing something
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wrong, that I was wrong to expose
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the leaders of our state and
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the ruling party, and now I believe that
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stability matters above all. Let Vladimir
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Vladimirovich Putin remain in power for another
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25 years, and Dmitry Medvedev can build
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as many palaces for himself as he
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needs. What interests me is whether they really
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thought that another 15-day jail term would lead
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to anything like that result—that I would
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get scared and stop what I’m doing.
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No, quite the opposite is true, and
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every time they lock me up
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under arrest, I become more and more convinced that everyone—
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you know, everyone from the police officers who
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detain me and then like to chat with me
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at the station, to the petty offenders
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who sit with me in
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the same cell—they are all just as
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furious.
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And all of them, without exception, regardless
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of the nuances of their political
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views, understand that corruption is
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the main cause of the poverty and destitution in
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which our country is mired in in the 21st century.
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It’s monstrous that we cannot
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afford to repair roads even in
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major cities, and wages are so low that
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people are forced to buy shoes on credit.
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I’ve received several questions, and
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some people are asking whether
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we should hold a new series of rallies
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against corruption, and I answer that
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question very simply, in the words of those
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who were arrested at the rally on the 26th
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and were sitting in neighboring
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cells with me. I had sometimes seen them somewhere
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around the neighborhood, but I didn’t know any of them. For
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all of them, the 26th was
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the first rally of their lives, and at it
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they were arrested. And they did not ask
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me whether we should go out to another rally.
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They all came up to me and asked when
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the next rally would be, because now we
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are doubly obliged to go. Because what did
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we achieve as a result of the
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26th? For the first time since the 1990s,
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demonstrations took place in cities across
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Russia. Tens of thousands of people came out and very
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calmly asked the authorities to answer
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reasonable questions that, in fact,
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the government is legally obliged to answer.
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So let’s simply systematize
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all these answers of every kind. Was a criminal case opened
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against Medvedev? No. Did Medvedev resign?
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No. Did a parliamentary investigation begin?
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No. And United Russia
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blocked the initiative
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by the Communists for such an
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investigation. An explanation from Medvedev regarding
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the facts we presented? No. We heard only
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something about compote, and everything is being done
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according to that same “compote” principle, meaning
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they just take all sorts of murky nonsense
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and pile it together. Is there an explanation from
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the other figures in our investigation,
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like Usmanov? No. Only that very
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Usmanov recently promised to file a complaint
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with the police against me and called me
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a criminal, apparently forgetting that
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he himself, back in 1980,
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served 6 years for rape. And now
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he is lecturing us about morality and ethics. On the
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other hand, did the authorities try
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to ban peaceful rallies? Yes, in almost
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all cities. Did the Kremlin give
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an illegal order to detain peaceful
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people? Yes, and more than a thousand people were
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detained. Did the Kremlin try
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to block any information about
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the investigations and then about the protests? Yes,
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absolutely—as you yourselves observed very well. Well,
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then, were there in schools and
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universities
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idiotic lectures saying that schoolchildren and
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students should not take part in rallies? Yes. And
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teachers, instead of doing
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their jobs, were engaged in this nonsense. There
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is plenty of evidence of this online. In
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Samara, there was an absolutely remarkable
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story: 2,500 students
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from different universities were herded into a hall, and a lecture on why
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they must not speak out against corruption was
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delivered to them personally by Governor Merkushkin,
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a man, well, whose record is so stained
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there’s nowhere left to mark it. You can simply watch our
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video about his family’s real estate on Rublyovka (an elite residential area outside Moscow),
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which his family owns. And there, a blind
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student—a blind student, Valery Remezov—
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couldn’t take it anymore, stood up, and protested
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what was happening, and he was thrown out of the hall. In
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Cheboksary, a kindergarten teacher
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peacefully went to an anti-corruption rally,
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and what happened? Did the mayor of Cheboksary come up to her
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and, on behalf of the United Russia party
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and the authorities in general, try
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to speak with her somehow, to answer her
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questions? No. She was fired from the kindergarten
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for taking part in rallies. So do you understand who
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ended up paying for Medvedev’s corruption?
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Kindergarten teacher Elena Blinova from
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Cheboksary Kindergarten No. 203. Not to mention that
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the police
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carried out a real raid on our Anti-Corruption
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Foundation, simply stealing
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all our equipment without any reports,
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lawyers, or witnesses. And most importantly,
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well, have we received answers
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to our questions? No. And yet, you know,
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in a certain sense, yes—because
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we were told completely clearly, plainly, and
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without compromise by the Kremlin: and
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indeed, at every level of government
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power. So here’s the deal, guys: we stole,
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we are stealing, and we will keep stealing on whatever scale
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we want. And you miserable little people should not
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even dare to ask us questions about it
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because it’s none of your business.
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You know, I do not agree with framing the issue like that
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at all, and I think I am not
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the only one who sees that on the [date] people took to the streets
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as patriots, and standing against them were
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traitors and thieves. And what should
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patriots like you and me do? They should
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celebrate Russia Day on June 12. On Russia Day
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I call on all patriots of the country
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regardless of their political views
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to come out under Russian flags to rallies
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against corruption, with a new demand:
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to give answers to our entirely legitimate
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questions. Let us organize this properly
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prepare even better, and submit
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applications for peaceful marches in an even greater
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number of cities, gather even more
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people, and for our part clearly
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plainly, and uncompromisingly show that no,
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guys, we are not withdrawing our demands
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regarding corruption, and we never will.
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Never. Because corruption in Russia is
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the cause of poverty, the cause of low
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wages, the cause of the appalling
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state of every sector of the economy. And here,
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at this point in my video, I
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want to address our authorities, and
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Putin and Medvedev. So, dear
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sirs, do not feed us fairy tales here
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about some kind of unrest and some kind of
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Maidans (a reference to the Ukrainian protest movement), all this talk of chaos and violence
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is essentially a direct threat. We intend
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to hold mass but peaceful
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events in strict accordance with
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the law. And you, in strict accordance with
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the law, must ensure that people have
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the opportunity to take part in such actions
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because, excuse me, if a citizen
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of Russia on Russia Day does not have the right
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to go out into the street under the Russian flag, then that
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means that your only goal
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is to turn our entire
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state into your personal wallet. We will never
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agree to that. On June 12, regardless
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of whether your city is large
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or small, a metropolis or a village,
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join our new common
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anti-corruption action. Tell
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your neighbors, friends, and acquaintances about it
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make yourselves heard, show that you are here, and
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demand what rightfully belongs to you
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by law. And subscribe to our channel,
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where the truth is told.