Text version
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Hi, this is Navalny, and I want to say something now.
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I want to say something very serious.
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Listen, they are staying silent and clearly
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intend to keep silent, and apparently, to
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my great regret,
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the only way to get even
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some kind of response from them to the accusations of
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corruption against the country's prime minister
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is to ask not only online anymore
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but also out in the streets. That is why I
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am calling on all of you
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to come out on March 26 for rallies and marches
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in cities across the country with a very simple
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demand: we demand answers that
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we are entitled to by law. We demand a fight
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against corruption, which is also supposed to
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exist under the law. We have joked quite a lot
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about the fact that the only
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reaction Prime Minister Medvedev had to
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our investigation into his corrupt
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schemes was to block me
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on Instagram, and that really was
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the only reaction. And this is not
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funny at all. It is a failure of the state. It is
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proof that they, the authorities and
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the Kremlin, do not even want to think about fighting
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corruption.
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Look, despite a total blackout on
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television and in newspapers, our film on
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the internet has been watched by about 13
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million people, and that is 9 percent
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of the country's citizens. I can see the reaction to this
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investigation; I see that many people
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carefully studied all the documents and
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became convinced that our evidence of
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Medvedev's involvement in multi-billion-dollar
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corruption, in taking bribes,
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and in building palaces across the country is
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simply rock-solid, and without
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exaggeration, millions of people are now
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demanding some kind of response from the authorities.
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The simplest response, the kind expected in a normal
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state. We are not demanding that
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Medvedev and his oligarchs be
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shot tomorrow. Just say, at the very least,
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the most basic things: these facts deserve
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attention; we, the Kremlin and the authorities, are concerned
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because the prime minister has been accused of corruption
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and he is also the leader of the ruling party. This is very
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alarming. Therefore, Putin is creating, I don't know,
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a parliamentary commission of inquiry,
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taking it under control and promising us
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that on every fact
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and every allegation we will receive
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a proper response. But instead of that,
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there is absolutely nothing. They sit there, look at us, and
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just smile. As if to say: 'The key thing remains the formation of anti-corruption legal awareness in society...'
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'The key thing remains the formation in society of
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anti-corruption legal awareness.'
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'Intolerance toward breaking the law must
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be instilled from the school bench.' But we
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are citizens too, supposedly; we have rights, and
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we pay taxes. Do we not deserve basic
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respect? Judging by the way
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the Kremlin media behave, they really
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do think that we deserve no
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respect at all. Just look: the chief
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Kremlin propagandist, on his main
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program, does a special segment about
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corruption, about the people in South Korea who
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took to the streets and secured the impeachment of the
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president, who was caught up in that very
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same corruption. And he says that this
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South Korean scheme looks very much like
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Hillary Clinton's. South Korean President Park Geun-
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hye was ousted.
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She built a network of foundations around herself that
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became intertwined into a web of state
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corruption. Similar to Hillary Clinton's, and not
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a word about Medvedev, not a word about his
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palaces.
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Even though what Medvedev's corrupt group
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did is almost exactly the same as what happened
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in South Korea, only on a larger
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scale. There, big business transferred $75
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million to nonprofit
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foundations
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controlled by the president. We proved
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that here in Russia, to Medvedev's
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charitable foundations, more than
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$1 billion was transferred in bribes. There,
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all of South Korea was up in arms
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because Samsung bought a horse
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for the president's daughter.
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Here in Russia, Medvedev gets mansions
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worth 5 billion rubles each (about 5 billion RUB).
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And nobody even blinks; everyone stays silent. It was
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precisely after that Kiselyov segment
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where he discusses corruption abroad and
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carefully pretends not to notice
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it here in our own country, that I realized
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that today I should probably call for protests.
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I have submitted an application to hold a march and
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a rally on Tverskaya Street in Moscow on March 26.
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I do not know how many people will come
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— many or few — but this is personally important
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to me.
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Someday I want to tell my children and grandchildren:
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'Kids, there was a time when
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your national wealth was being looted,
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and at least I did not stay silent and did not
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lie on the couch. I found an hour of free
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time and went out into the street with people like
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me.' And honestly, I have a feeling
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that I am not the only one in our country who is against
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corruption. So I call on all of you
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to join in.
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Regardless of your views, regardless of whether
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you plan to vote for me or not,
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whether you are on the right or the left — I do not care.
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Whether you are a liberal, a conservative, a Westerner, or a
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Slavophile, let us all come out together
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against the corruption that has eaten away at the entire
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state apparatus and is preventing
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literally anything here from developing.
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The Kremlin says that they are not going to answer me
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at all because I am a convicted criminal.
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All right then.
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Suppose I am a criminal—then here you go:
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a Hero of Russia (a state honorary title) and an honored
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test pilot. Answer him, because you
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are not answering him, even though he has exactly the same
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questions as I do. And I want to draw
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your attention to the fact that it is precisely the authorities
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who are forcing us to go out to rallies. They are the ones who
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have destroyed all the mechanisms of the
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law enforcement system. There is no justice, the courts do not
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work, and the mass media
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stay silent or lie.
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But how else are we supposed to draw attention to ourselves?
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That is why we will take to the streets peacefully, very
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peacefully,
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in strict compliance with the law. But we will go out
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and we will demand
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answers to our fair questions in
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Moscow and several of the largest cities.
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We will submit applications for rallies ourselves, but no matter where
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you live, even in the smallest
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town in Russia, take this application form yourself.
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There is a link in the video description, and there
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you will find a template that you can
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use. Submit it to your city hall and
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hold a rally in your own city. Let
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it be a small one—bring a couple of
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friends, make a couple of signs—but at least
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you will immediately feel like a citizen.
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The main thing is simply to express your personal position,
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to send that kind of signal to the Kremlin and say
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to them: guys, understand this—there are many people in Russia who are
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against corruption. And no matter how many of you
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gather at the rally in your city, we
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will know for sure that in this situation, 99
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percent of public support is on our
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side, not on the side of Dimon (a mocking nickname for Dmitry Medvedev) and other
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crooks, because everyone understands
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that corruption is the main cause of the poverty
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in which we live. It is important to remember this ourselves
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and to explain it to others: people live well
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only in those countries where they take to the
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streets against corruption. In Iceland, for example,
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people came out after it was revealed that there were
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undeclared offshore holdings, and the prime minister
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resigned. And that is why the average
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salary in Iceland is 195,000 rubles (about 2,100 USD) per month. In
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South Korea, as
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I have already mentioned several times today, people
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go out into the streets, and that is why the average salary there is 145,000
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rubles (about 1,550 USD). Even in Brazil, people took to the streets
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and forced out a corrupt
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president, and that is why now even
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Brazil is overtaking Russia—not in the economy,
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but in wage growth. If we want to live better, we need
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to take to the streets and speak out. Besides,
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this prime minister has already
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gotten on the nerves of the entire country with
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his statements that there is somehow no money,
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but we need to hang in there: 'You hang in there,
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all the best to you, good
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health to you in advance,' or that
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teachers complaining about their low
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salaries should go work in
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business. 'Teaching is a calling, but if you want
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to earn money, there are plenty of
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wonderful places where you can do that
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faster and better—the same business sector.' And
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when you are a bad head of government,
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spout all kinds of nonsense, and on top of that steal
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billions,
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no one is going to defend you. So
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our cause here is just. If you
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support this approach of mine, then
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please help me spread
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this video. Post it on your social media
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and write something of your own about how you
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would simply go to such a rally on March 26.
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Wherever you are, join
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a rally organized by someone
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else, or organize your own rally. We are for
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Russia and against corruption. Subscribe
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to our channel—this is where the truth is told.