Zolotov backed away from his demand for satisfaction, National Guard troops will be chewing sinew, and Abramovich is loved only in Russia

[music]

It is 8:00 p.m. in Moscow, and this is the live program

Russia of the Future, and I’m Alexei

Navalny, or a political slug, as

my favorite TV channel called me

Tsargrad. By the way, I should say

I have to complain to you that lately

I’ve been getting insulted much less on

the internet by various propaganda

outlets. In general, they’ve started

mentioning me much less. Only the TV channel

Tsargrad never lets me down.

They had an article titled: “Navalny Chose the Path

of a Slug.” Absolutely great — I really

liked it. Before we move on

to the main topics, I wanted to say a couple of words

about Primorye (Russia’s Far East region), actually about

Vladivostok, because we’ve just

received information from our

Vladivostok headquarters, and basically

the gubernatorial candidate Ishchenko himself said

on his Facebook that, well, finally we

more or less understand how

United Russia is going to solve its

problem after all. Let me remind you that

Ishchenko was elected governor by the residents

of Primorye, after which his victory was stolen.

Instead, they dragged in

United Russia member Kozhemyako, who had already been

governor in three regions.

He was supposed to stage some kind of miracle,

come in and show how a real

tough United Russia guy would now crush

Ishchenko and all those pathetic residents

of Primorye who, you know, want to vote

for someone other than the one they’re supposed to vote for

according to United Russia. So, here’s the very simple

setup: right now, Ishchenko is not being given

the signatures of municipal deputies. In other words,

the election was officially called again, and despite

the fact that this man won the election, he

now has to run again,

go to municipal deputies and collect their

signatures to pass the filter, and

apparently he cannot do it.

Because even some communists

are refusing to sign for him — either they’ve been

bribed or pressured, but

most likely, this man who has already

been elected governor simply will not

be able to take part in the election again. And

in this wonderfully original

way, United Russia and this Kozhemyako

will be able to

apparently win, win this election. Well,

what can I say — once again we’ve seen

what disgusting, lying, yet

brazen people they are. I’m curious how

Kozhemyako will govern after

delivering such a direct insult

to all the people of Primorye. As I understand it, Ishchenko and

his team are planning to hold a rally.

Our штаб is working there too, and we

support him, of course, not because he is

a communist, but because he has already been elected. I

just once again urge everyone to

look carefully at this situation,

remember it well, and then together

with us, because we will be offering you

various options and approaches on this

matter and fighting against this

disgusting, lying party, United

Russia, which allows tricks like this.

Now let’s move on to the main character of

my second program in a row — Army General

Zolotov, who unfortunately after all

backed out of this whole thing. I was wrong,

I admit it. In the previous program I gave you a rather

lengthy speech about how

he would probably agree in some form

to debate me, because

I assumed there was some kind of

spirit there, or some backup plan, or

he would say, “Navalny is too pathetic for me to

debate directly,” and propose someone else, or

some enforcer would come to the debate, meaning

I’d have to brace myself and jump into the fight. But

in short, I thought there was some cunning plan.

It turned out there was no cunning plan at all. And so,

let’s first watch 28 seconds of Zolotov.

They caught him somewhere in a hall, and he

said that it turns out he had challenged me

to a sporting contest. Twenty-eight seconds. In what

format do you plan it? He answered: in this mode.

Why do you think he doesn’t want

to get in the ring with you?

I don’t want to. This was a sporting

challenge, nothing more. He had every

opportunity there — and don’t accuse me, don’t say that I

was somehow

inviting him in order to beat him up

after he was kicking me there —

the point is that

there is a court case now, and after the court decision,

when it is over,

we’ll see. As for pressure — let him

...

By the way, did you notice how much Zolotov

looks like Putin? I mean, this

fact probably means absolutely nothing, but

it’s still funny how much the two of them

resemble each other. I mean,

our general backed out.

There will be no debates. He said

there would be lawsuits, though it wasn’t actually he who filed one against me.

I’ll say a couple of words about that now,

it’s quite interesting. But today

the week I gave him, in accordance with

that very dueling

code he referred to,

officer’s honor, blah blah blah — and all of it

ended in nothing. There is no officer’s honor

there. So of course the Anti-Corruption Foundation

— and we, in any case,

would have continued investigating

Zolotov’s corruption — but now we will do it with even

greater enthusiasm. But somehow

you, our general, must be held accountable.

For backing away from giving satisfaction, I am not

calling on him to shoot himself, resign, or

do something like that. That would be,

well, first of all, rather naive, and

to expect that from a man with his level of

dignity. Second, that is not the kind of

punishment we want to see carried out.

General Zolotov should give up his dacha (country house)

not to me, of course, but to the Anti-Corruption Foundation,

and I have personally already filed

a petition. We have begun the procedure to confiscate from

General Zolotov that very dacha, the former

Mikoyan dacha, which I spoke about at length

in the previous program. It is

a state-owned dacha that, clearly,

could not legally have been privatized, and I

will just show you a couple of images so that

you can see for yourselves. Let us now move to that

part of Rublyovka (an elite residential area outside Moscow) and take a look.

Here is the area where Zolotov's dacha is located. In

a moment I will first show you where the

Ministry of Defense land is, and here, you see,

this entire section is precisely

the territory of the dacha; the parts marked in yellow are

Ministry of Defense land. Let us

look at the next slide.

We can see, and we will see, land belonging to the

Ministry of Foreign Affairs. And now let us

look at where the former

Mikoyan dacha, now Zolotov's dacha, is located. That is,

this is essentially one continuous land

tract that has, in general, been removed from

circulation: it cannot be privatized, and

nothing could legally have been done with it

in a legally clean way such that this

state estate could end up in

private ownership by an individual. And

we have studied all of this carefully and thoroughly.

We have now

submitted petitions to state

bodies, in particular to the Ministry of

State Property, the Federal

Agency for State Property Management. We

demand an inspection and that this dacha be

seized. We have also sent an appeal to the

Ministry of Culture, demanding that it be recognized

as a cultural heritage site. But it is obvious that

it is a monument of historical significance. That is,

we are going to begin

a public campaign to ensure that Zolotov's dacha,

which was taken absolutely unlawfully,

effectively stolen from the state,

is returned to the state. But

strictly speaking, everything Zolotov has

is the product of unlawful enrichment. But this dacha is

a matter of principle. We are not

naive people; we understand that the state,

the prosecutor's office, they will not want to acknowledge

that we are right. But then let this

state, represented by

the property management agency, by

Putin, by anyone at all, say

to us and to the whole country that all of this is legal,

that there is protected land which

is not subject to any transactions at all, that has been removed

from civil circulation and cannot

be transferred into private

ownership. This is directly provided for

by the Land Code.

And yet this land and this dacha were

privatized properly, everything completely

legally, and General Zolotov has the right

to dispose of it as he wishes, and later his

heirs and everyone else as well. Let

them tell us that, and let them take

an official position. I think that

Putin's approval rating, on the basis of all these words,

after this kind of admission and

statement, will fall by another couple of

percentage points. Because even

supporters of this government, and even opponents,

of mine,

even those who are fiercely opposed to what

I and the Anti-Corruption Foundation, our

party, do,

well, probably not probably, but certainly absolutely

do not agree that a historic

state dacha should simply be taken over by

Putin's bodyguard.

You have probably seen that I posted about

the fact that even the largest online community of

police officers held a poll on who in

this situation was more convincing, me or

Zolotov. The police voted 93

percent for me. By the way, right now

they are shutting that community down. In the

Lyublinsky District Court, proceedings are underway under which

the largest community, called Police Ombudsman,

is simply being targeted for closure. Well, because

they are posting some kind of 'wrong' videos,

which brings me to the point I wanted

to dwell on and explain in more detail.

The situation with Zolotov concerns that very

lawsuit that has now been filed against me. It is

very interesting. You heard in that

brief statement our army general

say, well, now there will be a court case involving

Navalny on this matter, and then we

will talk to him. This is very interesting,

because it was not Zolotov who sued me.

It was this very

Crimean Kombinat Druzhba Narodov ("Friendship of Peoples" combine) that filed suit.

There is, of course, not a single word there

concerning the property of the head of the National Guard (Rosgvardiya),

or any accusations of corruption, nothing of the sort. They

are demanding that this video be removed in full on

the grounds that, supposedly, we

calculated food prices incorrectly

and failed to account for seasonality. At the same time, in the lawsuit

they present a table on

seasonality in which the prices are still

several times lower than in their contract. But

the most important thing I want to tell you

about now, the thing that simply

astonished me, concerns meat prices.

In our video, in that original

investigation into how Rosgvardiya

was buying goods at prices several times higher than market rates to begin with.

prices to purchase food supplies for the height of

winter. There was one specific item regarding

meat, and

what this meat-processing plant did was start

supplying

meat with a fat content and all sorts of

cartilage and sinew totaling 14 percent, at a higher price than

the meat they had previously supplied with

only 6 percent cartilage. More expensive, that is. Well,

in other words, they started selling worse meat, but

at a higher price. And then they wrote to us—I’ll

show you now. Please, look closely

and read carefully.

Read this carefully: they officially wrote to me that

you know, meat with

14 percent connective and fatty tissue

has more calories than beef with

6 percent connective tissue, and

therefore, since it has more calories, the meat is better. Well,

I’m not the world’s greatest meat expert, but

I do eat it, and I understand that if

meat has 14 percent sinew, then it ought

to be cheaper than

6 percent. You can simply

run exactly the same test—I did it myself.

You just go and Google

beef with a given amount of

sinew, and the first link that comes up

will show you that, naturally,

beef with a fat content of 6

percent costs 335 rubles, while 14

percent is cheaper—260 rubles. But by the way,

the National Guard (Rosgvardiya, Russia’s internal security force) buys it for almost

twice as much—436 rubles

per kilogram. But I’m sorry,

for suddenly launching into

all these details about beef, but

this made me absolutely furious, because

it reflects the overall attitude toward these very

Rosgvardiya soldiers. They are completely serious

about it.

They are trying to convince me, them, and all of us that

we’ll give them worse beef—fatter beef,

with cartilage and sinew—but it has more

calories, so let our

universal soldiers eat it and then go disperse

protests. And this is just so

contrary to common sense. They understood

that when they filed the lawsuit against me—I’ll

show it to all of you—it contradicts

common sense so blatantly that any person,

any person who has ever eaten meat, understands that

if meat has more sinew, it is worse

and should be cheaper. But no—they say, well,

it has more calories, and these people don’t need anything else.

Why not just give them, like,

I don’t know, what they give some dogs—

something with lots of

cartilage to gnaw on. Then give

your soldiers that kind of meat, give them

something else too—just give them a lump

of sugar, give them a piece of coking coal

—that has the maximum number of calories, that’s

really

just an insult to the armed forces,

an insult to these conscript soldiers, including

those serving there under contract.

Because in the lawsuit with which

Zolotov is defending himself, and which, unfortunately, I have no

doubt they will win,

they will come to court and tell the judge:

of course, yes—the fattier the meat, the more

cartilage and sinew it has, the better it is.

Rosgvardiya soldiers love that kind of thing—

something they really have to sink their teeth into

and pull apart like this. They’ll win

this case, and then on the basis of

these arguments they’ll demand that I

delete the video, and bailiffs will come after me.

Court bailiffs.

And Zolotov will record a new address where

he’ll say: well then, Alexei Navalny,

you lost this case to me in court.

Why am I saying all this with such

force? Maybe it didn’t

hit you the same way, but it really

struck a nerve with me. I want

every Rosgvardiya soldier to know this when

he’s in the mess hall gnawing on something and

thinking, and when they say to each other that

what’s floating on my plate instead of meat

—I want them to understand very clearly who

is defending their right to decent food, and

who is robbing them, and who, looking them in

the face—looking me in the face, and the whole country in the face—

says that night is

daylight: guys, the more sinew there is in the beef,

the happier the Rosgvardiya soldier is.

So if you serve there, if your

friends serve there, if you are in the military at all,

show them all this.

Show them how they are trying to convince us

that black is white, that cheap

beef should cost more, that

more calories means better. So,

again, sorry for this

beef rant, but it matters, and we’ll

be talking about it more. I’m sure with Zolotov

this will be a long saga. It’s clear that he

is deeply offended, insulted, and

he’ll now start inventing all sorts of things,

all sorts of nasty, underhanded tricks. But we

won’t let up. We will take from him, now

or later—and after the arrival of the Russia of the Future (a phrase used by Navalny for a democratic future Russia)—

we will make him answer for

every question concerning illegal

enrichment.

For every kopeck of those 3.5

billion rubles

that his family owns in assets,

he will have to explain to us

where he got it, where it came from, how it

came in—cash and non-cash,

what money from which accounts

was used to buy these apartments. All of these

questions

sooner or later must be

answered.

Even though our general has moved on,

let’s get some satisfaction by talking about Putin’s bodyguard.

We’ve talked about that; now let’s talk about the cook,

Putin’s cook. This week, *Novaya Gazeta*

published a highly sensational

investigation, and this investigation is very

important for us, for the Anti-Corruption Foundation

because it directly

concerns us. It’s a major piece by *Novaya Gazeta*,

please take a look at it; it’s quite

interesting. They write that this very

same

Yevgeny Prigozhin, Putin’s cook, whom

we’ve spoken about here many times, and about whom

many investigations have been published,

is directly connected, through

a chain of people, in particular through

a *Novaya Gazeta* informant, to the people

who carried out attacks, including

which, of course—I repeat—affects

every employee of the FBK (Anti-Corruption Foundation).

The very man who, several

months ago, attacked the husband of Lyubov

Sobol, who is a lawyer for the Anti-Corruption

Foundation,

and is now the producer of this

wonderful channel—he was found near

the entrance to his building. Some man approached him

and, saying “nothing personal,” stuck a syringe into

his thigh, after which Sergei Mokhov

lost consciousness and woke up in the hospital. Well,

yes, I remember that situation—it left

everyone absolutely shocked. What did they inject him with?

Some kind of—I don’t know—toxin or something,

and of course people immediately started thinking

of all sorts of things—AIDS, I don’t know, leprosy,

some incurable disease—but this is

just insane. How does something like that even occur to someone, you know?

“Let’s

scare him by sticking a syringe in his leg.” Well,

they really did scare him, because it sounds

completely wild. This man, who is now

seen on camera—this is footage from

a surveillance camera at the building entrance—from the very

beginning we said that we believe

Prigozhin’s involvement in this

was the primary, number one theory, and it should

have been investigated, because Sobol

had released an investigation just beforehand

into the cartel Prigozhin had built. Our

investigations department found his

real estate, and several videos

were recorded—Lyubov made videos about it

in those reports.

And here’s what happened to the man in

the photograph. Let’s look at the next

slide: he was killed. *Novaya Gazeta*

wrote that

they identified the attacker and

learned his name, and some time

after the attack he was killed

absolutely in the style of those movies

where, you know, some hitman is then

killed by a higher-ranking hitman so that all

the loose ends

disappear—since you were caught on surveillance cameras.

The *Novaya Gazeta* informant who

reported all this

also disappeared. Now, apparently,

they say he has turned up, but there is no

confirmation. But in any case, we

believe that *Novaya Gazeta*’s piece

quite confidently, let’s say,

proves the involvement of that very

Prigozhin, Putin’s cook, in the attacks and

possibly in murder as well. And, well, here’s the thing:

just look at it—once again, assess

the degree of political degradation in our

country. A report came out that should

have led to some kind of

political crisis: a man close to Putin,

the owner of all these troll

factories,

whose protégés will be frolicking in

the comments under this video, among other places—

he has been accused by a major publication of

quite literally engaging in killings,

contract killings, assaults, and so

on. And what?

Where is the Investigative Committee? Where is the FSB (Federal Security Service)?

Absolutely nothing is happening. We

of course demand that the FSB

and the Investigative Committee do some work in

this direction, because, well,

there are actual individuals who have given

specific testimony, there are photographs, and the

case of the attack on Sobol’s husband,

Sergei Mokhov, was closed—but that means

it should be reopened in light of newly discovered

circumstances, and yet nothing

is happening. And this is, of course, an absolutely

monstrous situation, when

these aren’t just random attacks, you know, in

some back alley. We know who

commits them. Before, we suspected; now

we know who does it, who

comes up with it: Putin’s people,

his inner circle, who think up things like this:

“So, she released an investigation about us.

Well, of course we can’t just kill her,

but let’s make sure she doesn’t

get too cocky.”

“Let’s take a syringe with some kind of liquid

—some kind of poison, sure—and stick it into her husband’s

leg.”

That’ll scare them. Well, yes, it did scare them. The other

thing is that Sobol did not stop her

work. After all, the people who work with us

are not faint-hearted, but the situation is

quite unpleasant. They have a small

child, and it’s barbaric, you understand—they

sit there and plan things like this.

You know, maybe they wanted to kill him; maybe they just

miscalculated the dose of poison. In January, in

*Novaya Gazeta*’s article, it actually says

how obsessed they are with various poisons,

with poisonings—that is, these are savage,

dangerous perverts and murderers, those people.

who are now at the head of Russia, and

Well, even Putin himself—I don’t understand, does he

really not have enough somewhat more

elegant thugs, or, I don’t know,

people out of spy movies, supervillains?

That’s usually how it happens, a little

differently. But here we just have some kind of

street thug from St. Petersburg

with multiple prior convictions, and

does he just do whatever comes into his own head,

or does Putin persuade him somehow,

like, “Hey, listen, why don’t you, you know,”

“mess around with some poisons there,”

“cook something up in your kitchen somewhere and start sticking

syringes into the legs of those who are against me?” What—

is that really what he says? I can’t rule that out either.

If they’re protecting him,

if there are no

investigations against him, then Putin probably

gives those orders, or at the very least it’s

being discussed. It’s just madness and degradation. What

good can possibly happen in a country

that is under the leadership of people

like this? And once again, we will certainly

keep following this. We will certainly

demand that proceedings be opened,

that the case over this attack be reopened.

This situation affects us deeply; this situation

is unquestionably personal both for me and for everyone

who works at the Anti-Corruption Foundation, and

of course this “Putin’s chef,” Yevgeny

Prigozhin, should get what he deserves and

sooner or later he will. Let me

answer some questions. Tatyana Tatarinova

says: “You say that in the future everything

will change, and corrupt officials will be in the dock.

When will that happen? What

measures do you plan to take in order

to achieve that?” Well, Tatyana, whatever measures

I can take, I do take. I try

to unite people around me. I

register a party, and it isn’t allowed onto

the ballot; I run for office myself

and I’m not allowed to run. Nevertheless, neither I nor

the people who have gathered around me—we do not

give up. We organize mass rallies,

we have taken part and will continue to take part in

elections. In the near future we will

announce our new project, which

is connected with elections and in which everyone can

participate. We are engaged in political

struggle.

Sometimes more effectively, sometimes less

effectively. So, Tatyana, come join

us. The answer to the question of when this

will happen—when the Beautiful Russia of the Future (a slogan for a democratic future Russia) will arrive—

has a very simple answer: when you

join us, when a sufficient number of people

join us—then

the Beautiful Russia of the Future will come.

Because that is

purely a matter of the will of a significant

number of citizens—some 3 percent, not even

50 percent, just 3 percent—who, well,

finally understand that everything is in their hands and

begin to engage actively in politics,

take to the streets, and generally be

involved in direct

political activity. Let’s move on to the

next question. After watching the interview on

Echo (likely Echo of Moscow), a viewer asks me: do you think

they’re such cowards? They ask:

“After watching the interview on Echo, do you really

think the authorities would not dare touch you?

Attempt an assassination? Or can you simply not

start living normally?” No, of course I do not think

that the authorities would not dare touch me. Well,

they already have, repeatedly.

Remember when I traveled around the country as part of

the presidential campaign? I carried

a change of clothes with me simply because

I would step out at a train station or an airport and

things would come flying at me, and I had to

just change clothes because all my

clothes were splattered with eggs and

brilliant green antiseptic (zelyonka).

Of course, that’s the mildest form of

“touching” me, but I have no doubt that for these

people anything is possible. But what, am I supposed to

think and brood about that endlessly?

Of course they can do anything—well, so can we

do everything we believe is

right. So we do what we do, and they do what they do, and

we’ll see who prevails.

George Washington asks: why is Patrushev again

scaring Siberia with terrorists?

What else can he do?

Can Patrushev tell you how

effectively Russia’s economy is developing?

How the number of terrorist attacks in Russia has actually

gone down? No, he can’t. Can he say that

wages are rising here? No, he can’t, despite

what the government says about it. I’ll say

a few words about that.

He has nothing else—no real

achievements of any kind in the field of

security—that Patrushev can tell you about.

So instead he tells some kind of

fairy tales that terrorists are everywhere, closing in.

Putin has said that the FSB security service

prevented 15 terrorist attacks. Well, then I’d like

to say: if they prevented them,

show us the court cases, because

otherwise your “prevention” of terrorist attacks

is about the same as what Zolotov did on

Vasilyevsky Spusk (a square by the Kremlin): a staged performance.

So he came, grabbed the “terrorist,”

twisted his arms, and then shook his hand.

And then, for some reason, despite the

supposedly prevented terrorist attack, this “terrorist”

is charged under the article for hooliganism. It’s all

an absolute fabrication, and these people have failed at everything

they could do. All they can do is scare you.

Let’s talk about another major

Putin favorite, who, admittedly,

is loved only in Russia. This situation struck me as

very interesting. Roman

Abramovich, one of the richest people

in Russia, whose wealth is tied

directly to Putin. In other words, he is

a kind of Putin oligarch, and he is an executioner

who got his money because Putin ordered

Gazprom and other entities to buy out

some Abramovich business for unimaginable sums, and

that business of Abramovich's. So, in a way,

a kind of reverse privatization took place, and

that is why this should be remembered every

time Putin criticizes the 1990s and

the unfair privatization, the loans-for-shares

auctions, and those reformers of the '90s

as the bad guys. All of that is true: the fair

privatization was unfair, the loans-for-shares

auctions were unfair,

and the reformers of the 1990s were crooks. But

the main

unfair and fraudulent

privatization deals were made under

Putin, in particular.

Roman Abramovich made money from them, and

an interesting thing happened in Switzerland

because it became known that Roman

Abramovich had applied for a residence

permit.

He was refused, and there was a court ruling, at the insistence of

Abramovich's lawyers,

which prohibited the Swiss media from

talking about why

Abramovich had not been allowed into the

country. And now the supreme court of that

country has overturned that decision, and we found out

that when

Abramovich came there and said, "Guys, I am

a rich man, I have 14

billion, and in Switzerland, where there are many

people like me, I'd like to get a residence

permit here," the Swiss

prosecutor's office said no because, and I

quote, "Abramovich's presence

is a source of possible threats to the

country in the area of public

security, causes reputational damage,

and Abramovich is quite likely involved in

money laundering." And you see the point:

even Switzerland, well,

Switzerland couldn't care less about dividing up gas;

some rich people from Russia — they even have

Artyom Chaika living there, and a whole lot of

other crooks from Russia. And before that,

the United Kingdom and many other countries

were saying, basically, Abramovich is some

guy who made his money not through honest

work, who is connected to

corruption, who is connected to money

laundering and other unpleasant things. We do not

want to see him on the territory of our

country. He causes us reputational

damage. But what about Russia?

After all, Abramovich robbed us, and the money

he laundered was ours, yours and mine. And most importantly,

it is not just reputational damage but very

real damage

that he inflicted on all of us, 145 million citizens

of the Russian Federation.

He robbed us and siphoned off the money,

and Russia remains the country that

loves him,

that welcomes him and does not

consider, at the official level, that

he causes any kind of damage or that any

problems are associated with him. No,

for us Abramovich is simply a

perfectly respectable fellow; we

welcome him here, everything is fine with him. And

what is more, he is also running away from

us. He is somehow even showing this

Putin clique that

"Guys, I want to be as far away from you as possible. I want

to be in England, in Israel, in Switzerland, or

somewhere else. I don't want to have anything to do with you. I

took the money out from you, and over there I'll

buy football clubs and everything

else." It would seem, yes, that

even some part of Putin's elite,

which pretends to be patriotic,

should find this rather unpleasant. They should tell him,

"Roman Arkadyevich,

at least come here and spend

some time here, at least. Come on,

pretend that you're with us, because you

became a billionaire thanks to us."

But no, they too remain silent, and everything is very

fine, and everyone loves him, Roman Abramovich,

despite the fact that the rest of the world

is somewhat outraged that we were

robbed. Yes, we, the people who were robbed,

are not outraged by it; we swallowed it, and everything

is fine for us. It is quite a

unpleasant situation that shows

that even people in the West are already disgusted

to deal with those who robbed those Russians

somewhere far away in the north, out in the middle of nowhere,

and only those Russians themselves

seem to think it is normal — Russians, Russian citizens, however

you want to put it. That is why we conduct our political

activity, because we believe it is not

normal. By the way, I was asked

several questions about why

Spanish courts acquitted some group

of several people — 17 people

who had been accused of involvement with

the Russian mafia. The Spanish court

acquitted them, and people say, well then, those

Spanish prosecutors

must also be corrupt, they must also be

terrible, and outright mafiosi

who were accused, among other things, of ties to Putin,

were accused of money laundering — they

were acquitted. But how could they not be acquitted

if Russia sends dispatches there, to Spain,

saying that they are not guilty?

But if you want to convict in Spain

a Russian mafioso,

a bandit or an official who took money out

from here, laundered it, stole it, and bought

real estate with it, then Russia must say:

we have claims against this person, and

Then the Spanish court will say, well, there you have it.

The Russians have claims: this money was

stolen, and these people cannot explain where

they got the money. The Russian mafia—lock them up.

Put them away for that many years. But Spanish

justice is still justice, after all.

If a judge has a piece of paper from Russia, with

the signature of the Prosecutor General, with

the signature of the Supreme Court, saying that these

supposed crooks are in fact crystal-honest

people—how can they be tried? We saw the same thing

with Pachaikov (unclear reference), when

the Russian prosecutor's office was saying about its own people

that Prosecutor General Chaika (former Russian Prosecutor General) himself and his children were

crystal-honest people, and everyone else were

crooks—monstrous crooks. About Kana (unclear reference),

about whom any English or

Spanish judge can plainly see there isn't a single unblemished spot left—

they're rotten through and through.

But he still needs some documents, and it is necessary

for the person who was robbed

at least to admit that they were robbed. And

if they do not want to admit it—well, let me tell you how it works.

If you're a fool, then fine—let

the thief go free. That is exactly how it

works. And

with Abramovich (Roman Abramovich), that is exactly

how it turns out. It is very unpleasant

to look at, but if Abramovich is a welcome

figure for the Russian state, then they

love him, they cherish him, they will never

hand him over. And it turns out there are

quite a lot of people who are inconvenient for

the Russian state. There are

millions of them, and of course they need to be squeezed. And I

want to say a few words about the new

law on the self-employed, about taxation

for the self-employed. A huge number

of questions came in asking how I feel about it,

what I think about it. Well, I think

the only possible conclusion is that this is a

genuine robbery of the poor. Let's look at

who the self-employed are.

They are tutors,

some doctors earning a small

salary and making extra money by giving massages

or providing small services; they are people

renting out apartments, first and foremost, and

so on. In other words, these are people trying

to survive, and in order to survive, because

their salary is tiny, they engage in

some kind of micro-business, like renting out

an apartment, or

I don't know, cleaning other people's

apartments, or tutoring a single student, or working

as a plumber, or driving a cab in the evenings.

They run this mini-business and, well, they do not

pay taxes on it and are not

registered anywhere, because it is a small

income. They do not want to register anywhere,

they really do not want to pay

any taxes, because this

state gives them nothing, and above all

this is a tiny income. And so

our state has decided that these

people need to be tracked down, they need to be

counted, grabbed by the scruff of the neck,

grabbed by the scruff of the neck and forced to pay tax. And

that is why a law has now been passed, already in

its first reading, on this kind of experiment in

the largest cities.

Naturally, people are most interested in Moscow,

Kazan, and several other cities. So

now there will be an experiment in which these

self-employed people will have to pay a tax—

a small tax: 4 percent if they

provide services to private individuals, 6

percent if they provide services to legal entities.

But a much more interesting thing

is that the author of this

bill has already stated how it will, in

practice, be enforced:

in addition, what they will do is this: if this

self-employed person is caught—if you are caught

being a tutor,

or, say, if you are

treating someone's leg or arm, seeing them at

home, or providing some kind of service—you will

be fined in the amount of your income.

In practice, it is clear how this will be done.

You provide some kind of service;

you probably take part of the money in cash,

in cash,

but very often, if you rent out an apartment,

the money simply comes to your bank card.

The money comes in, right? You

made an agreement, and under that agreement this amount

comes to you because you rented out a room, an apartment,

or something else. And they will simply, through the

financial monitoring system, see that you have

regular payments.

Time passes, you did not register,

and then they come to you and say: ah,

so you're self-employed, are you? Well then, you received 1,000,000

rubles (about 10,800 USD) for renting out

this apartment over the year, so now you are fined

in that amount. And this really is

robbery of the poor, because people

become self-employed not because of

a good life. And of course many will say

to me: well, they should pay some kind of

tax. If a person rents out apartments, they should

of course pay tax; if a person

earns extra money as a tutor, they should

probably pay some kind of tax too.

Yes, probably some tax should be paid. But, guys, the question here is

one of priorities. Our oil

companies refuse to pay; Roman

Abramovich refuses to pay taxes; our

entire Russian economy belongs

to Cypriot offshore companies, which do not pay

taxes, and so on. But tell me, how much

tax has Zolotov (Viktor Zolotov, head of Russia's National Guard) paid?

How much tax has he paid? Somehow, by unclear means,

he bought himself, acquired

real estate worth three and a half

billion rubles (about 37.8 million USD)—his family did. So how much

tax did they pay on that, exactly?

Everything’s great with all those mansions on Rublyovka (an elite residential area outside Moscow), all those...

those owners of unimaginably expensive...

cars, not to mention...

the oligarchs who got rich from...

privatization deals, and every time...

people start shouting at me the moment I so much as mention...

compensatory taxes, they tell me...

what a terrible, terrible, utterly...

non-market measure it is, why are you harping on about it...

It’s impossible to calculate, it’s so...

so hard to figure out, for example, how much to take from the owners of...

Norilsk Nickel, what they really owe us...

what they should actually pay us, because...

they bought it for next to nothing, and so on...

and so on. It’s all supposedly so hard to calculate...

like how much more Usmanov should pay us...

in taxes, because for many years...

yes, he used a scheme to understate the value...

of the raw materials he sold abroad. That’s...

impossible to calculate. Navalny, you’re...

a populist, this is awful populism, we...

say that—but these people we won’t touch, because...

it’s very hard to calculate, and it would create...

social tension, it’s populism...

But sure, let’s go after that tutor instead...

now that’s something, right?

Easy to calculate, isn’t it? So then we can...

see the money coming into their bank card, and now we’ll...

take their income, then look at their employment record...

how much we paid them at school, and everything else...

the rest is obviously what this dangerous...

crook earned. Imagine that—giving lessons...

and making about 15,000 rubles a month...

a month—let them pay 4 percent...

It’s not much, sure, but then let Abramovich...

pay 4 percent too—4 percent more...

let Usmanov pay 4 percent more...

4 percent more—let all these people...

these dollar millionaires and billionaires...

let them pay at least something, let...

the oil companies pay, let...

the state-owned companies pay, the ones where we can see...

that they’re simply living some kind of insane...

life, even judging by their procurement alone, but...

remember how Rosneft buys tea...

spoons for tens of thousands of rubles...

let them pay more taxes, and then...

after that, sure, the doctor who moonlights...

as a massage therapist in the evenings...

will probably have their turn too.

Though in my presidential...

platform I said directly that all these...

people should be exempt from paying taxes...

because they’re simply trying not to be...

destitute—they’re just trying to earn...

a little extra. Maybe someone inherited...

an apartment in Moscow, Kazan, or some other...

city, and rents it out. They got lucky; you...

rent that apartment—you didn’t get lucky, while...

someone else rents one out, and...

you pay them 35,000 rubles a...

month, or 40, or 15—they got lucky. But frankly...

let’s be honest and agree that their...

income, on the scale of the state, on the scale...

of our economic policy...

doesn’t really play any role. This...

person has simply...

moved from the category of being very poor into...

the category of...

someone trying to make it into the middle class, that’s all. And why should we...

be chasing after them? Why are we going after them? We’re not...

going after the obvious targets all across the country...

the obvious fat cats and stupid...

wasteful spending. Just this week it was announced that...

they’re going to refurbish the presidential aircraft...

and the presidential flight squadron, and spend...

20 billion rubles on it. Yes, I’m more than...

certain that in the course of this experiment...

with taxing the self-employed, we’ll collect less...

money than that. Maybe...

they don’t need to urgently refurbish...

the presidential plane—especially since...

as we can see from the photos and current...

procurement, things there are very, very far from...

modest: gold, crystal, mahogany...

the whole package. Maybe we should ask...

where these amazing...

motorcades of Rolls-Royces in Chechnya come from, driving off somewhere...

Maybe we should try...

to seize something there instead of from a tutor in Moscow.

So my position is very simple: this...

cannot be done now. It is absolutely...

unfair. It is literally the robbery...

of poor, unfortunate people who are...

just trying somehow to make...

their lives a little better, and they work, they’re...

busy, and they work in order to...

earn a little extra. Leave them alone.

And tax revenue should be found in other...

things, in other places—especially since, well...

look at the official statement...

by the country’s leaders.

Maxim Topilin drove the whole country into...

hysteria.

This is the labor minister, who declared that...

wages in Russia are growing...

at unprecedented rates. I saw...

naturally, a huge number of jokes about...

this topic. Really, at this point it’s impossible...

not to laugh and cry—it’s impossible...

not to; all you can do now is laugh. Our...

official statistics say that...

real household incomes have been falling for four, nearly five...

years in a row, and yet out comes...

a minister telling us...

‘at unprecedented rates’—not just...

inflated, but unprecedented. Can you imagine?

The government must have been sitting there looking at...

some unprecedented jump—what was it, up...

30 percent, 50, I don’t know, 40? Did your...

salary—think about it—did it grow by...

10, 15, or 20 percent? Did it grow...

at an unprecedented rate? No, it didn’t. If I...

tell you now that according to official...

statistics, in the first half of the year in Russia...

the average salary was 40,250 rubles, you...

would say, ‘Ha-ha, that’s not true.’ If you live...

in Moscow, maybe you might still fit into that figure...

Believe it or not, even if you live in St. Petersburg,

let alone anywhere else in the country, you

understand perfectly well that there is no such thing as an average

salary of 42,000 rubles

anywhere close to that, and of course there is no

unprecedented wage growth either.

So then the question is: if you do have

unprecedented wage growth, then why

again—if wages for the self-employed are

rising,

then taxes on those wages should be rising too.

Today I had in front of me a program

by Vladimir Milov, who was specifically

examining

this statement as well, and he made a fairly

reasonable argument: if wages are rising,

then let’s look at the financial reports

of the largest companies and see that

surely payroll taxes and contributions, and the

overall wage fund itself, must have grown. But no, none of that

has grown.

Where did Maxim Topilin get this from? We

understand: he simply came, as a

minister, to an official meeting and

brazenly lied right to people’s faces, and everyone in

that room understood that Maxim Topilin

was talking nonsense—they could barely hold back their laughter at the

words “unprecedented wage growth.” Well,

that’s how it is.

And he didn’t resign, and in the State Duma (the lower house of Russia’s parliament), take

note, there was no outrage at all. You’d think

that, say, the Communists, the LDPR, or A Just

Russia would demand his resignation.

At the very least, they could issue him a reprimand for

such a lie—or let him confirm it

with real data. Where is this wage growth?

There is no data. None. There are only

some statements. They told us, “Guys,

your salary is 40,000 to 42,500 rubles,”

we know that isn’t true, but you know,

your wages have grown even more, and then

in the next half-year they grew

again—even though you know they’re falling—but

still, on television they tell you:

they’re rising, rising.

In Russia, your salary is rising. And I’m very

interested to see when this will have its

next stage of political

implementation—what we saw on September 9

in the elections, when United Russia

lost ground—that was the first stage. All

these people like Topilin and all the rest, they

will talk themselves into it, especially against the backdrop that

if we look at the declaration of

Mr. Maxim Topilin himself, we’ll see that

there, everything really is growing unprecedentedly: his

own salary is 6 million rubles, and his

wife’s income is 17 million rubles. Well then, let

Maxim Topilin explain what

his wife does that gives her an

income of 17 million rubles. That must

be some kind of substantial business.

It’s funny, by the way, that according to his declaration he also

has property

abroad.

A garage in Bulgaria. I mean, I don’t

know—maybe they sold the apartment in Bulgaria and

only the garage was left. It’s a funny sort of thing:

“I took a long time getting home because

I parked the car in the garage, and the garage is in

Bulgaria.” I mean, these people are simply

completely detached from reality. He earns 6 or 7

million, his wife earns 17 million, and they

come out and tell us that here everyone’s

wages are growing at an unprecedented rate.

An average salary of 42,000 rubles—this really

starts to sound like some kind of fairy tale, like

*Three Fat Men*

or something by Gianni Rodari,

about Signor Tomato, who comes along and

to some poor people

literally tells them these

outrageous, disgusting things.

You really want this to have

a political sequel, so that people make them pay for

these brazen statements by Topilin

—or rather, repay them—at the ballot box, and

we will very actively urge you to do

exactly that, especially since all of this

is only getting worse and worse.

I also really liked how they start

making promises to Putin and then instantly

fail to keep them in spectacular fashion. I was sitting

in a special detention center not long ago, and there

they brought me newspapers and printouts, and

in particular it was reported that German

Gref was meeting with Putin and saying

that, you know, Sberbank had promised

to lower mortgage rates there, on

some old loans and new ones, and all

of this was being pushed hard—every newspaper

was writing about how wonderful it was that Sberbank

was lowering mortgage rates.

A great achievement by the government,

after all—macroeconomic stability,

inflation is falling, and Putin too, in response

to Gref, says, “How good, you know,

despite everything, Sberbank is lowering rates

on mortgage loans.”

And this is so important for the public—people

will be able to buy apartments, apartments will become

more affordable, everything is great. That was on October 8, and

two weeks pass, and Sberbank announces

that it is raising mortgage rates.

Who do you take us for?

Again, here’s the question: why did you sell this story to the whole

country about lowering

mortgage rates if you

raised them two weeks later?

It would be one thing if you had promised to lower

rates and then didn’t lower them—fine, that would just be deception,

some kind of PR stunt—but

you promised to lower them and then raised them.

That is just truly, truly

absurd.

I don’t know how else to put it. 28,100

people are watching this live right

now.

Probably a much larger number of people

will watch online, and I want to tell you

guys, this is exactly the main

political persuasion. Yes, people often

ask me what I should say to my

relatives who are

pro-Putin

who don’t believe you—what should I

say to them in order to challenge this regime?

This is it.

Tell them this: show them the article from October 8

where Gref speaks to Putin

about rates going down, and there they are

sweetly kissing and hugging over how

rates are being lowered. And then show them

the news that Sberbank raised mortgage rates.

That’s all. Your relatives don’t need

to know anything else about Putin himself

in order to say, well,

no, we’re no longer willing to put up with this, and

even despite some kind of mythical

successful foreign policy by Putin, we’re not

prepared to tolerate this. Say that to everyone

around you, and then we

will beat United Russia, and we must

beat them. Continuing on the topic of Sberbank,

it’s very interesting how people and investors

in general assess this company and

assess the role of the state compared with

the remaining parts of

Russian business. Sberbank hadn’t even made any announcement—

there was just a rumor that

Sberbank would buy 30 percent of

Yandex shares, after which

Yandex stock collapsed and still hasn’t

recovered.

Those same investors simply

made it crystal clear: guys, everything

your state touches, even in the form of

Sberbank—which, to be fair,

among all state corporations, Sberbank is

probably the most reasonable, at least

in words, among all the heads of

state corporations. Gref is clearly better—

at least from time to time he says

some sensible things, looks normal,

and seems to understand, I don’t know, technology

and banking much better than all the

other state bankers. But even if

Sberbank comes into private business—

Yandex—

we don’t believe for a second that this will be

a success. Everything crashed and doesn’t want to bounce back,

and in fact I have no doubt

unfortunately that Sberbank or some kind of

conglomerate like VTB or someone else

will still gobble up Yandex, because

first, they need to get hold of one of the

few effective newly created

businesses in the country, and second,

they’re just greedy—they have grabby hands,

they just want to acquire, acquire,

acquire. You really have to ask

yourself: what the hell for?

Why is one state corporation buying up

private business in Russia? Why, for example,

are there now talks about buying

Alfa-Bank, or why is there a need to buy

Yandex? Is there really nowhere else to spend the money?

Nowhere else to invest, nowhere else for

Sberbank to grow except by pushing into a private

company whose shares are already falling

just on rumors alone? They simply can’t do otherwise.

No matter what the oil price is, no matter how much

money they get, they’ll still

spend it God knows how. They’re squandering our

money—yours and mine—and there is not the slightest

doubt about that, unfortunately. And in

that sense, my favorite, Anatoly Chubais,

whom I’ve often talked about,

I know he reacts painfully to it—we even

debated each other.

His story simply shows us, among other things,

what will happen next, because

the board of directors of Rusnano

recommended that the general meeting

approve extending all the powers of

the management board overseeing nanotechnology

assets. That means

that Chubais isn’t going anywhere on us

for another 10 years. So, first of all,

they have completely failed in every

direction. The years of Rusnano’s work

have been years of failure—just a super,

mega-fail. You saw my video about

the famous case, I mean, Rusnano

is an absolute sham; it’s billions

wasted for nothing. But the state

speaking on behalf of you and me says: well, not bad,

these people worked, earned money,

at least all of them, judging by

their declarations, have hundreds of millions of rubles

in personal assets and property.

Not bad, not bad—let’s give them another 10 years

to keep commanding our money.

That’s first. Second,

the state and Putin are showing us that

for them, these so-called technologies,

promising technologies, and the people who

know how to build technology and are responsible for

technological development—well, that’s Chubais.

You see? There you go—the leader of

promising business, the Russian Elon Musk,

the Russian Zuckerberg, the Russian everything under the sun—

that’s Chubais. So that’s the kind of

technological development you should expect.

And third—this is also very

important, by the way—and this is what you

can say to your parents or to

anyone else when they dig in their heels and

start telling you that Putin is very good.

Because that’s what they say: Putin

is very good, Putin is very good because

back in the ’90s

things were terrible. As the singer Monetochka says,

in the ’90s people were being killed, everyone was running through the streets

naked, and now things have gotten much better

because Putin, supposedly, defeated all that.

the legacy of the '90s—if he had really overcome that legacy

of the cursed '90s and driven out all the villains

who created the nightmare of those cursed '90s—what nonsense

why did you keep Chubais in office for another ten years?

In a position paid for with our state

money—you kept supporting him all that time.

Why do you keep doing this, you wonderful

fighter against the cursed '90s, Vladimir Putin?

Putin and Chubais are simply the same thing.

Chubais's privatization deals and

Putin's privatization deals are one

and the same—they're the very same St. Petersburg mafia.

And now it's the Moscow mafia—people with

exactly the same mentality. It's absolutely

the same thing. This is very important,

because as soon as we go into an election

or as soon as we do anything at all, they forever

throw the '90s in our faces. Fine, the '90s—

then let them direct that at Putin,

because Chubais is his close friend. We

believe that privatization deals

should be taxed. They

protect the oligarchs, they hand money to Chubais—

and it's being done by none other than

Vladimir Putin, who supposedly saved

the country from collapse in the '90s.

Well, no—he didn't save the country from

collapse. Together with those very same

people, he continues to efficiently siphon off

money. Twenty-nine thousand people are watching us

live right now. I'm very glad that at the end of the

program I can share some good

news.

First, there is good news about Konstantin Saltykov.

He went to a rally with me,

stood next to me, and when I was being detained,

he got caught up in that whole mess too,

the guy just got swept up in it.

They wanted to bring a criminal case against me then,

claiming that I had kicked a police officer (militsiya, the old Russian police force).

And they needed someone else, so they took him.

He spent eight months in pretrial detention (SIZO), and the verdict came

this week.

He was given a year, and since time in SIZO

counts toward the sentence, he was released right

in the courtroom. Everyone applauded. All of this is

very good, but the guy served time for absolutely

nothing—eight months. Still, at least it ended

this way.

It's good that it ended like this, because they

could easily have just kept him locked up out of sheer inertia.

So at the same time, Konstantin, I

congratulate you, and at the same time

I express my regret that he lost eight months

of his life like that. But someday we will pay for

all those eight months—or rather, those people

will someday pay. And Mikhail Benyash—this is

an important story—is a lawyer from Krasnodar. We

have known him for a long time; I personally know Mikhail.

He's a fierce man who, in

the Kuban region, where there is just complete

lawlessness—Kuban is basically

like Chechnya in that sense; it's just total chaos there—

was released on bail this week.

The case against him was just absolutely outrageous.

In this criminal case, they grabbed him on the

street and dragged him off somewhere because

he works defending people

who are unlawfully prosecuted for

taking part in rallies, and he caused a lot of trouble

for these Kuban

creatures—for the Krasnodar authorities.

So they seize him, put him in a car, and

start beating him there, after which

they bring him to the station and write a report

saying that he was banging his head against the wall, and

that the police officers were telling him,

"Go on, bang your head against the wall," and he

kept doing it, thereby committing

disobedience toward police officers.

They say, "Listen, buddy, why are you hitting

yourself? Why are you giving yourself those black eyes?"

And he supposedly kept saying, "No, no, I

need these black eyes," and kept hitting himself. It was just

completely absurd—obviously such a

disgusting lie. More than 300 lawyers

from across the country spoke out in support of

Benyash. Even so, he spent two months—

I think even more—in pretrial detention (SIZO), but

now, as a result of

this kind of massive public pressure, he

has been released on bail. The criminal case, however,

is still ongoing. In other words, a man was

charged with a criminal offense against him

because he supposedly beat himself up. Well, I

want to express my support for Benyash and I hope

that everything will turn out well for him.

The last thing I want to say—I have

a minute left.

A lot of questions are coming in about the elections

in St. Petersburg, in St. Petersburg.

It's all such a purely St. Petersburg

kind of thing. There will be elections there that are very

important for us, for everyone, for the whole country:

elections to the municipal councils

next September. Naturally, there is already

a group called United Democrats,

of one kind, and there is another competing

bloc that is also called United

Democrats. One bloc consists of

Andrei Pivovarov, Dmitry Gudkov, and Ksenia

Sobchak, who is trying to join

them there. They apparently don't want her

to join, but she is joining anyway.

And the other bloc is the Yabloko party and Maxim

Katz. Both sides are "United Democrats,"

and it's hard to choose between them, and

everyone is asking what should be done. Well,

what needs to be done is this: we understand that this is

a complete mess, and we understand that it's hard for you

to decide, so we'll make a third list.

Seriously, no joke, we already have

670

people who want to take part in

the municipal elections. We will do everything

properly, we will do everything fairly, we

will create a real unified list,

and, if necessary, we will compel the process and choose the best.

Here we will choose the best candidates.

Here we will put forward the best candidates ourselves.

the candidates and make one unified main list.

the best list, which I hope will put up a real fight

to United Russia, so

residents of St. Petersburg, don’t worry

in these elections we will be able to run

as a proper united front and defeat everyone

or at least put up a serious

fight. Thank you very much to everyone watching.

See you in the next 3.