Text version
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Hi, this is Navalny, and I’m making this video
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so that you can help me ask
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one question to a guy who has
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a big press conference tomorrow.
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“A Conversation with Dmitry Medvedev” on December 5
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at 12:00 p.m. Moscow time. So, two
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days ago, we released an investigation about
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a state banker splurging on his beloved
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TV host Naиля Asker-zade, laying at her feet
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everything he generously throws around that he
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manages to steal from the state bank:
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apartments, houses, a yacht, and of course a private
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jet worth 4 billion rubles (about $60 million at the time). And it’s
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just hard to believe. How can anyone
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steal huge brand-new airplanes?
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It’s not some little trinket. People write to me
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and ask how a scheme like this can even work.
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First you register the plane
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to the bank’s subsidiaries, then to
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your own offshore companies, and that’s it—goodbye.
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But what about the oversight bodies, the FSB
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officers specially assigned to
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the bank? You can’t hide that from them—they’d notice. So
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we were surprised too. But today I’m ready
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to give you the answer. We figured that a state bank
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could only so easily steal a plane for
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its boss’s mistress in
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one case only: if, using the same scheme,
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he’s also stealing planes for even more influential
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people—people about whom no one
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will ask unnecessary questions. Because then
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it no longer looks like theft, but rather
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a matter of state importance.
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Something done for the good of the country. And taking advantage of the fact that
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part of the reporting is publicly available,
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we started looking for other planes
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that had been registered to the very same
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companies as the TV host’s airliner
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Asker-zade’s—and discovered that using exactly
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the same offshore scheme, the state bank
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had another plane swiped from it: a big,
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beautiful, and very expensive one. Guess who
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flies on it? An old acquaintance of ours:
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from *He Is Not Dimon to You* (Navalny’s investigation into Medvedev): Svetlana Vladimirovna
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Medvedeva,
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the wife of Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev,
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Prime Minister of the Russian Federation and
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leader of the ruling United Russia party.
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Corruption must not simply be
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illegal;
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it must become socially unacceptable. Look
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how simple it all is. Here is the scheme showing how
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a private plane appeared for her. First,
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it belonged to VTB Leasing, then
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it was sold to an offshore company called
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... Company Limited.
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But since then it has been in the actual
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use of her. And here it’s the same story:
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first, the plane with tail number MSK
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SM belonged to a VTB subsidiary.
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Then, the very next day after the plane
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for her, this plane too was transferred to the same
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offshore company.
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But in reality, all this time it has been
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used by the prime minister’s wife,
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Medvedeva. Finding that the Tbilisi offshore company
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owns another plane is actually
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quite easy—you just need to
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Google the name of the offshore company.
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It will be one of the first links. After that,
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it gets a bit more complicated. The plane flies a lot;
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it practically never leaves Europe. This year alone
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it was there 39 times.
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But to understand who
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uses it, we don’t need Nice or London.
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From the list of places the plane visited over
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the last four years, we pick out
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the more unusual destinations,
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where the arrival of a high-profile guest on a private
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jet would become news. Orenburg
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is perfect for that purpose.
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The plane was there on October 9, 2015. We
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just search the news for
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Orenburg, choose the right date, and look
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at what Orenburg was talking about that day.
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Oh—Svetlana Medvedeva praised the work
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of Orenburg’s... That’s exactly what we need: Svetlana
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Medvedeva was in that city on that very day,
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and at the airport she was personally met
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by the governor. We repeat the exercise with
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a flight to Ufa a year later, in November 2016.
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Again, we search the news and find
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the same thing: on that day, Svetlana Medvedeva
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flew to Ufa and inspected
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a diagnostic center there.
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Despite the fact that Svetlana Medvedeva is
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an extremely non-public and heavily
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guarded person, we still manage
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to find plenty
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of mentions of her private
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visits, both in Russia and abroad, and all of them
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match the movements of the private
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jet.
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Kemerovo: because of Medvedeva’s arrival,
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half the city was shut down.
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Israel, April 2016: Svetlana Medvedeva
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makes a pilgrimage visit. And here
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the plane lands somewhere we don’t at first even understand
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where it is: the Savasleyka military air base
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in the Kulebaki urban district,
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on the border of Vladimir and Nizhny Novgorod
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regions. What would Svetlana be doing there? But
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she goes to Murom, which is 20 kilometers (12 miles)
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away, and celebrates there the Day of Family,
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Love and Fidelity.
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Next, a visit to St. Petersburg to see
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the Kronstadt Naval Cathedral.
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Then Ivanovo, and a visit to the opening of the dacha
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festival in Plyos—which makes sense, since she and her
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husband are the area’s chief summer-residents. And my
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favorite: in June 2017, the plane flies
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to Cyprus, and we find a photo
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of Svetlana Medvedeva in Cyprus that very day,
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posted by a local taxi driver.
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Then Murom once again, for the next
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Family, Love and Fidelity festival.
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After all, family, love, and fidelity are her
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main themes.
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I value each and every one of them, and already this year, in
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March,
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Jerusalem, she venerated the holy sites there.
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At exactly the same time, the plane was there too.
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Or take this again in St. Petersburg:
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Kronstadt this time around. Let me tell you:
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on my instructions, large-scale
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anti-corruption work is underway.
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Even some Greek aviation enthusiasts from
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the island of Kos, who track flights to
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their island, discovered that in the summer
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of 2012, this very plane
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brought Svetlana Medvedeva and
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Ilya Medvedev to them.
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He was then the 17-year-old son of Dmitry
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Medvedev. They wrote it plainly on their website.
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And yet it is precisely the family that is
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a necessary condition for the harmonious and
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healthy development of any child. Just in case,
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let me state the obvious but important thing:
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the prime minister's spouse is not
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entitled to a personal airplane. The Medvedev family
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may travel and go on vacation
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only at their own expense.
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Any other scenario is either theft
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from the state budget or bribes from oligarchs.
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The vacations and trips of his wife can be
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paid for only by Medvedev personally, because
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incidentally, Svetlana herself
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simply has no means to pay: she has never
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worked and has no income. The Medvedevs do have
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a salary, by the way, a huge one: 800,000
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rubles a month, but even his entire
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monthly salary
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would only cover one hour of flight time for the plane.
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And Svetlana Medvedeva, for the purpose of further
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combating corruption,
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considers it proper to monitor the expenses of
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persons holding public
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office in the Russian Federation.
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So perhaps it is VTB Bank
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that is paying for the prime minister's wife's flights,
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and that is corruption. Or some oligarch is
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paying for it: that is corruption.
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Or a controlled foundation is paying, as
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we described in the film *He Is Not Dimon to You* — that is
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corruption.
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And the final possibility is only that
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Medvedev himself is paying, with money from, I don't know,
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some secret foreign account,
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stolen money, because there simply cannot be
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any other kind there. Of course, the fight
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against corruption
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is exactly this large-scale, systemic effort.
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It has only just begun, and we will pursue it
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decisively, systematically, and consistently.
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Personally, I lean toward the first option:
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the nimble banker Kostin is providing
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a corrupt arrangement for Medvedev's wife and
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is paying for the flights with state bank money,
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and not forgetting himself either, he has included his
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mistress in this package of exclusive
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services.
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And returning to where I began:
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why speculate if we can ask tomorrow?
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Medvedev has a big press conference tomorrow, and
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it will be broadcast live on about 20 channels at once.
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I appeal to all journalists: perhaps
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some of you, guys, will turn out to be honest
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people who will ask Medvedev
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a direct question:
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Your wife uses a
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Bombardier Global 5000 worth $50 million,
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she has logged many hours on it, and
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the operation of the jet alone has cost
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tens of millions of rubles.
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Who paid for this? Who owns
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this plane? And to all of you, dear viewers,
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I urge you to follow this press conference,
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to watch and see whether there will finally be an honest and
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brave journalist.
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Thank you for having such a wonderful
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memory. It once again shows that you are
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innovators, a young president with great
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prospects indeed. In fact,
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it is nice to hear. And write in the comments
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to all 20 TV channels with the hashtag #SvetlanaMedvedevaPlane
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and our task is to make
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this question the main question
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of the press conference. Everyone should know that
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this question exists, and hear the answer — or
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learn that
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as usual, there will be no answer. It's all nonsense, a mishmash
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and a jumble — the usual kind of
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word salad.
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They throw in all sorts of things there,
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collect all kinds of murky nonsense. Subscribe to
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our channel — this is where the truth is told.