Text version
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[applause]
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Thank you very much to everyone who came here. I
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am happy to be with you, I am happy
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to be part of what is happening
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here. They say, “Nature has no bad
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weather,” but today it is quite chilly
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isn’t it?
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You’re cold, I think, at least a little
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cold. But today we have
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great music with us, and that makes the day warmer
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in places it even makes us feel hot, and first
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of all I would like to begin by
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thanking the musicians and those guests who
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today
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performed. In our times, this is a brave decision,
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a decision that requires
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courage. To come to this concert means
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to show your political
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position, to show that I am not afraid, to show
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that I will do it anyway. I am grateful
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to all the people who came out and showed that
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they are not afraid, and by doing so they have slightly
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changed the situation. I can feel how it
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is changing.
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But the fact that you are standing here in the rain
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tells me that the situation
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is changing. Yesterday I
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went around with many of you to
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our campaign
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cubes (street campaign stands), and at one of these campaign
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cubes I spoke with
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a volunteer, an ordinary man
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of about 40. When I simply shook his hand, his hand
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was absolutely ice-cold.
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It was obvious that he was very cold, truly
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very cold. Yesterday the weather was even worse than
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today. When I said to him this
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sincere but, generally speaking, routine phrase,
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“Thank you very much for standing here, for
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handing out leaflets,” he answered me:
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“Alexei, of course I support you, and I
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would very much like you to become mayor, but
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I came here
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for
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myself. I came because I want to
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be
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more visible.” He told me that he is
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an ordinary person, a normal
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law-abiding citizen. He has
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a family, he has a job, he pays
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taxes, he obeys the law, but no one
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notices him. No one needs his opinion.
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What is more, he told me, all my friends
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seem to be exactly the same. They hold
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normal views, they have normal
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families, they are ordinary people.
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It would seem they are the majority. But no one
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notices them. It is this invisible
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majority. And this man told me
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that in order to feel
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more visible, he came to a campaign
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cube, took some newspapers,
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and shoulder to shoulder with other people began
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handing them out. And at that moment he
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felt that he had become a little
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more visible. When I heard this
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story, I thought:
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this is about me. I have always had something to say, I
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have always had something to offer. But for some reason
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it was always invisible. When, in the
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Committee for the Defense of Muscovites, I worked
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on fighting illegal
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construction, it seemed that everyone around me
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supported me, everyone said this was bad,
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illegal construction, infill development
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is bad. But all the same
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the work remained
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invisible. When in anti-corruption work
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absolutely every single person I
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speak to says, “Well done,”
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“we are against corruption,” but all the same this
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activity somehow remains invisible. It
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goes on, and it seems neither the authorities
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nor anyone else sees it. When my colleagues and I write
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draft laws, write concrete
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proposals, on the one hand we see that
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they are in demand,
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but on the other hand it is once again some kind of
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invisible
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activity. I came here to
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you in order
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to gain
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a name. It is very funny when all those
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guys in the Kremlin are afraid to call me
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by name and refer to me as “a certain politician”
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or “that
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gentleman.” I came here to ask for your
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support, to receive your support, and
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to say loudly: My name is Alexei
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Navalny. I am running in the election for Mayor of Moscow
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together with
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you. I have something to offer. I know that
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my proposals are supported
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by everyone, and I know that we must stop
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being an invisible majority. We are constantly
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told that we are not noticed
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because, well, there is supposedly some other
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great majority, somewhere, probably
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living in another place, saying different things.
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But we are ignored because those people are supposedly right. During this short election
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campaign
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I have held dozens of meetings, I
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have spoken with thousands of people. I think that
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there is simply no politician in Russia today
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who has spoken personally, like this,
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with more people than I have.
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These are ordinary people. At every meeting they
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tell me
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about corruption, about high utility rates,
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about housing and communal services, about corruption, about the allocation
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of apartments, about ordinary things. But by and large
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this whole conversation is once again about the fact that
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people come by the thousands and say: we are
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invisible, we are the majority, but we still
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are not
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noticed. The time has come to change this
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situation. We know what needs to be done. We have
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...
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a platform for this election, because we
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know how to defeat
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corruption, we know how to help
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pensioners, we know how to improve
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education and healthcare, and we are ready
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to do it now, without looking back at anyone
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these elections, which will take place in 2
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days. Of course, they are about who will be
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the next mayor
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of Moscow, but to an even greater extent they are about
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what place we assign ourselves
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what space we ourselves want to occupy
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in our
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country. Will we once again agree to be
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an invisible majority, or will we demand
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something more? I came here, I climbed
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onto this stage, and I am speaking before you
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because I have a feeling that we are
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ready to take up more space
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that this invisible majority is ready to become
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visible
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a visible majority, that we are ready to push out
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this Putinist vacuum from politics and
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fill it
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with ourselves. Just think: even during those
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massive rallies, when I stood here
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on Sakharov Avenue (a major protest site in Moscow), and in other places, there were
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100,000 people at a time, and still we remained
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invisible
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I came here today to say that
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enough is enough—it is time to notice
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us. This election campaign
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will show that we can take up a great deal of space
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we can
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win. There is only one question: if we
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know for certain that this invisible
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majority is us, that we can bring it
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out, that it needs us
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it needs our reforms, then there is definitely
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a way
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to get it to the polling stations, or
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is there not? That is a question for all of us. Are we ready for
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change, or are we ready to wait another
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couple
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of years? Do we need to fight corruption
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now, or will we perhaps do it
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the day after tomorrow? Are we
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ready right now to improve
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housing and public utilities? Are we ready right now to fight for better
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education
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and healthcare? Are we ready
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right now to release
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political prisoners? If we are ready to do that,
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then
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in 2 days, let us do everything possible
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to bring to the polling stations
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that silent majority, that invisible
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majority. Let us make sure that
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each of us, everyone standing here, in these
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remaining 2 days, works
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and does everything possible to make their contribution to
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our common victory. Each of us must
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look in the bathroom mirror tonight
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or tomorrow morning and say to
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ourselves: there is no other
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hero. I am part of this invisible
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majority, but I will do everything to make it
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visible. I will do everything so that 2 million
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people come to the polling station
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Change
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not to let you down and not to deceive you. I ask
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you to do everything so as not to let down the person
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who is standing next to
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you shoulder to shoulder right now. When we do this,
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when we put in the work, we will definitely
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win. I believe in this victory. I know that
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it will happen. We are together, and we
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will win on the eighth, in this election, and
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in every election that follows in our
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country, victory will be ours. Thank you very
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much
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Thank you