Alexei Navalny recorded this investigation during a trip to Siberia in 2020, after which he was poisoned with Novichok (a Soviet-developed nerve agent). Alexei dissects the “cozy” world of Novosibirsk’s corrupt officials. He describes the construction and funeral mafia from United Russia, which for decades has been turning the city into a prefab-panel ghetto while the deputies themselves enjoy life on private islands. This is not just an exposé, but a clear guide to how Smart Voting can free Siberia’s capital from these crooks and thieves.
Text version
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On August 20, Alexei Navalny was poisoned.
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This happened when we were returning from a trip to Siberia,
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where we recorded several videos for you.
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Our plan was that we would drive through the cities of Russia and show you actual, real politics.
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Show you that politics is not only the Kremlin, not only Putin, the State Duma and famous ministers,
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but also dozens of regional parliaments,
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on which the lives of millions of Russians, all of us, depend every day.
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The “United Russia” deputies who sit in these parliaments
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are the actual backbone of the entire Putin’s regime.
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They are not cogs, but the foundation on which the ruling party,
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which has prevented us from living normally for 20 years, is built
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Elections to regional assemblies will be held on September 13.
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In Novosibirsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Tomsk, Cheboksary, Rostov and Lipetsk -
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in all these places the main political events of this year unfold.
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And you can become a part of them.
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We ask you to participate in them so that we can get rid of "United Russia" together.
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Kick them out and make it so that they never came back. Welcome to our first stop.
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They have always defeated us. Twenty years in a row.
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And even if they lost, they would still declare victory with the help of deception and machinations.
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But we need to rise and go into battle again,
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because until we win, our country is doomed to slowly degrade.
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I am now in the place where the most important political battle will take place.
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Here, it’s very hot in summer and very cold in winter.
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The number of people with higher education is abnormally high here.
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It could have been one of the most successful cities in the world,
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but instead became home to a Russian panel ghetto.
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Using the example of the third city of the country,
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we will analyze how you can defeat this insatiable toad - the “United Russia” party,
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and try to do it in real life. Our joint task is to free the capital of Siberia from the invaders.
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Who conquered the capital of Siberia? And how can we liberate it?
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In general, on September 13, as many as 40 million people will vote.
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Each of them will have their own little opportunity to poke the ruling party with a sharp stick
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and tell it that they are leading the country in the wrong direction.
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But the difficulty is that most people are not interested at all in their regional elections
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and have no idea why local deputies are needed at all.
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And Kremlin takes advantage of this.
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The basis of Putin's power is not the State Duma, as is commonly believed.
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No. Their main strength lies in the fact that “United Russia” has a majority
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in every legislative assembly in every region, and in the city council of every major city.
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If “United Russia” loses this majority, the power of these villains will instantly melt away.
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This is exactly what happened in Khabarovsk Krai.
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There, “United Russia” lost the elections
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to both the regional parliament and the city parliament.
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And if you do not have a majority in parliament, then you do not control the election commissions.
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And if you do not control the commissions, you cannot fake the elections.
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And if you cannot fake the elections, then what happens?
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You’ll have to go talk to people, listen to them, fulfill their requirements. This can go really far.
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Tomorrow they will ask you to stop stealing. And this is already an extremist demand.
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An enroachment upon on the foundations of the system.
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Therefore, “United Russia” will fight really desperately to preserve the majority.
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But we have a plan on how to defeat them.
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Novosibirsk
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Why Novosibirsk? What is so special about it
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that makes it main arena of this round of political struggle?
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First, the opposition here is strong. “United Russia” is not opposed by a scattered group of individuals,
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but by the “Novosibirsk 2020” coalition, formed by different political forces.
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They agreed among themselves and united. It's already a big deal.
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The coalition is led by Sergei Boyko, the most popular opposition politician,
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who came second in the recent mayoral elections. So, there really is someone to vote for.
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Secondly, historically, elections are faked less here. Well, they’re not used to it.
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There are regions of Russia where you cannot just tell all school teachers to throw in a bundle of ballots.
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They do not know how and will not do this. Novosibirsk is one of such cities.
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The third reason is symbolic, but perhaps the most important.
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Novosibirsk is the city of the failed Russian dream. Everything is there for it to prosper.
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If history went a little different, it would be our Silicon Valley.
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It would be great to defeat those who did not let this dream come true yet here.
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- Sergey Boyko, you’ve almost become a mayor of this city
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- Well, I did place second last year
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- We are now at the Novosibirsk University.
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You graduated from its Department of Physics and Mathematics.
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Please explain one thing to me.
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This looks a lot like Stanford or Palo Alto, except for pines instead of palms.
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But while the Silicon Valley grew around Stanford, it didn’t grow around Akademgorodok.
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What’s the reason?
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- There is no simple answer here. What you see around you only appeared in the last 5 years:
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mowed lawns, the new building… Before, there were old buildings and rather sad-looking classrooms.
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Still, the educational infrastructure is fairly decent now.
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But you see, the life of local graduates differs a lot from Palo Alto.
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Scientists have low salaries,
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there are problems with hot water in Akademgorodok for the entire summer…
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- Hot water?
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- Yes, people literally have no hot water for hours
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- And in Palo Alto…
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- They probably don’t have such problems, yeah
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- But can this dream of the Russian Silicon Valley come true here in Akademgorodok one day?
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- I think it largely depends on the federal government,
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because the entire scientific system is crippled at the moment.
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But if we speak about local infrastructure, it must begin at the local government.
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The deputies, the mayor and the government
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must all be people who value all this, these lawns and scientists.
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They must develop it in some way, solve issues and not just build more apartments
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- You gathered a coalition and issued a huge challenge to “United Russia”.
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Do you think you can beat them here?
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- Yes, I’m sure they can be beaten.
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- What do you need for that?
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- We need support from the people. They need to understand that their vote really matters.
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Whether someone becomes a deputy or not can be decided by, like, 50 or even 20 votes.
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Of course, our resources are much smaller. I can’t cover the whole city with posters
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saying something like “Let’s change the system! Let’s bring in new people”.
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People must get themselves involved into this.
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“Smart voting” or voting for people from the coalition
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are real opportunities to stir up and unfreeze this system.
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- Novosibirsk is the third largest city in the country.
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You do realize that the matter of “United Russia” winning here is overseen directly by Putin?
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They will get the Kremlin and Putin involved to prevent you from beating “United Russia” here.
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- Of course. We see how hundreds of millions get spent on their campaigns.
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Local “United Russia” members even passed a law
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that would allow deputies to spend more up to 5 million their campaigns.
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Before, the limit was 2 million, but they increased it.
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On the other hand, almost 150,000 citizens of Novosibirsk
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voted against the amendments to the Constitution.
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That’s 3,000 people in every district. That’s more that you need to become a deputy.
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If every person realizes today that they can come to the elections on September 13
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and significantly change the power landscape of Novosibirsk, that would be enough.
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Now you and I need an accurate calculation, and we are in the right place for this.
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We have declared war on the ruling party. We want to deprive it of the majority.
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I don't want this video to be idle chatter.
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This is the plan that we will apply here, and it can be used in other cities as well.
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1.2 million people are all the citizens of Novosibirsk who can vote in the elections to the city council.
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But how many of them will actually come to vote?
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We can approximate, because last time 20% came to the same elections
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and this time the turnout is unlikely to be different.
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So, 240 thousand people will decide the outcome of the duel and elect 50 deputies of the city assembly.
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We want to deprive “United Russia” of the majority. And ideally, make sure that all their candidates
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lose to the candidates of the “Novosibirsk 2020” coalition.
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This requires more than half of those who came to vote. 122 thousand people.
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This raises the question: in general, is there enough people in Novosibirsk
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who can be involved in our campaign?
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The answer is yes. There definitely is.
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Firstly, five years ago there were elections to the legislative assembly of the entire Novosibirsk region.
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United Russia received 44% on them, and since then its rating has dropped.
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Even back then, the majority of people voted against United Russia.
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Secondly, in the recent vote for Putin's “nullification”, 156,000 voters voted “No”.
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And a huge number of people simply didn’t go to the fake voting.
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This means that the 122 thousand people we need are in our pocket.
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But this is where the hardest part begins.
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An army of electors voting at random will not give us anything.
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This would mean a clear victory for “United Russia”.
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Each of the 50 districts has 6-8 candidates.
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Our man comes to the voting station and looks for someone not from “United Russia”.
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He votes for him. And our second person votes for the other. And the third is for the third candidate.
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Our voices get blurred.
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"United Russia" gained 30% due to those whose brains were brainwashed by propaganda and won.
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And we gained a total of 70% and lost.
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So, it is not the force of the blow that is important to us, but its accuracy.
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We’ll use a scalpel, not a hammer.
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We need to agree among ourselves and vote not just against “United Russia”,
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but for its most powerful competitor. It's not easy, but we are guaranteed to win.
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We have a perfectly working tool that has proven itself in Khabarovsk and Moscow – “Smart Voting”.
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And our task now is to convince 122 thousand voters in Novosibirsk to go to the “Smart Voting” website,
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register and vote for the required candidate.
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We also need to send 1800 observers to the elections.
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After all, even though there is no tradition of big falsifications in Novosibirsk,
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“United Russia” will start it with great pleasure upon realizing that it will lose otherwise.
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Welcome to the Russian ghetto.
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It has long been not only a Novosibirsk attraction, but an all-Russian one.
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People come here specially to shoot reports and videos
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about terrible construction and the worst design in the world.
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If someone on the Internet is looking for photographs of the terrible quality of construction,
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then in 99% of cases there will be photos of these terrible residential complexes
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"Prostorny" and "Plyushchinsky", where we are right now.
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- Daniil, you are participating in the elections.
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- Yes
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- I keep stumbling upon videos where you put up the propaganda cube,
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some hulks come running and demolish it and the police don't pay attention to it.
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Can you explain why this is happening?
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- This 36th district is owned by a “United Russia” deputy, his name is Alexei Dzhulai.
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He builds everything that we see around here. And therefore, he is essentially a local king,
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a builder who runs everything here, controls all the cash flows.
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And if a competitor appears, like me, then these cubes collapse, crumble,
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some incredible hulks appear out of nowhere.
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- So, he is the master of all this?
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- Practically, yes.
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- And do you live here?
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- Yes, I live nearby
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- So, you live in what is rather offensively called the Novosibirsk ghetto?
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- Well, evidently, I do.
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- And you challenged the owner of this ghetto?
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- Sure. But I do not agree to live in such conditions,
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I want not only me, but everyone to live better here.
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Because they can live better. Because he has a lot of money.
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And he will only spend it on himself.
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He is not ready to improve the infrastructure of the district, but is ready to spend only on himself.
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Look, this is my area. This is the east of Novosibirsk, the Plyushchinsky residential area.
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Endless identical panel high-rise buildings, not a trace of any amenities,
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and construction that goes on for years.
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Everything that you see around is built by the “Discus” company.
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It belongs to one of the richest city council members, Alexei Dzhulai.
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He owns a factory that makes concrete panels,
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and then he builds residential buildings from these panels of his own.
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Water, electricity, heat - even when you have already bought an apartment,
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you have to continue paying for everything here to the management company,
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which also belongs to Dzhulai.
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But the biggest problem is that the new housing is literally dilapidated. It is dangerous to live in it.
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People receive keys to houses that have no elevators, railings, or electricity.
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The wind is blowing from the inter-panel cracks, and everywhere around is unabated construction:
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heavy equipment, mountains of garbage, slabs instead of roads and yards.
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- I’ve been living here for over a year now.
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- For two years?
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- Yes.
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- But there’s no road here.
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- It’s been over a year. I moved in on February 6th,
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they gave me the keys and I moved in right away, I had nowhere else to live.
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- The seams aren’t obscured. Is that a through hole to the apartment?
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- Yes, you can see the outside seams. People who can afford it hire workers to deal with them.
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- Do you pay for utilities?
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- We do.
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- Wait…
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- But where this money goes…
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- That’s a great question, I can’t understand how…
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- We would also like to know that!
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- You moved in two years ago, you’ve been paying money for two years. But where does it go?
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- I moved in on February 6th 2019.
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- And you pay money every month?
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- I pay money every month.
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- To whom?
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- I have no idea! I pay at the desk.
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- But who owns this desk?
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- Well, “Discus”, of course.
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- The “Discus” company?
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- Of course.
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- Which is owned by the very Dzhulai?
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- Naturally. Dzhulai runs everything here.
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- I’ve been walking around trying to solve this inscrutable mystery.
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I just talked to a woman, she’s been living here for two years, and she pays for utilities. So do you, right?
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- Yes.
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- But she has no hot water, and the elevator only started working recently.
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- Well, we moved in in November 2018, and they turned on our elevator on January 21st this year.
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So, for 1.5 years…
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- You’ve been dragging the baby carriage up the stairs… What floor do you live on? - 8th floor.
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- To the 8th floor. And you still pay for utilities?
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- Yes, of course.
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- How do you think they got the permission to settle people into clearly unfinished houses?
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- Well, there are certain options…
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- So tell me, I know nothing about it.
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- Corruption schemes are definitely possible.
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- Let me make sure I’ve got this right: people make this here themselves?
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They pay money to get these seams insulated, this wasn’t done by the builders?
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- Yes, that’s right…
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- So, you move into a house…
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- He said that “Dicus” uses a new technology and the seems need no insulation.
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- They don’t?
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- Yes, they don’t
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- This is a new technology…
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- The warmth seeps through, some people were freezing in winter, it was 14-16 degrees inside.
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- They don’t make elevators, people living here are in such a condition that…
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They’ve been tricked into moving in here, you understand?
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- Do you know Dzhulai is a deputy?
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- Of course
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- From which party?
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- «United Russia».
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Of course, the main problem is poverty.
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People are forced to buy such low-quality housing because it is relatively cheap.
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But even people living in such housing - why should they live like this for years?
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The temperature in the apartments is 14-16 degrees. Why?
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Because this construction mafia has surrounded people from all sides. There is nowhere to complain.
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There's a ton of problems.
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Wherever you point your finger, there is literally a violation of any standards.
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But no one really cares about these people, because the construction lobby,
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which has settled down in the City Council, controls itself, checks itself and builds everything itself.
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And those parts that they do not control, they simply buy off with bribes.
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I've talked to a huge number of people here.
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Have they written complaints? They have. Where? Everywhere. Did they get any answers? None.
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Because here, everything is controlled by Dzhulai, and in other places – by other developers.
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- So, Daniil, as a local, will you walk me through this section of the amazing residential complex?
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- The house is connected, there are two sections here, but you can walk through it.
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Residents of that part of the house can use the elevator, but there’s no elevator in the other part.
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- So, there’s only one elevator for two sections. How cunning.
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They merged the two sections so they don’t need to make an extra elevator.
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- There’s no elevator here anymore.
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- There was supposed to be an elevator here. Let’s check if there is one.
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Come closer and get this on camera, please, so that people can see whether there is an elevator here.
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It’s just a shaft. Someone might fall there, maybe a child.
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This an elevator shaft with no elevator in a house where people live already.
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As you see, it’s not that hard to get in there.
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- I have a feeling they designed one house, but then built a completely different one out of its parts.
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What is this? There probably was supposed to be a garbage chute here.
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- Yeah, there probably was one in the project.
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Also, the house is freshly built, but everything is already covered in cracks and holes.
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- This is where a garbage shaft was supposed to be, but it’s not there.
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This is an elevator shaft, but there’s no elevator there either.
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This project is completely absurd. There probably was no project at all,
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they just built this house from the blocks they had like children do with Lego.
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- Please explain to me what this is. This is foam plastic, right? I can just tear it off.
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- Yes, they put foam plastic into the wall of a freshly-built house.
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As you see, everything is crumbling already.
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- So, if I make a hole in this plastic foam, I’ll see the street through it?
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- Yeah, probably.
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- If you put your hand here, you can feel the wind blowing.
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This is a bearing wall of a new house, and there’s a hole in it.
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- This is an incomprehensible riddle. I talked to people, they pay for apartments,
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but they themselves hire climbers to close these seams.
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They don't have hot water, their elevators don't work, it’s obvious that these houses are unfinished.
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How does Dzhulai manage to get this housing approved
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and make the city recognize all this as residential buildings?
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- If you have a parliamentary mandate and you are the chairman of the commission for urban planning,
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then you can afford this. Under any other circumstances, this cannot be done.
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We were at those houses over there, and now we made a stop here to have a look at this forest.
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How nice! Things aren’t as bad as they seem, at least there are some trees here.
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But you know where you can also find them? In deputy Dzhulai’s asset disclosure.
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Indeed, you can own an entire forest. He’ll probably build something here too.
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This forest is partially owned by the deputy himself, and partially – by his daughter.
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She doesn’t go for walks here, though, because she lives in Germany.
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Let me explain to you how to become a very rich “United Russia” member in Novosibirsk.
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First, you need a district-wide construction monopoly.
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Dzhulai owns everything here - houses, parking lots,
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management companies, shops, the Internet, absolutely everything.
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But the most important secret ingredient is that he doesn’t pay for anything.
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You need to pay rent for this land, but he does not pay for anything
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and this is his credo: not in the life of me!
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I always believed that the maximum number of lawsuits was filed against me,
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but if you go to the websites of the courts,
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you will see that deputy Dzhulai is ahead of me by several times.
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Hundreds of lawsuits have been filed against him, but he continues not to pay.
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How? Because he is power. He commands everything here.
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And his credo is not to pay, “I don’t want and I will not”, he doesn’t pay and everything works great.
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Deputy Dzhulai does not betray this principle when it comes to his personal assets either.
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This small bay is leased by one of his firms, and the city is suing it,
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because Dzhulay does not pay even the symbolic rental rate.
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Why does he need a bay? It's simple - it separates his dacha from prying eyes.
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Officially, there is a boat station here,
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but in fact this is his personal water access.
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This is Julai's 585-meter house.
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He shares this land plot with Anatoly Kvashnin, Putin's former envoy in the Siberian Federal District.
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They have some kind of a huge building with an area of 1000 m2 in joint property,
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similar to a guest house with a garage and a sauna.
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As for the city property, Dzhulai, as you might guess, does not live in his residential area -
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he preferred a 250-meter apartment near the forest in Akademgorodok to a typical panel building.
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Today, when this video was published, we learned that the court
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removed our candidate Markelov from the election.
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This was done upon the request of Alexei Dzhulai, who used his power over the courts, prosecutors,
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policemen and the election committee and conducted a special operation
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to rule the signatures gathered by Markelov invalid.
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Dzhulai is a literal mafioso, who will do whatever it takes to keep his deputy seat,
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which he has every chance of losing now.
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This makes it even more important to vote against Dzhulai on September 13th.
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If you live in this district, register for the “smart voting”, and we will send you the name of the candidate
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who has the best odds of defeating the crook from “United Russia”.
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Alexei Dzhulai must get no votes.
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Meetings of the city council of Novosibirsk can be held right here.
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This is either a construction site or a residential area, but the place is perfect.
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Because the city council of the huge city is simply captured by the construction mafia.
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Of the 50 members of the council, 18 work directly in the construction sphere,
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are large developers or their people.
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And how many more secret lobbyists are there,
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those who on the builders' payroll, who receive money from them
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and obediently vote for the decisions they need?
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The construction monopoly has captured an entire branch of government,
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they write laws for themselves and adopt them,
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they adopt the city budget, they perform control functions…
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They build, they check themselves, they allocate money for themselves, they practically rule the city.
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- He also manages to sell these apartments not only to those who want to buy them, but also to the budget
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- Yes, as a deputy, he has the opportunity to sell apartments
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to orphans and displaced people from dilapidated housing.
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- So, since he’s a deputy, he adopts the budget, allocates it,
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and then buys his own apartments that he didn’t sell with this budget?
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- Yes, that is, the unsold remnants are sold by the mayor's office for budgetary funds.
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Over 500 million rubles were spent on purchasing apartments in this area.
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- Explain this anomaly to me. Why are there so many construction monopolists,
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and why does the construction mafia occupy the city council specifically?
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- The most valuable thing in the city is land that’s being allocated for development.
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There are various indirect and not exactly legal schemes for acquiring this land for free.
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One of the options is: you take the land intended for the construction of a social facility,
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promise to build a pool or a much needed parking lot there,
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build a cheap plywood hut there without even connecting it to the water supply,
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submit it to the commission and Rostechnadzor, privatize the land
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and then build residential houses or a shopping mall there.
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- And what does the city council have to do with it?
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- The city council determines the purpose of the land and decides what should be built there.
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- So, you get cheap land for, let’s say, a pool, don’t build anything or build something small
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in order to privatize it, and then the city council allows you to build huge houses there,
25:47
which will bring you millions of dollars.
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- Exactly. These can be residential houses or shopping malls,
25:53
but definitely not what the land was allocated for. It’s just one of the schemes,
25:58
but it’s the presence of deputies from development companies in the city council
26:01
that allows such schemes to be implemented seamlessly.
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Actually, we wanted to talk about another hero of the city council - deputy Pokrovsky.
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It's just a perfect illustration of how things work here, a real construction and family mafia.
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He himself sits in the city council, his father sits in the legislative assembly, he is the vice speaker there.
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His mother works in the governor's office.
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And they launched their tentacles everywhere, they get money from everywhere.
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They’re wonderful people, we even went to visit him.
26:36
You don't have deja vu and we don't play the same shots on a loop.
26:39
This is another panel area, this time to the west of Novosibirsk.
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It is called “Chistaya Sloboda”. This is the only project and source of income for the Pokrovsky family.
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The dad of our deputy, Evgeni Pokrovsky, being an official of the administration,
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became the owner of the plant of reinforced concrete products,
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and you can probably already guess what came next.
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Concrete blocks for houses, standard structures and continuous construction - more and more blocks.
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Parliamentary affairs are going so well that Pokrovsky's company
27:06
has become the largest developer in Novosibirsk Oblast,
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overtaking last year's leader – “United Russia” deputy Dzhulai.
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Well, here he is hanging behind my back, our wonderful deputy.
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He hangs there and overlooks his property.
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This is a microdistrict, the same panel houses built in an open field.
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But this is not just a microdistrict, it is also his district.
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He gets elected as a deputy here and builds everything up.
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It was all built the company owned his dad,
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who, as I said before, is also a member of "United Russia"
27:34
and the vice speaker of the legislative assembly of Novosibirsk oblast.
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The mayor of the Novosibirsk works as their personal advertising agent,
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arrives at all these construction sites, cuts the ribbons, gives the keys, and so on.
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— We agreed with KPD Gazstroi, they will start the construction of the school today.
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This is a kind of a latifundia, a land allotment issued to the Pokrovsky family to feed them.
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Everything is very similar to Dzhulai's business.
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They make money in the same way, through similar district-wide construction monopolies.
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Same schemes with the budget, with the land, with sales to orphans.
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And here, Pokrovsky's leaflets hang at every entrance.
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In these houses, he sells apartments to orphans, but he himself lives elsewhere.
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He prefers to live on a small, cozy island.
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Again, there is a huge difference with the panel arrays where the voters of Pokrovsky live.
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We are 25 kilometers from the center of Novosibirsk, here, right on the banks of the river,
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lies the secluded dacha of our deputy.
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At the moment, there are only a few summer cottages on this huge green island,
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which has its own road, and our hero owns one of them.
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The area of Pokrovsky’s land plot is almost 2000 m2. Let's fly closer and see what he built for himself.
28:53
The beauty is incredible, it’s practically Siberian Maldives.
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There's a pier ahead of us, you can park up to 4 boats there.
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And behind it there are 3 houses - on the left is a 45 m2 bathhouse,
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and in the depths of the plot behind an alpine hill is the main house.
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The area of the main house is 268 m2.
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There is a garage behind the main house, which, by the way, is not registered.
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Deputies living on the islands are certainly cool.
29:16
It is clear that United Russia is selling deputy seats to various money-bags.
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But still, there must be some ideological Putinists who are not there for the money,
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but for the political course of our president.
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We looked through them many times and found one.
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Evgeny Yakovenko, one of the leaders of "United Russia" in Novosibirsk.
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Typical guy from the party congress, Afghanistan veteran covered in medals.
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He’s a statesman, and this is his whole trick: he emphasizes in every interview
29:43
that people with a governmental mentality should be in power, and he is just that.
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I think that what’s most important is the governmental way of thinking
29:54
and the governmental views of the authorities.
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A politician must be a patriot of his country, his state and have the governmental way of thinking.
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We fully confirm this, Yakovenko is a one hundred percent statesman,
30:13
the flesh and blood of “United Russia”.
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As for me, I voted for the amendments on the very first day of voting, and I’m not hiding it.
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It appears like he has been engaged in veteran organizations all his life and lives on just his salary.
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In his asset disclosure, everything is super modest.
30:33
Well, what can be immodest in a veteran public figure?
30:36
But in fact, this “United Russia” member from Novosibirsk (don’t laugh) is also a developer.
30:42
He simply registered his business to his children.
30:44
Take a look at this wonderful cottage village.
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The ads call it “the little Czech Republic in Siberia”.
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According to the documents, this neighborhood of townhouses was erected
30:53
by the son of the deputy Yakovenko Semyon. At the time of construction, he was 25 years old.
30:57
What a nice fellow, helping his deputy father.
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We’ve dealt with the son, but there is also a daughter, also a business woman.
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While her dad is directing the party vertical in Novosibirsk,
31:08
she, judging by social networks, moved a little further south, to Dubai, where she lives and works.
31:13
The glamorous life of the Arab Emirates absolutely does not prevent the deputy's daughter
31:17
from doing business here, in Novosibirsk.
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However, there’s not a trace of glamour here. The daughter of deputy Yakovenko
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owns the underground shops at the “Ploshchad Marksa” subway station.
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To discover the secret business of deputy Yakovenko,
31:29
you need to go down there, into this passage, and just take a close look around.
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Look, shops as far as the eye can see, and on all of them it’s written "OOO RIK".
31:46
These premises are rented by the company of the daughter of the deputy Yakovenko Maria.
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We learned this by chance, thanks to the courts.
31:54
The company of the deputy's daughter was sued because counterfeit wares were sold in its tents,
31:58
and city premises were illegally subleased. Let's try to buy something.
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Strange, the premises are rented by Yakovenko's company, but on the bill, it says “IP Yarmosh”.
32:16
Not good, deputy Yakovenko. You’re cheating the mayor's office and your own city.
32:20
To make sure that Deputy Yakovenko is not an unmercenary Afghanistan veteran
32:24
it is enough to carefully look at the photographs of him and his family.
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A 19-year-old son who drives a Porsche, a student daughter in luxury cars,
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expensive trips, and, of course, a collection of watches.
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Let's start with these.
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Deputy Yakovenko puts on these modest Audemars Piguet for 1.1 million rubles
32:41
for meetings with residents of his district.
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Wearing them (and holding a “United Russia” flag), he also poses for the protocol shooting.
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For public speeches, our deputy prefers a Cvstos watch.
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The same model as on his hand can be purchased for about 1.5 million.
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Or here, a special watch for a special occasion: a meeting with veterans.
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Deputy Yakovenko is wearing a Breguet watch worth 2 million.
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It was not difficult to find his deputy house.
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Credit where it’s due, he does live in his district,
33:09
but in conditions that are very different from his voters.
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On its land plot, we found a three-storey house (600m2) with a small tower and a private pool.
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And when it's too cold to swim in Novosibirsk, he can always wave off to the Sochi apartment,
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registered to his daughter.
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And the last thing. In Yakovenko’s district, our coalition has its own candidate,
33:28
\Vyacheslav Yakimenko. He is an employee of Navalny's HQ
33:30
and is actively campaigning. If you live in District 35, you've probably seen him before.
33:36
Vyacheslav will be a better deputy than the secret businessman Yakovenko,
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for whom the collection of expensive watches is more important than city problems.
33:43
- I realized that this is some kind of pure Novosibirsk anomaly:
33:46
a huge number of developers among the deputies.
33:49
But those who are not developers, who are these people?
33:52
- Those who are not developers are even worse,
33:54
because they are mainly people who are built into the budget and municipal system.
33:58
For example, a typical deputy who is not a developer
34:00
is the director of some municipal unitary enterprise,
34:02
for example, the owner of a funeral business, urban and personal.
34:06
- So, people elect him, and he buries them
34:10
Behind me is a funeral house. Why did we come here?
34:14
Because Boiko told us the name of a deputy who works in funeral business, we looked him up
34:19
and discovered an amazing story that all of Novosibirsk must learn about.
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You can basically put a “United Russia” banner on this funeral house, because it’s a party branch.
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Sergei Bondarenko became a deputy in 2005, and even before that,
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he became the head of the local funeral house called MUP “IMI”.
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After some time, he set up a joint stock company co-founded by MUP “IMI” itself
34:47
and the company created by Bondarenko’s wife.
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The new company was also named “IMI”.
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First, it was owned in equal shares, but then the state’s share got gradually spread out,
34:59
and the city lost control over the funeral industry.
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Everyone in Novosibirsk knows that if someone dies, his relatives must call the short number 063.
35:09
You call the municipal “IMI”, but you reach the commercial one
35:13
founded by the relatives and acquaintances of the “United Russia” deputy.
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And then, everything goes as it normally does in the Russian funeral business.
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There’s the base rate that goes to the municipal enterprise,
35:23
and there are much more expensive additional services.
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Dressing up the corpse, applying makeup, digging the grave, and so on…
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Poor relatives will be forced to pay for all this, otherwise there will be no funeral.
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But this money will go to the commercial “IMI” and other companies founded by the same people.
35:39
A woman just came out of this funeral house
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— Young lady
35:42
Young lady, okay. She’s filming me because she’s really worried that we’ll expose this entire mafia scheme.
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Think about how beautiful it is. You can either privatize a city-owned enterprise or its clients.
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And our deputy privatized the deceased.
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So, those who are going to vote for “United Russia” deputies
36:02
will literally be voting for the funeral mafia that rips off poor crying people.
36:09
So, you’re a representative of the funeral mafia, right? Could you tell us your name?
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— Mr. Navalny!
36:16
— Yes, hello.
36:16
— Hello.
36:17
— Hello, Valeri Petrovich, how are you?
36:19
— Wonderful.
36:19
— That’s great.
36:27
Now let's take a closer look at how the corruption scheme of deputy Bondarenko works.
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How exactly does he manage to collect money from ordinary citizens and put it in his pocket?
36:38
As Aleksei explained, there are two twin companies:
36:41
The state-owned IMI, where our deputy Bondarenko is the director,
36:45
and the commercial IMI run by his wife's brother.
36:50
From here on, everything is simple. People who come to bury their relatives and loved ones
36:55
do not look to whom and for what they pay.
36:57
It is understood that the money goes to the municipal budget, but in Novosibirsk, it works differently.
37:03
Let's take a specific example. Here is an article by taiga.info,
37:06
which describes the story of a woman who was invoiced by IMI for over 80 thousand rubles,
37:12
of which 79 thousand went to the commercial IMI and related companies.
37:18
Among other things, the article mentions that she had to pay 10 thousand
37:22
for a memorial dinner to a certain "individual entrepreneur Sukhareva Larisa Olegovna."
37:27
Do you know who this is? No? Then let Larisa Olegovna herself tell you.
37:31
I'm Larisa Sukhareva, assistant to deputy Sergei Bondarenko.
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I've been working at this position for over 15 years now.
37:39
By the way, she is also a candidate at the elections, also from “United Russia”.
37:42
She wants to become a deputy of the legislative assembly of the Novosibirsk Oblast.
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And here is another lady, the director of one of the firms to which IMI gives its funeral contracts,
37:50
Vodopyanova Anna Mikhailovna. Where did she come from, who is she?
37:55
Hello, I’m Anna Vodopyanova, I’ve been working as an assistant
37:58
to a city council deputy for 10 years now
38:01
Another assistant to the deputy Bondarenko.
38:04
Actually, she was going to run against me, in my district, but something did not work out.
38:09
Apparently, there was no one to leave the funeral business to.
38:12
As you can see, “United Russia” deputy Bondarenko is not shamed of anything at all
38:15
and openly sends money past the city budget to his relatives, friends and assistants.
38:21
— On the other hand, we understand that we live in a commercial environment.
38:27
There’s nothing we can do here.
38:30
I could tell you such a story about every deputy.
38:33
But there’s 50 of them, and elections will take place not only in Novosibirsk.
38:36
So, just believe me, they’re all the same.
38:38
And until we get rid of them, we won’t have any chances of a decent life.
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And whether we do depends on a simple 10-minute effort of everyone watching this video.
38:50
As you remember, our goal is to get 122,000 people involved in “smart voting”.
38:55
To achieve this, every citizen of Novosibirsk Oblast must be sent this video
39:00
with an advice to watch it and join the “smart voting”.
39:03
If you all participate, we will manage it easily.
39:06
The political career of all these mafia clans is literally hanging by a thread.
39:11
But if we don’t finish them off now with “smart voting”,
39:14
we’ll only get the next chance in 5 years.
39:16
If you want to achieve a better future, you must first work as an canvasser for a bit,
39:21
then go and vote, and then, if needed, join the protests to protect your choice.
39:27
This will definitely work, and there is no other way.
39:30
Nullify “United Russia”