Navalny Is Free. First Video
Text version
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No wonder some people say this YouTube thing
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is worse than drugs. I’ve just
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got out of detention, and my first thought
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was probably: go record a video. Hi,
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this is Navalny. I’ve successfully served my third arrest
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since the start of this year, and in response to the obvious
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snide question, “So what have you achieved?”
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“Alexei, they locked up you and your comrades once,
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they’ll lock you up 23 times, they’ll do it 33 times.”
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“Why are you so stubborn about this supposed right of yours to
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assembly and freedom of speech? Maybe you should
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be a little more cunning, a little quieter, look at how
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other politicians keep silent, wait,
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retreat, pretend to be some meek
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little bunny and wait.” But is that the right thing to do?
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To stand on principle and once again
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get thrown in jail for 20 days? My answer is:
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it is 100% the right and the only
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possible course of action—and a very well-considered one,
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at that. I say and do all this
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not so that you’ll say to me,
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“Wow, Alexei is somehow unbending and
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fearless.” No. This is my rational
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choice. I’ve understood that this is the only right way
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to conduct myself. But why am I doing
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all this in the first place? I go to elections,
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I expose corruption, I organize people,
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because I simply do not want to live in a poor country.
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I do not want to live in a country where neither I nor
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my children nor you have any
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prospects. I know for certain that our
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Russia has everything it needs to be a
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quite wealthy country, and we all ought to be
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fairly prosperous citizens
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compared with most countries in the world. And
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now, attention: this chart is really
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the main chart that explains everything
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that is happening in the country—the state of affairs, all
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our hopes, all our prospects. It shows GDP growth, that is,
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the growth of the country’s entire economy over the last
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10 years. And we can see that over the last 10
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years
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GDP has shrunk by 1.3
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percent. That means 10 years of meetings,
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conferences, investment programs, economic
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forums, and pompous posturing,
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with huge record oil prices—and
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GDP still fell by 1.3%. And in that same
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same
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period, India grew by 88 percent,
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Uzbekistan by 201 percent, Kazakhstan by
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27 percent, China by nearly 215
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percent, Nigeria by 143
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percent, and the whole world on average by 30.7
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percent. In other words, over 10 years we
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have done worse than the rest of the
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world. With oil and gas, we’ve done worse
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than those who have neither oil nor gas.
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In other words, my friends, Putin has stolen from us
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10 years of possible development. We could
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have grown richer along with everyone else, but instead we
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stood still. Every one of us could have seen
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our wages and pensions rise, but they
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didn’t rise—only prices did. Incomes
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have been falling year after year. People tell me,
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they say,
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“Why are you so outraged, as if Putin and
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United Russia personally stole from you?” Yes,
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they did steal from me personally. Because of him and his
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United Russia, my income is lower than
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it should be. Because of him and his Medvedev,
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my parents’ pension is lower than it should be.
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So, back to the question of choice.
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He has already stolen 10 years from us. Do you want
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to voluntarily let him steal another
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10 years? Well, whoever wants that can stay silent
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and wait. I’m not going to. And you know perfectly well
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that I’m right. Even all the officials
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know that I’m right. If you choose
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Putin, watch this video again after
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some time has passed, and you’ll see that everything will
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happen exactly as I said.
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Prices will be higher, incomes lower, corruption greater,
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and there will be more idiotic bans.
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The oligarchs and ministers will become even richer, and
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that is why you must not stay silent. If you stay silent,
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you’ll get exactly this result.
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Robert Mugabe: 37 years in power, a 93 percent approval rating,
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and a completely ruined and
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backward country that once
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was actually one of the most developed
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countries in Africa. To resist,
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to protest, to do at least something—this is the most
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correct, the most rational choice
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for any normal person right now. It is
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a choice for yourself, for your own
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interests,
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for the years of your own life,
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for your children and your parents. So there are
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things worth spending some time under arrest for.
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Subscribe to our channel.
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They talk here about what matters to you.